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Posing Sonic Characters
July 2026
Lead on Paper
I've recently found that the signature noodly, very bendy anatomy of Sonic the Hedgehog characters lends itself perfectly for practicing dynamic poses - something that I would consider one of my weaker points when making art.
This is by no means a coincidence of course: being exaggerated and slightly showy is exactly what Sonic was designed for, and probably why my brain latched onto this character and his friends so much.
Anyway, starting with my drawing of Sonic! For this one, I wanted to make it look like he was mid-motion: something or someone off-camera caught his attention and now he's slowing down to interact with it. Basically, I wanted this one to feel like it could be a real animation still from an animated show.
His spaghetti-esque arms swaying along really sells this motion and his casual mood. Even if you cover up his facial expression, you can tell that this isn't a serious moment. The power of body language!
For Rouge's drawing, I wanted to stress-test how far I could take the bendy property of their bodies and get extra dramatic with it. I love Rouge the Bat so much, and felt that there was no better candidate for such a flamboyant pose.
This pose however is entirely unnatural and would certainly break your back if you attempted it yourself. Please Do Not Attempt It Yourself. But...on a Sonic character, it just feels innate for them to do this!
This drawing pushed me to my f#cking limits, lol. There were multiple times drawing this where I genuinely thought my idea was out of my league. To me, that's an important thing to tell you, because when looking at a finished piece of art it is almost never clear how much trial and error was involved, and when looking at the art of others, my brain always defaults to: "there was no struggle at all." Which is so, so wrong.
Anyway, yeah, Rouge, love her, my wife. I'll tell you a secret for reading this far: I actually used to work on a Rouge the Bat fangame, where all the levels are like the treasure hunting levels in Sonic Adventure 2. I'd love to go back to that game one day, maybe with a team of people and someone who can actually code better than the hot garbage I produced lol. BUT IT WORKED! I used the "Bumper Engine" Unity framework and made the movement feel exactly like SA2, including gliding and climbing. The climbing was awfully buggy, to keep the spirit of SA2 in tact. Of course.
Uhh.. where was I..?
Amy Rose and her Big Fukin Hammer™! This one is in a similar vein to the drawing of Sonic, very noodly, except cranked way up. Extra noodly hammer. I wanted this one to feel both very action-packed, almost like a shonen battle, but with a lot of western cartooniness. Hey! I just described the entire Sonic design ethos! And Luffy, too.
If you're a fan of Amy you might notice that there is an odd shape in the chest area of her dress. That is because I drew all these characters while without access to the internet, and from memory. (flex). So some design details just get mixed up or forgotten, which is also why Sonic's shoes look so lifeless and Amy's boots are just...wrong lol. I don't draw her too often; love her though!
All in all it was very fun to practice my weak spot in art with these characters who were specifically designed to break realistic physicality to make them more expressive and easier to pose.
Post-Scanning Edit: Why does it look so grainy!? It looks like I drew on ancient papyrus... probably because I used recycled paper... maaaannnn....