In this article, we will be showing you how to draw a perfect image of the most famous furry extraterrestrial in the science fiction genre. We are talking about Chewbacca, the legendary Han Solo´s companion, and we will teach you how to draw him in 7 easy steps. The drawing would capture all his might and glory. How amazing is that?!
You should also note that the more familiar you are with each step, the more likely your final draft would be flawless and the more likely it would appeal to an audience. That said, we would start up by drawing a dummy. The manikin would serve as a foundation for our final sketch. Ready?. Let’s rock and roll!.
STEP 1-DRAWING THE TORSO
Using the above picture as a guide, Chewbacca´s rib cage should be drawn using a slight 3/4 perspective. This just means that the right side which faces the viewers would be drawn bigger in size than the left side.
Going on, the rib cage should be started off by drawing two horizontal lines. The upper line should have a deeper arc and the bottom line should be straight. Then you should draw two curved out vertical lines that connect the earlier drawn horizontal lines at their extremes. Having done that, divide the rib with a vertical line using the 3/4 perspective. When that is done, as seen in the picture, draw another curved vertical line at the right side of the rib cage. This would serve to highlight the underarm area. Below the chest area, you should draw deep curved line representing the rib cage. Having drawn it, go on to highlight where the head will be by drawing a small circle at the top of the rib cage. Flowing from that, draw another circle at the top left side of the rib cage. This would be where the right arm would emerge from.
For the hips, you should draw them to take the form of a man’s underpants as depicted in the image. This is where the legs of our character would emerge from.
STEP 2-DRAWING THE ARMS
The arms of our character should be sketched slightly extended from the body and they should be drawn using a 3/4 perspective. This entails the right arm being bigger in size than the left arm because the left side faces the viewers.
Both arms will connect with the torso by the shoulders. The shoulders will be drawn as egg shaped ovals.
Having laid that out, the upper arms should be started off in the form of big tubes and should reduce in size as they get to the elbows. Then they should extend out at the point of drawing the lower arms and should further reduce as you get to the wrist. The main difference between the left and the right arm is the perspective. Meanwhile, the right arm will be drawn completely visible and almost fully extended, meanwhile the left arm should be drawn partially hidden by the torso.
When drawing the hands, draw them as clenched fists like if the character was grabbing something. The left hand, with the fingers facing the viewer will be drawn in the next steps holding the handle of the blaster weapon our character will be carrying.
STEP 3- DRAWING THE LEGS
Our character would be drawn standing with his legs separated. Each leg should be started off as a big tube and then you should gradually reduce them as you get to the knees. To highlight the knees, draw two horizontal lines on each knee and then draw a circle in between them as seen in the above picture. When you’ve done that, the continuation of the leg should then extend out a little and will Become narrower again towards the ankle.
The feet will be drawn as big human feet. The right foot will be drawn frontally, meanwhile the left feet will be drawn in a 3/4 perspective, so the foot´s interior side is visible.
I will like to stop here for a moment before I keep moving forward with this tutorial. I want to introduce you to the course that I made on “How To Draw Characters”. In this step by step course, I dive deep into the drawing principles I’ve been speaking about previously in this tutorial, plus many other techniques that will help you develop the skills necessary to draw professional level like characters. If you wanna know more about this course please click the image below.
STEP 4- DRAWING THE HEAD
Now it´s time to focus our attention on the head. We will draw the main volumes of the head, so we can detail them properly in the next steps. You should draw an oval shape. Along the oval shape, we should draw a curved vertical line, coming from the top and ending on the bottom center of the oval. This line will leave you with the helmet divided in two uneven parts, the left side being way bigger than the right side. Again this will help you to align the features of the helmet correctly with the 3/4 perspective.
A little bit above the center of the oval we will draw a horizontal curved line. This will leave us with the head divided into 4 parts. This horizontal line will help us to locate properly where the visors for the eyes should be drawn in the next step.
STEP 5- DRAWING THE BLASTER
Chewbacca´s Blaster is a crossbow-like weapon. On the ends of each side of the crossbow, we will draw 2 spheres. Also, on top of the weapon´s body, we will draw a couple of visors.
The left hand we drew in the previous step will be grabbing the handle of the weapon.
STEP 6- DRAWING THE FUR AND DETAILS
STEP 7- DRAWING THE FINAL LINE ART
Ey! you already reached the last step. Now it´s time to have some fun and ad some cool details to our character. When detailing Chewbacca you should think.
Use the two images you can find in this step as reference for drawing the different elements of the armor. Is very important you use the lines of the dummy we created during the previous steps, to draw your final art on top of it.
Try to fade the lines of the dummy with an eraser, so you can draw on top of it without losing track of your final line art and without the dummy lines interfering in your final art.
CONCLUSION
I hope you have fun drawing Chewbacca. If you wanna draw more cool sci-fi characters I have more tutorials ready for you. Here you have the link to a couple you might like:
Written by : Toni Justamante Jacobs, Senior Concept Artist, Illustrator and Blogger.
