How to Draw a Prothean, Mass Effect

Artist: catlucker / May 25, 2012

11 votes

Step 1.

Draw the oval lightly with a No.2 or HB pencil. Make sure you draw it as seen in the picture.

Step 2.

Now draw in the bisecting red line to balance the Prothean's facial features.

Step 3.

Sketch lightly the crescent red lines for hair line and head mass.

Step 4.

You can draw in the lines a. for top of eyes, b. for bottom of eyes, c. for main nostrils, d. for mouth, and e. for shoulder placements.

Step 5.

Now draw in the Prothean's squid-like eyes.

Step 6.

Observe where this alien's features appear in relation to the guidelines. Draw in his crustacean head. Make sure you sketch in those steeple-like ridges to help with shading.

Step 7.

Watch closely how the face outline, jawline, and chin relate to the guidelines. As you draw, you will have more accuracy.

Step 8.

Since there are quite a few curved lines representing his robe and collar, I've broken this down into two parts. Just draw lightly the left side facing you.

Step 9.

Now you can draw in the right side of the Prothean's collar and robe. Look closely at how the lines in his collar are drawn. Make sure you get the curved lines, representing the piping and mass of this apparel. Patience is your best friend because wi

Step 10.

I made this line drawing especially for you if you don't want to do the pencil shading and blending part. Otherwise, let us continue to the pencil drawing part.

Step 11.

Here is the outline done with a 0.7mm mechanical pencil. Look closely and see if your lines look something like this. You can erase if certain areas like the eyes or nose don't line up. Take you kneaded eraser and dab off the shadow outlines or dark

Step 12.

Before we go any further, I want to mention some tools I used, which is the famous white acrylic (this time white opaque watercolor) and also sandpaper. Right before I shaded, I used 180-grit sandpaper and rubbed over the Prothean's face with a clean

Step 13.

TOP PICTURES: Here are the mechanical pencils with their crosshatches, lines, and circular shading. They start from light (H) to dark (B). The 2nd top picture includes 9B'S & BLENDERS You can actually shade a little with blending stumps without the g

Step 14.

The picture that goes with this step shows two different ways to hold your pencil to acquire certain effects. OVERHAND: Holding a sharpened pencil in normal writing form with fingers in the middle or near the lead gives you great control and thin/det

Step 15.

PENCIL STROKES & TONE, SHADING, TEXTURE -- For your convenience, I have inserted this step with different pencils, strokes to use. And you can study the shapes that make up this drawing universe, along with tone, shading, and texture.

Step 16.

The picture here is a great exercise for value shading. I've got a little secret tip for you to make things easier. You can download this to your desktop. First click on the picture to have access to full size. By right clicking on your mouse, you ca

Step 17.

After printing out a number of the above template, practice shading in the values like this picture. You become familiar with this shading technique that gives you more control and confidence.

Step 18.

This is where I slid my 180-grit sandpaper under my paper outline. I rubbed on the paper with my blending stump to make the paper "bumpy." Now I can start with the pastel application. If you do the whole picture in a pencil sketch, this is where you

Step 19.

Here I used my blending stump to "draw" in more lines, add more shading to his shell, eyes, face and neck. I blended that area with the sandpaper underneath. is collar and robe I did not use sandpaper to get a smooth effect. I needed to whiten areas

Step 20.

I applied black pastel to the darkest areas under the shell overhang and in the shaded neck & collar area. I shaded the Prothean's face more with dark pastel (it lightened as I blended). I took charge and grabbed my 9B Graphite pencil and added more

Step 21.

I added background with a medium gray to black pastels and rubbed softly to get that blended effect. On his robe, I added the dark shadow with black pastel and kept darkening the tone of the picture to match the reference pic.

Step 22.

Basically, I added more highlights with Opaque Watercolor to the lights in the Prothean's eyes, on the edges of his shell ridges, near his nostrils, and on the reflective light of his neck. Now this Mass Effect creature "pops" out! You can use the or

Step 23.

Without highlights, your picture would have a flat appearance. Click on this picture to learn how to make your own picture POP out!

Step 24.

Click on this picture to see how Tone, Shading, Texture, and Reflective Light affects The Prothean. I am closing out now. But you all have been wonderful and it has been a great pleasure to do this tutorial with you. Please fav, comment, and show you

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Details

Artist: catlucker
Date Added: May 25, 2012
Steps: 24
Favorited: 9 (view)
Views: 0 in last hour, 1 in last day, 8 in last week, 25764 total
Comments: 0
Tags: how to draw mass effect, how to draw mass effect characters
Description: According to the novel Mass Effect: Revelation, the Prothean empire was wiped out approximately 50,000 years ago, long before humanity had even reached the Cro-Magnon phase of development. Despite their complex technology, the Protheans were methodically wiped out by a race of sentient and genocidal machines known as the Reapers. Though the species was exterminated, a select few surviving Protheans managed to leave behind a series of clues and warnings of the Reapers' impending return which are discovered over the course of the games. (Wikipedia Notes) I hope you will enjoy "How to Draw a Prothean." Please fav, show your love, and comment. Thank you all. Peace and love to you.