In this eight-step tutorial, I will teach you how to draw an Archer. This step by step tutorial will not just guide you through the whole process of drawing an Archer, you will also learn about the Archer bow and clothing. The better acquainted you are with these pieces, the more realistic your drawing will appear. We will start by drawing a dummy that will serve as a base over which we will draw our final sketch.
HOW TO DRAW AN ARCHER
Getting a great drawing of an Archer would need you following nine basic steps. These are:
- Drawing the Rib Cage
- Drawing the Hips
- Drawing the Legs
- Drawing the Arms
- Drawing the Head
- Drawing the Weapons
- Drawing the Final Line art
STEP 1: DRAWING THE RIB CAGE
Using the above picture as a guide, the Archer´s rib cage should be drawn using a 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 curved horizontal lines. The lower line should have a deeper arc than the top line. 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. 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 right side of the rib cage. This would be where the right arm would emerge from.
STEP 2: DRAWING THE HIPS
For the abdomen, you should draw two pretty short vertical lines that extend down from the rib cage. Then an outwardly curved horizontal line should connect those vertical lines. 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 3: DRAWING THE LEGS
Our Archer would be drawn standing with both feet 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. This circles will represent the knee caps. When you’ve done that, the continuation of the leg should then extend out a little and should narrow down as you get to the ankles. Then draw the feet as seen.
The main difference between one leg and the other is the positioning of each leg. The left leg Will be drawn sideways meanwhile the right foot will be drawn frontally.
STEP 4: DRAWING THE ARMS
The arms of our character should be sketched one extended away from the body and the right arm should be drawn bend with the hand close to the face area.
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. Having drawn that, draw the hands as seen in the picture. When drawing the hands, draw the fingers of the right hand clenched as it will hold on to the handle of our characters Bow. The fingers on the right hand should be also clenched because our Archer will be holding an arrow.
STEP 5: DRAWING THE HEAD
For the head, we are going to draw it in a 3/4 perspective. First, draw the head as a medium-sized sphere. Across the upper part of this sphere, you should draw a horizontal line where the eyes will be placed. Flowing from that, draw 2 vertical lines. One line will divide the front part of the face from the left side( which will be visible). The second vertical line will be close to the right side of the sphere. Along this line, you should draw later the nose and the mouth.
STEP 6: DRAWING THE WEAPONS
The Bow will be drawn as two curved lines converging in the handle area in the center of the bow. The string of the bow will be drawn connecting both extremes of the bow with the hand pulling the string and the arrow in between the index and middle finger.
Also, hanging from the left side of the hips we will draw the quiver with a few arrows inside.
STEP 7: DRAWING THE FINAL LINE ART
For this stage, you would need to fade out the dummy already drawn. This is to prevent the manikin´s sketch from interfering with your final sketch. Using traces lefts of the original manikin´s sketch, you would then go on to draw the final lines. It should comprise of well-detailed features, a well-drawn face, clothing, and bow. With that done, you should then throw in some shading effects to your drawing. Shading has an easy of making drawings appear so real and flawless. So go on and make the strokes of your drawing darker. You can then shade places like our character’s belt, underarms and his neck region. If you are interested in knowing more about how to shade with a pencil, you can check my free tutorial by clicking here.
Also, another important detail is to draw wrinkles and foldings coming from tension areas, like the loincloth hanging from his waist and the bottom part of the pants where the fabric is folding.
CONCLUSION
Right here is where we call our drawing tutorial of the Archer a wrap. You can go on and express some satisfaction at what you have been able to put together on your drawing pad. However, you should not hang up your drawing tools just yet. We advise that you repeat the procedure a couple of times more. This would enable you to have a better grasp of character drawing and soon enough you will be able to polish up on your skills and draw without seeking the assistance of a drawing tutorial.
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