How to Draw Knight Armor
- 1). Before beginning your drawing of a knight in armor, do some research. Check your local bookstore or library for books containing images of knights in armor. It should be easy to find images online too, but with subject matter so rich in history, it should be fun to go further than a simple online search. Choose reference images depicting armor that comes closest to satisfying your preferences.
- 2). Before you begin drawing armor, sketch the human figure that you will dress with the armor. Note the pose of the figure in your reference image, or practice stick figures on scratch paper until you come up with a pose that looks good to you.
When you are ready to start, sketch a stick figure on your paper in the desired pose, topped by an oval for the head. Try to fill up the paper with your figure, for a dramatic drawing. The ideal figure will be about seven heads tall. The legs will take about half the figure, with the waist a bit above the halfway mark. The hands will fall a bit below the waist. If raised, calculate the arm's length by measuring a bit below the waist with your ruler. Fill out your figure with elongated oval shapes to compose upper arms, forearms, thighs and calves. The chest can be a large sideways oval and the stomach below it a near circle. The hips can be another sideways oval connecting the tops of the legs and the bottom of the stomach. The oval and circular shapes may now be joined to fill out your human figure. If you are not satisfied, erase and redraw until you like your figure. - 3). Begin drawing the knight armor on your figure piece by piece, taking care to draw it at the proper size on the correct part of the figure. Draw each piece by analyzing its shape in your reference image and sketching it over the figure. Draw lines to add details and connect shapes.
Look for these pieces in your reference image, and draw them on your figure:
The helmet covers the head, and may include a visor that slides up and down.
The gorget protects the knight's neck between the helmet and the chest piece. Draw it using only lines.
The chest piece, or chest plate, is two pieces of metal molded to fit the knight's torso, joined with buckles. You can draw the sides of the chest plate and any ornamental details using lines.
The shoulder pieces connect the chest plate to the arm pieces, note their odd shapes and draw them in place, then add details. - 4). Use lines to draw the arm pieces. Note the details at the elbow, where there is a break in the armor plates, or pieces placed like an accordion so the arm may move.
The gauntlets are armored gloves made of sectioned pieces of metal, that may be indicated with lines.
Start the leggings, which cover the legs and have joints at the knees, with oval shapes, then detail with lines.
Draw metal shoes, which are made of several pieces of plate metal joined together, with lines.
Knights generally had shields, that came in a variety of shapes. - 5). To finish your drawing, go over the pencil lines of your knight in armor with a black ink marker. When the ink is dry, erase any leftover pencil lines. The art is ready to scan into your computer or to color with watercolors or colored pencils.
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