Whole Character Tutorial (some pictures up)

[Sharingan]

OK, so i realize that i'm not the best artist in the world, nor the worst. I've been drawing for about 2 years off and on now and I've picked up a few things along the way and wanted to share. This tutorials is about the whole process of creating a character from scratch to a final figure.

First, u need to decide something before all else (or at least the top five things to decide) before u start drawing. Male or Female. Ok so i decide my character will be a male. Next step is age. We'll say 22ish years old here. After that, decide special traits, physical features, character and personality, and nything else u can think of. I'm going to walk you through a character created for the "ninja academy" fight so some of his traits are copied from the Naruto series by Kishimoto. When coming up with character traits, think about what will make your story or fight or whatever interesting and entertaining. In otherwords, if you have a strong and silent character already, don't make another one of the same type unless you have a good reason. Roughly outline the outfit or hairstyle (personality defining things) in your head and also various weapons or props, jewelry, etc. After your character's personality is developed, think of a story to match the personality or the reason for the personality (if applicable). After you have a rough idea of what your character will look like, then start drawing. Now of course none of this is set in stone and a 20 yr old woman can turn into a 40 year old man (hehe thats happened to me b4 lol) in the middle of your drawing but try to stick with it.

OK so i decided on a younger male character with an introverted personality. He is brooding, has a lot of ninja techniques at his disposal and has the Sharingan. Has two ninja-to strapped to the back of his waist and a high collared shirt with long pants and maybe bandages on one arm for a special technique.

Ok now for the actual drawing. Think of a pose that shows enough of your character to draw him/her accurately from most angles and that also reflects his personality. Don't draw a loud, brash, outgoing character hunched over and looking at his/her feet. I decided on a pose that is fairly straight to show confidence, yet with the head bent slightly down to show that he is not too open with just anyone.

Start with the spine. This will define the whole pose, proportions, etc.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/animecrzi/spine.jpg
Draw the hips.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/animecrzi/shoulderships.jpg
Add shoulders. For this character, I'm going to go with roughly 8 head proportions so i take the spine and divide it by two to get the head length.

Draw the rough shape of the head (just an egg with a cross to indicate direction).
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/animecrzi/shouldershipshead.jpg
Draw all four limbs and roughly define feet and hands.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/animecrzi/stickfigure.jpg
Draw a circle (sphere actually) at the waist. This is where all rotation of the hips and torso happens. Then, Draw the pelvic box (i draw mine simplified).
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/animecrzi/waistpelvis.jpg
The torso is a bit harder to draw. This takes a bit of experience. The torso is basically a wider rectangular prism stacked on top of a thinner rectangular prism with the edges smooth. Study some anatomy books or photos to be able to accurately draw the torso.

Draw cylinders in for all the limbs and start to add more detail to the extremities.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/animecrzi/blockfigure.jpg
Connect the lines and smooth and clean up some extraneous lines.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/animecrzi/smoothblockfigure.jpg
Some anatomy for your viewing pleasure.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/animecrzi/muscles.jpg
Add facial details and hair and start adding some clothes.

Facial Features:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/animecrzi/facialfeatures.jpg
Clothes and hair (at this point, note that the head guidlines are just that, guidelines. so don't follow them like they're set in stone.):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/animecrzi/hairclothing.jpg
More details and erasing:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/animecrzi/hairclothing2.jpg

Finish clothing and all details of the figure and add any accessories/weapons and shade if you want to.

And then you're done.
Hope this helped.

Note: pictures will be up soon.

[Eulark]

we are still waiting...

[03leighfield]

i am also w8ing for some pics....

[Talon]

Awesome tutorial. Post some drawings with it. But ya, This was a great help, no joke. Now you dont mind if I draw a ninja right? lol

[Mad Bassist]

Woah, that was confusing on more than one level.... I guess pix would help out a lot here. thnx!

[unstable monki]

post the d*mn pics.......plz

[Krieock]

I don't know many people that actually do the '7 heads' thing (you did 8, but i've seen 6,7<-most popular,8, and 9 ones, that's why they don't work) Even when they were starting out... Maybe i'll make my own tutorial. :P
nice figure.

[Naota]

I'd like to get a clothing tutorial with it, I suck at putting clothing on characters.

[shadowstarre]

I'd like to get a clothing tutorial with it, I suck at putting clothing on characters.

Ditto.

[Sharingan]

uh..some pics added...finally

[Sharingan]

o and im probably gonna ink and color this, so i dunno if i'll go ny further with the sketches...unless u want me to...

[unstable monki]

not bad....

[Naota]

Yay pics, good job.

[Papercut285]

Wow thats a really nice tutorial... You use the head head measurement thing... Cool. I just usually draw the talest character in a series... remember how tall he is and then just measure the remaining charaters with him x_x I know thats like the dumbest thing to do right. :D :laugh: :D Sooo primitive and yet so simple.

[3amoora]

I honestly LOVE this tutorial, I mean the way you draw is phenominal. I drew this guy using this tutorial and I mean it was just one of the best pictures I have ever drawn. Thanks Alot man.
Plus the measurment is also great I always used to use 7 heads not 8 heads and 8 is better actually!!

THANKS

[slice]

Thanks, I needed some help on the male torso...girls are a lot easier to draw in my opinion.

I need a tutorial for drawing hair on guys. :/ I love the way you did the hair.

[gmpilot]

I like my tutorial the best. It's called the "draw squiggly lines 'til it resembles something you later figure out, and like, then finish from there" technique.

[Sharingan]

Thx guys. I just bought a couple books by hogarth (great man.), dynamic figure drawing and dynamic folds, and will finish this tutorial after i study my folds a bit and maybe make a head (and hair) tutorial and maybe a girl tutorial. If you prefer one over the other first just post here and i'll make one when i get the time..

[bathala_rubbz]

Thx guys. I just bought a couple books by hogarth (great man.), dynamic figure drawing and dynamic folds, and will finish this tutorial after i study my folds a bit and maybe make a head (and hair) tutorial and maybe a girl tutorial. If you prefer one over the other first just post here and i'll make one when i get the time..

*waiting impatientli*

[Christian]

I think personally there shudnt be a tutorial for sketching at all!!!
Sketching is the beholders choice of freedom, on the otherhand if you want to reach a finished stage having to use applications(brushes, colour pencils, painter, Adobe etc), you should only give tutorials on the equipment you have to use to get somewhere.

Otherwise if you want to lern how to draw people properly, use your best ever reference known to mankind!!! - real-life - forget the 7 head method blahblah, all you are doing is going by someone elses method, that he has made up by drawing off real-life things.

my honest and proffessional advice is go and draw of real-life - THEN model it to a cartoony style and BY THEN you will already have established your own method, which truely will not different from all the others that made it up.

but the easiest root is the most boring one some ppl say, your wrong!!

[mofo09]

when you first start out its better to know HOW to draw people than to just go out and suck ass.... theres somethings like the skeleton that can be used with everyone to make the job easier

[Christian]

mofo09 be clear to what you are trying to say... to me your not making a point, except that grass is green.

[gmpilot]

lol, yeah, I have no idea what the hell is up with this thread.

[bathala_rubbz]

awww...i'm confused alweady.. @___@