How to Draw Lugia Pokemon Step by Step.

Introduction: Today on How to Draw Manga we'll be drawing Lugia, a continuation of our series of Pokemon characters. Despite looking a bit like an anthropomorphized dragon with hands, Lugia still packs a powerful punch. His powers include the ability to calm and create massive storms that can last up to 40 days. And a light flutter of his wings could bring a crushing wind that destroys houses and other land forces. Easy on the eyes but deadly in the air Lugia is certainly one of the more “legendary birds” we've every come across. Well, let's stop dilly-dallying and get to work!!

Step 1: As we said above, drawing Lugia might look a little complicated but when we break it down in easy to remember steps and draw it repeatedly, it'll be easy.  Let's start by drawing the construction lines for his body, wings and tail.

Ok let's really begin by drawing a  half circle right in a middle for the body titled a little bit to the left. We'll also draw two differently shaped objects for his wings. The one on the left should remind us of the quitar plectrum and the one on the right is more like a squished roof tile. Connect them using straight lines sprouting from the body shape. Please notice that the top point of the wings are  the same height. Lastly, for this step we'll  draw a curved construction line for the tail. It is aligned vertically with the top point of the wing on the left. Notice that the distance from the top red horizontal line touching the wings to the center horizontal line is the same as the distance from the center line to the bottom red line touching the tail.

Step 2: Now that we have our major body masses outlined, let's do our construction lines for Lugia's head. Draw an ellipse for the head to the left of the body mass and touching the top horizontal red line. Now draw the curved construction line for the neck touching the head and extending down into the body shape.

Step 3: We'll start this step by lightening the construction lines we've made so far.  If you're using pencil and paper, then just take your kneedable eraser and lighten the construction lines a little bit. And if you're using Photoshop or another drawing software just increase opacity of the layer you're currently working in and create a new layer in which to continue. Later on we'll be erasing all the construction lines so remember not to press too hard on the paper you're using. After doing that, add the beak line to the head. 

Next, draw a curved line from the top corner of the body on the right to the bottom corner. Now draw 2 lines that follow along the construction line of the tail touching the body and both coming to a point at the bottom of the tail. Finally for this step we'll draw the two lines inside the wings. The line on the wing on the right should curve upwards a bit and the line on the wing on the left should curve downwards and be located slightly higher. These construction lines point out where we start drawing Lugia's feather-fingers.

Step 4: Moving right along, we come to an easy step before some details so we'll start by drawing a pointy parrot-like end to the top of the head. Next, add the line that will represent part of the neck and touches the head from below. Lastly, draw two shapes for his feet and connect the one on the left using a line to the body. The foot on the left is more or less vertically aligned with the tip of Lugia’s beak. The one on the right overlaps part of the body and tail.

Step 5: A bit of a tricky step here, and the next few deal with some details so I hope we're prepared. We'll start step 5 by drawing the feather/horn on the right side of the head. Please note that one of Lugia's eyes will be placed inside. Next we have to draw some legs connecting the feet to the body. We should draw two lines for each leg. The lines for the leg on the left should touch the curved portion of the body and the lines for the leg on the right, while starting from the edges of the foot, should touch the straight “back” line of the body shape.

Now for something completely different, we'll mark the lines on the wings indicating  where Lugias finger-feathers will be. On the wing on the left there should be some space between them so that’s why we have to mark some closer together than on the wing on the right. See the finished picture at the start of the tutorial if you want to have a better idea of what we are doing here.

Step 6: The devil is in the details as the saying goes, so let's hang with the devil for a while. In this step, we'll start by lightening the construction lines again and then we'll add some details to the head. As usual, if you're using pencil and paper then just use your kneedable eraser to lighten the lines or if you're using photoshop or another drawing software then just add another transparent layer and continue drawing in it. We need to draw a wedge like line for the corner of Lugias beak on the right. We'll also add a squished half ellipse for an eye inside the shape we drew in step 5 and two lines for his neck.

Step 7: Staying with the eyes we'll add another 2 half ellipses inside the eye to make his pupil and iris.

Step 8: Scaling back a little bit, we'll turn to the wings. Draw the wings with the help of the construction lines marking where the individual finger-feathers go. They should extend up to the middle of the wing or so where we made our previous construction lines. Notice the slight curvature on the top line connecting the wing on the right to the body.

Step 9: A couple more steps and we're there. We have to look at some details and toes for his feet. The feet are curved inward and the individual toes overlap each other. I'd recommend starting by drawing the ones on the right (closest to the viewer therefore not overlapped by any other toes).

Step 10: Only a few details left.  We need to add the mark line for his belly which more or less touches the wing on the left and disappears behind the leg on the right. Next we can't forget to add the plates on his back protruding from the curved back line we added earlier. Also, since he's a mean, lean fighting machine we've got to add two spikes at the bottom of the tail. And lastly, since Lugia isn't a Simpsons character but a Pokemon we shouldn't forget to draw a thumb-feather inside the wing on the left.

Step 11: So now we've got everything we need and we're just going to lighten all the construction lines we've made so far before doing our final outline in black Please notice that not all of the blue construction lines are traced in black, only the main “outer” lines.

Step 12: If you have any construction lines remaining then just clean them up and voila!
Great job drawing Lugia!!!
As always make sure to try to draw Lugia again from memory as this will help you remember all the shapes and techniques and will enable you to design your own Pokemon characters in the future. Try it several times till you are confident that you've got a hold of it ^_^.

Draw with passion! ^_^
Hiroshi