#body language and gestures

[razieltwelve]

Body Language and Gestures For Non-Humanoid Characters

Body language and gestures can play an important role in characterisation. We can see this via some of the characters from The Unconventional Heroes Series.

Gerald, for example, is often depicted as nervous, anxious, and fearful. This isn’t done solely through words but also through his body language and gestures. Conversely, Avraniel’s body language and gestures suggest a character who is confident to the point of being brash, a person who prefers actions over words and who will gladly wade knee-deep through the blood of her enemies.

But not all characters are the same. In particular, although many characters are humanoid (e.g., humans, dwarves, and elves) not all characters share the basic body structure of two arms, two legs, one head, and so on. What about those characters, how should you handle their body language and gestures?

The most important thing is to acknowledge that they are not humanoid. As a result, not all of their body language and gestures will be the same. They may be unable to act in certain ways that a humanoid character might while being able to act in ways that a humanoid character cannot. Their physiology may also be bound to certain psychological traits that you need to consider as well.

We’ll use Spot, who is a dragon, as an example.

A dragon has six limbs, consisting of two arms, two legs, and two wings. A dragon also has a tail and tends to walk on all fours although walking on their legs is possible. In Spot’s case, his arms (which tend to operate more as legs) end in claws that grow more and more dextrous over time until they can eventually be used like hands. All of his limbs end in wickedly sharp claws, and his teeth are far larger and sharper than any humanoid character’s teeth.

Due to the shape of his body, Spot cannot use the same sort of body language and gestures as other characters like Timmy or Gerald. Instead, for Spot to feel like a real character, he needs to use body language and gestures that take advantage of his physiology. What sort of body language and gestures might these include? Here are a few of them:

As a dragon, Spot will often draw himself up into a threat display. This involves rearing up and flaring his wings to make himself seem as large as possible. It may also involve baring his teeth and allowing flame to kindle in his jaws. The human equivalent might be to stand straight and loom over someone, but that just wouldn’t feel right for a dragon to do when a dragon can do so much more.

Spot will often use his head to nudge, poke, and otherwise interact with people and objects. This is due to his lack of dexterity with his claws. Since he is a dragon, his head is heavily armoured to the point it can be used as a battering ram. As a result, it’s perfectly acceptable for him to use it in a way a human never would. When he’s curious, he might gently nudge Katie with his head to get her to explain something. But when he’s mad, he can easily send a bandit flying by ramming them with his head.

Spot has been seen wagging his tail in a manner similar to a dog when he is happy. This is not something all dragons do. Instead, it is a result of Spot having a tail and growing up around a dog (Chomp). Due to the current stubbiness of his tail, he also can’t use it in the more intricate fashion of an adult dragon.

Rather than walk, Spot is often described as loping, stalking, or otherwise moving in a more predatory fashion, even when he isn’t actually threatening anyone. As a dragon, that’s just how Spot moves. It is instinctive, and it is a reminder to everyone else of what he is.

Although Spot uses telepathy to communicate speech, he also relies on a range of other sounds to communicate. He will trill, croon, rumble, and so on – sounds that humans cannot easily make. He makes these sounds because he isn’t human. They are the sounds a dragon would make, and him not making them would be strange.

As you can see, Spot’s body language and gestures belong to a dragon because he is a dragon. It would be extremely unusual for him to have exactly the same body language and gestures as the humanoid characters. Indeed, a running gag is for him to adjust his movements to avoid accidentally damaging things in places designed with humanoids in mind (e.g., it’s easy for him to accidentally knock things over if he isn’t careful about his wings).

Of course, Spot isn’t the only non-humanoid character around. Sam is a protoplasmic horror from another dimension who has near-limitless control over his own biology. He most commonly appears as a floating sphere of eyes, tentacles, and teeth. Apart from using a form of eldritch telepathy to communicate with Timmy (who is one of the few people who can withstand it), he relies on shape changes, colour changes, and tentacle movements to convey his thoughts and feelings. This is an even more extreme case than Spot since Sam’s physiology can change dramatically in a way that Spot’s can’t. However, the important thing is that his very much non-humanoid shape is accompanied by body language and gestures that suit it. This makes him more believable as a character and makes it easier for readers to picture him in their minds.

Body language and gestures are important parts of characterisation. However, for non-humanoid characters, you should always remember that their body language and gestures may not be the same as for humanoid characters. Taking these differences into accounts can help make them more memorable and unique.

If you’re interested in my thoughts on writing and other topics, you can find those here.

I also write original fiction, which you can find on Amazon here or on Audible here. I’ve also just released a new story, Attempted Rescuing!

[napneeders]

obsessed with the whole "right, I'm going in" air of Lucius preparing to deal with Stede. the sleeve tug. the faces.

Note The Gusto day 8: Lucius

[marshmallowgoop]

ShinRan Week 2023: Day 4 | Black Knight and Princess

[canisalbus]

The way you draw hands, they are so expressive. So tender looking in their intent. I'm just in awe. I'm not a religious person at all but the first word to comes to mind when seeing the hands you draw is that they are somehow holy.

Aw geez anon, you're saying the sweetest things. Thank you!

[alatismeni-theitsa]

More Greek body language and gestures!

Bonus points for "Greek parents set it up, and then they murder you"

[kradeelav]

there is honest to goodness nothing like the quiet pleasure of drawing a really theatrical old man

wip

[martyrbat]

fully supportive of cass learning sign language and the fanon that she uses it more than spoken language but also. so many of you act as if its a lesser version of communication and she'll automatically be a pro/not struggle with it. its still a complex language that has structure, grammar, vocabulary and syntax. theres so many different factors for it, even within just one region - different signing styles, dialects, slang, as well as actual variations (asl, pse, see)

just because you rely on verbal communication doesnt mean nonverbal or alternative versions of communication is a lesser version than your normal

sign language, writing, variant types of aac devices and resources. its all methods of communication. it all deserves to be treated with the respect and regard that vocal languages are treated with

[voidscreamns]

./

[horizon-penblade]

ngl sometimes i wonder how much of the 'hands are so hard to draw' stereotype is actually drawing hands and how much is about positioning and drawing the arms

[lorillee]

you know they werent kidding when they said the best art advice is to become obsessed with something

[istmos]

Imogen Cunningham, “Marta Graham”, 1931

[mejomonster]

Luo Weizhou vision:

[canisalbus]

You've encouraged me to be much more expressive with the body launguage and general poses of my oc's. I love to draw them but was never fully satisfied; like something wasn't quite right with them. Turned out I needed to stop treating their bodies like stiff plastic toys and more like, well, actual animal bodies, which are WAY more dynamic than we realize.

I'm so delighted to hear that! I'm a big fan of expressive body language myself, sometimes you can tell so much about a character's personality and their current mood just by looking at how they occupy space and position themselves, often subconsciously.

Mammalian bodies can be surprisingly elastic and bendy, just like you said. (Personally I tend to think shoulders in particular are way more mobile than you'd initially believe, for example when you stretch your arm up it's not just your arm that moves, your clavicles, shoulder blades and all the muscles connected to them shift a little bit too and that can alter the shape of your upper torso significantly).

[ultraviolet-cello]

warmdown doodle from last night :]

[toastedbuckwheat]

The Gao brothers. Reunion underground?

[flame-shadow]

confession: i still don't get how so many of y'all interpreted a silent look as love or weakness or a parent-child connection or whatever is the 'flaw' in the pure vessel that ruins the vessel plan. when i got to the end of path of pain and watched pk and pv look at each other, i read it as a neutral scene and am still confused at how it means so much to other people