How to Draw the Iron Giant

The Iron Giant was originally a novel by Ted Hughes from 1968. In 1999, it was made into a movie directed by Brad Bird. It's about a lonely boy who befriends an Iron Giant that falls out of space and onto Earth.

Things You'll Need

• Pencil
• Eraser
• White paper

Instructions

Drawing the Iron Giant's Arm

1. 

   Draw a trapezoid with a horizontal base, a shorter side on the left, and the highest side on the right. Draw a reflection of that trapezoid originating from the horizontal base, with a slightly longer right side than on the original trapezoid.

2. 

   Draw a parallelogram coming out from the right side of the first trapezoid. Do the same for the bottom trapezoid. Draw a skinny parallelogram to the right of the two you just drew. Next, draw a large parallelogram coming out from the right side of the skinny parallelograms. It should be the largest shape you've drawn so far.

3. 

   Draw Iron Giant's fist. It should come out of the right side of the largest parallelogram and look like a cartoon, bubbly, capital "E". Draw a thin crescent coming out of the left of the E, with a small oval drawn in the center of the crescent.

4. 

   Draw the knuckles on Iron Giant's fist, which will segment each finger into three parts. Draw his thumb around the top and side of the highest finger. Draw a semicircle coming out from the left side of the first two trapezoids you drew. Draw a cylinder shape coming out of the semicircle, and segment it with horizontal lines. This is the top of Iron Giant's arm. Draw a large parallelogram, slanted towards the top right of the page, above the arm and slightly larger than the arm. This will be Iron Giant's body.

Draw the Iron Giant's Body

1. 

   Draw the shoulder armor above Iron Giant's arm. It is made up of a triangle at the top of the arm, with a semi-circle just below it and to the left of the top-most part of Iron Giant's arm. Also draw a series of crescent shapes along the right side of the triangle.

   Draw an oval in the center of the parallelogram that outlines Iron Giant's body.

2. 

   Draw the top of Iron Giant's body. It is shaped like a very wide capital "M", with the v at the top of the "M" pointing down to the center of Iron Giant's head.

3. 

   Draw the plate around Iron Giant's head. Draw a shield shape around his head, and around the bottom part of his head draw a U-shape that is slightly angled instead of a smooth U-shape.

4. 

   Draw the bottom part of the Iron Giant's body. Start with the bottom part of the shoulder and curve down in a broad U-shape, then up to meet the "M" at the top of the Iron Giant's body. Draw crescendo and decrescendo shapes coming from the plate around the Iron Giant's head and meeting at points at the edge of the Iron Giant's body. Split the bottom part of the Iron Giant's body in half with a vertical line, creating the illusion of pectoral muscles. Draw the shoulder plate on the right side of the Iron Giant's body, which should be a semi-circle shape. Below the pectoral muscles, draw a couple of concentric U shapes, to elongate the Iron Giant's body.

Draw the Rest of the Iron Giant

1. 

   Draw the Iron Giant's hip joints. On the right side of the Iron Giant, and just below the lower part of the Iron Giant's body, draw a trapezoid with a broad top and narrow bottom. Divide the trapezoid into four pieces, in a pinwheel shape.

2. 

   Draw the Iron Giant's upper leg and knee, coming out from the right hip. This should be a club shape, with the round part of the club being Iron Giant's knee. Segment the club shape into three parts.

3. 

   Draw the Iron Giants bottom leg, foot, and right arm. Draw two slightly widening lines coming down from the Iron Giant's knee joint. Connect these two lines with a V-shape. Inside this new polygram, draw another V coming down from the knee. Draw a line down, connecting the bottom of the V to the base of the polygram. This is the Iron Giant's foot.

   For the arm, draw an upside down U-shape between the right shoulder plate and part of the Iron Giant's body. This will be the bent elbow above the shoulder plate. Draw a right-side up u-shape below the right shoulder plate, and a "W" shape below that, which is the clenched fist.

4. 

   Draw the Iron Giant's eyes and facial details. Draw two eyebrows above the eyes. Also draw a blade shape coming down the middle of the Iron Giant's head, starting from the top of the head.

5. 

   Shade in the Iron Giant's hand. Darken the joints, the thumb, and the inside of the wrist.

6. 

   Shade in the rest of the Iron Giant's body. Darken the left breast plate and around the knee the most.