Quick Sketch: Drawing Thor

It seems obvious, but I will emphasise that "quick" sketches should be done -fast! Do not get stuck on any one detail. The example is a sketch I did of the Thunder God -Thor.

When doing a quick sketch, you can do construction and form lines at the same time. Just keep the pen/pencil moving. I'll run through this sketch briefly and how I put it together. Sorry i don't have step-by-step pictures but because it is a quick sketch, it is important to just draw and stopping to scan would just defeat the purpose because the feel of the sketch would get changed and it wouldn't have the same energy.

So, first I ran some circles to form the basic head, then I quickly drew the jaw line in; the pen carried on down lightly to get a rough neck line (which you can still see as construction) and then I drew 2 lines for the traps (trapezius something muscles -the ones that join the neck to the shoulders). I drew in the shoulders and the top of the chest which gave me an idea for where the bottom of the chest would end up.

Normally next, I would line in the torso, but because I'm drawing thor, I drew the lines down for his armour and also the shoulder flares. I then lined in the outside of the torso and the bottom of the chest. The arms were drawn next. That was most of the structure there.

Then I drew a short eye-line and drew in the eyes, nose and mouth. I then put a helmet on him which is basically just drawing a line above his brow and then another above that and then a spike on top. I then put the wings on the helmet and quickly drew his hair.

I put the top of the cape into his armour and put the metal discs down his torso. Then I shaded the front of the armour around the discs and shaded under his arms and shoulders. I drew a seam down the middle of his armour and put some shading on the helmet, face and lines into the hair. The end.

This sketch took about 4 minutes and I used a marker pen -so you can see all the construction lines. Also notice, the construction lines are lighter than the form lines. This is done easily by controlling the pressure you put on the pen. Just because it is a marker pen doesn't mean it is an "on-off" thing. Have the pen barely touch the paper and it will leave a much lighter line. Draw over a heavy line again, and it becomes much darker.