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In our last tutorial, we learned how to draw a simple SD face, using Cloud as our example. As you know, the head alone doesn't make the character complete (unless he or she has been beheaded by a guillotine, but that's another story). So in this tutorial you'll learn about drawing the body of a SD character. No, don't tell me you can't do it! It wasn't that hard! I'll teach you some techniques in drawing them!

Interested? Read on!

*NOTE*
Blue Text = good tips, tricks and techniques
Red Text = common pitfalls

1. Ahh.. That "Boring but Important" Stuff Again...

Before I start (again), I have to tell you some guidelines on drawing the body. Basically, in art, we measure the height of a character not by inches or centimeters, but how many "heads" (i.e. the ratio between the head and the entire character's height),. A usual anime hero will have a ratio of 7-8, but in SD characters, there are two common conventions: A ratio of 2 or a ratio of 3.

As you can see, both of them are cute; but I'll only concentrate on one in this tutorial: the 3 "headed" one. (The other one needs extra practice because you have to "squeeze" or "compress" the body without making the character odd-looking) After you have mastered the techniques, just use any convention as you please.

Not only that, a SD character also has the following features:

• They look shorter... (Ah ~ That's so cliché)
• Joints and muscles are not emphasized, most of the time.
• Fingers are simplified or omitted.
• Hands are usually represented by using a circle.
• You can hardly see the neck! (sometimes)

2. How to Draw the Body

To make things simple, I'll use Cloud again as an example (I don't know why, but I seem to be TOO attached to him ^^). Finally, I got these pictures scanned in for you (I got a scanner in my hometown)! Hope you'll like them.

Please Take Note: the techniques you've learned here can be applied to any form of art.

Note: You don't have to erase the lines for every step, I purposely do that so that you can see clearly what I've drawn.

Now you know that you have to sketch a circle for the head, but let's add some more. Remember those "stick-man figures" you drew in kindergarten? Yeah, they look childish, but you need to use them now. But let's modify that technique a little-- use some circles and ovals to represent the joints. Your character carries a prop (sword, weapon, etc.)? Sketch the shape of it. If your character bends their hands, draw a curve instead of joints.

Take note that this step is crucial, and will help you in reviewing the shape and pose of your character. Most anime "sensei" or gurus perform this step beforehand. If you don't, you will find yourself trapped into the "Endless loop of drawing and erasing (until eternity... just joking ^^), without knowing why your character looked odd.



Next, draw out the shape of the overall body. Use ovals and circles sparingly. Now draw the eye-position cross/ lines and a centerline on the body, just to make them well balanced afterwards. Oh! Don't forget the line to show where the waist is.
1. Draw the face, as usual. (Refer to my last tutorial if you forgot how)



Next, draw out the basic costume of the characters. Add some wrinkles to the costume (If it is made of cloth) if you want to, but not too much, they will make your picture messy. And DON'T draw costumes that "stick" on the character's body.Even it is tight, the costume has some thickness, so they don't stick on the body too closely.

We do this so you can review the costume before you add any details to it. Then you won't have to pull out your hair (because of frustration) after wasting most of your time designing your costume and finding out the there's something wrong with the entire costume.




Then, draw out the arms, legs, and hands (or any exposed flesh).

Some may argue that you should draw the flesh first, but since we have the sketch beforehand, why bother (IMHO, of course).

About the hands, don't draw the fingers one by one; frankly speaking, they'll looked ugly if you don't draw them right. Instead, draw the hand and fingers as a whole, and add lines for fingers afterwards.



For the last step, draw out the details of the costume.

So there you have it! The complete SD Cloud!(*Note: The face looked a little bit flat, hope you won't mind ^^) At this point, do ink out the lines for your image and erase those pencil marks. This is one important skill to train as pencil sketch is not accepted in most printed media and your image will look much cleaner.

So this wraps up my second tutorial. In the next tutorial, I'll cover more about details in drawing the face (eyes and facial expressions). If you encountered any problems, or have any suggestions and feedback, don't hesitate to e-mail me at seh_hui@yahoo.com.

Remember, practice is the key to success!

Favorite medium: Mixed medium (color pencils and crayons) or computer graphics, uses a 0.6 Artline 210 felt-tip pen.