How to draw cartoon characters with

colored pencils in realistic style

Introduction:
In this book with 3 drawing tutorials you can find a lot of tricks and tips that you can apply to your
drawings. The most important is to keep practicing. Some artists draw area by area, some start from
the darkest parts, some from the lightest ones. You have to find out what is the most appropriate for
you. I'll try to keep it simple and helpful.
Few advices that I want to give you that might be helpful:
- Don't compare yourself with those who draw worse than you. This way you can be satisfied
although you still have a lot to improve.
- The more detailed, the better drawing.
- Patience. If you just throw your pencil saying "It's not for me!" of course you won't develop and
improve. If you want success you have to work on drawing with patience.
- Don't be jealous. This is the waste of time. Just try to make it better and be aware that artist you are
jealous of has much more practice than you - that's all. But also it is important to be able to see your
mistakes. Be critical with yourself.
We are going to draw a big smokey eyes:

To create a 3D effect with heavy shading:

To draw an eyes that are in shadow:

To blend a colors into one another and make a gradient effect:

So, let's get started:

Using the grid method:

As a first you should always draw a sketch and make it as proportional as possible. Take time and
patience for drawing a main lines, because it is a base of your drawing. If it's difficult for you to get a
proportional sketch, you can use a grid method, which many artists use. In the next image you can see
how it works, I've made one sample from my drawing. Draw a grid, with mechanical pencil using a
ruler, over a reference photo and draw a grid on a blank paper. Draw a main lines from the squares of
reference photo to the squares of your paper. Once you're finished with sketch, erase the grid lines.

Tools:
I would recommend a two types of colored pencils: for the thinner parts and hair use the harder
colored pencils such is Faber-Castell and for creating a smooth textures (skin, larger areas) use a soft
colored pencil such is Prismacolors. It's easier if you use the smoothest paper. You can also use a
colorless blender, but for blending the drawn areas you can use even a white colored pencil. You
don't have to get all the existing nuances of colored pencils; learn to mix them up and create a colors
that you don't even have. Of course it's easier if you can afford a bigger set of pencils.

First drawing tutorial

As a first draw a main lines. If you cannot get the proportional sketch, use a grid-method as mentioned
in the description. You should practice sketching first, to learn to see the proportionality when you
look at your sketch. When the main lines look good, the rest of the drawing is much more easier and
has a bigger chance to be successful.

With peach colored pencil draw the skin everywhere leaving eyes and mouth for the next steps. I'm
using to draw such an areas with Prismacolors Light Peach colored pencil.

If you don't have a Prismacolors colored pencils, you can use a soft pastel powder as i was doing
before a got those pencils. Just make the powder with a knife or something and spread it with tissue
all over the areas that are meant to be a skin. You can see in the image below those pastels, you can
even mix them up and get appropriate color.

With darkest brown colored pencil draw the shadow under her chin and with light brown pencil draw
the areas of the skin that are not much affected by the light. Go gently over these areas and hardly
press your pencil. These areas are under her hair/bangs, under her eyes, under the eyebrows, the
whole neck except an edge and the top along her nose because the light comes from right and left on

her face.

With violet red draw in the middle of the eyelids. With rose draw her cheeks pressing gently.

Now with black colored pencil draw her pupils leaving white the areas for shining. Also draw her
eyeliner and eyelashes. As a first go over this areas pressing light (you can even do this with H
graphite pencils, because the black colored pencil is impossible to erase) and just when you make
sure that everything is on the right place, go over with black pencil pressing really hard. Make more
layers to make it absolute black.

With dark blue colored pencil draw the parts of the irises that are in the shadow and draw the tinny
circles around the irises.

With lighter blue pencil draw the rest of the iris of the eye which get less light because of the nose.
On the other eye draw a little bit under the previously drawn areas. You can even use the same dark
blue pencil, but press it lightly.

Now with light blue pencil draw draw rest of the iris. Don't forget not to draw over the white spots
which we have to leave white to make a shining eyes this way.

With dark red pencil draw the whole upper lip. This lip get less shadow and it's always darker than
the downer lip. The downer area of the downer lip also draw with dark red pencil. The rest of the
downer lip draw with simple red pencil and go over with white colored pencil on the little area that's
shining the most. You can rather leave that area untouched, because you have to press hardly with
white colored pencil to get the white color over the red.

Draw her eyebrows with light brown pencil. This is pretty simple, yet you have to draw it carefully
because the unproportional shapes of the eyebrows can make one looks different and your drawing
can be less realistic.

With azure blue colored pencil draw the background. Go carefully close to her face and make sure
that her face is still proportional.

With yellow colored pencil draw some hair.

You can watch my time lapse video of this drawing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=MSkmzrxVpYg

* * *

Second drawing tutorial:

Draw the main lines. Use a grid-method if needed. Take a look at the image in introduction about
making a grid.

With black colored pencil draw all the black areas. You have to press really hard to get an absolute
black nuance and smooth surface. Go over the same areas more times. It's good to remember that
the black things are never black when they are affected by the light, so don't draw them with
black pencil and don't be afraid to use a grey and white pencils for the highlighted parts of
them. So in this step draw only an absolute black parts.

Now with dark grey colored pencil draw the areas next to the black areas. When draw with dark grey
pencil close to the black parts go little bit over them to make the edge between black and dark grey
invisible. This kind of shading is very important in any drawing and it's good to practice a lot. It's all
about how hard you press the pencil.

With light grey pencil draw the areas close to the dark grey areas that we've previously drawn. Leave
the white color of paper untouched on the highlighted areas. Also with light grey pencil go little bit
over the dark grey areas to make them blended into one another.

With green colored pencils draw his irises using a darker nuance for the parts under the eyelids.
Leave the white spots in his eyes for shining. With light grey pencil draw the corners of the eyes and
under the eyelids.

Now we are going to draw a harder part of the drawing: the skin. I would recommend a Prismacolor
for skin, because they are really soft. I used Sienna Brown for the next step. As you can see in the next
image, I draw the upper eyelid and the whole skin that's not under mask. don't draw the light areas of
the skin with this pencil. Leave them for the next steps.

With Dark Umber Prismacolor colored pencil draw the parts of the skin that are in shadow. So go
over the previously drawn areas pressing gently and you can even use a wax colorless blender for
blend these colors into one another so the edge between them won't be visible.

Now with the previously used Sienna Brown draw the parts that are not that dark, yet they are not
highlighted. This is really sensitive and you have to draw it carefully. So go over these areas barely
touching the paper.

The rest of the skin draw with Light Peach Prismacolor colored pencil going little bit over the darker
areas to make the blended.

You can watch a time lapse video of this drawing here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfz6Uvk5pPw

* * *

Third Drawing Tutorial:

Draw the proportional sketch using grid. As an always the sketch is really important, but in the case
of this character is even more, because it has a lot of the little details. So spend much time drawing
the good sketch to make the rest of the drawing easier and successful.

For the next step I would also recommend a Prismacolor pencil. I've drawn all the parts that you can
see in the next image with Crimson Red colored pencil. this part of drawing is not difficult, yet is
very important and have to be drawn carefully.

With white colored pencil go over the red on the place of the highlighted parts of his body.

With black colored pencil draw the shadow under his chin. Go little bit over the red areas which get
less shadow.

With dark red pencil go over the previously drawn red areas, but just on the places that get less light.
This way you can create a 3D effect. This kind of shading is really difficult and needs a lot of
practice. Control how hard you press the pencil. Also the red and black areas blend into one another
with this dark red pencil. In the middle of these dark red areas always press harder and as you go out
of them press lightly.

With well sharpened black pencil draw all around the net.

With dark and light grey pencils draw over the parts of the net that don't get any light. Only the
highlighted parts leave white.

Also with dark and light grey colored pencils draw the mask over his eyes. look at some reference
photo to see where are the highlighted parts and leave them white. Here also make these nuances of
the grey blended into one another. You can even draw this parts with graphite pencils, because the
colored pencils are impossible to erase. With Metallic Gold Prismacolor colored pencil draw the
spider on his chest.

With black and dark blue colored pencils draw his glove leaving the net white for the next steps. You
can even draw his glove with red colored pencil.

Go over the highlighted areas of his fingers with white colored pencils to give them a shape this way.

I would recommend a graphite pencil for shading the net that you can see in the next image. Just when
you see that everything looks good, you can go over them with colored pencils. Draw a shadow only
on the certain parts of this rings-looking net over his hand that get less light. This way you will make
it look realistic.

Finally draw a black "thing" over his back and shoulder, but you can even leave this part out...

You can watch a time lapse video of this drawing here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sxt27Q4JTIA

* * *

Just wanted to mention that's not enough if you just browse through some of my tutorials. This is not
guaranty that you will start to draw better immediately. You have to practice. Also I don't consider
myself an expert and don't think that I know the best way to draw - I just wanted to share my 10-yearold experience with you. These drawings from my tutorials are not always perfect; they are just
representative. From these tutorials you can learn some tricks and tips, so you can apply them to your
drawings. That's all. It's all depending on you and don't give up if your drawing doesn't look good.
Keep on drawing.....

Author Bio:
My name is Jasmina Susak. I was born on March. 06. 1976 in Serbia. I moved to Hungary in 2001. I
am traditional artist with more than 10 years experience in drawing. I'm a self taught artist. My time
lapse drawings: https://www.youtube.com/user/JASMINA518/