Cartoon Pin Up Girl | 01 |

Sketching & Poses

A Cartoon pin up girl drawing is what you will be learning in this next series. You’re going to start off learning the sketching process and then move forward to more refined drawings in the next lessons.

Everything that you need to learn in this lesson is presented in the video with the main things that you should be learning are outlined below.

Line of Action

This is the major line that moves through the cartoon pin up girl’s body. Generally it is best to start this line with the spine, and then let it flow through the rest of the body down to the feet and toes.

This line should be kept curvy and flowing. Very rarely would the line of action be a straight line. Using curves here helps give your character a more dynamic pose.

Character Construction

Knowing which parts of the body are most important to focus on in the beginning when you are just starting to sketch out and draw your first lines is half of the battle when it comes to building up the basic construction of your characters. Notice how the main focus of the body is the head, ribcage, stomach, hips, and the upper and lower legs.

These major parts of the body all fit along the line of action and follow each other as that major line curves and bends into different poses.

Posing

Creating a natural pose for your character is very important. Because you’re drawing a cartoon pin up girl here you’re going to want to keep things looking really sexy and feminine. Also notice that several different poses are drawn and tried during this first sketching phase.

New artist often make the mistake of trying to get things perfect on the first try, but you can see from the video that this isn’t the way that experienced artists do it. Get you eraser and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Just keep drawing until something starts to look good to you.

Proportion

Notice how the proportions are kept relatively simple eg: the upper and lower parts of the arm are drawn to be the same length, and also notice the total length of the legs compared to the ribcage, stomach and hips. When you start to notice and compare these distances to each other it’s easy to come up with a few rules for yourself that will help you draw similar characters each time.

Pay close attention and try to find out how the different parts of the body relate to each other. In many books the head is used as the main measuring tool, but you can really use any body part you like. EG: how many ribcages tall are the legs of your character, or how many hands long is the arm?

Time to Pick a Pose and Clean it Up

Once you have done several sketches and have found something that is working with your drawing you’re going to pick the pose that you feel is the strongest and then move forward with that drawing to clean up the lines and start to work towards making the finished character.