Huzzah! @starybard - Tumblr Blog

@spagheddiesquash Helloooo tumblr ate the ask you sent me while I was trying to answer it!!! So I have to rewrite a whole bunch of stuff I wrote down but anyway

First of all! Thank you so much, I’m happy that people like how I draw Jaw Bone!!! It means a lot to me <3

Second of all: SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO ANSWER YOUR ASK!!!!! Yes I can totally put together a tutorial on how I draw him! The one thing is that I don’t think I’ve ever made a tutorial before and I’m unsure how well I can articulate how I specifically draw Jaw Bone? So I wanted to make sure I had a lot of visual aids. Also I feel like this is going to end up being more of a study than a tutorial lol bc this is gonna be a pretty long post… His design is a bit complicated if you’re not used to it and I have plenty to say about it so I wanted to explain it part-by-part, in the order of how I usually draw it.

(Since it’s going to be long and I have many pics to add on, this will be in 2 parts, continued in reblogs, but it shouldn’t take too long to add on the second part after I have this first part posted.)

First a few general things:

1) If you want to learn how to draw anything, use as many visual references as you can. One of the reasons I can draw JB so easily is bc I’ve looked at a LOT of images of him (my Monkey Wrench folder, which has over 700 images, is 98% Jaw Bone. Give or take.) Getting screenshots directly from the show is a good idea, but you can find a lot of screenshots of him here and here. You can also find a couple of his model sheets here. I’m also going to be using a lot of my own screenshots in this very post as examples.

2) Jaw Bone is made of a lot of square and pointy shapes. So that’s gonna be a common theme you’ll see throughout this study. An important detail in understanding his design.

3) I’m going to be going step-by-step with his different parts to show how I draw him, but when I draw him I usually start completely with basic shapes and a “skeleton,” like this:

Sometimes if a pose is a bit complicated I’ll draw a little thumbnail (basically a small very simple sketch) of what I want to help wrap my head around it:

Sometimes I’ll make several of these before I finally figure out what the body will be doing but… yeah. Important to mention.

Anyway, on with the thing…

I usually start with his skull:

I like to separate his head into two different parts: his cranium and his jaw, both very square shapes. Imagine his cranium as a cube, that especially helps with drawing him at different angles. There’s also a line on either side of his skull to give his cranium more definition, though I wait to add that a little later, when the drawing is more cleaned up.

His jaw is longer and also comes to a point at the chin. His jaw is bigger than his cranium (he is called “Jaw Bone” after all) though sometimes I feel like I draw it too long? Idk I’m working on it.

His neck is a skinny skeleton neck. What more can I say? I try not to make it too skinny. Don’t forget those little lines on his neck, usually there’s two but there can be more or less depending on what angle it’s at, how far it’s stretched out, etcetera.

In this stage I also sketch little circles so I’ll know where to put the eyes.

Now the face:

His eyes are diamonds. I like stretching them around for cool expressions, imagining the top and bottom halves of the diamonds as the top and bottom eyelids helps. They can get rounder for wider-eyed expressions. Rounder eyes also make him look kinda goofier.

He also tends to have wrinkles around his eyes. I just place them as I see fit (sometimes I don’t even put them there) but make sure you keep his facial expression in mind when you put them on there.

His pupils are upside-down triangles. I go back and forth on whether I draw the pupil first and then draw the iris around it, or if I draw the iris first and draw the pupil inside of it, though it depends on how big I’m making them.

There’s also something about the way he looks around? Something about the way his pupil will sometimes rest again the edge of his eye… I’m not sure if I can explain this well, but this is why I have visual examples…

Do you get what I’m trying to say here? Sometimes his pupil will rotate to rest flatly on against the edge of his eye, sometimes it doesn’t. Do it however you want, I know I do.

Anyway! His eyebrows are big ol’ rectangles. I have a specific way of drawing eyebrows, so mine will usually have these slants at the ends. Since his eyebrows are just another part of his skull, it’s a good idea to not close the line on it’s shape. Also when his brow is furrowed, you can put a wrinkle or two between his eyebrows. Also also don’t forget the scar over his left eyebrow! I used to make his scar go all the way down to his eye, but I realized it’s only ever like that in one scene, I think it’s only supposed to go to eyebrow. It does look cool though.

His nose is triangular, and small. Just a flat skeleton nose. However there is often a line to define a bit of a nose bridge (?), just don’t draw it sticking out too much, it is a skeleton nose after all. You don’t always have to draw that line, especially if you’re drawing him head-on.

His cheekbones are square-ish but sharp, and start under his eyes. I usually draw them looking kind of triangular, but sometimes they do look more square. I like to keep his facial expression in mind when I draw them, especially his mouth.

Here’s his face added onto the previous sketches. As you can see I’ve also started to define his skull more; I feel like I erase and add on lines a lot when I’m sketching, lol. Sometimes I also like to keep a line on the center of his cranium and jaw so it’ll be easier to add on his mouth and skull-crack (I haven’t added his eyebrow scar yet either, I usually save that for when I draw the whole skull-crack.)

Anyway, on to his mouth:

Like I mentioned before, I find his mouth to be a bit difficult sometimes. But it’s a zig-zag, starting and ending under both of his cheekbones. A lot of times you can add the zig-zag of his mouth first, and then add the lines at the end to connect them to his cheekbones. If his teeth are more pursed, you don’t even have to add those connecting cheekbone lines, though.

There’s usually 5 upper teeth and 4 bottom teeth, but you can do fewer or more if you want. I’m not your dad. But I could be. Ignore that last part.

A lot of times when he’s smiling, his upper teeth will kind of hang off the edge. Makes him look a lil goofy I think. I also like drawing his mouth really wide, so often I’ll draw his bottom jaw kind of hanging off? Idk if that’s the right way to explain it, but I mean like in the bottom-left in the above drawing. I also like giving him a bit of an underbite. Gotta have that emphasis on his jaw.

You can draw his tongue visible in his mouth if you want, but I usually only draw it when it’s needed.

Also also! Once I put the mouth on there is when I really start stretching the face around. Wider for big ol’ smiles, longer for a more surprised kind of thing, etc etc. Pay attention to how things should be moving around, I guess. Basic squash-and-stretch stuff.

This is also when I add the line on his jaw defining his chin-point. Sometimes there’s also a line on his upper teeth that follows the direction of his jaw line, I usually only draw that when it feels right.

Sometimes when I’m having a lot of trouble getting his mouth expression to look right, I’ll sketch a guiding line and then draw over that. Like this:

Idk just…. Imagine it as a regular line, a regular mouth-shape, and make it all pointy zig-zaggy.

Adding the mouth is when I typically finish shaping his jaw.

Now we can move onto his flame! Yippee!

His flame is very fluid, so it can kind of take a lot of different shapes? But it does have a GENERAL kind of shape, which I have sketched in the above drawing. I don’t have much solid advice for how I draw it, I usually just squiggle the shape until I’m satisfied. But I will say, that while it can be sharp, it can also be very round. Also don’t forget that because it is a fluid shape, it can be affected by wind-resistance.

Also! The white part of his flame doesn’t have to completely follow the whole shape of his flame. Get creative do whatever. I usually use the select tool to shape that part and refine it by erasing and adding on with the brush tool.

Oh also also. I kind of imagine his flame in two different parts:

There’s the base of his flame, and the a big swoop at the front. He’s styling that thing for sure.

For the crack in his skull, it’s a square shape with a sharp point coming out in the middle. The scar that goes down his eyebrow is usually in a small zig-zag shape. Depending on how his eyebrow is positioned, part of it may not even be visible.

Also one more note about his flame: I like to make it emotive.

It’s neat to make it reflect his whole expression. Usually better for more extreme emotions, though.

So there is his skull finished! How nice.

Ok so when I thought I finished setting up all the drawings for this thing I realized I completely forgot about his head at different angles. That’s a little important.

Idk I don’t have much to say that I haven't already said and that’s not in the above examples and drawing. Eh. Whatever. Absorb his shapes into your skin or something.

Ok ok. NOW we can move onto the body.

Upper body is a good place to start here:

His big ol’ rib cage is this specific, almost diamond-ish shape? The bottom has this pointy indent but the top is a bit more flat, but the top also kind of faces forward. There’s also a line in the middle for definition (like the sternum maybe?), and lines at the side for the ribs (usually four, two on either side.)

His upper arm is skinnier than his forearm. He IS a skeleton, but I try not to make his arms TOO skinny, yknow? I also like to give his elbow a point when he bends his arms.

His shoulders kind of have a point to them, a bit like shoulder pads but I think it’s just his shoulder bone in there that really makes it look like that.

His hands are a good place to go to next:

Jaw Bone’s hands are very square! Square palm, square fingers. It’s good to taper them so that the tips of his fingers are a bit bigger than the bottom of them.

They’re skeleton hands, so make sure the fingers are separated from the palm by a line. Each finger has two lines on them for the joints, except for his thumb which has one. I typically draw his palm with one line across horizontally, and then under that a vertical line for his thumb joint.

We’re actually gonna go to his collar next:

As you can see I have chosen a lot of references for his collar, lol. I find it to be another difficult part of his design, but once you get a feel for it’s 3d shape, it gets easier. It’s meant to be kind of like the popped collar of a leather jacket I think?

It’s a curved rectangle. I usually draw it more angular than it tends to be in the show, just because I like drawing things very angular. Don’t forget the inner greennnnn.

There are two spikes on either side. The way I like drawing them is in a diamond shape, again bc I like drawing angles. Drawing them with the dark shading also gives it a much more 3d look, just a little triangle on the bottoms. Try to not have them touch the edges of the spikes, it looks more metallic and cool that way.

There’s also this little triangle at the back, that’s what connects his collar to his jacket I believe?

One more thing I’ll mention that I should’ve mentioned before but I didn’t bc I’m disorganized, about his neck: you can see this in the above drawing but I usually like drawing it kind of floating in the black of his rib cage, like there’s a shadow over it as it goes down there. I enjoy how it looks, again it gives it depth. But anyway!

We can do his jacket now:

His jacket hangs loosely from his body, I usually draw it a bit tighter though just because I like how it looks. I usually draw a squiggle at the bottom and then draw lines up from there to give it it’s loose look.

The part at the top, the part that keeps it together… is it the clasp? Would you call it a clasp? Well the left side goes over the right, then the bone goes over that. The bone is the clasp part? You can draw it more horizontally or you can draw it at an angle, whatever works best.

The neck hole (???? I don’t know the names of these things, man) is square. Not much else to say about that.

The green patches on his shoulders are round. This is yet another part of his design that I draw more angular, due to the fact that it is the way that I enjoy drawing. There’s also a little green rectangle on the back of his jacket, don’t forget about that.

His cuffs are square. A lot of the time, after I draw his arms, I’ll first draw the opening of his cuff and then draw the cuff around that. I tend to draw the openings of his cuffs in a diamond shape. He’s also got a spike on either side of his cuffs, on the outside.

His hands kind of float in the black of his cuff. It’s the shading, the rest of his arm is in the shadow of his sleeve. I guess if his hand was stretched out enough from his sleeve you could draw his wrist, though.

I’ll also talk a bit about the clothing wrinkles: I’m just kind of placing lines where the cloth bends. Not sure how else to explain it. If you look at a lot of pictures of Jaw Bone you can kind of get a feel for where his clothes tend to wrinkle though.

(Continued in reblogs)

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