Pushing Something Heavy Pose Reference

Force travels in a straight line here. It starts at the ball of the back foot, runs up the straight back leg, through the hips and the flat back, and out along the locked arms to the palms. The hands sit at shoulder height pressed against a surface that is not shown; you decide whether it is a stalled car, a crate or a stone door. The front knee bends under the hips to stop the figure from falling forward, and the head sinks between the shoulders as the effort builds.

Lay in that heel-to-hand diagonal first and hang the rest of the body from it. The side view, figure facing left, shows the angle and the long line most clearly and is the one to copy for a silhouette. The front view is mostly foreshortened arms and a dropped head, with the shoulders hunched up around the ears, which makes it a good study in overlapping forms. The back view reveals the lifted back heel and the straight drive leg. From the high angle the shoulder blades spread wide; the low angle makes the hands loom.

An upright body has no leverage, so the push looks like a polite lean. Bent elbows suggest the object is winning, a valid story but not this one. Another giveaway is a back heel flat on the ground: in a real push it lifts as the calf drives. Keep the hands at shoulder height too, since lower hands turn the action into steering a cart.

Moving furniture, a hero holding a closing door, a stuck vehicle, a struggle against a storm or a block puzzle in a game are all natural homes for it. Add dust kicked up at the back foot to show strain. In the editor, reduce the lean to about 30 degrees and bend the elbows to show a character starting to lose the contest.