Hello everybody! It’s drawingforall.net, and today we prepared for you a new drawing tutorial in which we will tell you how to draw a samurai. Note that this drawing is pretty complex and detailed. As usual, we divided this tutorial into few simple steps in order to even a beginner could draw the samurai. So, let’s start this tutorial and learn how to draw a realistic samurai.

Step 1

At first we need to outline the general proportions and pose of the samurai. The pose of the samurai is very typical for the beginning of the battle – his head is slightly tilted forward, hands holding a sword, and the legs very wide apart. So, first outline an oval as a guide for the head. Using the straight and smooth lines sketch out the neck, spine, hands and legs. Note, that in the first steps you should not press down too hard on a pencil.

Step 2

This step seems too complicated, but it is not. First, sketch out the lines of the samurai’s facial symmetry. Draw the lines of the hair, eyebrows, eyes, nose and mouth. Note, that all the lines of the facial symmetry should be at the same distance from each other. Start to add volume to the body. Using straight lines draw the kataginu (a samurai’s vest). Draw the wide sleeves and sketch out the palms. Using the long and slightly curved lines draw the swords and sketch out the hakama – wide samurai pants.

Step 3

The general outlines and shapes of the samurai are ready. From this step we start to draw details. Start to work on the head. Using the lines from the second step draw the face. First draw eye by using the middle line. Slightly above draw the eyebrow. Add some wrinkles around the eyes. Draw the nose and cheekbone. Then draw the mouth and chin. Then draw the mouth and chin. Note, that the line of eyebrow shows us the top of ear, and the line of nose shows us the lower edge of the ear. By using these lines draw the ear and start to draw the hair. First draw the line of hair. Then using quick strokes add the texture of the hair. By using short and dark strokes draw beard. Draw the lines of the neck and move to the next step.

Step 4

This step is quite simple. Darken the lines of the upper part of the body. Erase all the unnecessary guidelines. Make lines more smooth and clean. Darken the lines of the pants. Erase the unnecessary lines and add some folds to the hakama.

Step 5

At this step we draw the hands and katana. Try to convey the tension of the hands. Draw the fingers, knuckles and tendons. Erase all unnecessary lines and darken the lines of the hands. Draw the handle of the katana and patterns on it. Paint over the hair leaving a small highlight.

Step 6

At this step add the shadows to the upper part of the body. We recommend you to add shadows using the hatching and crosshatching. Before we begin to draw shadows, we need to find the source of light. On our example the light comes from the upper part of drawing. First using a light and short strokes add shadows to the face. Then, using the same method add shadows to the neck. Draw the stripes on the sleeves. Add shadows to the kimono, hands and swords. Add these shadows to the areas where the light does not fall.

Step 7

At this step we draw the feet and add the shadows to the lower part of our samurai. First, draw the fingers and geta (the footwear). Using the same method as in the previous step add shadows to the lower part of the samurai. Don’t forget to add more shadows to the areas where the light does not fall. Your strokes should be very fast but at the same time very neat.

That was the tutorial on how to draw a realistic samurai. We hope the tutorial was interesting and informative for you. Stay tuned and wait for new drawing tutorials.