How to Draw AJ Lee
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This tutorial is completely in PENCIL! Let's start with the tools. I'm in love with the Monolith 9B graphite pencil sticks. It's nice, black, smooth on the surface and makes such great dark lines. And a No.2 pencil isn't bad either--great for details
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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
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The strange crescent shape on the oval is just a reminder that her hair will be there. Also in bisecting line (down the middle of the face) and parallel lines in the next picture are to help with eyebrows, eyes, nose and mouth placement. Right now, d
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FIRST PICTURE: If you are doing a professional picture and need accuracy, this has helped me tremendously. This is MY TIP of the day and it is LONG! Skip it if you want to. Those crazy lines help with placement too. Don't get me wrong, I mess up majo
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1ST PICTURE: Draw in some hairs to the eyebrows, add eyelashes and pupils. 2ND PICTURE: Start shading with a pencil, even a No. 2 pencil will do well. Shade lightly & diagonally around the eyes. Also fill in the pupils, leaving some catchlights. Stro
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To straighten out my eyebrows, I was taught to pinch the hairs to shape them. For drawing the hairs realistically, click on this picture to see how the hair flows and how you can draw them. The hair flows down from the eyebrow arch. Also the hairs co
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You can see closely how the shading progresses. 1. Simple eyebrows and eyes. 2. Shaping begins. 3. More lines, shading, and looking at the reference. 4. Darkening the eyebrows, eyes, and adding more shadow & shading to skin to match reference. 5. Mor
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We are back to shading the picture from Step 5. Shade more under the eyebrows. Do this lightly. Also sketch in more shading around her temple and nose. I have not blended yet. I'm just adding more lines and make sure your pencil stays sharpened as yo
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Go ahead and lightly shade with diagonal strokes. Now using a .7mm HB or even 2B lead in the mechanical pencil is great. It doesn't wear down, you don't have to sharpen it, and it's quality remains the same. Notice how the shading has progressed up h
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Here we are detailing the mouth more. The basic image is there and tweaking, erasing hasn't happened yet. Just shade lightly at a diagonal slant. Her cheek lines & lips are defined by this process. Also add a slightly darker shadow under her lower li
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Here you can more easily capture the shading progression of the nose. If you need to, lighten the outline of the nose with your (kneaded) eraser.
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I am showing the basic drawn shapes (guidelines) of her hair, eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, facial outline, and upper bust. Some of the lines in her face do not exactly line up. This is where you would erase and tweak to get the reference picture's tr
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Add curls to her hair. Draw them lightly so you can easily blend in the lines. Shade down to her neck & add a darker shadow on her collar below her chin. Notice how everything starts out real simple then I build up on the picture. Always look at the
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Progress adding curls to the other side of her hair. Draw in the skull, necklace, and piping to her blouse.
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Here is the shading progression for the lips. In picture 4, you can use the 9B graphite pencil to add darkness to where the lips meet. Picture 7 is the end result of blend and highlight/darkening details.
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Long hair can take longer to create than a face. So I consider hair to be important to capture as well as the subject's personality. The small curved lines represent the direction of the hair strands & help to keep focus on drawing the hair. Yes, thi
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Here is the beginning of shading the hair. The strokes are curved and go along with the basic shape of the hair groups. Actually, this is much like filling in lines in a coloring book. Still you need to start your pencil strokes from the darkest poin
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When you start darkening the hair, you'll notice doing it in layers gives a realistic look. Darken as you go along, looking at your reference. TIP REPEAT: When you start a stroke with your pencil, the beginning pressure is harder and ends up thicker
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Keep adding those hair strokes in the direction of the curls. It helps to keep looking at the reference and not assuming where the lines flow. Also shade in her tie and the piping to her blouse. TIP: For fly-away hair, I keep the lines there. After s
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Sketch lightly over her exposed chest area with your No.2 pencil. Do diagonal strokes or small circles. Also add darker shading lines on the tie, under her collar & other areas. Make sure your pencil is sharp.
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FLYING HAIR: Click on this pic to see how the fly-away hair strands have progressed in drawing and shading. It is not as hard as it seems. It just takes a little more time for that extra "umph" to your picture. PIC 9: Notice how I really darkened the
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Since a lot of detailing was applied to AJ's blouse and tie, click on this pic to see the drawing and shading progression.
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The blending stump can work miracles for your picture. Use the skinny, tiny one for small areas, like around the eyes, in the nose and mouth. The larger stump can blend larger areas, even the cheek areas and skin tone area. Now if you want a really s
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Here I've added the background only. Get as close to the hair as you can. I used the No.2 pencil since the background is not that dark.
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I've darkened the side of her face and hair more. Make sure you take your kneaded eraser and leave some highlights in her hair and at the edge of her face. Adding the background darker, filling in the white areas makes AJ Lee pop out more. I hope you
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November 23, 2013
Description: April Jeanette Lee is an American professional wrestler. She works for WWE under the ring name AJ Lee, where she is the current WWE Divas Champion. I think she is beautiful like Jennifer Lopez. This tutorial is strictly done in pencil, background & all, with blending stumps and a kneaded eraser. I hope you enjoy this tutorial. And please fav, comment, or even click on Like. Thank you.
