Need some villain poses to design a character with a dark side? I got you. Here is a quick-view mini gallery to see all the poses at once.
Tips for Creating Your Own Villain Poses:
Create clarity and storytelling for your viewers using these hints for making evil villain poses – with features like:
Crossed Arms:
Crossed arms do 1 of 2 things. They either tell a viewer your character is closed off (maybe hiding that deep childhood trauma that made them evil) or they are a dominant and confident character. Why not both?
Eye Bags:
Bags beneath the eyes tell viewers the character is tired or deranged (usually as a result of not sleeping). Imagine how cranky you’d be after a graveyard shift?
Sanpaku Eyes:
This is a feature where the bottom of the iris is not covered by the lower eyelid. It adds an underlying feeling of dread or disconnection in characters.
Furrowed Brow:
Pretty obvious. Angry characters look threatening. You give a sense of anger, annoyance, or irritability with a furrowed brow.
Downward Turned Head:
A downward head gives a predatory sense to your character. It creates a sense of violent intention. Bonus points if they give your viewer that Full Metal Jacket looking through the eyebrows vibe.
Sharp Fingertips:
Talons and claws, again, add to a predatory feeling to your character, a feeling that lends itself fluidly to villainous characters. Great villains generally have the feeling of being higher in the food chain, while ruthlessly consuming those weaker than them.
Sharp Teeth:
Another easy predatory cue is Sharp teeth, like sharp fingers. These tell viewers your character is designed for violence, consumption, and inflicting pain on others.
Dramatic Lighting:
Though not shown directly here. Extreme lighting (especially from below) can really sell to viewers your character is absolute off-the-wall bonkers and unstable – and nothing says villain like crazy. Amirite?
All these cues will help you communicate to a would-be viewer that your character is has the antagonistic knob set to 11. You can find examples of all of them below.
Individual Evil Character References:
Use these 6 hand-drawn villain poses you can use as reference for your next drawing – whether you’re building a sinister anime antagonist, refining a comic book bad guy, or just need some depraved, evil vibes in your sketchbook. Trace, redraw, or use images side-by-side as a visual guide.
You’ll find a mix of attitude-heavy stances, powerful gestures, and those subtle, cold-as-ice postures that say, yeah, this one’s here to commit some regret-free felonies 😏
Use them however you like – redraw, remix, or trace to study. These are for artists who want to build bad guys while skipping the starting at a blank page step. Why not use ’em for classic anime villain poses too – because let’s be real, you like anime villains. Everyone does.
Want More Than Poses?
Like this set? There’s way more poses where that came from.
Here’s 3 options for you:
- Head to the category page – Keep exploring the site.
- Grab another free 52 poses here – These are not available to the public anywhere else except this link.
- The community pose vault – The free pose library in my discord with tags for easy searching (usually between 200-250 poses).
Happy drawing ;3