Guides · Poses
Back View Standing Pose: Real Reference Photos
Reference photos of a standing or walking figure seen from behind, the back within twenty-five degrees of straight on. Standing and walking poses are both included, in everyday clothes.
Mehmet Can Özgümüş, Unsplash License Haley Lawrence, Unsplash License Kristy Kravchenko, Unsplash License Pourya Gohari, Unsplash License Kar Ming Moo, Unsplash License Evan Wise, Unsplash License Fray Bekele, Unsplash License Rita K, Unsplash License Erik Mclean, Unsplash License Zeki Okur, Unsplash License Ian Edokov, Unsplash License 
Antonio Marano, CC BY
What changes at this angle
- The neck widens into the shoulders as two slopes from the base of the skull to the tips of the shoulders.
- The back of the head and the nape show and no facial features are visible.
- The torso narrows at the waist and widens again at the hips.
- Hanging arms show the backs of the hands, with the thumbs toward the body.
What goes wrong
- Sneaking a cheek or an eyelash onto a head seen from behind, so the head reads as turning to look back and the pose stops being a back view.
- Drawing the neck as a cylinder set on a flat shelf of shoulders, so the figure reads like a coat hanger or a stiff doll.
- Drawing the lower back as one continuous curve into the buttocks, so the figure reads as a sack and the pelvis seems to have no bone.
- Drawing palms or thumbs facing outward on a back view, so the figure reads as walking away with its arms rotated out, like a mannequin.
Try it
Open the pose search at the same back view to turn the figure and compare other angles.