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sdartistries · 2 years

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could you tell us more about the fronted confident/real confidence pose thing? as someone who loves details-- it sounds really interesting! how do you read a character's body language like that?

For sure!

For the sake of continuity of this discussion, I'll just go ahead and use the base poses of the TPOF trio as examples. (Characters belong to the wonderfully talented @gatobob)

Body Language = Observable Behavior + Context

Before I go into a deeper explanation of posing characters, let’s explore what body language actually says about a character. In particular:

Body language says very little about a character’s actual personality;

Body language is reactionary to circumstance (people, places, events, experience); and

Body language does not portray universally across persons of differing ability or culture.

That being said, when you are observing a character’s body language in a story then you are likely only getting as much context to their behavior as the creator has intended to share with you. I’ll include examples of circumstance below to show how it changes the meaning of a base pose.

Let’s begin!

Posing Plain Confidence

Confidence as a character does not necessarily mean that a character is the best of the best (Ah yes, I am a chef of so many years’ experience that my hands are basically knives and my burps are basically seasoning), it simply means that a character is transparently calm given the circumstance that they are reacting to (Well, I can certainly give dinner a good try and if there’s room for improvement then there’s always next time. No big deal.) which oftentimes can be interpreted as a result of experience. They are fully prepared to deal with a situation as it comes along whether they’ve done it before or not.

Visually, a confident character does not necessarily have to stand or sit with a ram-rod straight back. That's a trained habit, not a confident habit. Instead, their posture is more than likely going to come off as relaxed and open. Think unhunched shoulders, head resting evenly on neck, legs and arms placed loosely, and feet in resting position. Another visual note to make about confident characters is that they don’t partake in what I like to call “comfort gestures”. They do not distance their gaze. They do not cradle their bodies. They do not have to be touching or grasping something. They do not turn themselves away from an audience when directly addressing them. They are untensed and unbothered.

Confidence Illustrated: Mason

Circumstance #1: Confidence You Can Trust

Getting back country-certified wasn’t a part of your original job description. There are BEARS in the back country! BEARS and WOLVES and BADGERS and you’re just an events coordinator for a non-profit! And let’s be real... it shows in the nervous jitter of your legs but then your instructor steps out of their truck and their presence immediately puts you at ease.

Here you are, surrounded by endless trees miles away from a proper town groaning under the weight of your company-supplied camp pack, and there they are walking effortlessly over to you on uneven ground with just as much gear if not more. In that small moment between them leaving their truck and closing the gap to reach you, you notice how their eyes scan the surrounding wilderness while they take a lazy swig out of their water jug before turning their eyes towards you on the last step. Their gaze is as even as their breath and they extend a steady hand out for a handshake. You nervously take their hand and they give you a light but firm squeeze in return. You’re locked into their expression - how calm they are - and they break a small smile at you in return.

Circumstance #2: Confidence You Should Fear

So... it wasn’t the bears you should have worried about. Your instructor watched you eat lunch and you KNOW you saw them take a few bites of the same ration. You SHARED lunch, you told them about how excited you were to be out in the woods for the first time especially with such an experienced guide like them, and now what?! They had you strung up by your wrists, that’s what!

You swivel left and right trying to get a better bearing of your surroundings and that’s when you see them and your blood runs cold. They’ve unloaded their pack somewhere but that only serves to give you a better look at the knife strapped to their hip. It’s definitely not a utility knife. They don’t even skip a beat once they notice you’re awake and walk towards you with that same even stride that had earlier put you at ease. Their gaze meets you straight on and you flinch as they close the distance. They break that now familiar small smile at your reaction and place that familiar light but firm grip on your chin.

Reading The Next Move of Plain Confidence

Just like their baseline posture, plain confidence doesn’t put on any airs when it comes to their next move. Even if you’ve provoked them, you generally have a clear view of exactly how they’re reacting as it happens.

Posing A Defensive Front

Where a plainly confident character does not necessarily need to be the best of the best, the defensive character NEEDS their audience to believe that they’re better than thou in the context of perceived confidence. A defensive front comes with a few tells however that points to a more honest need for this character: distancing and self-soothing. Plain confidence plays on an unbothered field but a defensive character plays a clear competition when observed by an audience. If you have ever done a “power pose” to inspire yourself before a meeting, game, or social situation then congratulations, you were building up confidence by building up a defensive front.

Defensive fronts actually start at the feet, or whatever base of the character is in direct contact with a solid surface. Defensive characters are PLANTED to their position and aren’t likely to make sweeping gestures or postures (unless provoked but we’ll get to that later). Their poses generally live within an elbow-length bubble. Besides being grounded and contained in their postures, defensive characters also showcase a lot of comfort gestures. They look down at their audience. They move their head and torso away from their audience. They try to make themselves look bigger by hunching up their shoulders and/or they create a barrier between themselves and the audience by crossing their arms or holding an object in between them. Defensive characters prefer not to address others or be addressed in a position that puts them at a disadvantage or on equal footing. Imagine this character walking alongside another character in a hallway except you’re already wrong by assuming that they’d walk alongside anyone and not half a step ahead or behind the other person and at least two feet away. Defensive characters are on edge and that edge helps them stay ahead... but it also makes them fragile.

Defensive Front Illustrated: Celia

Circumstance #1: Defense That Helps

You made it out of bear country... you don’t want to remember how you did it, but you’ve got some serious complaints for HR, that’s for sure. You send an email to their department and you receive a calendar invite in return. You accept and wait for the appointed meeting time before approaching their office. Their door is always closed so you knock and are promptly called into the office. They’re sitting at their desk when you open the door but immediately stand up and close the door behind you before walking you to a chair in front of their desk. They don’t return to their seat and instead choose to lean against the front of their desk while you hand them your report of the incident. They scan the report with their arms folded over their chest. Every once in a while, they look over to you with a gaze obscured by lowered lashes. You can’t tell if they’re taking you seriously or not. You had a lot to say before you came into the office but now you’re just... uncomfortable. Finally, they put down the report and fold both arms over their chest. They tell you that they’ll look into this incident and inform you of any further action needed on your part. They smile at you which puts you at ease and, again, they personally walk you out of their office closing the door behind you. You return to your cubicle and your office computer pings with a very prompt email detailing the submission of your report and immediate action items needed going forward.

Circumstance #2: Defense That Harms

This is not the settlement you hoped for. Sure, you were excited when your communications with HR started pointing towards something that felt like real closure and, sure, a work lunch with HR to go over settlement details sounded like a good idea at the time but now... now you think you all of this was just a huge mistake. Though... admittedly, you can’t help but think this might be an overreaction on the part of HR.

You met them in their office to leave together for lunch and they brushed past you after gathering a few of their things, clutching their paperwork in a vice grip. You followed them to their vehicle in what seemed like a hushed, unspoken race. You sat shotgun and for a moment you thought you caught a glimpse of a scowl on their face but it vanished before you could really place it. They started driving in silence to what you assumed was going to be a nice company-funded meal but when you started asking about the details of the settlement, they laughed at you. They didn’t even turn to look at you but they shifted from laughter to badgering pretty quickly. Something was wrong and you felt it strongly enough in your gut to pull on their emergency break while unclipping your seatbelt. You could tell by the sudden flush in their cheeks and a rustling through their briefcase that this was not going to end well for you.

Reading The Next Move of The Defensive Front

Defensive characters are build-up characters. They have a baseline that they strive to protect which is normally never an issue for their audience until they’ve been provoked in some way. That’s where the beauty of a defensive character lies because if circumstances poke them in a way that consistently topples their base then they will act in a way where it is made clear that the circumstance needs to change in order to conform to their level of comfort or else some unstable behavior is definitely going to happen.

Posing A Poker Face (Bluster)

The poker face is the cousin of plain confidence but rather than being built on a base of unbothered calm, the poker face is built on a foundation of bluster. Bluster is an art form. Bluster is unearned while also being a consistent practice. Bluster applies for the position of executive chef on the basis of having added garlic powder to a grilled cheese once and claiming that it was a work of art despite being incredibly dry and subjective to individual taste and food tolerance. The character that poses in base poker face does, in fact, personally believe that they’re confident as a base line but they have little tells in their posture that attempt to redirect their audience away from the also true fact that they are insecure in their standing.

In plain confidence posturing, we talked about the fact that standing upright is a trained habit rather than an actual sign of confidence. Well, in a character displaying bluster, they are more likely to be posed in trained positions that they have been told convey a certain air rather than defaulting to a position that they actually feel. Remember this: bluster is largely deceptive in posturing. Confidence posturing is a reflection of the character themselves being at ease, but bluster posturing is meant to put the intended audience at ease. That generally means that they’ll meet the audience gaze very directly. They’ll even lower their heads and bodies to the level of the audience. Their movement posturing is a massive tell, though. A confident character will assess and redirect as necessary, but a poker face character will move under the assumption that they already have the upper hand.

Bluster Illustrated: Derek

Circumstance #1: Poker Played Fairly

Working for non-profits has been a... poor experience to say the least and you’ve decided to move on. You swore you would never give in but here you are interviewing for a position in a corporate conglomerate. You’re seated in front of a fairly cozy conference table and you’ve got your list of very oddly specific conditions for employment listed in your cover letter to present to your mystery interviewer. No camping. No undocumented work meetings. Just a desk and duties. You sweat over some other details in your head until you hear a door open and swivel around to see the mystery entering the room.

They lock eyes with you immediately and you are struck with how widely they smile and stride straight up to you without giving you a moment to rise from your seat. They take your hand and deliver a firm handshake that lasts just long enough for you to notice how warm and soft their palms are. They assure you that you can stay seated while they move to occupy the seat in front of you. They keep their hands in plain sight on top of the meeting table though you notice that they occasionally tap your resume while they talk to you. You feel so acknowledged! Their shoulders inch closer to you throughout your conversation and you can’t help but feel completely at ease as they stand up and shake your hand once again to welcome you to the company.

Circumstance #2: Poker Played Poorly

“Naivete strikes once again!” You scream internally as you crawl silently out of the bed to collect your clothing off the floor. You’re just about to slip off to change discreetly in the bathroom when you steal a glance back at your... boss, dammit... laying in the bed facing away from you and that’s when you notice it. They were awake this entire time. You can see their reflection in the window and you can see that they’ve noticed you. They lock eyes with your reflection first before casually rolling over and smile widely at your distressed expression. You’re frozen for a moment when you realize that everything they had ever told you, everything that they had ever said to assure you, was a lie. They look you up and down and smile wider before lazily calling you back to bed. You burst and start screaming at them. Their expression empties for just a moment and then you see something in them darken. Your stomach sinks as they start to laugh.

Reading the Next Move of the Poker Face

Unfortunately, the poker face character is a character of deception as previously stated. Characters that use bluster as a primary source of posturing do not react well to provocation. That means the audience has figured them out and they no longer have the upper hand. Their actions after this realization is largely dependent on their personality which can’t be predicted by body language.

Thank you for the ask! I had a lot of fun writing out this reply!

#character design #body language #posture #stance #the price of flesh #tpof spoilers #tpof #derek goffard #celia lede #mason heiral #opinon #personal takes

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sdartistries · 2 years

Text

Strange. Unknown.

They are the stranger at the crossroads between life and death. They are a friend, a foe, a lover, a servant, a reflection. They are whatever you need them to be.

This story will be collected in whole, complete with illustrations, here.

Text updates on Thursdays, ~10:00 PM CDT! Illustrations always in progress!

Chapter 1: How the Two Strangers Met

Two strangers meet by chance along a barren road. One a hooded man of unknown origin and the other a delirious woman on the verge of death. Set in a blur of reality, dream, and memory this story tells a tale of denial and acceptance, disillusionment and discovery, and most importantly life and death.

CW: general themes of suspense, mild mention of gore

The night was dark, cloudy, and cold.

Trees reached towards the starless sky in gnarled forms of wanton need. Their roots crept towards the bare dirt road that lay between them thirsting for the water that had run dry long ago. Beside that road sat a lone, hooded man. His breath hung in the air before him. White, wispy, dancing wraiths of his own making.

He had no companions. Even the wind blew past and around him in hushed whispers, rustling leaves and sending a shiver through forlorn branches. Whatever was left of the grass and moss seemed to avoid growing beneath the stranger. Instead, he was surrounded by a circle of barren dirt, even the creatures of the night found him too unsettling. Too quiet and too alone.

He had no reason to be there. The road led nowhere that mattered to him. There was no one coming to pick him up. He was simply there. Existing. Perhaps waiting for the sun to rise. Perhaps waiting for nothing at all.

In that cold, still night he was just another cold, still placement.

Something changed just then.

From the cold, still night, something finally seemed alive. The breath of the man, before long and steady, now seemed cut in the air. Expectant. Uneasy. A misty code of alarm.

And though his eyes were hooded, his gaze burned its way down the road.

Nothing.

No. Something.

Something moving.

No. Staggering.

Someone staggering.

He could hear them now. Could hear their ragged breaths. Their dragging steps.

They weren't well. Injured. Fatally perhaps. He didn't care. Couldn't care.

The stranger was just yards away now. So close. So visible.

A woman.

She was dressed in tattered rags. Clutching a tattered stomach. Drawing in rags of air.

She saw him.

Her eyes were bright with tears, narrowed in pain.

The man sat undisturbed and unconcerned as the woman changed her path and headed straight for him.

However many staggering steps her legs had left, the woman threw them down in front of the man. She kneeled before him looking up into his hood. Maybe the pain made her do so. Maybe she just wanted to see the eyes of another soul. He looked down at her. Unpitying. Uninterested. To him, she was just there.

She had no breaths left for sobs, only words. Just enough for one last plea.

"Please... Save me..."

#writeblr #spilled ink #write #writerblr #writers on tumblr #fiction writer #suspense #death and dying #fiction #dark fiction #my writing #original story #original characters #my ocs #reviews welcome #edit suggestions welcome

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