Seiza, Back ArchedPose Reference
Camera angles
Seiza, Back Arched kneels the wooden figure with its hips resting on the heels, palms on the thighs and the lower back arched so the chest rises.
Tags: kneelingfigure drawingfull bodyseizaback arch
How to draw the Seiza, Back Arched pose
three-quarter view 
side view 
back view 
high-angle view
Weight drops through the pelvis into the heels and the flat insteps, so this seiza pose needs no help from the hands to stay upright. The knees open a little, leaving a narrow triangle of floor between the thighs. Above that base the pelvis tips forward, which hollows the lumbar spine and sets the rib cage higher and slightly ahead of the hips. Both palms settle on the thighs just above the knees with the elbows almost straight, and the chin lifts so the gaze climbs a few degrees above the horizon.
The side angle is where the arch reads best: draw one smooth concave line from the tailbone to the shoulder blades, then hang the arms from the shoulders as two nearly straight struts reaching down to the knees. From the front the figure looks almost symmetrical and the arch disappears, so suggest it with a shorter abdomen and a broad, raised chest block. The back view shows the heels sitting under the pelvis with the soles turned up. A high angle compresses the thighs into short wedges, while the low angle lengthens the neck and pushes the jaw upward.
More on angles and common mistakes
Two errors come up often. One is letting the hips float above the heels, which turns seiza into a tall kneel and leaves the arms looking too short to reach the knees. The other is leaning the whole trunk backward from the hip joints instead of curving the lower spine, so the figure seems to fall away from its own knees. Keep the shoulders roughly over the hips. The mannequin wears no clothing and the floor is not shown, so fabric folds over the lap or a mat under the shins are yours to imagine.
Use it for tea ceremony and dojo scenes, meditation and posture studies, or any character waiting formally on the floor. Open Edit this pose and lower the head until the gaze meets the floor about a metre ahead; the same arched spine then reads as quiet attention rather than an upward look.
Free to use (CC0). The pose images on this page are released under CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication). Use them for drawing practice, commercial illustration, reference sheets or AI image generation; no attribution is required. A credit to PoseMaker is appreciated but optional.
Seiza, Back Arched pose prompt
Copy a prompt for your AI image generator. Pair it with the OpenPose skeleton in ControlNet so the generated character matches this exact pose.
General prompt
A person kneels in seiza with the hips resting on the heels and the insteps flat on the floor, knees slightly apart. The lower back arches so the chest lifts, both palms rest on the thighs just above the knees, and the chin rises with the gaze slightly upward. Plain background, full body.
Midjourney
full body person kneeling in seiza, hips resting on heels, insteps flat, knees slightly apart, arched lower back, lifted chest, palms on thighs above knees, chin raised, gaze slightly upward, plain studio background --ar 2:3 --style raw
Stable Diffusion
1person, full body, seiza, kneeling, sitting on heels, knees slightly apart, insteps flat, arched lower back, upright torso, lifted chest, hands on thighs, straight arms, chin up, looking up, side view, plain background, simple background, visible feet, calm posture
Negative prompt
nsfw, hips lifted off heels, tall kneeling, torso falling backward, hands floating above thighs, toes tucked under, knees spread too wide, rounded back, extra limbs, missing hands, fused fingers, broken neck, cropped feet, distorted pelvis, cushion
OpenPose skeleton for ControlNet
Load the PNG into a ControlNet OpenPose unit (preprocessor: none), or import the JSON into an OpenPose editor.
Have a photo of the pose you want?
Upload it to Photo to Pose. We detect the pose in your browser and put it on the mannequin, ready to adjust.