How to Draw Army Soldiers

Soldiers have been immortalized in artwork since humankind was first able to paint figures. Hunters with spears decorated the insides of cave walls, and soldiers with helmets and spears adorned the vases of many cultures. Today, images of soldiers come in many artistic mediums. To create these pictures, you must first learn how to draw a basic Army soldier of today.

Things You'll Need

• Paper
• Pencil
• Black ink pen
• Kneaded eraser

Instructions

1. Draw the head of the soldier with an oval shape. The base of this shape should be slightly flat to give the soldier a strong chin line. Add the chest with a large rectangle below the head. Create the pelvis of the soldier with an upside down triangular shape. Create the guidelines of the shoulders with two circles on the upper left and right corners of the chest. Attach a diagonal line to each shoulder. Draw a small circle at the base of this line. Attach a diagonal line to the side of the small circle. At the end of this line, add a circle for the hand guidelines. Create the legs with two diagonal lines coming out of the base of the hips. Draw a T shape in the center of the head oval to create the guidelines for the face.

2. Draw the helmet of the soldier with a curved U shape over the top of the soldier's head. Draw parallel lines around the arms and legs to thicken the frame. Add two ovals on the horizontal line of the face guideline for eyes. Draw the nose with a flattened V shape on the vertical guideline below the eyes. Add the mouth with a short horizontal line just below the nose.

3. Draw the goggles with a wide, flat W shape on the helmet. Attach a horizontal line to the top of the W. Draw the band of the goggles with two square shapes to the left and right sides of the goggles. Create the neck armor with two curved lines under the chin. Make the bottom line slightly larger than the top. Connect these with two vertical lines on the left and right sides of the neck. Draw the body armor on the chest with a large rectangular shape. Draw two bands across the armor with long, thin rectangles. Add the name tag to the upper right side of the body armor with a small rectangle.

4. Create the butt of the gun with a diagonal triangular shape. Cut the end off this shape to create a flat shape. Attach a rectangle to the end of this shape. Add the barrel of the gun with a cone shape coming off the end of the rectangle. Attach the magazine clip to the bottom of the rectangle with a curved rectangle. Add a curved line to the top of the rectangle. Add a small diagonal rectangle for the handle of the gun.

5. Ink over all of the lines on the soldier illustration that you wish to keep. Do not ink over any overlapping guidelines. Let the ink dry and carefully erase the pencil lines with a kneaded eraser.

Tips & Warnings

• Make a photocopy of the illustration in Step 5 so that you can color the image without damaging the original illustration.

• Use toy Army men to practice different poses with weapons.

Resources

• The Military Art Gallery