How to Draw Captain Underpants Comics

Practice drawing "Captain Underpants" characters before you attempt to draw the comic.

"Captain Underpants," a comic book created by Dav Pilkey, focuses on an evil principal with a strange alter ego --- a superhero who wears only underpants. The main villains of the series are a gang of evil toilets with a particularly evil boss known as the Turbo Toilet 2000. If you wish to draw a Captain Underpants comic, write a clean story that includes humor and action and plan it as a series of panels.

Things You'll Need

• Comic-book sheets

Instructions

1. Write the story for your comic. A typical story consists of someone getting into trouble and Captain Underpants saving the day. You may wish to include the other characters, George, Harold and Turbo Toilet 2000, the evil villain.

2. Separate the story into panels, so that you know what to draw in each panel. Each panel advances the action slightly and may include dialogue. For example, one panel may show Captain Underpants looking for the evil villain while the next panel shows Captain Underpants flying to the villain. Write a symbol next each story point that gets its own panel. For example, your outline may say "Turbo Toilet 2000 captures Harold." If this takes three panels, write the symbol next to the plot point three times.

3. Draw Captain Underpants in the first appropriate panel. Draw an eggplant shape for his body. Draw a line that intersects his body at about the midway point. This creates the top of the waistband for his underpants. Draw another line just under the waistband and draw a dashed line in the middle of these two lines. Draw a half-moon that faces downward on each side of the underpants to create the bottom of the underpants. Place your pencil about one-third of the way from Captain Underpants' right side and draw a curved line from his waistband to the bottom of the underpants. Draw another line on the left side. This finishes the underpants.

4. Add legs, arms and a face to Captain Underpants. Draw two vertical lines that meet in a rectangular foot to form the leg. The leg should be about one-third the width of Captain Underpants' bottom. Draw another leg on the other side. Add a very thin arm that extends into a round hand with four round, nub-like fingers. Draw another arm on the other side. Add eyes to the top of the eggplant body, slightly below the tip. Draw two curved lines of eyebrows over the eyes. Add a mushroom-shaped nose under the eyes and a large, wide smile of a mouth. Add two dots of nipples slightly above the underpants and add a cape that meets in a tie halfway between the nipples.

5. Draw Captain Underpants in every panel where he appears. If you wish to draw his alter ego, Mr. Krupp, give Captain Underpants short hair, a short-sleeved shirt and tie and pants instead of having him wear only Underpants.

6. Add Harold and George to the panel, when appropriate. Harold and George have cylindrical bodies, dots for eyes, circles for noses and a curved line for a mouth. They wear T-shirts that extend to just above the bottom of their body. Shorts fall under their T-shirt, extending into short legs and rectangular shoes. Harold has poofy hair and George has a buzz cut and wears a tie.

7. Draw the Turbo Toilet, when appropriate. Draw a cylinder intersected by a wide mouth. Draw triangular teeth at top and bottom edges of the mouth. Draw a small circle at the top-center of the cylinder. Add a small dot to the middle of the cylinder to create an eye. Draw another eye next to the first and draw a flat V over the eyes. Add rectangular legs that are wider at the bottom than the top. Draw a half-circle with its flat edge on the ground for the feet. Add a small circle at the top right side of the cylinder to create the right shoulder. Extend it into a thin, short upper arm than meets a wide, cone forearm with a large, four-fingered hand. Draw an equal arm on the other side.

8. Add other characters and backgrounds to the comic as necessary. Add dialogue or thought bubbles, when appropriate. Write the words with small, clear letters.

9. Ink your pencil lines to give your comic a realistic feel. Draw over the pencil lines with black ink and add colored ink to the background and characters.

References

• Pilkey: "Captain Underpants"
• Drago Art: How to Draw Captain Underpants
• Scholastic: "Grownups Guide: The Inside Scoop on Captain Underpants"

Resources

• Arts and Letters: Comic Book- Getting Started Guide