How to Draw Ryu from Street Fighter.

There is no need to introduce Ryu; he is the standard selection for most Street Fighter players. Ok, I’m not sure about most, but definitely for me. ^_^ He is a safe choice if you don't feel like fighting with some untried exotic character and having your ass owned by Chun Li over and over again. ^_^
 

Step 1: As always, whenever you see a blue line, it means that it is a construction line and will be erased later. So, do not push too hard on your pencil. ^_^ Start with a squashed circle for Ryu's skull.

Step 2: Draw a half ellipse, representing the side of the skull, and one more line, representing the center line of the face. The point where the center line intersects with the skull is the center point of the head, where the eye line will be.

Step 3: Draw Ryu's jawline touching both the skull circle and the center line.

Step 4: In this step, start by drawing an eye line; this line will help us to position the eyes, as well as the ears later. Notice that it is intersecting the center point, and it is also slightly curved and touching the back of the skull higher than the front. Now add two lines for the neck at the bottom.

Step 5: Now that we have all the main construction lines in place, we should lighten them with a kneadable eraser so they are just barely visible. If you are using Photoshop, just add transparency to the construction lines layer and create a new layer to draw on. Draw the ear touching both eye lines and the bottom of the skull.

Draw one eye with one corner slightly above the eye line and one eye corner slightly under it. Notice that mouth is in the middle, between the eye line and jaw, and mark the place. Now draw the forehead line from top to eye line.

Draw the nose and upper lip segment from eye line to mouth point. Do not draw the mouth yet. Continue with the lower lip and chin. Now mark the bottom left side of the mouth and connect it with the mouth point to finish the mouth.

Step 6: Draw the eyebrow touching the eye. Notice that it is quite big; this is Ryu's trademark eyebrow, don't make it too small! ^_^ Add the hair and the neck line marking the sternocleidomastoids.

Step 7: Draw the second eyebrow. Add the headband and the hair falling over it. Don’t worry about overlapping; these are just construction lines, so they will be erased later. Add detail to the ear and hair behind it.

Step 8: Now we have all the construction lines in place, lighten them so they are just barely visible, with kneed-able erasers if you are drawing on paper, or add transparency to the construction layers and create news one to draw on, if you are drawing in Photoshop.

Take a nice black pen and start tracing; notice that some parts of the line are thicker than others. I usually go over again the line segment that I want to be darker. These parts are usually where shadow would naturally occur.

Step 9: Ink the eyebrow; be careful not to ink the parts where his hair will overlap. Add more black under Ryu's jaw, nose, lips, and inside the ear.

Step 10: Ink in more details; notice that Ryu's eyelids are darker than the other lines in the picture.

Step 11: Finish inking, and erase the construction lines. If you are in Photoshop, just turn off the construction layers. Be sure to try to draw Ryu's head from memory. This will help you remember everything you just learned and will add more useful shapes into your virtual shape library. This is great for designing your own male super heroes, as well as drawing other streetfighters.  

Try to draw it from memory right now, then compare, and repair the mistakes. For best results do it again tomorrow. (^_^) This is the fastest way to become a real manga master and I can’t recommend it strongly enough.

Draw with passion! (-_^)

Hiroshi