How to Draw Baseball Players Up to Bat
Baseball's status as America's favorite pastime spurs many artists to depict the game in drawings, paintings and even digital media. To capture the spirit and excitement of the game, draw an action scene such as a batter at the plate swinging at the pitch. Whatever medium you choose, there are some drawing techniques that will help illustrate a player at bat.
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Things You'll Need
- Pencil
- Paper
- Eraser
- Reference photos of baseball players batting or baseball cards
Instructions
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1
Sort through a baseball card collection, if one is available, looking for photos of batters swinging. Another option is to study photos online or in magazines or books. Note how the player's body moves when swinging and how the center of gravity changes depending on the swing. Choose one photo to use as a reference for the drawing.
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2
Draw an action line as a guide for the drawing. This line starts from the top of the head and then roughly follows the bend of the spine. If you have trouble drawing the line, study the reference photo to visualize the curve of the player's body.
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3
Sketch the basic shapes comprising the batter's body, using the action line as a guide. Make the lines very light at this stage, as they will be erased later. The wireframe skeleton will consist of an oval for the head, a wider and shorter oval for the ribcage, a rounded rectangle for the hips, and a series of rectangles and circles for the limbs and joints. If you can't visualize the shapes in the reference photo, try turning it upside down to shift the focus to the shapes instead of the actual image.
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4
Lightly draw a grid on the face to aid in the placement of facial features. Divide the face in half, vertically and horizontally. The vertical line indicates the center of the face and will guide you in placement of the nose. The horizontal line guides in drawing the eyes. Halfway between the eye line and the bottom of the head oval, draw another horizontal line to show where the bottom of the nose goes. Finally, divide the area between the nose line and the chin in half to show where the bottom of the lips will fall.
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5
Sketch the background imagery to be included. Do this in the same way the shape of the player was laid out; work lightly and build shapes instead of trying to draw it perfectly in one shot. This step completes the rough layout of the entire composition.
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6
Tighten up the lines on the batter, adding form to the wireframe skeleton. Use the reference photo as a guide to drawing muscles and fabric. Check proportions often by finding areas of similar length in the reference photo. For example, the distance between eyes is approximately the same as the length of a single eye. Avoid overworking small areas of the drawing by moving to different portions often.
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7
Finish the background in the same way that the batter was filled out. Don't stay in one area too long and check proportions. Understanding perspective drawing is helpful when drawing background; see the Resource section for more information.
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8
Erase the guidelines and any stray or unwanted lines.
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