How to Draw Mothra, Mothra

Artist: KingTutorial / February 9, 2012

1 votes

Step 1.

To begin we'll draw some guide lines. Hmm... While this is pretty basic, it's also about all you need to draw a simple moth or butterfly, so yay for that. This will be a view of Mothra from the top.

Step 2.

Starting at the top base of the wing, we'll trace over the guide lines and add some flare and overlap to the wing's outline.

Step 3.

One major difference between moths and butterflies is that moths tend to have furry bodies and legs. The base of Mothra's wings are also rather furry, and we'll show that by drawing texture with feathered marks. This can be a bit time-consuming, but

Step 4.

Here we'll draw some of the crazy patterns on the wing...

Step 5.

Now we'll fill those shapes in with black and refine the edges to make them sharper and crisper. We'll go on to draw the patterns on the lower wing in the same way.

Step 6.

Now repeat steps 2 through 5 on the opposite side of the body. You can also choose to draw both wings at once, but I know I would smudge graphite and ink all over the paper if I did that.

Step 7.

Let's draw Mothra's thorax area. That's the center part of the insect body, and it's also where the wings attach. We'll use the same texture from Step 3 around the edges here.

Step 8.

Now we'll draw the head and abdomen. The eyes are just barely visible from the top. The antennae stick out from above and between the eyes. There are pincers at the end of the abdomen. Scary.

Step 9.

Wrap it up by drawing some rows of fur texture down the abdomen and add little bits of fur to the head and thorax. Leave the front of the head and thorax bare and add more texture toward the back. This will give the shapes a bit more dimension, as if

Step 10.

The finished inks. Pretty snazzy, if I do say so myself.

Step 11.

I also went ahead and colored this drawing. The main thing I focused on was adding texture to the furry areas on the wings and body.

Step 12.

Now we'll begin the second image. This is more of an action shot, with a better view of Mothra's face and underbelly. Draw a circle for the head with a curved center line. Draw six shapes pointing inward for the legs. Then draw the round abdomen.

Step 13.

Lighten up your guide drawing and then draw the details of the face. We'll give the eyes a simple, standard insect eye pattern. Just use criss-crossed lines to indicate the detail of the eye. If you're up for it, you can instead draw lots of tiny dot

Step 14.

I really wanted to draw the furry texture on Mothra, but I didn't want to make it too complex. I ended up with this sort of feathery pattern. All the curves spread out from the center of the head. This will help us maintain a round 3D-like shape. The

Step 15.

Next we'll draw one of Mothra's lower legs. I've enlarged it so you can see all the different parts. Begin by drawing the main two toes, and then the "thumb." From there, draw the wrist fold, and use the feathery texture along the edges of the leg, t

Step 16.

Now draw in the remaining lower legs. Try to adjust the angles of the feet/hands accordingly. As weird and simplified as these are, you could try using your own hands as reference.

Step 17.

Next we'll draw the upper legs bending inward from the knees/elbows and connecting to the center of the thorax. At the base of the legs, we can draw folds that almost mimic ab muscles. Almost. Bugs don't have muscles on the outside, but I think you c

Step 18.

Moving on, let's draw the bulk of the abdomen. Since we're kind of looking down at this shape, the horizontal stripes of fur will be curved down and around the abdomen. The tiny curves of the fur texture will all point out from the top center of the

Step 19.

Now draw the pincers at the end of the abdomen. I think I went a little crazy here with them. Too scary for Mothra, perhaps. You can adjust their size and shape according to your personal preference. They're basically just claws that point inward. Si

Step 20.

Here we'll draw the first "layer" of Mothra's wings. I took some liberties here, just to add interesting shapes and textures to the wings. Just remember the wings attach on the back of the thorax, where the legs also attach. All your curves should be

Step 21.

Now we'll draw the larger shape of the wings. Use a little less texture to leave room for the tattoo-like patterns. As the wings flap in the air, the edges bend back and forth. As a result, in this shot, the part of the wing that's closest to us is a

Step 22.

Finally, add the tattoo wing patterns, and we can call this sucker finished.

Step 23.

The finished line art. If you're not going to color this, be sure to fill in the wing markings with black for some dynamic contrast. Check the preview image at the top for the final colors. I hope you all enjoyed this tutorial. Hopefully there'll be

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Artist: KingTutorial
Date Added: February 9, 2012
Steps: 23
Favorited: 0
Views: 0 in last hour, 11 in last day, 68 in last week, 40900 total
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Tags: how to draw godzilla characters, how to draw moths
Description: It's Kaiju Time! (Giant Monster Time) Hey, guys. In this tutorial we'll be drawing Mothra, the giant moth from Infant Island. I'll do a top and bottom shot so we can get a look at everything. Ok, let's get to drawing!