Hello! Any tips on how to learn how to draw mercs? I’m an artist that never ever drew men before, yet alone with such different face features and bodies. I love how you draw the mercs, they closely resemble the way they look like in game and comics and I really hope you can give some advice-
Ohhh I can talk about character design for days AND about Tf2 character design for forever. Lemme tell ya, my artistic skills got so much better after I started to learn how to draw the mercs! It's not easy but so worth it
EDIT: I forgot!! Loadout.tf is a life saver, too!! LINK HERE
Soooo, lets start with the faces:
I love the facial structures of these fuckers so much. They're so shaped! Like look at them and tell me, do many modern games even come close to making their characters this unique??
Ahem, anyway. The faces are all very distinct shapes so ya just gotta remember that when drawing any of the mercs. Like ya know:
Just the outlines if that helps more idk
The basics of drawing anything is figuring out what shape it is tbh. With everything. Like the overall head shape but also the shape of the nose, of the chin and jaw. Here's some other pointers, too:
One of the things many might ignore (I know I did for a while) is the neck thickness. If your Heavy seems weird, check the neck!
Now with their body/whole designs:
Every merc is designed so that you can recognize 1. who they are and 2. what their job is from a distance.
Let's look at Scout+Spy+Sniper: Scout is lanky but not thin like Spy. Sniper is taller with a bit wider frame than Scout n Spy.
Also, while Medic is pretty uhh balanced/proportionate (+ big boobs), next to Spy he is very toned. Also, Heavy's legs are the shortest of all the mercs. Even Engie has longer legs!
And the yaoi hands of TF2, never forget:
I admit, I draw Heavy's hands so much smaller than what they actually are. Spy is the only one with normal hands. He has baby hands compared to everyone else lol.
Also, it doesn't show here and I admit, I forget to add it many times, but I do love that Sniper has a Garand thumb and what I've understood, happens when ones thumb gets stuck in the reloading bullet chamber thing in some rifles. I just think that's a neat detail
So uhh yea. Shapes shapes shapes! Turn the mercs into shapes!
And don't stress too much about making them look like "men", especially if you're not used to drawing more masculine people in general. Just draw what you see.
Plus, all the same shape language can be used to make fem versions of the mercs, too!
...I hope this is anything lol. Happy drawing!!!
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