How to Draw Spawn
The gates of hell are open, and out of the abyss returns the soul of Al
Simmons. He
only came back to see his beloved wife again, but the devil tricked him
and turned him into a Hell Spawn, a demon that has to serve him.
But the Hell Spawn refuses to serve and starts to fight for his freedom and independence. It is a rather complicated figure, so this won't be done in just five minutes. But in many little steps we'll get a handle on it. Let's begin. How to Draw Spawn - Step 1: Sketching the Body  We start out with a sketch of Spawn's body. To make sure that all body parts have the right size, we measure them in heads. The torso is about two heads high. Below the torso there are two heads to go until you reach the knee, and below the knee there is space for two more heads until you reach the feet. One foot is hidden in a huge boot. You can only see the toes coming out in the front. The other foot is half a head high. Don't be concerned about its actual shape right now. Just draw in a simple box.  Let's draw in the arms now. In this position, they are heavily shortened by the perspective. Take your time to draw them carefully and resist the urge to make them longer. The longer you make them, the more it will look like they are pointing towards the side instead of the front. Spawn is holding his hands in a taunting gesture, pointing at someone with one hand, while channeling necro-energy with the other. Just put blocky shapes in the place for the hands right now. We'll draw the detailed hands later. How to Draw Spawn - Step 2: Face  Draw in Spawn's eyes and the decorative shape around them. If he reminds you of Spiderman, you shouldn't be surprised. After all, Todd McFarlane drew Spiderman for many years, before he created Spawn as his own cartoon character. As soon as he is colored, however, Spawn looks quite different than Spiderman, because he has his own unique color scheme. How to Draw Spawn - Step 3: Torso Muscles  Since Spawn is a superhero he needs super-muscles. His body of necroplasm has immense strength. Here's everything I added in this step: 1. huge breast muscles 2. ribs showing at the side 3. bottom of rib cage showing above the belly 4. six-pack belly muscles 5. armpit emphasized with a little curve Once you're done with that, we move on to the hands. I show each one in several steps, because they are always a bit complicated to draw. How to Draw Spawn - Step 4: Hands  Here the perspective shortening is playing an important role again. The pointing finger should be very short and look like it is pointing in the same direction as the rest of the arm. I erased it often until I was satisfied, so perhaps you will need several tries, too.      So how about the fancy gloves with all the spikes that Spawn is wearing? Well, I didn't include them for the sake of simplicity. You wouldn't see much of them from this perspective of the hands anyway. But feel free to add them, if you like. The same goes for this belt of bags he is wearing around one of his legs. I didn't include that either to keep things simple, but you can add it in the next step. How to Draw Spawn - Step 5: Legs  And back to muscles we go! First clear up your original sketchy lines of the legs, and then bring out the muscles with a few lines. Don't tell me that I'm exaggerating. In the comics Spawn is shown with waaaaaaay more muscles than here. But to draw them all in would be incredibly complicated. My hat is off to Todd McFarlane and the way he is drawing anatomy! When the legs are done we take care of the feet. How to Draw Spawn - Step 6: Feet  Now it's time to turn this clubfoot we left Spawn with into an actual foot. Also divide this mega-boot he is wearing into several blocks. The lowest block should be the biggest.  Add some garment to the free foot. Also place a little curve above the heel, to bring out the typical shape of the bone there.  It's going to get spiky! Draw a single spike sticking out of the left foot, and then place circles on the boots where the other spikes are supposed to be. All circles should roughly have the same size, except for the lowest row on the big boot, where they are very tiny. Take note that the spike rows on the big boot are slightly shifting, and not arranged in columns.  To turn the circles into spikes is no big deal. Just draw a straight line from the top and the bottom of the circle, and let them meet each other. But to create a realistic look we have to consider in which angle the spikes are facing us. Simply put, the spikes have to become longer the more they sit towards the side of the boot, and shorter the more they are in the middle. So make your lines longer or shorter accordingly. In a few cases I drew the spikes facing us directly. You only see a small dot in those circles, which is the peak of the spike.  Erase all lines that are covered by the spikes now. And with that the boots are done. Splendid. How to Draw Spawn - Step 7: Suit Details  Draw a big M-shape on Spawn's torso. It starts below the ribs at the side, goes up to the top of the chest, and then goes all the way down to the crotch. Let the peaks at the top slightly bend towards the middle. This way they'll look much better. How to Draw Spawn - Step 8: Skulls  Who doesn't like skulls on a demon outfit? Place two little skulls beside the shoulders. These are going to hold Spawn's huge cloak. Draw another skull just below the belly muscles. Make its left side a bit shorter, since we see it from a slight side angle. This bigger skull will serve as a chain holder. How to Draw Spawn - Step 9: Chains  Before you start to draw the actual chains, I recommend that you first sketch in lines to figure out where to place them. In my case, the chains will just coil towards the ground, because I don't want to move the center of attention away from the hands. But you can draw the chains standing upwards like aggressive cobras, ready to attack. After all, they are weapons that Spawn can command mentally. Keep that in mind.  If you've never drawn any chains, here is the way to do it. You start out with a simple square, in which you place another square. This is the first link. Then you add a thin long rectangle at the side of the first link. This is also a link, but you just see it from the side. Afterwards you add a square link again, and erase the parts where the connecting link is covering the other two. When you draw chains that are curved, you have to resist the temptation to draw the links themselves as curved shapes. Remember, the links consist of firm iron and cannot be bend. You have to create the curve by drawing the links in slightly changing angles, like shown under point 4.  So this is what it looks like when all the little links are added over the lines. It may take a while to draw them in, but therefore they look pretty good. How to Draw Spawn - Step 10: Cloak  Start drawing Spawn's cloak with two tails that coil beside his head. Let them come up from the two skulls.  Now cover Spawn's shoulders with several folds of his cloak. These folds should also go towards the skulls. When you look closely, you can see that I let the cloak show a little bit below the skulls. This strengthens the impression that they are holding it.  In this step I made a tiny change to the foot in the big boot. I just added a small line to point out where the top of the toes is. And then it's time to draw in the rest of the cloak. Do you know that it is actually a creature of its own which is living in symbiosis with Spawn, feeding on his necroplasm? In my picture this cloak-demon-creature is very calm, because its master hasn't called upon its power yet. But you can let it coil and float around all the way you like. You can also make it much bigger, in case you have enough space on your paper. How to Draw Spawn - Step 11: Necro-Fire  Again I made a minor change on the body here. I placed two short lines on the lower arm to bring out the sinews there. Finally, we give Spawn some necro-energy to play around with. Draw it in the shape of a flame. The single flame tongues are touching each other around the hand, but there is an opening in the main direction the flame is going to. Farer away from the hand, the small flame spikes don't touch each other anymore, and the distance between them increases slightly. This creates the effect that the fire looks most intense in the hand, where it is concentrated.  And now the hell Spawn is complete, demanding respect from all those who would dare to cross his path. I think this is one of the most difficult drawing lessons I've created so far. The character is pretty complex and the perspective shortening of the arms isn't easy either. Let me compliment you on tackling this challenging guy and I hope to see you soon for another drawing session.
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