Your project for this class is to create three Superheroines of your own. This project will be broken down into multiple assignments relating to each of the chapters covered in this course.

Assignment 1:

Your first assignment is to sketch up to five preliminary heroine designs, following the same process we’ve just gone through together here. You can work traditionally with pencil and paper, or digitally using your preferred drawing application.

These aren’t your final concepts, so remember to keep them rough and simple. Loosen the grip on your pencil or stylus and work lightly to keep your lines relaxed. Start with a proportionally accurate base then build upon the character as you explore different ideas for the design.

Assignment 2:

Your task for this assignment is to draft up three final poses for your heroine’s, and define the anatomy of each as we’ve done in this lesson.

Since these poses will serve as the foundation for your finished characters, it’s important that we make sure they’re solid before moving onto the design phase.

The poses can be rough, but keep the anatomy overlay fairly clean, articulating each muscle group throughout the body. Carefully consider their geometry, as well us the major underlying forms you’re laying them over. This will help you to properly orientate the anatomy of your character so that the pose makes sense.

If you find that the muscle structure isn’t quite working with the pose, or that it’s unbalanced in some way, that’s okay. This stage is still all about ironing out the kinks. Pull out your eraser and make the necessary adjustments to correct it.

No one expects you to remember every muscle throughout the entire body, so if you need to, use some references. I’ve included some anatomy references based on the poses demonstrated in this lesson that you can find in the course resources - but there’s certainly also plenty more out there on the internet.

Assignment 3:

For this assignment you’ll be using the figure poses you created in Lesson two as the basis for your superheroines design. Since the proportions of the characters and their anatomy have already been determined, you can now focus specifically on the design process itself.

If you’re working digitally, simply create a new layer above the foundations of your figure drawing and begin building the design. For traditional artists, lay a piece of tracing paper on the top of your poses and trace the design draft above them.

Work lightly to begin with, and keep the line work loose. Tighten up the drawing and define the contouring of the design as it becomes more developed in the final stages. But don’t worry about making it too neat and tidy. As long as you’ve got enough there to work with for the inking stage - that’s what matters.

Think about the visual associations you can incorporate into your character’s concept to describe their theme, genre, personality and backstory. This might be communicated through their style of hair, outfit, clothing accessories, makeup or choice of weaponry. If you’re stuck for ideas, begin with the four key categories that make a relatable, yet unique design - Theme, Archetype, Trope and Spin.

Consider the shape language of your character’s design, using the rule of thirds to distribute large, medium, and small shape elements for maximum readability. Use the underlying anatomy of your character as a basis for plated armor or robotics, and to help direct the folds and creases in the material of their clothing.

Use contrast, in terms of shape, size and tonal value to create a pleasing design that’s easily interpretable and memorable. This can also apply to various materials used throughout the characters costume - for example, the combination of cloth and leather.

Is the design of your character functional? And how much influence does it’s practicality have over the visual aesthetics. This comes down to your own preference, but there should still be some balance between the two for the design to make sense.

Remember to use plenty of references to help inspire new ideas, and to create accurate representations of the elements that make up your character’s design. Not every material folds, creases or reflects light in the same way. Armour and cloth often follow a logical structure that conforms to the body of the wearer - and it should be reflected in your design’s to make them convincing.

Assignment 4:

You should have three Superheroine Design sketches that you’ve developed, which are now ready to ink. That is your task for this assignment - to ink your first Superheroine concept. If you’re not already an experienced inker, my suggestion would be to pick the least complex design to begin with.

Ensure that you follow the three stages of the inking process, to keep your workflow straight forward and organised. In Step 1 you’ll outline your Superheroine, defining the final contours of the drawing with sharp, energetic line work. After that you’ll move onto Step 2 where you’ll drop in the Shadows and add in the Line Weight Variation, and finally in Step 3 you’ll render the character using the cross-hatching techniques we learned about in this lesson.

Remember to take some time calibrating your pen pressure and brush size. If you press hard and hold the stylus with a firm grip, try a smaller brush and see if that gives you the line you’re looking for. If you hold the stylus with a relaxed hand and work lightly instead, bump up the size of your brush and see if that works better.

Don’t force yourself to ink out lengthy lines in a single stroke, steadily build them up as you go. Just ensure the final line is smooth and streamlined. Each one should be carefully sculpted to vividly define the form it’s contouring. The finished line work should be neat and extremely clean, so really take your time with it and do the best you can.

Cross-Hatches are used to create tone and form, and the way in which you control their brightness, contrast and gradient falloff, is through the thickness, quantity and spacing of the render lines, or hatches if you prefer.

What matters most is that the inked rendition of your character conveys their shape and form with extreme clarity. So with every line you ink in, make that the priority.

One final tip, before you get started - you may want to test out different strokes and cross-hatches on a practice page to begin with, just to familiarize yourself with how the pen tool works and feels. And try to figure out what’s most comfortable to you - for example, do you prefer to pull the stylus toward you when you lay down a stroke, or does it feel better to push it away?

Assignment 5:

In this assignment you’ll ink your second Superheroine. Before getting started though, take a moment to reflect on the experience you had inking up your first Superheroine and answer the questions below.

1. What were some of the greatest challenges you ran into?
2. How did you overcome those obstacles?
3. In hindsight, what would you have done differently?
4. How will what you learned in this lesson affect your approach and technique?
5. What inking methods have had the most impact on your work thus far?
6. Were there areas that could have been improved upon?
7. How will you raise the bar and push your inking skills to the next level in this assignment?

Take your time to answer these questions, then move onto the next section in this assignment.

In this lesson we expanded upon what we learned in the previous lesson and covered a number of approaches for inking chrome materials, drapery and light colored hair. Hopefully your second Superheroine design will give you an opportunity to implement what was learned in at least one of these topics - If not, leave them for your final design, or at the very least put them into practice by doing a quick study.

Regardless of your Superheroine’s design, there will be overarching guidelines you can follow that apply across the board.

Consider the characteristics of the materials throughout your Superheroine’s costume. Are they glossy and reflective, or are they more of a diffused matte material? Does it fit closely against the form of her body, or is it loose and relaxed? Are the folds and creases large and soft, or are they sharp and deep? What is the tonal value of the material?

Although the contrast, brightness and tone of the rendering will be dependant on the attributes of the material for each element, the light source will determine where the highlights hit and the shadows fall.

Take advantage of the S Curved “Line Of Beauty” to create lively contours that follow a natural gesture. This kind of stroke is excellent for dynamic elements such as drapery and hair.

When it comes to overlapping elements, use contrasting values in your rendering to set them apart. Then, to really make them pop, define those at the forefront of the character with bolder outlines. This will create added depth and dimension within your Superheroine design!

Remember to take the time to add that final polish to your inks. Tweak the thickness of the lines if it helps the shapes to read better. Adjust the tonal range of the rendering in areas that need it. Place in drop shadows and subtle texture details to add solidarity to the forms.

Assignment 6:

Welcome to your sixth assignment. By now you should have inked two Superheroine character design, posted them onto the Virtual Comic Art Classroom for feedback, and applied it. As a result, you should see a noticeable improvement between Superheroine one and two.

In this assignment you’ll take what you’ve learned from inking the previous two characters, the feedback you’ve received and what you learned in this lesson - and apply all of it as you ink up your third and final character.

But to do this effectively, you’ll need to shine a light on what you’ve learned thus far by answering the questions below.

1. What two things must be calibrated to ink lines in at the desired thickness?
2. List three ways Weight Variation can increase the quality of your line art
3. How would you determine the placement, and intensity of your shadows and shading?
4. In what ways does Rendering increase the depth and readability of your illustration?
5. What three considerations must be made in order to render effectively?
6. What are the advantages to using an organised method of producing your art?

Some of those questions might seem pretty tough, but if you find them too hard to answer, use the timestamp references to review the lesson. Make sure you answer these questions thoughtfully, because they will ingrain the most important elements necessary for effective inking.

Next, let’s consider what you’ve learned in your own experience thus far and determine what your main focus should be next!

1. In the previous two assignments, what were the most difficult obstacles you faced?
2. Explain what you did to move past them?
3. Observing the Superheroines you’ve inked thus far, do you see a difference in their quality?
4. What did you do differently, that improved the outcome of Superheroine two?
5. Take a moment to review the inks for your first and second Superheroine. How could they be improved?
6. How will you push the envelope in this assignment, to increase the quality of the inks for your third Superheroine?
7. What aspects of the inking process do you feel you could be making better use of?

Take as long as you need to answer these questions with care. They should subconsciously bring your awareness to the areas within your inking process that are working, and where your focus should be in the next assignment in order to improve. Monitoring your progress makes up 80-90% of your learning experience - and it’s absolutely mandatory for you to get the most out of this course.

Next, let’s move onto the guts of this assignment!

Your task is to ink your final Superheroine. Give this one all you’ve got, taking the sum of what you’ve learned throughout the previous lessons and put it into practice. If there are parts of the inking process that you haven’t quite integrated yet, do your best to include them now.

This applies to the techniques you’re not quite as comfortable with yet, and might be avoiding. Effective learning requires us to push beyond our comfort zone during practice. It’s in our nature to shy away from anything we haven’t yet got the hang of, so you might fight against that and be brave.

If your Superheroine has been designed with mechanical assets and tech, recall what we covered in this lesson to ink Glitch’s augmented body parts. Remember to strategically use line weight variation and rendering, to bring clarity and depth to the design, especially if it consists of a complex composition.

Carefully balance the density, spacing and thickness of your cross hatching to control the level of tone within your shading, and the values of your character’s costume design. If you keep in mind the characteristics of these hatches, and have a clear idea of the tone you’re attempting to create, this should be fairly straight forward - but not necessarily easy.

Shape is everything, so as you define the holding lines for your Superheroine, try to delineate her as vividly as possible with strong, energetic contours. To help with this, ensure each stroke is precise and purposeful, describing every aspect of the character with interesting silhouettes that capture the eye.

To keep your line smooth and streamlined, vary the speed at which you work depending on the areas you’re attending to. Some will require a fast, sleek stroke, others may need to be built up in short bursts to sculpt out the line, and thus they will take a little extra time.

Assignment 7:

Base Colors:
The first part of this assignment focuses on establishing the Base Colors for your Superheroines - otherwise known as “Flatting”. This is where we form the design’s color scheme, and to make it work, we need to ensure each color fits in with the rest, in a complimentary way that’s pleasing to the eye.

To do that, we can use the Color Wheel to create appealing combinations, with a number of existing schemes that work well for most characters.

Complementary Color Schemes: The combination of two colors on opposite ends of the Color Wheel.
Analogous Color Schemes: Formed by three colors that sit next to each other on the Color Wheel.
Monochromatic Color Schemes: Creates using the shades of a single hue
Triadic Color Schemes: The combination of three colors spaced evenly around the Color Wheel.
Square Color Schemes: Composed of four colors that are equally spaced around the Color Wheel.

Color harmony also occurs naturally in nature, such as the pink, purple and orange hues created as the sun sets at dusk. This is what makes the above color schemes work so well in the first place, because they typically show up in the world around us.

Use a flat, hard-edged, completely opaque (non-see through) brush to fill in the flats. Keep each of your Superheroine’s elements on separate layers that are layered appropriately, so that you can use them as selection masks later.

Make sure the line art is at the top of your Layers List, so that instead of going over the inks, you’re going under them. Fill the entire area with color, taking it right to the edge of the bounding contour. It’s okay if the flats seep in underneath the Line work, just make sure they don’t go beyond it. If you do accidently color outside the lines, simply use the eraser tool to rub out the offcuts.

Fill in the flats for all three of your Superheroines at once. This will allow you to cement the Flatting Technique into your practice through repetition. It will also click you into a Production Mindset, by segmenting the process, so that you can progressively complete your characters at the same pace.

Base Highlights and Shadows:
After the Base Colors are done, it’s time to establish the Base Lighting Scheme. This requires two additional layers that are placed above the Base Colors in the Layer Hierarchy - labelled “Base Shadows” and “Base Highlights”.

On the Base Shadows Layer, we’ll loosely block in the shadow color for our Superheroines with the “Paint Brush”. To create the shadow tone, use the Eye Dropper Tool to pick the Base Color you’re about to shade. Dim it’s Brightness using the “B” Slider in the Color Panel, and increase the level of Saturation using the “S” Slider, to make up for the loss of potency. Shadows tend to have a cooler hue to them, so push the “H” Slider toward a cooler variation of the base tone you selected from the flats.

As you block in the shadows, think in terms of basic form, simplifying your Superheroine’s design into primitive shapes. This will make it easier to figure out how they should be shaded in relation to the direction of the lightsource.

The Base Highlight color is picked in the same way, using the Eyedropper Tool to sample the Base Color we’re about to paint over. Unlike the shadow tone, Highlights are typically warmer in contrast, so we’ll want to dial their Hue to create a warmer variant. They also usually have less Saturation and a higher level of Brightness.

As you shade the different sections of your Superheroine, use the Magic Wand Tool to make a selection around each base color. That you can make broad strokes without going outside the area you’re working in.

Don’t worry about blending the highlights and shadows together just yet. All we want to do for now is get the general forms shaded in.

Shadow and Highlight Overlays:
Finally, we’ll enrich the hues of our palette by adding a color overlay to the Shadows and Highlights. For this, you’ll need to create two new layers above the Base Shadows and Highlights - one for the “Shadow Overlay”, which is set to “Multiply Mode”, and another for the “Highlight Overlay”, set to “Overlay Mode”.

Create a combined selection mask from the Base Colors, by holding down Shift +Ctrl on your keyboard, and clicking on each of their Layer Thumbnails. Then fill the selection in, by right clicking, and choosing “Fill Selection” from the options.

Then use this mask to stay within the outside boundaries of your Superheroine as you lay in the Shadow and Highlight Overlays. Be sure to switch your Paint Brush to a round Airbrush, to keep gradient of the color tint soft and seamless.

Most lighting schemes consist of Warm Highlights/Cool Shadows, or Cool Highlights/Warm Shadows. So for the Shadow Color, I’d recommend picking a colder tone, such as blue or purple. If it comes out too intense when you brush it in, adjust the level of Brightness and Saturation to dial it back to dilute its potency.

Then run the airbrush over the top of the shadows. Don’t worry about being precise, work large and broad. As long as the color is overlaid within the general areas of shadows it should look fine. If the color is still coming out too intense, try lowering the opacity of your brush.

As for the Highlight Color, make it a warmer hue, such as orange or yellow. Keep the brightness high, with a medium to low level of Saturation. The run the airbrush over the lit area of the forms.

Don’t forget to give your Superheroine’s some make up! Create a new layer above the Highlight and Shadow Overlay called “Hue Shift” and set it to “Multiply” Mode. Then pick the colors you’d like to use for her lipstick, blush and eyeshadow. These can be any hue, but I like to stick with reds and pinks for the lips, nose and cheeks to enliven the face, while using a darker shade of eyeshadow to intensify the eyes. Then lay it on as thick as you like - just be careful not to make your Superheroines look to clownish!

Assignment 8:

The task for this assignment is to render your first Superheroine.

Assignment 9:

Welcome to Assignment 9 - you’ve come a long way, and hopefully at this point you’re starting to see your hard work and practice pay off.

Task:
In this assignment we’re going to move onto rendering your second Superheroine. Your first round of rendering should have helped you put the basics of lighting, form, materials and blending into practice. Let’s consider that one as a trial test - Assignment 9 is the real deal.

We’re going to apply what we’ve learned, and hard to push our rendering abilities to a more refined level.

Materials:
Take some extra time to consider the materials you’re working with throughout the Superheroine’s Costume. Make a mental list of them, and remain conscious of the level of reflectivity, contrast and color they’ll require to convey them accurately. Track down some references if you need to.

Don’t be too concerned about the surface texture of the forms, most of those details will be lost unless you’re super zoomed into your character. Merely suggest them at the very most if the material is rough.

What really matters is the way in which the light hits those materials and bounces off of them. This not only describes the material itself, but also the shape of the forms.

Looking at what we specifically learned from this lesson, observe the vast differences between Guardina’s skin, cloth, cape and chrome armor. Concerning the cloth, we’re shown an example of two clothing items that share the same material, but not the same color. There’s a big difference between them, so it’s best to make the distinction and treat them as separate components that go into the rendering of a form.

Contrast the soft fabrics throughout her design with the glossy, reflective armor and we see that this material reflects light off the form in a very different way. The Highlights and Shadows are extremely intense, with a minimal amount of blending between the two. What’s interesting is that chrome and other shiny metals with a mirror like sheen don’t just reflect light, but also the surrounding environment!

Her skin is a special case. It’s shaded in a similar way to the soft fabrics, with smooth, seamless transitions between the tonal values - but there’s a few nuances to it that must be thought about. The human body has many complex forms, and the way we shade skin, and other materials that sit tightly against the anatomy of a character will determine how they come across. Which means the shadows and highlights must be placed in exactly the right areas of the form, with the correct amount of blending and intensity. Otherwise they simply won’t look correct.

Skin also has tones of hue within it that make it more appealing - pinks, reds, and yellows for the highlights, and blue, purples for the shaded areas. Layered on top of the skin color, there’s usually a thin layer of sweat, and oil that cause a slightly higher amount of reflectivity then it would otherwise have - which we can use to accentuate the forms of the body. Adding more shine to the skin of your Superheroine is a great way to show off her physique!

Form:
Another important component when it comes to rendering is conveying form, with the right amount of height, shape and mass. As we know these are the very things that give it depth.

Assignment 10:

A Congratulations is Order:
Firstly, I want to give you a big congrats for making it to this point. Most people who take online drawing courses don’t make it all the way through to the end due to a lack of dedication and commitment. But you’ve stuck with it! - And hopefully you’ve begun seeing the benefits of doing so as your Superheroine’s have progressed throughout these assignments.

This is the final big assignment for your line up of Superheroines, where you’ll render your final character and bring her to completion.

Seeing Opportunities For Improvement:
By now you’ve got the experience of rendering the previous two Superheroines behind you, which means ideally, you’ll be able to take what you’ve learned and improve upon it. But you’ve got to pay attention to where those areas of improvements are - and if you’ve been posting your work up onto the Virtual Comic Art Classroom, the feedback you’ve received should have shone a spotlight on them.

Being able to see the opportunities for improvement in the first place is the key to constant progression in the mastering of your abilities, and the methods you’ve learned throughout this demonstration. Try to be completely honest with yourself, and go out of your way to address any potential weaknesses in your approach so that you can push past them.

As you jump into this assignment, think about some of your key takeaways from the lesson you just watched. What can you implement into the rendering of this Superheroine that you might have missed with the previous two?

Avoid Making The Same Mistakes:
The learning process involves action, feedback and analysis for you to improve at the most optimal pace possible. The last thing we want to keep making the same mistakes over and over again, reinforcing them simple due to a lack of understanding or awareness. This happens more than you think, and it can hold an artists progress back for years at a time unless they reroute in the right direction.

Reflective Analysis:
To help you out with this I’ve put together another simple questionnaire for you. Please take the time to carefully think about these questions carefully and write them down. Take as long as you need to reflect on the lessons you’ve got through thus far, the assignments you’ve completed and the amount of progress you believe you’ve made - and most importantly what you’d like to focus on next.

1. Looking at the previous two Superheroines you’ve rendered, do you see a noticeable difference in quality between them?
2. If you had to pick at least three of those differences, what would they be?
3. What aspects of your Superheroines do you wish were better?
4. How will you improve upon them with your next Superheroine?
5. What technique are you struggling to get a handle on most right now?
6. Why are you finding it difficult?
7. List three things that you could do to become more comfortable with this technique.
8. What are you most looking forward to about rendering you next Superheroine?
9. What will you do this time around to make this Superheroine your best one yet?

After you’ve answered this questionnaire, you should have a clear idea about the distance you’ve come since beginning this course, and what you’ll need to focus on next to take your final Superheroine to the next level.

Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment:
Remember not to be afraid to experiment. Learning isn’t about being perfect. It’s about discovering new things that work, which you can do consistently to arrive at the ideal outcome for you female comic book characters.

There’s no rush either, take your time to really get to know the tools and methods you’ve been learning about as you put them into practice. It’ll take time to make the right connections, not just understanding what we’ve talked about logically, but also on a practical level.

Good luck with this assignment!

Lauren Lewis

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