How to Draw Fight Scenes for Comics

In this series of lessons I will be showing you how to draw fight scenes for comics. We will cover gesture drawing, developing poses from your imagination, drawing iconic fight scenes, refining the poses, and basic shape memorization for stylized characters and anatomy.

We go through 3 main project files and I have added a couple time lapsed scenes at the end. I will be adding more to this class since there are so many possibilities with this subject.

RUN TIME 1 HOUR 45 MIN + INCLUDES ART FILES

Lesson 1 - Warming Up and Focusing on the Gesture of the Pose

In this lesson we will draw some gestural sketches to get the ideas going. We will experiment with different poses and talk about how to add more energy and action to the figure. We will focus on drawing these with primitive shapes. This allows us to relax more and try new poses from our imagination.

Lesson 2 - Warming Up and Focusing on the Gesture of the Pose - Part 2

In this lesson we will draw another gesture but this time we will add more foreshortening to the pose. That can be a tricky thing to do if you are not experienced with a few important techniques. Practice these often and they will become as simple as drawing a basic static pose.

Lesson 3 - Drawing an Iconic Fight Pose - Part 1

Here we will use the same approach by first establishing the concept of our fight scene with the gesture. You will learn about how I think about the process and develop my ideas.

Lesson 4 - Drawing an Iconic Fight Pose - Part 2

Now we will refine the poses and I will share some of my thought on policing the lines.

Lesson 5 - Drawing the 2nd Iconic Fight Pose - Part 1

In this one we will draw another popular comic fight pose. I call this one the upper hand. It’s that type of scene where they are both in fight positions but one has a slightly more dominate position. We can learn a lot by studying what’s already working in comics and this type of scene is used quite often.

Lesson 6 - Drawing the 2nd Iconic Fight Pose - Part 2

In this lesson I refine the pose on the right and explain my thought process for drawing stylized anatomy.

Lesson 7 - Drawing the 2nd Iconic Fight Pose - Part 3

Here we will refine the pose on the left and talk about shape memorization as it applies to the concept.

Lesson 8 - Drawing the 3rd Iconic Fight Pose - Part 1

For this popular scene we will be drawing something up close and personal. This is a great scene for really punching up the drama! ;)

You will also learn how small changes can have a large impact on the narrative of the art.

Lesson 9 - Drawing the 3rd Iconic Fight Pose - Part 2

In this lesson we will clean up the poses and talk about that process.

Lesson 10 - Fighting in Flight

In this one we will draw two female characters battling it out in the air. This is a great one for the long shots where we can easily see the characters from head to toe. These types of scenes are used quite often for our flying characters. ( This lesson is time lapsed so feel free to pause the video to catch up. )

Lesson 11 - Foreshortened Kicking Scene

In this one we explore a more exaggerated pose for impact. These can be a lot of fun to create and great for those dynamic areas in the storytelling.