Easy-Peasy Protoss Tutorial

Hey, kids! The admiral got so freakin’ bored she decided to make a tutorial! And can you guess what it’s about?! That’s right, kiddies! Protoss. Because the admiral’s a hopeless fangirl. Anyhow, this is not the only, nor the best, way to draw a Protoss—this is the way I do it, and my ‘toss tend to be a bit stylized and simplified. Wanna know how to draw a REAL ONE? Go ask Blizzard’s design crew.

Okay, here we go. To start, you need something to draw on, preferably paper and NOT the neighbor’s cat. You also need something to draw WITH, and since you’ll be doing lots of erasing I recommend a pencil. I also have a tech pen and whiteout laid out, since I like to ink my drawings. Thank God I didn’t need to use the whiteout.

STEP ONE: Draw a circle, or at least something that resembles one. Work lightly cuz it’s getting erased later. In fact, work lightly until you’re damn sure you wanna keep a line exactly where it is. Dark lines are a real pain to erase all the way.

STEP TWO: Draw a long curved line that brushes against one side of the circle—this is the side of his head. It should extend about the same length on both the top and the bottom—the chin and the crest. After that, connect the bottom of the chin to the rest of his skull with a sort of checkmark-shaped thingy. These lines don’t have to be perfect right now; I continue to refine them throughout the whole process.

STEP THREE: Make a similar check-shaped thing on the back of his head to finish off the outline of his head. Startin’ to look a little more ‘tossy, isn’t he?

STEP FOUR: Protoss are not floating heads. This guy deserves a neck, so give him one. I like to make ‘toss necks long and thick cuz it looks nice. If you’re a rookie artist, do as I do for the sake of simplicity. If you’re an old hand, feel free to experiment.

STEP FIVE: Begin to flesh out the shape of the head. Protoss generally have bony faces, and the brow and cheek should protrude a bit. I also refined the shape of the chin and crest a bit so they look less like lines on a paper and more like an object that has mass.

STEP SIX: Draw two bisecting lines on the face, making sure to follow its curvature. Having trouble? Draw a cross on an egg and use it for reference. These lines are to help place the eyes, so keep ‘em extra-light.

STEP SEVEN: For the top of the eye, draw a curved line that touches the guide on the center corner and floats above it on the other. The face is slightly turned away, so one eye should be a bit smaller from corner to corner, but the same height.

STEP EIGHT: Draw a line from the high corner of the eye back down to the guideline. It looks nice when you give it a bit of a curve. Draw another line that connects to this edge and curves slightly below the guideline. There, see? Eyes.

STEP NINE: Eyes have lids, so draw ‘em. Try to make them look thick, like there’s actually a bit of skin over the eyes. The way I drew these eyes is very stylized—a bit anime/manga-ish—and if you’d rather have less angular and more realistic eyes, use less acute angles and more rounded shapes.

STEP TEN: I stared to define to bone structure of the face. The lines around the eyes are to make them appear more sunken in. The checkmark on the crest is something I love to draw on my ‘toss cuz it accentuates their powerful brains. (Wow. That was an extremely idiotic sentence. I’m a dork.) I like to give the older ones (like this guy) sharp cheekbones, too.

STEP ELEVEN: I defined the musculature of the neck and shoulder, plus I added another crest to balance out his head. Refer to the drawing because I ain’t describing all of those lines for you.

STEP TWELVE: Time for nerve-cords! Nerve cords are an important part of a Protoss, and it makes me really mad when people forget them. The nerve cords are the organs that house a great deal of extrasensory tissue, and it is these cords that are the symbol of a Protoss’ connection to the Khala. I feel like making this fella here a rebel . Let’s draw his cords hacked short to make him a Dark Templar.

STEP THIRTEEN: When drawing the nerve-cords, think of them as a bunch of smooth, thick ropes. Be patient as you draw and don’t skip out just because it’s repetitive and boring to keep drawing them. Pinch them off where they are tied and make sure the cloth actually wraps AROUND the cords and not just over them. Since they were cut, make the tips sharp and rough.

STEP FOURTEEN: Flesh out the wrinkles in the cloth. There are plenty of long explanations of how wrinkles work, so for now just make them fluidly follow the shape of the cloth. Also, I added a wrap around his shoulders to kind of give him a carved bust look. Finally, get rid of all the lines that you don’t want to keep.

STEP FIFTEEN: It’s time for final details and inking! There are millions of people out there who can tell you how to ink—I’m one of those people who just do it and can’t really explain much. I like the outlines nice and thick to make the drawing pop, and I use finer lines for details. I messed around with the eyes and neck a bit as you can see, and I also added simple shading around the eyes and on the nerve-cords by just drawing a bunch of little lines. This is something I recommend practicing before you do it in pen. I added more wrinkles to the fabric and I put spots on the skin (cuz spots are cute). You don’t have to ink if you prefer pencil, but if you do, work slowly and carefully, and make sure the ink is COMPLETELY DRY before going back and erasing the pencil.

And now you’re done! Now you can draw a sexy Protoss whenever you want! Yay! I shall call this one Tutorias! (I’m an idiot.) Feel free to experiment and try different head shapes, eye types, and skin patterns. Fan art—and any type of art—should be fun! (Someone, please shoot me for that corny-yet-truthful line.) Remember, the only ways to get better are to study and practice!

For this tutorial, I used my drawings, my digital camera, and MS Paint. Yeah, I’m cheap like that. I’ll do a full-body Protoss tutorial soon for all y’all. Tut and art (c) me, Protoss and Starcraft (c) Blizzard Entertainment.

EDIT: I give the StarCraft FanClub :iconStarCraftFanClub: Permission to post this deviation.