Dragon Ball Z Easy Drawing

It's great to have you back for another awesome drawing tutorial! Today we're going to learn how to draw Goku in Super Saiyan form from the Dragonball Z series requested by user tarun! Be sure to post your finished drawings in your user gallery to show other users and get feedback! As everyone probably already knows, Goku is the main character throughout the whole Dragonball series, learning, developing his skills and defending Earth. No one believed that Goku could ever achieve the mythic Super Saiyan form, but he proved them all wrong when he evolved. And that's what we're going to draw today. This is my first Dragonball Z tutorial and it was a lot of fun to draw. But it definitely isn't one of easiest tutorials, so I'd recommend this one for intermediate mangakas. The last step includes some tricky shading so you might want to have two shades of grey marker for the shading step or, if you don't have any markers, you can use your pencil to get different shades of grey. You can click on any of the images to see an enlarged view and click through the steps without text. Get your materials ready and let's learn how to draw Goku Super Saiyan!

Step 1

Just a reminder to all of our mangakas that all of the blue and green lines you see in this tutorial are only construction lines and will be erased later on, so don't press too hard on your pencil when drawing these lines. Our final lines you'll see in black at the end of the tutorial. We're going to begin with our head circle, center and eye lines which you can see in blue. We'll also add the lines that you can see in green and the green dashes on the center line. These lines will help us to draw Goku's features in later steps. In step 01a I'll give all the lines names so you know what line I'm referring to in future steps. So, let's begin by drawing our head circle in the middle of our paper. We want to leave enough space above the head for Goku's hair and enough room below for the extended center line. Pro Tip 1: When drawing your head circle go around a few times very lightly with your pencil to get a nice outline of a circle, as it can be quite hard to draw a circle freehand. Then trace your head circle over the outline you have made. Once you've got your head circle, we'll draw our center and eye lines (blue lines in the image). The center line is vertical and cuts the head circle in two. It extends a little above the head but quite far below. The eye line is a flat horizontal. We'll also draw the two horizontal green lines, one inside the head circle above the eye line, one slightly below the head circle and then the three small dashes on the centerline. Pro Tip 2: Measurements: Here I'll give you some proportions to use when drawing your set up. The eye line is about 1/10 of the way up from the bottom of the head circle. The upper green line is slightly more that half way up from the bottom of the head circle. The distance between where the center line and the eye line intersect and the lower green line is about 1/6 of a head circle. And each dash on the center line below that is also about 1/6 of a head circle from each other.

Step 1a

Here I'd like to give each of the lines and the dashes a name so that when I refer to them in future steps, you'll know what I'm talking about. They are as follows: Line 1 = center line Line 2 = eye line Line 3 = bang line (for the hair) Line 4 = mouth line Line 5 = chin dash Line 6 = chest dash Line 7 = shirt dash

Step 2

I've done my best to label all of the lines or areas with numbers in the order they should be drawn. Here, we'll begin with the eye on the left (#1) by drawing the triangle shape on the eye line with the point outward. We'll do the same thing for the eye on the right (#2). Then, we'll draw the jaw. Each side of the jaw can be made by drawing two lines down to the chin dash. Line 3 goes from where the eye line meets the head circle down to the end of the mouth line, then line #4 continues down at more of an angle to the chin dash. We'll do the same thing for the jaw line on the right and lines #5 and #6. Lastly, on the mouth line we'll draw the mouth that looks like an upside down checkmark and just above it add a small horizontal dash for the nose on the center line.

Step 3

Continuing with Goku's facial features here, we'll begin with the ear on the left (line #1) which looks a little like a backwards question mark. Then, jump over to the other side and we'll draw the ear on the right (line #2). Then, in area #3, we'll finish the bottom of the eye on the left and add the small half circle in the top of the eye for his pupil. You can do the same thing for the eye on the right (area #4). Lastly, in area #5, we need to draw the rest of Goku's nose and below the mouth we'll add the small wrinkle line that resembles the mouth, only shorter. Great work!

Step 4

Here we're going to use the bang line and draw the curving line from where the bang line meets the center line down to just overlap the left side of the eye on the left (line #1). Next, we have to draw the irregular kind of "M" shaped line #2. It's probably easiest to start on the bang line and draw the arched line down to the top of the eye on the left, then move back up to the bang line and draw the second arch going to the right and just overlapping the eye on the right. Next, in area #3 we'll begin by drawing the squarish "U" shape between the eyes and then we'll add the eyebrows on both side. Notice that we don't see much of the eyebrow on the left, but that's because it's hidden by hair we haven't drawn yet! We always need to think ahead ^_-. Areas #4 and #7 are the same, we want a longer curving line coming off of the neck and a smaller shorter curving line coming off of the bottom of the neck. Lastly, we just need to add lines #5 and #6 coming off of the jaw and finishing on the chest dash. Notice that line #6 starts slightly lower on the jaw than line #5.

Step 5

Let's continue with Goku's hair and we'll draw the top of his shirt too. Begin with lines #1, #2 and #3 which are curving lines that end at the tips of the hair lines we drew in the previous step forming points. Then, on the ear on the left, there's a triangular hair segment to add and a smaller one just beneath the ear (area #4). Over in area #5 we just need to add the small triangular hair segment. Line #6 constitutes the top of the shirt and we want to start on the left, curve around and down to flatten out and pass through shirt dash, and then back up and around to finish on the right. Lastly, we'll add the small curving lines #7 on the left and #8 on the right. And that wraps up step 05.

Step 6

More hair to add here, mangakas. Just follow the numbers and draw the hair segments 1-6. In area #7 we need to add a straight diagonal line just over both eyes. And, lastly, we'll draw line #8, which is a hump that flattens out to pass through the chest dash and then another hump on the right. Just above line #8 is a small diagonal line to add to the neck just below the chin.

Step 7

In this step we'll finish up the hair and body features. For right now, skip the eyes and ears in this step. I'll zoom in on the area in the next step so you can see it quite clearly. We'll begin by drawing the three hair segments in area #1, followed by the single hair segment on the left for #2. In area #3 there are three more hair segments to draw that get gradually smaller as you move down to the ear. Again, skip the eyes and ears and move down to the left side of the neck and chest where we have three lines to add in area #4 and very similar lines to add on the right in area #5.

Step 7a

Here I've just zoomed in on the eye and ear area so that you can clearly see the lines that you need to draw here inside both ears and just above the upper outer corner of both eyes.

Step 8

Now, we just need to add some lines to each hair segment to suggest layers to the hair. The lines are too numerous to identify individually so do your best to imitate the image you see.

Step 9

That does it for our construction lines mangakas! Take out your eraser and lighten all of the lines you've made so far. Then, using your black pen, trace your final lines. There's no need to worry about line quality for Goku as all of the lines are of equal thickness, so a nice clear trace is all we need. Filling: Once you've got your final lines all done, we'll go back and fill in in black just two spots: one is the shadow area just beneath the mouth and the other is the small area of black that you can see on both shoulders. That's all!

Step 10

Just give your ink a minute to dry and then use your eraser to completely erase any remaining construction lines that you can see.

Step 11

As you can see this step can be quite difficult. But it's really not. You just need to use your pencil to mark out the areas to shade in light grey and those areas you want to shade in dark grey. Then, after you have marked them, just go back and color them in using either your markers or your pencil. A general idea to help you is that we want the light to appear as if it's coming from the right so the right half of most things will be left white and unshaded. The middle of the face and hair segments will be in light grey and only the left side of the segments and those things at the bottom will be in darkest grey. Once you're satisfied with your shading, give everything a minute to dry. Step back and take a look. You've just drawn the defender of the Earth Goku Super Saiyan from Dragonball Z! Feel free to post your drawing in your user gallery to share with other users. If your goal is to become a great mangaka make sure to draw Goku again from memory. Then compare the final drawing with the original and correct any mistakes you might have made. Try once again from memory. This is the best way to build a huge library of shapes that you can use in the future for your own manga characters. Draw with passion! (-_^) Hiroshi