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

Drawing Hairstyles: Curly Hair

In this lesson you will be tackling the topic of curly hair. You will be
drawing some basic shapes to help put the curls into place, so let’s
get moving shall we?

1 DRAW THE GUIDELINE

First, draw a cup. Well, no it’s not a cup but it does resemble one. This
cone-like shape will help keep our curls in place.

2 SKETCH THE OUTLINE

Draw a ribbon flowing downward into the cup. Use the sides of the cup
like barriers to confine the curls.

3 ADD TEXTURE AND SHADOWS

Gently erase your guidelines and start to add in the texture of the hair.
Use drop shadows to help define the forms and give them depth.

4 ADD FINAL DETAILS

Refine the texture of the hair even further with line variations. Try to

Refine the texture of the hair even further with line variations. Try to
picture high and low areas in the hair. Then draw loose strands of hair
coming off the edges to add to the realism.

1 SKETCH THE OUTLINE

Let’s draw some curls that are elongated. Start by drawing the basic
overlapping shapes. Try to envision them flowing in and out of the larger
form. Taper toward the ends and put a bit of curve on the tips.

2 ADD LINE WEIGHT

Start adding in shadows and line weight. Think about how certain parts of
the hair would cast shadows on other parts. Round some of the edges of
the shadows so they appear to have body. Use line weight to give the
hair more depth.

3 ADD FINAL DETAILS

The groundwork is in place and now the rendering is much easier to do.
Think about where the highlights might be and how they would react to
surface of the hair. Use white edge lighting to keep some separation in
the forms. Make sure to include smaller loose strands of hair to finish off
the work.

1 SKETCH THE HAIRLINE

Start with the shape of the character’s head. Draw out the basic hairline.

2 DRAW THE SHADOW SHAPE

When drawing tighter curls you can first draw the overall shape of the
hair. Then draw in the shapes of shadows to round out the form. This
provides a guide for adding in the curls.

3 ADD FINAL DETAILS

Draw tiny curls that start tighter together and begin to separate to show
the highlight area. You can get this effect by using any type of stipple
shading. The further the character is away from the camera, the tinier the
effect will be.

Drawing Heads: Forward View

In this lesson you will draw the male head in a forward facing view.
We will focus on the alignment of the features and the distance of
them from one another.

1 DRAW THE GUIDELINES

Draw a line the height of the character’s head. Then draw another line at
the halfway point. Divide the bottom section into halves and draw another
line there. Now take the remaining section at the bottom and draw two
more lines to divide it into equal thirds. Draw a circle for the top of the
head. Don’t worry about this being a perfect measurement. A larger circle
will create a wider face and a smaller circle will give us a more elongated
face.

2 DRAW THE EARS

Use the top two marks as the guidelines for the ears. You can draw
horizontal lines to help you mark the location for the ears. Draw the ears
as simple disk shapes for now. They can angle slightly inward at the
bottom to help you visualize your character a bit better. Connect the edge

bottom to help you visualize your character a bit better. Connect the edge
of the circle to the ears with a small line on each side.

3 ADD THE REST OF THE GUIDELINES

Draw a horizontal line from the third line up from the bottom. This is our
top lip line, but it will also give us a guide for where the curve of the
jawline will go. Draw the shape of the jaw by connecting the ears to that
new line and then drawing the angles that meet the chin area. Now draw
a cylinder for the neck area. Notice that everything is very angular at this
stage. It helps to figure out perspective this way. We will add more
organic lines over top of these.

4 PLACE THE FEATURES

Draw the eyes in below the top line that meets the top of the ears.
Remember that the eyes are equally spaced to the width of one eye. Use
the distance between the eyes to determine the width of the nose. Draw
the nose shape like a pyramid that ends at the bottom of the ears. Draw
an M shape for the top lip and a stretched-out U shape for the bottom lip.
Then divide the top of the head into thirds. The hairline belongs around
the top one-third area.



5 DEVELOP THE FEATURES

Gently erase your construction lines and start to add in more organic
lines. All the measurements are done, and now we can get to the fun
stuff! Draw the hair with wavy lines that go in and out of the larger forms.
Draw the iris one third of the width of the eye. Do not put the pupil too
close to the top eyelid unless you want the character to look sleepy.
Remember to draw a drop shadow onto the iris to give the eyes more
depth. Be sure to use lots of curves at this stage of your drawing.



6 ADD FINAL DETAILS

Now that the drawing is in place, add shading and refine your lines. This
is where style takes over and you can be more creative. Focus on trying
to render different surfaces in your comic drawings. The shirt should
render differently than the hair and skin, for example. And when in doubt,
give your character some chin fuzz.

Drawing Heads: Downward Angle

In this lesson you will learn how to draw the face pointed
downward. This can be a nice touch to a dramatic scene or a great
way to make a tough guy look more tough. When the head is
pointed downward with the eyes looking up it conveys a threatening
look much like an animal getting ready to attack!

1 DRAW ROUGH GUIDELINES

Draw a circle for the top of the head. Then draw a box tapering slightly at
the bottom. This will help to draw the face in a downward perspective. If
you need to push the downward effect, taper the corners in even more.

you need to push the downward effect, taper the corners in even more.

2 SKETCH A MEASURING GRID

Draw a line from corner to corner of the box. The intersection of lines will
give us our middle mark in proper perspective. Draw a vertical middle
line. Then draw a line across horizontally from this middle mark and give
it a curve upward on the ends. This will help us to place the eyes and
also start to envision our drawing as a three-dimensional shape.

3 SKETCH THE HEAD SHAPE

Gently erase the box and use the light lines as a guide to draw in your
head shape. Remember to taper the sides of the head and to create
angles for the jawline. Notice how much we removed from the original
circle shape to create the shape of the head.

4 PRACTICE WORKING WITH MEASURING GRIDS

Let’s go over this measuring device in more detail. Split the box in half
horizontally then split the lower half again. Draw lines from corner to
corner. We now have more lines to work with on the bottom half to help
with placement of the nose and mouth. They are again in perfect
perspective. This is a useful tool for drawing characters and architecture
as well.

5 ADD THE NOSE

Gently erase again and define the character features. We can use the
new line from the segmented grid to place the nose. Draw the nose as a
triangular shape. Also use the middle line to place the brows. Remember
that from this angle all these lines will take a downward curve more
dramatically than before. Start to shape the face by adding in the
cheekbones. Keep the narrowing of the face in mind from this angle.

6 DRAW THE EYES AND MOUTH

Draw the mouth. We know that it goes beneath the nose and above the
chin, but placement can be tricky. I would err on the side of closer to the
nose from this angle. Remember that the top lip will be less visible, and
the bottom lip will be more visible. Now draw in the ears. To help push
the perspective, make sure to raise them above the eyes. Draw the eye
shapes as well.

7 DEVELOP THE FEATURES

Gently erase all the guidelines and start to create the look of your
character. Flesh out the forms and make the lines more organic looking
with curves. The drawing can still be rough, even at this stage. You want
to hold off on tightening up your details until you have all your ideas
worked out in your head. Then you can render away with crosshatching
and final line work.

8 REFINE THE FINAL LOOK

Gently erase any leftover sketch lines and bring your character to life.
Now you can draw in your lines with more conviction and tighten up all
your edges. Don’t be afraid to add lots of little lines for texture and grit if
it’s right for your character. That is the fun stuff that your fans like to see.

it’s right for your character. That is the fun stuff that your fans like to see.

Drawing Heads: Upward Angle

This lesson demonstrates a more advanced drawing of the head. It’s
a tricky topic for a lot of artists so we will be using some techniques
from the Andrew Loomis Method, which is popular among a lot of
comic book professionals.

1 START WITH A BASIC CIRCLE GUIDE

Draw a circle and then draw an oval shape within that circle. You will
need to practice what size this oval will be based upon the character you
are trying to draw. Facial features are different for all sorts of character

types, but this gives you a basic starting point. For this exercise, draw the
circle about 6/8 the size of the original one. Create a cross section in the
smaller oval, then continue the middle line across the larger circle to
represent the position of the brow.

2 DIVIDE THE CIRCLE

Square off the edge of the small oval and bring a line across from the
bottom. This will represent the nose area and also help to divide the face
into thirds. Using the section you just drew, mark a bottom third and also
a top third. Keep in mind the top third will be shorter from this perspective
than the bottom third. Draw a small curve for the start of the jawline at the
bottom of the smaller circle.

3 SKETCH THE NOSE AND EAR PLACEMENT

Draw a pyramid shape to help form the nose. From this angle we would
see the bottom of the nose so draw just a primitive shape for now. Also
draw in the bottom of the jawline. I like to shade this in to get a better
idea of how this shape looks. It can be a confusing area since we are not
used to this perspective, so study it often. Now draw a small oval in the
bottom left quarter of the first small circle we drew. Finally draw a line
from that cross section on the left to the chin. This helps to further shape
the face.

4 DRAW ROUGH FACIAL FEATURES

Gently erase the construction lines and start to draw in the more organic
lines of the face. Here we can start to really define what our character
looks like. Draw in the mouth with the M shape we talked about before,
shortening the side furthest away from us to illustrate the depth. Draw in
the eyes. From this angle, the further eye will be slightly covered by the
bridge of the nose. Detail the lower part of the nose and remember that
one nostril will be covered by the septum of the nose. You can also draw
in a cylinder shape for the neck area. Give the neck a bend so it doesn’t
look like an actual cylinder.

look like an actual cylinder.

5 SKETCH THE HAIR SHAPE AND FACIAL FEATURES

Now draw in the shape and style of the hair. Start with basic clumps and
patterns for the hair and add the details later. Draw the eyes. Remember
that the iris makes up a third of the eyes from a front view. So you have
to perceive what that will look like from this angle. The circles of the iris
would take an oval shape and the pupils would as well.

6 REFINE THE FEATURES

Gently erase your lines again, and draw the character one more time with
heavier line weight. Repeat this step as many times as you need to feel
comfortable with your lines. Don’t waste time rendering a bunch of lines
over a design that you are still unhappy with. Clean up the lines; doing so
will make your rendering look more confident.

7 ADD FINAL DETAILS

Define your final line work and shading. You don’t have to add extreme
shadows to every piece to get the work to stand out. Add small shadows
along the edges and vary your detail lines to create depth. Add both light

along the edges and vary your detail lines to create depth. Add both light
and heavy lines to the hair to create the effect you’re looking for. And
there you have it: a character doing some intense bird watching!

Drawing Expressions: Anger

This lesson covers how to draw the expression of anger. This is a
very important expression to get right, since most of your
characters will more than likely be mad during your epic fight
scenes!

1 DRAW THE GUIDELINES

Draw a circle for the top part of the head. Then draw a line to represent
the height of the head. Then draw a line halfway down where the eyes
will go.

2 ADD THE JAW AND EARS

Draw the jawline as a basic rounded wedge shape. We are going to
change the proportions a bit from the other exercises and give this
character a more animated look. So make the ears rather large this time.

3 SKETCH THE FEATURES

Use the horizontal line to place the eyes. Instead of placing the nose
halfway between the eyes and chin, this time draw it closer to the eyes.
Doing so scrunches up the face a bit. Now draw a larger mouth shape
with the character grinding his teeth. Draw the eyebrows, curving down
the larger middle brow area. This is the most telling feature. Also draw in
some tiny pupils to further illustrate the intensity of the glare in his eyes.

4 ADD THE HAIR

Gently erase your sketch lines and clean up the line work. Draw the lines
near the cheeks so that we can more clearly see the grimace he is
making. Draw the lines for the teeth and gums. When people get really
mad they tend to show more teeth just like animals do, so be careful!
Now draw in the shape of the hair. You can try to make the hair look
angry with sharp lines but if that doesn’t work, just make it look messy.

5 REFINE THE FEATURES

Draw the details of the face more clearly using thicker lines to make more
of an impact. Make the lines in the middle of the brow really pointed and
add more lines around the bridge of the nose. Look in the mirror when
you make an angry face, and you will notice the skin bunches up in those
areas.

6 ADD FINAL DETAILS

Now you can add hunched shoulders and a clenched fist and finish the

illustration with color. With some refinement you can draw lots of angry
people. He looks ticked! Someone stole his lunch money and now he is
out to give them a knuckle sandwich.

Drawing Expressions: Scared

In this lesson you will learn to draw a different expression: scared.
There are lots of degrees to the intensity of this expression, but for
now you will do a basic fearful look.

1 DRAW A BASIC HEAD SHAPE

Create a basic head shape like this one so that we can focus on the
features and expression in the following steps.

2 MARK THE MEASUREMENTS

Draw out the line measurements the same way you did in the previous
exercises. Just remember that the eyes line up to the top of the ears, the
nose sits around the bottom of the ears, and the eyes are spaced equal
to one eye’s width, which also gives you the approximate width of the
nose. The mouth is around the width of the middle of the eyes. The
mouth starts and ends at the middle of each eye. Generally the ends of
the mouth line up to the pupils. You can vary these proportions based on
style and character types.

3 SKETCH THE FEATURE SHAPES

Now start to draw those fearful features. In my opinion, the things you
must get right in this expression are the eyes. They should be very widely
opened, with the eyebrows tilted back and extended upward. This is the
human reaction to danger. We instinctively open our eyes as wide as
possible to take in all the surrounding information. Neat, huh? Notice that
I extended the jawline a bit further down. I left the previous mark in the

I extended the jawline a bit further down. I left the previous mark in the
form of a dotted line to show you the difference. When the mouth opens
further, the jawline drops so make room for the change of the mouth
shape. Draw the mouth slightly open. This will reinforce the look of
disbelief and confusion.

4 REFINE THE FEATURES

Draw the iris of the eyes. They are one third the width of the eye, but to
add to the fear factor, show the whole thing. You won’t see the white on
the top and bottom of the iris unless the character is exhibiting an
extreme emotion like fear or surprise. Also, make the pupil tiny to
reinforce this look.

5 DRAW THE HAIR

Draw the hair shape. It’s best to leave this detail for the end or it can
distract from getting the expression just right. This way the hair and final
sketch lines become much easier to focus on.