Drawing Porkins

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. Lieutenant Porkins, otherwise known as the Rebel starfighter pilot Red Six, found himself useful during the Battle of Yavin, but unfortunately had a mechanical malfunction on his X-wing fighter, which led to a crash after being hit by Imperial forces.

Star Wars illustrator Randy Martinez explains with these easy-to-follow steps on how to draw a funny caricature portrait of Jek Porkins.

“One of the greatest things about drawing is that you can express your ideas, or how you see things anyway you want,” Martinez explains. “I love to draw caricatures, which are humorous portraits with exaggerated features. Caricatures are fun because they make people laugh, and it lets me express my silly side.”

To do a caricature, you’ll need a reference picture like the one here.

Try to point out his most distinctive characteristics. Keep them in mind, or even write them down if you like. Caricature is no different than any other kind of drawing. It is very important to build up from the guides and keep your sketching loose. Steps 1-8 are to be drawn lightly with a pencil. No pen, no dark lines. Finished lines and details will come at the end.

Step One: First thing to do is to draw his head in the shape of a pear.		Step Two: Now that you have a basic shape, draw some guidelines. This helps you know where to draw the facial features as well as his accessories. Start with a circle in the top of the pear shape. Draw some horizontal lines as well as vertical guidelines as in the example shown. This will help you to figure out where the eyes, nose and mouth will go.

Step Three: Next to draw are the basic shapes of his helmet and shoulders. Draw a larger circle around the head for the helmet, and then a simple arch as shown in the example.		Step Four: Next up are the facial features. Draw almond shapes in for eyes. His eyes lay right where the top horizontal guideline meets with the two outer vertical guidelines. The tip of the nose should be where the middle horizontal line meets the middle vertical line. The bridge of his nose is just a simple line. His most distinctive feature is his mouth, so exaggerate his lips. First, draw the open space of his mouth, just the basic shape. The middle of the mouth is where the bottom horizontal guideline meets the center vertical line. His bottom lip is pretty big, so draw a line below the mouth to show how big his lip is. Make a “U” shape to draw his chin, leaving room between the chin and the bottom of his face. Draw simple line across the top of his forehead that represents the brim of the helmet.

Step Five: Next draw the basic shape of the Mohawk-like element that runs down the middle of his helmet. And don’t forget his goggles! To finish his facial features, start by drawing his upper lip. He has a bow like upper lip, so feel free to exaggerate that. Next draw a little jellybean shape near his mouth for where the helmet microphone goes. After that, draw some lines for his armpits as well as the vest-like clothing on his body.		Step Six: Follow along the steps 6-8 and sketch in these basic detail lines. Remember, light sketching!

Step Seven		Step Eight

Step Nine: Once you are done, your drawing should look something like this example. It might look like a mess right now, but it will look awesome in just a few more steps.		Step Ten: Lastly grab a marker, and draw over only the lines you want to keep. For instance, you don’t want to keep those guidelines, so don’t draw those. After you do that, since you built up the drawing with light pencil, and inked it with marker, you can now erase all those lines you didn’t want. Have fun adding color to your very own Porkins caricature!