Standing Poses

One Leg Kicked BackPose Reference

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One Leg Kicked Back balances the figure on its straight right leg while the left knee bends and lifts the foot behind, left hand on the head.

OpenPose skeleton & AI prompts

Tags: standingfigure drawingfull bodyone leghand on head

How to draw the One Leg Kicked Back pose

  • One Leg Kicked Back pose reference, three-quarter view of a wooden drawing mannequin
    three-quarter view
  • One Leg Kicked Back pose reference, side view of a wooden drawing mannequin
    side view
  • One Leg Kicked Back pose reference, back view of a wooden drawing mannequin
    back view
  • One Leg Kicked Back pose reference, high-angle view of a wooden drawing mannequin
    high-angle view

All the weight sits over the right foot, so the pelvis slides sideways above it and tilts slightly, dropping on the free side. The left thigh hangs nearly vertical while the knee folds sharply, flicking the shin up behind until it runs roughly level with the floor and the sole faces backward. On the same side, the left hand rests on the back of the head with the elbow pointing out and a little up. The right arm hangs loose beside the body, hand relaxed near the thigh. The head tips toward the raised elbow, closing the gap between ear and arm, and the upper torso turns a few degrees toward the open side.

Two zigzags, one high and one low on the same side, give this standing one leg back pose its rhythm: the folded arm above and the folded leg below. The side view from the figure's left lays out the kick clearly, with the shin pointing straight back and the knee directly under the hip. From the front, the kicked shin is almost hidden behind the thigh and only the foot shows beside the standing calf, so use another view to place it. The back view shows the sole of the lifted foot and the hand on the skull. From the high angle the bent elbow juts toward you, and from below the standing leg becomes a long column.

More on angles and common mistakes

The usual error is leaving the pelvis centred, which makes a single leg look like it is holding up a body that is not over it. Check that a vertical line from the neck falls through the standing foot. Another mistake is swinging the bent knee forward as in a skip; here the thigh stays down and only the shin rises. Keep the free arm relaxed, not stiffly straight.

The gesture reads as playful and light, like a cartoon character waiting for a friend and shifting from foot to foot. It also works as a cheerful idle pose for character sheets and photo shoots. In Edit this pose, raise the hanging arm out to the side at shoulder height for extra balance and the stance turns more dynamic; or tip the head the other way for a coy 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.

One Leg Kicked Back 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 balances on one straight leg while the other knee bends to kick the foot up behind, shin roughly level. One hand rests on the back of the head with the elbow out, the other arm hangs loose; hips shifted over the standing foot, head tilted toward the raised elbow. Plain background.

OpenPose skeleton for ControlNet

Load the PNG into a ControlNet OpenPose unit (preprocessor: none), or import the JSON into an OpenPose editor.

OpenPose PNG

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