How to Draw: Boba Fett

Hi. Welcome to another "How to Draw" session with yours truly. In this session we will learn how to draw a picture of Boba Fett, the bounty hunter from Star Wars. I do not think this will be too difficult, but it will require some patience. Make sure your pencils are sharpened, have an eraser ready and some clean sheets of drawing paper ready. I hope that you will have fun drawing this character. When I drew this picture I used an action figure as my model reference. When you draw it is important to have a photographic reference. Overall, I felt pretty good about the final drawing. So here we go.... (click on a picture to see larger image.)

Step Zero:
 In this step you need to draw out your basic pose. First create your action line. That is the line that goes down the center showing you the direction of motion.  Remember to draw really lightly. I used colored pencils to show the different steps. Some comic book artists use a non-photo blue pencil to sketch their layout, then pencil in the drawing with a mechanical pencil or a 2B pencil. We will cover that more another time.

Step 1

In this step use your basic shapes to fill out the stick figure you have drawn. what shapes do you see shown here? Remember to keep your drawing simple, and avoid drawing very hard with your pencil. You will need to erase your lines later after you ink your drawing. In this picture I worked from the top down to the toes. 

There are different art books that can help you draw. The one's I like to reference are by Christopher Hart. He is pretty easy to understand. I also refer to Marvel's: How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way by Stan Lee and John Buscema. I think the only way to become good at drawing is to draw every day, and do it for at least a few hours a day no matter what.

Step 2

Here you will likely need to look at an action figure or a photograph. I will admit, I was pretty loose with my details, but I have drawn it as close as I am able to getting Boba Fett's likeness. For some strange reason, he has been one of my favorite anti-heroes ever since I was a young boy.

Okay, back on topic...As you draw this picture your lines are going to change. Look at the shapes of the helmet, the chest plates, his gun, etc. Are you getting it? I hope so. This was my first drawing of Boba Fett in a long time. I still have trouble areas too. Don't worry if you make a mistake, that is why there are erasers.  One way to improve is to study people and make sketches of their poses. I like to sit at parks or in malls and take my sketchbook along. I am easily entertained. The more you draw the easier it will become to identify how things should look when you create a picture.

Step 3

You are getting close to being finished. How does your picture look? Are you satisfied? That is important. You are the one who has to be happy with your drawing. Don't worry too much about what others think. Notice that I added a circular shape in the background so as to bring Boba Fett forward to the foreground. It gives the illusion that he is actually up close. How you draw your lines is completely up to you. As I drew this I tried to keep a medium weight line. This is the point where you start adding final details, erasing lines, correcting lines, looking at how your light source will look with shadow, and writing down what colors to use for your drawing. 

There are different ways you can color this. You can use marker, water color, color pencil. It all depends on how you want it to look. You can even digitally color your picture in a paint program or Photoshop. It is your drawing, you make it look the way that your want. I like simple back grounds but you could add his ship or other characters or scenery if you'd like.

 Step 4

Here is your drawing in black and white. The picture on the left is not great. I copied this before I was finished but you can see that the picture is more detailed and ready to color. You have another option too, and you could leave it as black and white and color it grey using different values of black and white. This is known as a monochromatic scale. -just a little FYI.

Here is where I am my own critic, but since this is a how to draw session and not a pageant, I am not going to worry about small mistakes. By now you ought to have a basic idea of how to draw Boba Fett. One good thing about drawing characters is there is almost always an opportunity to make a better picture, to improve on what you drew previous. I will likely make another picture of this, and will post my improvements here as an extended feature. 

 I hope you have enjoyed this lesson. Please let me know what you think. Make sure you sign your drawing.

Until next time, keep drawing.