Learn to Draw Action Heroes_ An Easy Step by Step Guide to Drawing Comic Book Characters ( PDFDrive )

LEARN TO DRAW
ACTION HEROES

An Easy Step-by-Step Guide to Drawing Comic
Book Characters

ROBERT MARZULLO

impact-books.com

Thank you for purchasing this
Artist Network eBook.

Sign up for our newsletter and receive special offers, access to free content, and
information on the latest new releases and must-have art resources! Plus, receive

a coupon code to use on your first purchase from NorthLightShop.com for
signing up.

or visit us online to sign up at
http://artistsnetwork.com/ebook-promo

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Draw 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.

Drawing the Nose: Male vs.
Female

Let’s talk about the most noticeable differences between the male
nose and the female nose. By comparing these forms we can help
to commit some of the process to memory. The male nose is much
more angular and larger where the female nose is smaller and has
softer curves.

The Curve of the Nose

Notice with these basic profiles that the drawing of the male nose is more
angular and the female nose has more curves. The overall shapes in the
female nose are smaller and less defined. This may vary based upon the
character.

Shading the Nose

Fewer lines are used to define the shading of the female nose, as seen in
the nose on the right. This is another way to show the differences when
drawing the male to female features. Lighter and thinner lines compliment
the smaller nose’s more subtle features.

Experiment and Practice!

Noses comes in so many different shapes and sizes that the best
way to get better at them is to experiment. Try drawing noses with
various distortions from what you are used to. Larger nostrils, more
curvature to the bridge of the nose, or a larger tip to the nose are
just a few things you can try to create a variety of noses for your
characters.

Shaping the Nose from the Front

Let’s look at the same principles from the front. The male nose is still
larger than the female nose and also more angular. Even when drawing
the plane change from the lower ball of the nose to where the nostrils
are, you can still define that area with angular lines for the male and
curved lines for the female.

curved lines for the female.

Shading with Fewer Lines

Again when shading these forms, you’ll generally use fewer lines on the
female nose. A good way to practice this is to draw the nose with as few
lines as possible. Sometimes less is more. The more lines you add, the
more the nose will appear older and weathered. For pretty noses, keep
the details to a minimum.

Practice Various Shapes

Here are some more nose shapes to practice with. Play around with
proportions in the different areas. Study from life but then make your own
stylized version and pretty soon you will be drawing them without any
reference at all!

Drawing Noses: Downward Angle

Let’s learn to draw the nose in a downward angle, starting with the
larger primitive shapes and then working in the details. Many parts
of the body can be drawn using this simplified process.

1 BLOCK IN THE BASIC SHAPES

Draw the basic triangular shapes. You can draw the bridge of the nose
with half of a thin pyramid shape with an angle cut off at the lower end for
the edge of the nose. Then for the nostril, repeat this shape (in a much
smaller version) and flipped in the other direction. These shapes are
simple building blocks to work with and can vary.

simple building blocks to work with and can vary.

2 START ROUNDING THE FORMS

Add two ovals to the existing building blocks: one for the end of the nose
and one for the nostril. These should help you to start thinking of the
forms in a more organic perspective.

3 CURVE AND SHAPE THE NOSE

Draw some more curved lines to define the shape of the nose.
Remember that if you have a hard time figuring out where the curves
should go, drawing guidelines can help. First draw a line down the middle
of the nose, making sure to curve it around the existing forms. Then draw
the cross sections up and around the nose. This technique will help you
think in three-dimensional terms about your drawings.

4 DEFINE THE NOSE

Gently erase your construction lines and start to really envision what your
nose will look like. Use concise lines and draw out your shapes. You can
add some line weight now to help define areas that are more
pronounced. Add thicker lines by the ball of the nose and the area where
the nostril meets the cheek. This can give the nose more depth and make
those areas stand out a bit more.