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

3 FILL THE SHADOWS

Now fill in your shadow shapes. Don’t hesitate to change something just
because you have already outlined the shape. I often add to the shapes
here and there as I fill them in.



4 ADD FINAL DETAILS

Add final line weight and crosshatching to finish off the drawing.

1 DECIDE ON THE LIGHT SOURCE

Draw another arm and this time add a second light source. I drew one
light source smaller than the other to show that one should be more
prominent and from a slightly different angle in almost all cases.

2 DRAW THE SHADOW SHAPES

Draw the shadows. This time use your imagination to envision the light
on both sides of the arm. If you can’t seem to get it right, study from life.
You don’t have to find an exact match to learn how shadows work. You
can adjust the work accordingly and add your own style. Photos can help
you in a pinch.

3 FILL THE SHADOWS

Fill in your shadow shapes and adjust any edges that need it. Remember
to try this exercise with all sorts of shapes and objects. Only then will you
start to feel comfortable with this technique. One day you will forget that
you ever struggled with shadows, and what a fine day that will be!

4 ADD FINAL DETAILS

Add your final lines to finish rounding out your shapes. You can even
choose to use one type of line on one side and another type of line on the
other side. This will further indicate the difference in the light sources.
Then when your drawings go to the colorist, the effect can be enhanced!

Drawing Clothing and Armor:
Capes

In this lesson you will draw the superhero cape. It’s an essential suit
design for your fantastic flying friendly superhero!

1 DRAW THE BASIC GUIDELINES

Draw a basic perimeter shape in which the cape details will reside. This
is just a basic perimeter shape so don’t hesitate to draw through it or go
outside of the lines. Make sure to draw the bottom wider than the top to

give it the feeling of the material flowing outward.

2 SKETCH DIRECTION LINES

Begin to draw lines for the folds. Think of the directional lines coming

from the area where the material pinches at the shoulders. They will
widen outward as the material is more free to flow around the base of the
cape.

3 ADD FOLD LINES

Begin to add the folds in the material. A good way to practice this is to

Begin to add the folds in the material. A good way to practice this is to
hang a shirt over the back of a chair and study the different folds it
creates. For thicker materials you will have less compressed folds, but
they still react in a similar way. Add a series of curves on the bottom
edge to give more depth to the flowing area of the cape.

4 REFINE THE DESIGN

Now draw in the folds with more clarity and line weight. Add small hints of
shadow where the material overlaps itself.



5 ADD FINAL DETAILS

Finish it off with some added line work and crosshatching. And there you
have it: the ever popular superhero cape!

Drawing Clothing and Armor:
Gauntlet

In this lesson you will draw and fully render an armor gauntlet. It will
allow you to study the chrome-like effect that is so popular with
comic book hero suit designs.

1 DRAW THE BASIC GUIDELINES

Draw out the basic shapes of a fist and the wrist area with a cylinder for
the arm and small circles for each knuckle. Since it will be armor plated,
make sure the primitive shape of the forearm is wider than a human
forearm would be.

2 SKETCH THE DESIGN

Roughly sketch the design of the armor. Keep the lines loose and sketch
in tiny details. Don’t be afraid to experiment with your design at this stage

in tiny details. Don’t be afraid to experiment with your design at this stage
of the drawing. If you are unsure about the look that you want, draw
lightly to give your imagination time to kick in. When all else fails, seek
out references from the knights of old. You’ll find lots of great designs to
learn from there.

3 CLEAN UP THE DESIGN

Gently erase your previous sketch and redraw the lines with more clarity.
When drawing a segmented object such as this, remember to make
certain areas appear in front of the next by drawing it larger and with an
overlap to the previous segment. Notice this is evident in the wristguard

and the larger segments on the bottom of the forearm area. As the
shadows are applied in the next steps we can further illustrate these
areas being raised over the other parts of the gauntlet.

4 ADD SHADOW SHAPES

Continue to clean up your lines and begin to add the shapes for the
shadows. Try to envision how the segments will look with a light source
coming from the top left of the gauntlet. Drop shadows are a great way to
help illustrate the highs and lows of your design. Also consider how the

shadow will react against a reflective surface.

5 ADD FINAL DETAILS

When shading a reflective surface, try to think of the shadows as swirling
around the object. Remember that this is simply the environment
reflecting off the object in a distorted way because the object is not flat.
So your shadows need to look as if they are moving across the surface.
You’ll also want to add crosshatching to further round out the object and
give it additional shading.

give it additional shading.

Drawing Clothing and Armor:
Helmet

In this lesson you will learn how to draw a superhero helmet for our
do good-er. Helmets can serve a few purposes for our characters.
They can conceal their secret identity, and they can add a much
needed bit of style and flare to the costume. So let’s get to it!

1 DRAW THE BASIC GUIDELINES

You need a head to put a helmet on so draw a character of your choice. I
like to keep them pretty basic in the beginning to not distract too much
from the helmet design. Place some features so you know where to add
in the details of the helmet concept.

2 SKETCH THE DESIGN

Draw the basic shapes of your helmet design. Try to start with a very
simple design since you can always add to it later. You want to show the
area the hero can see through, so draw a visor that covers his eyes.
Adding segments to the helmet can be a nice touch. It also allows you to
shade the various areas differently for some added effects.

3 ADD SHADOW SHAPES

Now draw in the larger shapes of shadows. You want parts of the helmet
to look specular so you can draw in some rounded glares to help
illustrate that. For areas like the visor that need to be darker you can
draw larger shapes of shadows with smaller highlights.

4 ADD FINAL DETAILS

Draw smaller line work to finish out the detail effect. You can use small

Draw smaller line work to finish out the detail effect. You can use small
wavy lines to show the reflective look to the helmet’s material. Then add
your cross-hatching to the lower parts of the metal areas to round the
forms and show the effect of bounced light. Notice how I even added a
small amount of shading behind our hero to help him stand off the page.
Just remember that by using different thicknesses of lines you can vary
the intensity of the shading and make the illustration appear more
interesting.

Drawing Clothing: Suit Design

This lesson covers the design process of a new character’s suit.
This can be tons of fun, and there is no right or wrong way to do it.
The only rule is to experiment with new ideas!



1 DRAW THE BASIC GUIDELINES

We need a character’s frame to begin with, so draw something heroic like
this guy to get started. Just keep the details to a minimum since you will
be drawing all that fancy gear on top of the pose.



2 MARK GUIDES FOR THE SUIT DESIGN

Begin adding outlines for the design of the suit. Indicate where the leg
cuffs, wrist armor, belt and chest shield will go. You can also begin
adding facial features. Don’t get too detailed at this point.



3 CLEAN UP THE DESIGN

Now draw some gear. Things like belts and pouches add dimension to
the hero. You can use simple shapes like a partial oval for the chest belt
and cubes for the pouches. Then add some details on top. You can also
add details to the mask area as well by changing the shape and defining
the mouth.



4 ADD SHADOW SHAPES

Draw the shadows to add depth and weight to the character. By
strategically placing more shadows on parts of the suit design, you can
convey the contrasting materials. It is now more clear that part of the suit
is a much darker and even slightly specular material. Add shadows on
the lighter part of the suit to help shape the anatomy.



5 ADD FINAL DETAILS

Finalize the drawing by darkening the pencil lines and adding
crosshatching. And now you have a superhero all suited up and ready to
fight some crime!

CHAPTER 4

LAYING OUT A SCENE

In this chapter you will learn how to put all of what you have learned
so far into a scene. How to make the characters occupy space and
react with it is a big part of drawing superheroes. We will cover
various perspectives and compositions when creating your scenes,
as well as how and where to add your details to those scenes. And
finally you will learn how to apply power effects to those amazing
characters.

Laying Out a Scene: The Rough
Sketch

Here we will talk about laying out the scene with the rough sketch.
This type of quick drawing is very important to creating your ideas
fast and expressively. I like to use rough sketches to work through
lots of ideas and warm up my imagination. Time your sketches and
see how much information you can fit into the sketch within a
couple of minutes. The trick here is to express ideas and not worry
about refinement yet. The refinement process can sometimes hurt
your creativity and slow you down so save that for after you have
worked through your concept. Put as much information as you can
think of into your rough sketch.

Try a Different Perspective

Try a Different Perspective

Before you start any new project you will need to get your ideas in order.
There is no better way to do this than by drawing a rough sketch or
thumbnail of your concept. Here you can add in and edit your work very
quickly. Try various camera angles and perspectives.

Try Out Details

Rough sketches allow you to think more dynamically about your
characters and scene. You can add lots of small details in the rough
sketch and see how they work together before putting in the time and
work on a refined piece.



Block in Shapes

Even at this thumbnail stage you can block in the shapes of shadows to
see how the composition is working. Don’t worry about your perspective
or details looking just right at this stage. Just put the information in there
and you can refine it later in the drawing process.



Keep It Loose

By keeping the drawing loose and unrefined, you become more
expressive and less inhibited with your concepts.

Plan a Scene

Everything is drawn better when an initial rough sketch is done. Even an
action scene like this one can be better visualized with a quick rough
sketch. This becomes the blueprint for the real drawing!

Laying Out a Scene: Blocking in
Shapes

This lesson covers blocking in shapes, a great way to get a feel for
the overall scene before spending too much time on something you
might not like in the end. Blocking in shapes allows you to see the
composition very quickly.

1 DRAW THE GUIDELINES

Draw a typical superhero stance, strong with clenched fists. Use basic

Draw a typical superhero stance, strong with clenched fists. Use basic
primitive shapes to place the pose and the limbs. Block in a few buildings
in a one-point perspective. Think of this scene in three parts. The
character and the ledge is part one (the foreground). The buildings in red
are part two (the midground) and the distant buildings in blue are part
three (the background).

2 START TO DEFINE THE CHARACTER DETAILS

Sketch in more anatomy and suit markings for the hero. Take your time

and don’t move past this stage until you are satisfied with your work. You
want to work out as many imperfections as you can in this beginning
stage to save yourself time and heartache later on.

3 ADD BUILDING DETAILS

Draw the details of the buildings. Keep the lines loose, and draw through
the artwork. This helps prevent proportion mistakes by stopping at the