How to Draw Slithe, Thundercats
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Ok, let's begin with some guide lines. The body is sort of an egg shape, with a circle for the head, and a bulge for the belly. Slithe's legs are fairly short and squat, and his arms are a bit longer. This is a 3/4 shot, but his face will be aimed ri
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I chose to start the drawing with Slithe's crown. The overall shape is pretty basic, just going across the forehead and down the cheeks. Each side comes to a point, and there's a diamond shape in the center top area. The crown pretty much covers the
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Here we'll tackle two major details of the face. First we'll continue down from the mouth area. Slithe has a very loose and lumpy neck, with wrinkly skin hanging down like a pouch. Overlapping U-shaped curves should achieve a nice effect here. The bo
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Now for the rest of the main facial details. Naturally the eyes go on either side of the nose. They're diamond-like in shape, with V-lines above and below for the eyelids. Wrinkles run down from the nose to the upper lip. We can open Slithe's mouth a
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Slithe doesn't wear much. His most recognizable clothing accessory is the skull-like symbol on his chest. This is basically an upside-down triangle with a curved horn on each side, but feel free to snag some animal skull reference to add some cool de
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A large orb sits in the center of the chest emblem. We can also add some eyes and other panel lines here.
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Since the figure is at an angle, the main body is partially covered by the arm closest to us. We'll draw that arm before moving on to anything else. Grab an action figure or some photo reference for the muscles. The shoulder is made up of three egg-l
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There's an arm guard on the lower part of the forearm. Very basic stuff here. Draw a sausage at the top and bottom, with straight lines forming the sides of the armor. Let's also drop in some of the forearm muscles and start adding some spikes protru
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Slithe's fingers are very long and gnarled. The bones are generally thin, but the knuckles are rather large. Let's start by drawing just the outer finger. There are three knuckles -- one where the finger meets the hand, and two more within the finger
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Filling in the other main fingers...
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The thumb is partially obscured by the pointer finger. This overlap will give a nice sense of dimension. At this point we can go back and add some shapes to the arm guard.
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With the main arm completed, we can draw in the shapes of the torso. Begin with the pectorals (chest muscles). They meet behind the chest emblem. Use a large curve for the belly, but bring it back down to a V in the crotch area. Draw a curve for a fo
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Drawing in the belt line and straps of the pants.
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A pair of leather straps come down from either side of the head and connect to the chest emblem. The skull attaches to the belt with a square, metal ring. Let's add some definition to the pants here.
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The second arm is partially obscured by the body. Start from the shoulder and work your way toward the wrist. Check your reference again to make sure your muscles aren't way off. Let's go ahead and add the palm and thumb here.
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Now draw in the fingers to complete the hand. Putting even just one finger in a position different from the rest can make the hand seem more interesting.
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I'd begin the thigh by drawing the kneecap first. Then drop in the muscles one by one. Legs can be tricky to draw, but try to get an idea of where the main muscles go. Use photos or even an action figure for reference. A toy can be good reference bec
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The lower legs seem to be covered with some loose hanging skin. Beneath the bulges of the calves, draw a flap of skin hanging over the ankles.
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Slithe's feet are basically just like his hands. Start them off by drawing the thumb and pointer finger/toe.
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The rest of the toes fall nicely into place...
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Now to draw in the tail. There are plenty of tools out there for drawing long curves. I've never been a big fan of french curve tools. Most art stores should carry a flexible curve tool that you can shape however you want.
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Finally we'll add some topical details to finish him up. There are spikes at the end of the tail. Draw the line that separates the front side of his skin from the back side. The back side is covered in large, square-like spots. Add some shine to the
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When you're done, go back over your drawing and look for any overlapping shapes. The main one I remember here was one of the elbow spikes. Use an eraser or white-out to clean it up.
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The fully colored artwork. I hope you had fun with this tutorial. Some more Thundercats characters should be on the way in the coming weeks. The armored forms from the "Legacy" episode are definitely on my list. Anyway, thanks for viewing, and be sur
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September 27, 2011
Description: Back again with another Thundercats tutorial. This time we're doing Slithe. In the current series, he's just a Lizard warrior and henchman of Mumm-Ra. In the old series, he was leader of the Mutants and was a pretty interesting character. We'll be tackling the modern design, but there are very few differences with the original 80's design.
