Drawing with Cat 10/31/2012

Now that I'm thinking about it, I really should have done a Halloween Theme on this picture. As it is, I didn't, so you'll just have to suffer with a Gunslinger.

What, you say? A gunslinger!? Yes indeed. I have been watching much too much 24, so I needed to get into my violent side.

Without further ado, the Gunslinger. For this, you will need:

• One dullish HB or 2B pencil
• One automatic pencil
• One white artist eraser
• One basic Bic Round Stic ballpoint pen
• One brightly lit work station

Okay, we're going to start with this very dynamic-looking kneeling person. Use the HB (or 2B) pencil for steps 1-3. It's just a great pencil for keeping your marks light and sketchy. Keep your motions really loose, creating semi-sharp angles for his knees and elbows. Tilt his head down just a tad. As you notice, we only see one arm right now. That's fine. We'll get to arm #2 in a minute. :)

Good job! Now, add the block dimensions. He's going to be a bit slender but well built, so don't make your blocks too too blocky. Give him mass but not bulk... if that makes ANY kind of sense! :) Mark in the joints; elbows and knees, ankles and wrists, and shoulders. Now, as promised, you can mark in the second arm. It's going to appear fairly straight, simply because of the way he's holding his gun.

He is starting to look sort of human! Still using your HB (or 2B pencil, whichever you prefer) go over the entire body, encasing him in skin. Since he's a man, he's going to have a fairly thick neck. Give him a bit of muscle on his arms. As you might have noticed, leg two, the one supporting him on the ground, has been edited. It is a bit higher up now. I have also drawn in "grounding lines", which help keep my perspective consistent. Make the gun a bit more detailed now. Draw in his nose, and a small mouth line. Enhance his chin a bit.

Best part EVER! Very, very carefully, use your eraser to get rid of all the guidelines. I don't know about you, but I find them awfully distracting once I get to this point, and I HAVE to get rid of them before I go any further. Once you've erased at least most of the guidelines, go over his body once more, this time using an automatic pencil. You want to enhance bodily features. Slightly bulk out his chest, adding minor ab details to give him a sense of fitness. Smooth out the muscles in his arms, and add a bit of oomph to his upper leg, the one he's not kneeling on. With the sharp point of your automatic pencil, and using a very light touch, add details to his features, hands, and gun. Good job!

Okay, this might actually be the best part EVER! With your automatic pencil, start lightly drawing in his clothes. I love the long jacket look - it's very gunslinger cool - so mark that in. There's a lot of "pull" in the sleeves around his shoulders, so draw in some stretch lines around the shoulders, and where his elbow curves up. For his legs, he's going to be wearing some sort of jean-like pants, so draw in stretch lines around his knees. Further enhance his face, hands, and gun, and add a bit of hair to his head. Draw in detail for his ear.

Grrr! This might actually be the best part EVER! Carefully erase all the parts of his body you can see through his clothes. Add a tiny bit of detail to the clothes, such as the flap of a pocket on his coat, the tiny slanting lines of his buttonholes, a hint of neckline underneath his jacket, a stitch line down the length of his jeans. You ought to be able to see a bit of finger from his hidden hand near the top of the trigger. Also add a tiny bit of cheek line to his face, and a shadow line where the hollow of his cheek will appear. Erase the bit of head you could see under his hair. Add a tiny bit of detail to his shoes.

This is the easiest part... at least, I think it's easy. You might differ. Go over the entire picture with your pen, taking extreme care around his face. I like Bic pens because they tend to look quite pencil-sketchy when you use them, but they do have a distressing tendency to blot. I've learned how to evade their sneaky blottiness by being sneaky myself, but for beginners this might be an irritating and potentially ruining occurrence. Use a pen you feel you can trust. Any cheap ink pen will do, really. It ends up being personal preference. Once you've inked in your very cool gunslinger, use your artist eraser and get rid of any pencil marks that might still be littering your picture. Excellent! On to the last step. :)





You're going to use a 2B pencil for this, simply because it is a bit darker than an HB pencil. Add a light layer of shadow underneath his hairline, gradually darkening as you head down his face, and becoming significantly darker around his neck. Using dark and light strokes, colour in his hair, leaving untouched areas to signify highlights where the light might be hitting him. Add a line of shadow to his nose, around his eye, and down his nose where his cheek is. Also add a small line of shadow to his cheek, mimicking the hollow in his cheek.

For his coat, you're going to draw substantially dark lines wherever there is a fold line, a pleat, or a gather in his coat. The backside is going to be a bit darker, so use your 2B pencil and add some shadow to the back. Also darken the area beneath his shoulder, as well as the right side of his pocket. Darken his wrist where the sleeve falls, and darken his hand beneath the gun... or pistol. Whatever you want to call it. Darken in the folds where his jeans stretch, and add a second line to the stitch line down his pants, using the Bic pen for this. Ground him with an energetic dash of 2B scribbling beneath his feet and legs. Voila! A gunslinger. Very cool. Very 24. Let's give him a name. How about, Shane Westmore? That sounds 24-ish, doesn't it?

Yay, you've just completed Drawing with Cat picture #3!! How do you feel? Remember, if you try this picture, I'd love to see it. You can post it on your blog and link it to mine. That would be awesome. Sincere thanks to everyone who comments and/or makes the attempt.

Shane Westmore, CTU 

God bless! Catch you on Saturday. Have a boo-tiful Halloween. ;)

Cat