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How to Draw Comic People

Member
By alcookie12
User-Submitted Article
(9 Ratings)

Drawing comics and characters can be as simple, or complicated as you choose. This article will teach you how to draw comic people at a level somewhere between stick figure and graphic novel.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging
Instructions

Things You'll Need:

  • Paper
  • Pencil
  • Eraser
  • Pencil Sharpener
  • Black fine point marker
  • Optional Markers, colored pencils, or any coloring tool you choose.
  1. Step 1

    Gather your drawing supplies. You will be drawing with your pencil first. When you have drawn a character and/or comic people you are happy with you will trace over your pencil sketch with a marker and then erase your pencil lines.

  2. Step 2
    Comic People Chins
     
    Comic People Chins

    Decide the shape of the chin you'd like your comic people to have. I've drawn a half circle, upside down triangle and a half circle with another smaller half circle to start my comic people.

  3. Step 3
    Adding Ears, Nose and Necks To Your Comic People
     
    Adding Ears, Nose and Necks To Your Comic People

    Now you are going to add your cartoon character's ears, nose and neck.

    For the ears just draw a small half circle. To make the inside of the ear draw an arc close to the upper edge of the ear and then a dash in the middle. Now you've drawn ears on your comic people.

    Human noses come in all shapes and so should your characters. I've included 3 examples here.

    The first nose is the underside of a half circle then attach two half circles to the side of it.

    I decided that the triangle face would be angry so I gave her a long pointy nose. Just draw a right triangle without a bottom.

    The third character is going to be a little girl so I gave her a spunky little nose which is the upper half of a circle.

    The necks are simply two lines drawn from the bottom of the chin down. Draw them farther apart for a fatter neck, closer for a skinnier neck.

  4. Step 4
    Adding Mouths To Your Character
     
    Adding Mouths To Your Character

    Next ad your comics mouths. I drew three very different styles as examples.

    The first is simply a tiny dash. He's a very quiet character.

    Next is my angry but stylish woman. Her lips are made by drawing a heart and then adding a dash.

    The little girl has a very big smile which was made with a large arc with two small arcs on either side then a half circle attached to the bottom.

  5. Step 5
    Adding Eyes To Your Comic People
     
    Adding Eyes To Your Comic People

    Next add eyes to your comic people. They can be as simple as dots or small circles filled in. Or make big googly eyes by drawing big circles with slightly smaller circles in the center colored in. Placing those colored circles in different positions will change the emotions of your comic people.

  6. Step 6
    Adding Hair To Your Comic People
     
    Adding Hair To Your Comic People

    Now add hair to your cartoon character. Draw a half circle attached to your character's jaw line for the top of the head. Decide what hair style to give your character; long, short, bald, spiked etc. Use the top of the head as a guide. Begin with bangs or a part and add on to create your hairstyle.

  7. Step 7
    Adding The Upper Body
     
    Adding The Upper Body

    Drawing your comic character's body can be a little more difficult. Attach a circle, rectangle or triangle to the neck. Draw sticks for arms in any position you'd like. Ad small circles to the end of the arms for hands and draw lines on the circle for fingers. Ad "bulk" to the hands by drawing around them. To make a closed fist rather than elongating the fingers just draw bumps or knuckles where you've positioned the fingers.

    Draw clothes on your character. Use the line you've draw for the arms as a guide.

  8. Step 8
    Adding the The Bottom Half
     
    Adding the The Bottom Half

    Add the lower portion of your comic people. Draw sticks in the position you want your characters legs to be in. For pants just draw a rectangle around the sticks and shape as you see fit. A skirt can be made of a rectangle or triangle.

    Ad an oval to the end of the leg stick for the foot. Draw around the oval to create your shoes.

  9. Step 9
    Finished Comic People
     
    Finished Comic People

    Once you are happy with your characters trace over your pencil sketch with a fine point black marker. Erase the pencil lines. Color in your comic people any way you'd like.

Comments  

| View All 6 Comments

ljbinkop said

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on 4/30/2009 The illustrations in this article are very helpful! I think I could draw a comic person now!

victoria37 said

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on 3/27/2009 i love the pictures with your steps. i knew some people who were crazygood at comic book characters and i was always jealous of them

writeitout said

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on 3/11/2009 Your instructions are well written. 5*

boatst said

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on 3/10/2009 I love this I doodle cartoon characters all the time. They turn out a little weird. Thanks for sharing.rrc ad

waters said

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on 3/10/2009 Good article 5*

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