Why your characters look like paper cutouts — and how to fix it

🎄Merry Christmas, everyone!!!🎅🏻

Why do some drawings feel flat, like paper cutouts?

Because everything is sitting on one plane.

When the head, torso, arms, and legs are all shown straight-on, with no depth cues, the figure reads as a silhouette instead of a solid form in space.

Here’s how to fix it:

• Break the single plane. Nothing in a natural pose is perfectly flat to the viewer. Rotate or tilt at least one major form—the ribcage, pelvis, or head.
• Add perspective to the body. Treat the torso like a box. If the top plane is visible, the bottom plane shouldn’t be. Even a slight tilt instantly creates depth.
• Overlap limbs intentionally. Let arms cross the torso. Let one leg overlap the other. Overlap tells the eye which form is closer and which is farther away.
• Use foreshortening. When a limb comes toward the viewer, shorten it and widen it. This single adjustment can turn a flat pose into a dynamic one.
• Draw through the forms. Sketch the full arm or leg even if part of it is hidden. This helps you understand how the forms exist in 3D space.

A simple test:
Squint at your drawing. If everything reads clearly as separate shapes without overlap, it’s probably too flat. Add a tilt, an overlap, or a size change.

You don’t need extreme poses.
Just one rotation, one overlap, or one foreshortened form can transform a flat character into something that feels solid, grounded, and alive.

👉 Click here for a video tutorial.

If you enjoy the technique, that’s only a small tip of how you can transform your art. I go much deeper. I cover more about anatomy, perspective, foreshortening in my book below.

$10
68 Pages

👉 How To Draw Dynamic Poses eBook

Have a great day,
Jae