LEARN TO DRAW
ACTION HEROES
An Easy Step-by-Step Guide to Drawing Comic Book Characters
ROBERT MARZULLO
impact-books.com
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DEDICATION
I would like to dedicate this book to my son Roman. My little Superhero! :)
CONTENTS
Special Offers
Materials
CHAPTER 1
DRAWING THE FACE
CHAPTER 2
SUPERHERO BODIES
CHAPTER 3
CREATING CHARACTER DETAILS
CHAPTER 4
LAYING OUT A SCENE
About the Author
MATERIALS
Here we will talk about the tools that can be used for your comic book heroes creation process. There can often be a lot of debate on which is better, but I assure you the ability lies within the artist and not the tools they choose to create the work. Given enough time, you can master any tool that you choose to wield!
Traditional Mediums
When working traditionally you have lots of options. From various types of pencils to all sorts of ways to ink the work. You will generally use a pencil to sketch the lines and a brush and/or crow quill to ink the lines. There are many options to each one of these tools so you need to practice and find out which suits your style. The best paper to work on is bristol board smooth in my opinion. There are lots of options there as well. Just remember that no matter what tool you pick you can create great art as long as you put in the time!
Digital Mediums
When using digital tools you will need a tablet of some kind. There are plenty of great devices to choose from and some take a bit more practice than others. The digital drawing tablet has many added benefits to creating your artwork such as not having to scan every page and touch up the work. They can be a bit harder to get used to from traditional drawing but when you finally get the hang of it, you will be glad you put forth the effort. They can be huge time savers and you will never need to buy paper again. Well, almost never!
CHAPTER 1
DRAWING THE FACE
In this chapter you will learn how to draw various male and female faces. I will cover how to draw each part of the face and talk about what goes into constructing them. By drawing the face in its parts you will gain more confidence drawing the entire face and creating lots of various character types.
Measuring the Face Proportions: Front View
The trickiest thing about drawing the face is where to place the features. We will first cover how to align the facial features and how to quickly place them in the right spots. This method is good to know because it makes the process of aligning the features much easier to do.
1 DRAW A VERTICAL GUIDELINE
Start by drawing the height that you would like your head to be. Then mark the halfway point with a horizontal line. It doesn’t have to be perfect but close to the middle is a nice place to start. This will also be the point where we later place the eyes.
2 MARK GUIDES FOR THE FACIAL FEATURES
From the middle line that you just made to the bottom line that represents the chin area, create another horizontal line at the halfway point. This will be where the nose goes later. From this point to the chin, create three sections evenly spaced by drawing two more horizontal lines.
3 DRAW THE HEAD SHAPE GUIDE
Draw a circle that starts at the top line and finishes between the third and fourth lines. This is an approximation. Remember that these measurements will vary depending on the character that you are drawing. Chop off the sides of the circle so the head doesn’t appear to be a perfect sphere.
4 DRAW THE JAWLINE
Draw a wedge shape for the jawline. For action heroes, I like to draw the jawline curving from the third and fourth line down. You can move this curve up or down depending upon your character’s specific features. Square the jawline off for a more masculine character. Now draw a horizontal line across the space where the eyes will be located. Remember this is approximately halfway down the face.
5 MARK THE PLACEMENT OF THE FEATURES
You can measure the eyes by leaving a space equal to one eye width in the middle and half an eye width on each side of the head. The distance between the eyes will also mark the approximate width of the nose. The width of the mouth will line up to the middle of the eyes. Then the ears can be drawn in with disk-like shapes that will line up with the eyes and the mark for the nose.
6 DEVELOP THE FEATURES
With all the feature lines marked, it’s much easier to draw your stylized comic book character’s face. By moving the feature lines around, you can create new and interesting characters. This base understanding of design will help with symmetry and consistency in your artwork. And don’t worry, we will cover all the other details of drawing the face as we progress through the book.
Measuring the Face Proportions: Side View
We will now use the same measurement tool to create a profile. When practicing your profile drawings study the silhouette of the face, as well as the proportions of the features from one another.
1 DRAW A VERTICAL GUIDELINE
Start by drawing the height that you would like your head to be. Then mark the halfway point with a horizontal line. It doesn’t have to be perfect but close to the middle is a nice place to start. This will also be the point where we later place the eyes.
2 ADD THE HEAD SHAPE
Add a circle. Make sure it passes through the third and fourth horizontal line from the top. Now draw a curved line on the right to start to form the shape of the face. Don’t worry if yours looks a bit different than the example. It will take some experimentation to get it right, and your character might come out looking pretty neat anyway, so just have fun with it!
CHANGE YOUR GUIDES
Keep in mind that these guides are meant to be changed when you’re creating various character types. The more stylized you want your characters to be, the more you will change the initial diagram to suit your needs!
3 SKETCH THE EYE, JAW AND NECK
Place the eye by drawing a triangle shape with a rounded side. It can be about an eye length (or a bit less) back from the forehead. Again, this will vary based on the character and your style. Place the ear to the bottom left of the cross section. Draw it as a disk shape with a slight tilt. Now block in the nose and mouth area with a wedge-like shape. This will help you remember to draw the tilt of the nose and relationship of the mouth. From there, draw in a jawline that starts from the chin area and connects to the lower part of the ear.
4 SKETCH THE FEATURES
Start to draw the features with more detail and a little more confidence. Remember to use curved lines unless your style requires otherwise. I try to use mostly smooth lines on the female characters. Doing so helps produce a feminine look. Notice how the lips conform to the curved wedge-like shape we sketched out in the previous step. Be careful not to make the chin too pronounced.
5 DEVELOP THE FEATURES
Divide the top portion of the head into thirds. The top third will give us a point of reference for the hairline. Next draw the shape of the hair. Drawing the overall shape of the hair makes it much easier to add the details in the next step. Use the existing sphere shape as a guide, but feel free to draw past it. Don’t draw
the shape of the hair too tightly to the sphere or the hair will look plain.
6 ADD FINAL DETAILS
Draw the rest of the hair details and start to render the sketch. The great thing about working this way is that once the groundwork is established you can focus on the details and the style. Start to texture the hair, darken the eyes and leave a small glare on it to make it appear wet.
Darken the lips and leave a small highlight on them as well. Add small shadows on the inside of the ear, beneath the ear and beneath the neck. Shadows help to round the forms and give them depth.
Drawing Eye Proportions and Shapes
When drawing eyes you must start with the basic forms. When you learn to compare them to other objects and techniques you’ve memorized, they become much easier to reconstruct. It’s quicker as well.
Iris Measurement
Notice that the iris part of the eyes is about one third the width of the overall eye. This can vary greatly in comics because of style, but proportions like this will help to keep your drawings consistent if you know what to look for.
Showing Expression
Notice how the eye has an expression of fear or excitement. This is because we are leaving white on both sides of the iris as well as making the pupil smaller. Small changes like this have a big effect on the look and expression of your characters.
Constructing a Rounded Eye
Try an exercise where you place the iris on the spherical shape of the eye. Draw a circle with two ovals to create a dimensional effect. Where the two inside circles meet at the lower right will be the placement for the iris. This is a drawing you should practice often. It comes in handy for various things in comics and drawing in general.
Draw the iris over the point you marked. From this angle the iris and the pupil will appear to be a bit more oval in shape. This shaping is something you have to learn to see in your drawings to make them appear realistic to the viewer.
Now draw the rest of the eye around the iris. Try to make the shapes curve with the sphere. Notice that the eye tapers away from the viewer at this angle. Practice this method often and you will soon get the hang of it. Eye promise!
1 DEFINE THE SHAPE
When drawing eyes, think of a dove’s head with the back of the head being higher than the beak area. Eyes are not level so you have to tilt the shapes a bit. To draw the eyebrow, start off thicker in beginning and the middle brow area and taper it toward the outer portion of the eye.
2 DARKEN THE EDGES OF THE EYE
To darken the edges you basically start to add eyeliner. Then define a shape for the top and bottom eyelid. There are a multitude of eye shapes, so feel free to experiment when creating a character’s eyes.
3 DRAW THE IRIS
The iris is generally one third of the horizontal distance of the eye. This varies greatly in comics and cartoon styles. Just remember that the smaller the pupil, the more you can show fear, anger or excitement!
4 DRAW THE LASHES AND FILL THE IRIS
With all the base shapes in place, you can now create more detail in the eyelashes. It is good to keep them pretty solid for comics, but a few small eyelash tips won’t hurt. Just don’t over do it. Draw in the glint of the eye. You can also give it contrast by shading the iris a bit.
5 RENDER THE EYE
Solidify the lines and add crosshatching to help round the forms. Remember that the eyes are compound rounded shapes, so do your best to illustrate that with your shading.
Drawing Eyes: Male vs. Female
In this lesson you will learn about the differences to look for when drawing the male and female eye. They are basically the same but the male eye is narrower and less pronounced. With less detail added to the eye lashes, but the same techniques apply to drawing them both.
1 DEFINE THE SHAPE
Start by drawing the basic eye shapes. Though they are similar, the female eye is generally larger and a bit more rounded. Of course that is purely based upon the person you are drawing because there are exceptions to every rule. Draw the tear duct lower than the outer edge of the eye. Just think about the bottom eyelid curving up and back to meet the top lid.
2 DRAW THE IRIS
Draw the iris, pupil and glint. Remember that the iris is usually one third the width of the eye. You can draw the iris larger for style, as I did here. You can draw the glints pretty much anywhere, but I like to put them on the top of the eye near the drop shadow, so let’s draw it there.
DON’T BE AFRAID TO ADD STYLE
The eyes of comic characters can be very stylized. You can’t really get it wrong. Use the realistic eye to study from, but add lots of neat style choices when creating your own. Wild eyelashes, crazy eyebrows and oversized glints with shading are lots of fun to experiment with.
3 DRAW THE EYELID
Draw the top eyelid. You can use the eye you drew as your guide, but be careful not to draw the same exact curve. Doing so makes the eye look flat and boring. When drawing this part of the eye, think about the effect the brow and skin above might have on the eyelid. You can also show more or less of this to help with drawing expressions. We will cover that topic later.
4 DRAW THE LASHES
Add more weight to the top eyelid. By giving the top eyelid a drop shadow you create a sense of depth. Draw in the bottom ridge of the lower lid. This also helps to convey depth to the eye. Now draw the shapes for the lashes on the female eye. You can omit this detail on the male eyes, as their eyelashes are generally not as pronounced. It’s a style choice. Overall, male eyes are more condensed than the female.
5 RENDER THE EYE
Draw the eyebrow. The male eyebrow is thicker and usually closer to the eye. The female eyebrow is generally thinner and more elegant. At this point, draw in the stylized eyelashes on the female eye. Then draw the shading and you’re ready to go!
Drawing Eyes on an Angle
In this lesson you will learn how to draw the female eyes on an angle. This can be tricky because the shape of the eyes is different in a perspective like this. Taking note of these subtle differences is important to drawing this example properly, as is setting up the proportions to aid in that process.
SAVE THE EXTREME EXPRESSIONS FOR BIG MOMENTS
When drawing the eyes, keep in mind that if you show too much white either below or above the iris your character will look excited or scared. Save those expressions for big impact moments in your comic drawings.
1 DRAW THE GUIDELINES
Draw a rectangular box with a slight bend, and make a division at the center from left to right. Then create two more lines where the eyes will be placed. These boxes can be almost equal widths, but to add a foreshortened perspective for the angle of the head make the two on the right side a bit smaller. This is a judgment call based upon the style and look you are going for. Just remember that the eyes from a straight-on perspective are generally equally spaced apart by the distance of one eye.
2 SKETCH THE SHAPE OF THE EYES
Draw your eye shapes. With the template in place it becomes much easier to align the features of the eyes. Just study the shapes back and forth when drawing the eyes. Remember that the curve on the top is not the same as the curve on the bottom of the eye. Also the tear duct is generally lower than the back part of the eye. You’ll also want to draw in the ridge of the lower lid since we are looking downward at these eyes.
3 ADD EYEBROWS AND LASHES
Draw the shapes of the eyelashes. To simplify the process, start by drawing them in as single solid shapes for the top set and bottom set. We can add more details later. Now draw the shape of the iris. It doesn’t need to be a perfect circle; from this angle it would be somewhat oval anyway. Remember to make it about one third of the width of the eye. This is also a style choice when drawing comics. Now draw in the eyebrows, making them curve with the shape of the brow. If it would help, you can also draw a line for the nose to better visualize the position of the eyes.
4 BUILD UP THE EYE’S FEATURES
Dra
w the pupils along with the glints of the eyes. Be careful not to draw the pupils too close to the top eyelid or the character will look sleepy or possibly angry. Also take this time to add more line weight and define the shapes a bit more.
5 ADD FINAL DETAILS
Darken the shapes and add a few tips on the eyelashes. You can really have fun with this part to give your comic book eyes your own flare. Do the same with the eyebrows. Then add in some render lines or crosshatching to provide depth. Remember to draw a drop shadow onto the iris from the top eyelid and brow area.
Learn to Draw Action Heroes Page 1