How to Use the Pose Library Tool
A quick guide to starting and customizing your drawing sessions.
Pose Library is designed to make figure drawing practice simple and consistent. Instead of searching for reference images or managing timers, the tool presents poses automatically so you can stay focused on drawing.
This guide will walk you through how to start a session, customize your practice, and navigate the pose viewer.
Navigation
Quick Start
The fastest way to begin practicing is to start a preset drawing session.
Simply click the Start Pose Viewer button. The viewer will launch with a standard session already prepared.
A typical session includes:
- 6 x 30-second poses
- 5 x 1-minute poses
- 5 x 2-minute poses
- 1 x 5-minute pose
This sequence is designed to gradually warm up your observation and drawing skills. The short poses encourage quick gesture drawings, while the longer poses allow you to slow down and observe structure and proportions.
Once the viewer starts, the poses will change automatically when the timer ends. All you need to do is focus on drawing.
Custom Sessions and Filters
If you'd like more control over your practice sessions, you can log in to unlock additional features.
When logged in, you can:
- Create custom pose sessions
- Enable or disable the nudity filter
If you want to learn more about how the filter works, you can read the explanation in the FAQ.
Customizing Your Session
You can modify the preset durations by adding or removing poses from the existing time categories.
For example, you might want to:
- Add more 30-second poses for gesture practice
- Reduce the number of long poses
- Extend the session with additional timed drawings
You can also create completely custom durations.
The interface allows you to add up to three custom duration fields, letting you design sessions that match your practice goals.
For instance, you could create a session like:
- 10 x 45-second poses
- 5 x 3-minute poses
- 2 x 10-minute poses
If you ever want to return to the original configuration, simply click the Reset button to clear the custom fields.
At the bottom of the settings panel, you'll see two helpful summaries:
- Total session duration
- Total number of poses
These update automatically as you adjust the settings, so you always know how long your practice session will last.
Navigating the Pose Viewer
Once your session begins, the viewer displays the pose images in a clean, distraction-free layout.
A set of controls allows you to manage the session while you draw.
You can:
- Play or pause the timer
- Move forward to the next pose
- Return to the previous pose
- Close the session
To keep the screen uncluttered, the controls automatically hide after a few seconds.
If you need to access them again, simply move your mouse or tap the screen and the controls will reappear.
Session Information
In the bottom right corner of the viewer you'll see a small information panel that helps track your progress.
This panel includes:
- A countdown wheel showing the remaining time for the current pose
- The duration of the current pose
- The current pose number within the session
These indicators help you stay aware of the timing without distracting from the drawing itself.
Daily Models and Gallery Order
Each time you start a new drawing session, the pose gallery is reshuffled. This means the order of the images will change every time you begin a session, giving you a fresh sequence of poses to draw from.
Pose Library also rotates models regularly. You can return each day to practice with a different model, helping keep your drawing sessions varied and engaging.
If you are logged in, the nudity filter also affects which models appear in your sessions. When the filter is enabled, the gallery will only display images that match the filter settings.
Because of this, the poses and models you see may change depending on whether the nudity filter is on or off.