How to Draw a Platypus.

Getting Started

I know what you’re thinking….A platypus? How am I supposed to draw a platypus? I can’t even spell platypus. Don’t worry. Just follow this easy, super simple method and you’ll be drawing platypus’s before you know it. The really cool thing is this method works for drawing other stuff too.

Step 1 Rough it out.
Start with a very rough drawing. Don’t sweat the details yet. It’s very important to stay loose. The idea here is just to get everything laid out and positioned where it’s supposed to go. This drawing is all about the gesture. Think of it almost as a stick figure. In this step we’re focusing on two things… finding the pose and roughing out the shapes.

Step 2 Adding a little detail.

Now that we have the character roughed out its time to begin adding some detail. By gradually adding detail we begin to visualize what this little guy is going to look like. This is a great time to try different things. Keep an eraser handy and remember…STAY LOOSE

Step 3 Adding More Detail.

This is where the fun starts to happen. As we add more detail our character begins to emerge. At this point I can begin to see some of the traits I’d like to bring out.  He looks like he is going to be a pretty fun little guy. Most likely the life of the party. I think I’ll start him out with a pair of swim trunks.

Step 4 Adding Personality

So now that I’ve figured out who this little guy is… it’s time to add some personality. I’m thinking a loud Hawaiian shirt and a brightly colored swim trunks will bring out the personality I’m looking for. So let’s rough them in. Again remember our mantra…STAY LOOSE !!!

Step 5 Tighten up

Are you still with me….Great! So let’s continue…Now that we have our character down let’s go ahead and tighten him up a little. You’ll notice that I switch from red to blue when I tighten up. This helps me see things more clearly. I’ve also begun to add a background just for fun. When I add the background I go through the same basic steps:
1 Rough it out and block in all my shapes… remembering to stay loose.
2 Begin adding detail.
3 Gradually continue to add more detail… (again don’t be afraid and try new things).
4 Bring it home- once you have your detail it’s time to add some personality.
5 Tighten up. This is the stage where we go over our rough sketch and tighten it all up.

Dropping out your Sketch Lines and Preparing for Ink

Once I’ve completed my background I bring the image into photoshop and use the Hue and Saturation sliders to drop out my red sketch lines. That leaves me with a good clean blue-line sketch.

At this stage I usually drop the opacity and print out a very light version of the blue line. Next I ink right on top of the print out using the blue-line as a guide. 

Ink- Just like it says. Now we ink. How you ink is up to you. Everyone has their own style. For this drawing I’ve used a brush pen and added a bit of detail with a finer quill pen. I don’t usually use a quill pen but I wanted to try something a little different and I happened to have one that I’ve been wanting to try for a little while now. This seemed like the perfect project to bust it out.

So you’re probably wondering about the blue line underneath my ink. It’s no problem at all I just use the Hue and Saturation sliders again but this time I remove all the blue. Once the blue is removed I have a nice clean ink to work with and can bring it into photshop for color.

Congratulations you have now completed this tutorial. Your next step will be to add color if you wish…but that’s a lesson for another time. I hope you had fun and learned something from this tutorial. If you have any questions please leave a comment or send me an email. You can find more of my art at: Http//:bobostromstudio.com

If you’d like to see the finished version of this art please click on the thumbnail link below: