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Drawing Chewbacca and His Family

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.

Star Wars illustrator Cynthia Cummens-Narcisi explains with these easy-to-follow steps how to draw Chewbacca, his wife Malla and his son Lumpy from “The Star Wars Holiday Special.” Steps 1-3 are to be drawn lightly with a pencil. Finished lines and details will come at the end.

Step One:
This may look like an advanced tutorial, but even the beginning artist can get something out of it. With any drawing you make, begin by lightly sketching in your figures. You might decide ahead of time what you want your composition to look like by drawing thumbnails in your sketchbook.

Step Two:
Begin to fill in your sketch with larger shapes. Don’t get too involved in drawing detail yet. Just make sure as you begin your sketch that the composition is balanced. Sketch with a light hand, and don’t press too hard. If you’d like to use the same supplies professional artists use, try drawing with a HB pencil for your rough sketch. H pencils can be difficult to erase so don’t use anything harder than an HB.

Step Three:
You’ve probably been anxious to add detail. I drew an apron on Malla to break up the colors a bit. I also placed that X-wing Fighter into the composition to add a nice splash of color. Is Lumpy enjoying Wookiee cookies in your sketch? Maybe you can draw some other unusual food he might have stolen off the table.

Step Four:
Now that you polished your sketch, you can start the fun part, the part everyone loves — coloring! You can use anything you want to color it like crayons, colored pencils, watercolors or maybe scan your image and color it in Adobe Photoshop. I used my beloved Copic Markers and colored pencils. There’s lots of layering of color involved, and blending (which I love to do), so be patient if you try this. Notice how loosely I placed that first layer of color.

Step Five:
Here’s the drawing after many layers of color have been applied. I even started adding more detail just with colored pencil.

Step Six:
Add more contrast by making some areas darker. Then I then grabbed some Deleter White which is similar to White Out in that it’s used primarily by comic book artists to make corrections. It can be watered down and applied in thin washes over a painting or applied opaquely. There’s lots of uses and a lot of artists use it, but you can also use a white colored pencil or a gel pen, or white acrylic paint and a very fine brush to add some nice white highlights.

One thing you might be tempted to do is to draw every strand of Wookiee fur. Resist the temptation to do that! Focus on just suggesting the fur by drawing fewer lines than you think you’ll need. Be as creative as you want to be with your sketch. That’s the magic of the Star Wars universe — once you’re in it, there are no limitations to your artistry.