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 with it, you'll be able to complete your drawing. If you haven't already, you can now erase your guidelines. The lines you couldn't erase, go ahead and blend them in if you will be shading your drawing.

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 lines with your kneaded eraser for a more realistic look as you shade. Shading transition from dark to light (or visa versa) should be smooth... no harsh lines. Be patient with this, it's not as complicated as you may think. As you do more pictures, this will come easier to you.

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 blending stump. You will see what I mean in the upcoming steps. But before that, I want to show you some great uses of a pencil.

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 graphite (if it's a little dirty with graphite already on it). Try this stuff out. It really goes a long way in creating a realistic pictures or even sketches. If you don't have these tools, just use a No.2 pencil and a tissue to blend. BOTTOM PICTURES: You can purchase many different grit ranges of sandpaper at your handy hardware store.

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/detailed strokes. UNDERHAND: Holding the pencil at a 45 degrees or near level to the table with end of pencil under your palm with pencil on the flat side, gives you large shading coverage. With the No.2 pencil, you have the exposed lead side to shade with. But for a wider swath, use that Cretacolor Monolith graphite pencil with no wood casing. The whole sharpened portion is all lead, like in the step's picture. Practice the toning values to help you with control.

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 can select "Save Image As." It should save to your desktop.

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 would sketch in small circles or lines to shade the areas. It would take hours upon hours to cover all that area with a pencil. I chose to shade with pastels. In a few strokes I've got area coverage. Applied medium to dark gray to his, shell head, face, collar and robe. Added black pastel to his neck. Looks like a mess, but that's how a some beginning projects will appear. Keep patience with you and keep applying those layers of whites, grays & blacks. You'll have a great outcome.

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 like the shell ridges, face, eyes, ridges & piping on collar, and shiny edges on robe. The kneaded eraser was excellent in making these areas light. At this point, I have not used a pencil yet. After those adjustments, I sprayed the picture with "Krylon Workable Fixatif" to adhere the pencil & pastel to the paper for a non-smudging and workable surface.

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 definition the his shell, nostril definitions, eye pupils and chin! Then I took my blending stump to give more depth to the piping and folds in his robe. While I did the shading on his shell and face, I used the sandpaper (yes, I wanted that dotted texture to show through).

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 original background in Step 21. This background was cloned from the reference pic to add drama and save time. Now, To help out with specific areas of highlights, tone, texture, etc., the next two following steps will show you.

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 your love here. And I will definitely reply back soon or eventually. Love, peace, happiness, success, and more beautiful days to ya! *hug* *blowkiss*