How to Draw Cloud Strife – Material List
- A piece of paper
- A pencil
- A fine point black marker
- A medium point black marker
- An eraser
- Some color pencils
- black
- gray
- peach tan
- brown tan
- blue
- dark blue
- yellow
- yellow brown
- red
- red brown
- dark brown
- dark gold
- A Sticky roller (optional)
Reference Picture: https://imgur.com/3GCvJKr
How to Draw Cloud Strife – Step 1 – Stick Figuring
- Draw a stick figure to pose the character
- Draw a circle for the head, draw a cross on the head circle as if it was a sphere, the cross will help you locate the facial features later on
- Draw a circle for the torso, draw a cross on the torso circle as if it was a sphere
- Draw a circle for the hips, draw a cross on the hips circle as if it was a sphere
- Draw two circle on the hip sphere to locate where the legs connect to the hips
- Draw two lines for the thighs
- Draw two circles for the knee joints
- Draw two lines for the calves
- Draw two two triangular shapes for the feet
- Draw two rectangles for the feet
- Locate where the shoulders connect to the torso, and draw two circles for the shoulder joints
- Draw two lines for the upper arms
- Draw two circles for the elbow joints
- Draw two lines for the lower arms
- Draw two circle for the fists, draw lines for the finger for open hand gestures
- Since Cloud’s sword is such a prominent object, I drew the shape of it at this stage
Tip 1: Double check the locations of your shapes with the reference, use your pencil as a measuring tool to correct any proportion that is off.
Tip 2: Offset Cloud’s position to the left a little to give yourself more space to draw the wings and the cape on the right.
How to Draw Cloud Strife – Step 2 – Form Figuring
- Rough in the shape of the hair
- Add form to the body
- Roughly mark out where the facial features are
Tip 1: Even though Cloud is mostly clothed, you can still see some very nice arm muscle anatomy and the form of the torso underneath the shirt.
How to Draw Cloud Strife – Step 3 – Clothed Figure Drawing
- Rough in all major clothing, including any accessory or weapons
Tip: A lot of the clothing folds are defined by the coloring on this design, but still try to see the the folds are constructed and draw the form with the folds in mind, the way clothing is drawn is this style is very angular.
How to Draw Cloud Strife – Step 4 – Refined Pencil Drawing
- Refine the drawing by locating the definitive lines amongst the rough sketch, draw the definitive lines darker
- Draw in small details that were overlooked in the rough sketch
- Keep refining until all lines are definitive
Tip 1: Draw lightly, use short and repetitive strokes, slowing draw heavier as you commit to more definitive lines.
Tip 2: Often times the Reference Picture was drawn at a bigger scale or with finer tools, so some extremely small details will be difficult to replicate, instead enlarge the small details so it is easier to manage, in this case all the belt buckles.
How to Draw Cloud Strife – Step 5 – Trace Pencil Lines with Marker
- Trace the pencil lines with a black marker
- Use an eraser to erase all the pencil lines so that only the marker lines remain
Tip 1: Rotate the paper to draw smoother lines
Tip 2: Break up long lines with shorter strokes, connect the short strokes to make line look continuous.
Tip 3: Push lighter on the maker to create thinner lines for small details.
Tip 4: hold down the paper with your other hand to avoid wrinkle and creases on paper
Tip 5: Use a sticky roller to clean up the eraser rubbings.
How to Draw Cloud Strife – Step 6 – Color in Midtone
- Mark off all the highlight areas and leave it uncolored
- Color the hair and eye brow with yellow
- Color the skin with peach tan
- Color the wings, wrist bands, shirt, and pants with blue
- Color the cape and the sword hilt with red
- Color the belts and the boots with yellow brown
- Color the metallic pieces and the sword with gray
- Color the ribbon on the sword with dark gold
- Double check with the reference picture
Tip: Color evenly, and follow direction of your strokes with the form of the object
Glossary – Midtone: the flat neutral color of an object without light and shadow
How to Draw Cloud Strife – Step 7 – Color in Shadow
- Color the shadow area of yellow with yellow brown
- Color the shadow area of peach tan with brown tan
- Color the shadow area of blue with dark blue
- Color the shadow area of red with red brown
- Color the shadow area of yellow brown with dark brown
- Color the shadow area of gray with black
- Color the shadow area of dark gold with yellow brown
Tip : This design style utilizes an ambient lighting effect, this effect is darker in more dens area and lighter in more open area, in another word, colors or shadows will be darker towards a corner or when things are more clustered.
How to Draw Cloud Strife – Step 8 – Thicken Profile Lines
- Thicken the profile lines with a black marker
Glossary – Profile lines: The outer borderlines of a major form like head, body, arms and legs. Detail lines like pattern on the body and facial features are usually not consider profile lines.
How to Draw Cloud Strife – Complete
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