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Drawing Mara Jade
Ever wanted to draw Star Wars characters and vehicles just like the professional comic book artists? In this step-by-step series, Star Wars artists and illustrators show you how to draw some of the most beloved characters in the saga.
Trained since childhood and honed into a weapon, Mara Jade learned self-sufficiency, piloting, marksmanship and talents in the Force while serving her dark master, Emperor Palpatine. Initially, Mara was to assassinate Luke Skywalker, but over time she fight alongside, fell in love and married Skywalker.
Star Wars illustrator Sarah Wilkinson explains with these easy-to-follow steps how to draw Mara Jade.
Steps 1-4 are drawn lightly with pencil. No pen, no dark lines. Finished lines and details will come at the end.
Step One:
First start by drawing a circle towards the top of the paper. This will be the main section of the head.
Step Two:
Next add the lower jaw. You now have a side view of the basic head shape!
Step Three:
Add the neck — which is long and slender.
Step Four:
Next draw guide lines for Mara’s facial features. Pretend these lines are pieces of string being draped over the face. They follow the shape of the head. Draw a line horizontally across the center of the shape. Then draw a line vertically down the center. Make sure the line is leaning towards the left since her head is angled to the left.
Step Five:
Next are facial features! The eyes go on the vertical line. The left eye sits centered in the left half of the head. The space in between the two eyes is the length of one eye. Halfway between the eyes and the bottom of the chin is the nose. Halfway between the nose and the bottom of the chin are the lips!
Step Six:
Now add more shape to the rest of the body. At the front of the neck, add a long and graceful line to indicate the shape of the rib cage. Next, add a smaller circle to the other side of the neck. This is the shape of the arm and shoulder area.
Step Seven:
After adding that circle, now we can draw two straight lines from the edge of the circle. This will make Mara’s strong arms. Next extend the “rib cage line” down to the rest of the chest. Add a line indicating where her back is.
Step Eight:
After finishing the eyes, draw in the nose and the lips. As the nose protrudes from the rest of the face, a shadow is cast under the nose. This helps give a 3-D look. The lips are drawn with a slight shadow underneath the lower lip, because it also protrudes from the rest of the face. The upper lip is slightly darker than the lower.
Step Nine:
Next add the hair. Mara has beautiful, curly, red hair, so feel free to look at a picture of someone with long curly hair, it helps to have a picture to refer to. As this drawing gets closer to being finished, start to erase your facial feature guide lines. Also start to indicate Mara’s clothing. Here I added a sleeveless shirt hole.
Step Ten:
Add lot of detail to the hair. Each lock of hair gets light and shiny as it bends out and catches light, and gets darker as it bends into itself. Add some shadows, based on a light source coming from above Mara, shining down. Have fun and keep drawing!
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