Stick figures. Everybody knows how to draw stick figures. They're also extremely easy to pose. Some people prefer to draw a stick figure when drawing a difficult pose, then draw the character over it. Sometimes this helps a lot. I started out with stick figures, then gradually stopped using them as I got more confortable with moving a character's arms and legs around. But I always have a stick figure in mind as I draw, even if I never actually draw it.

With a human figure, you have two boxes in the torso--one for the chest and one for the hips. But the Sonic characters don't have waists, so you can get away with drawing their body as one box with the arms and legs connected at the corners.
 

	Here is Shadow just standing there. Take a look at the stick figure, which outlines where his joints are. You're going to have to keep in mind where his joints are and the directions they bend if you're going to pose his body properly.
	Here's the Chaos Control! pose. The first stick figure shows how Shadow's limbs are placed as seen from the front, and the second one is a side view. See how he's bent double with his arm straight out in front of him? From the front, his hand and the emerald cover up most of his arm and body. Remember, the closer it is to you, the bigger it is. See how small his right foot is? It's the farthest object away in the picture.
	Shadow holding up a chaos emerald! One of the few times when he actually lifts his head. As shown in the Emotions section, here you can play with his hairdo and make his spines look mildly like horns. Exaggerate the length of his ears, the size of his hands, and the size of his shoes. Cartooning is all about exaggeration.
	Shadow sitting in a chair. (We all know what happened in the end of Sonic Adventure 2. He Chaos Controlled to Hawaii, where he enjoys surfing, sunbathing and lemonade! Uh, yeah.) For this one you'll want to draw the chair first so you have a guide for where to draw Shadow's body. Just a rough sketch will do. Draw the back, the armrests and the seat, then draw in Shads sitting down, relaxing. You could put his legs side by side, but I drew them crossed, because it makes it look more like he's kicking back. (I know this is quite out of character, but it also works for Sonic. Play with it!)
	Shadow running, or skating, as the case may be. To get ideas for this, watch real-life rollerbladers and how they move their bodies and feet. Aside from gliding along, they could be running. Thus it's okay to draw Shadow "running", even though he's skating, because the motions are nearly the same. The head is down, the body is slanted backwards, the arms are held high, and the legs are far apart. Just make sure to emphasize that he's not touching the ground.
	Here Shadow is either dead or asleep. This was patterned after his "death" animation in Sonic Adventure 2, when he takes a fatal hit. When you draw a circle for his head, make sure the edge along the ground is flat (look at the stick figure). Your body flattens a little when it lays down, due to gravity. His body and legs will be lined up to show that he's on a level surface. Make his spines droop a little, and his ears a bit shorter than usual. Don't make his eyes quite as slanty--after all, he's not glaring when dead/asleep. His eyebrows will be high and not very pronounced. If you want to make him look very relaxed, make his hands curled into gentle fists. Rest your hand on something and look at the position it takes when relaxed.
	Here it is more apparent that Shadow is merely asleep, not dead. The stick figure for this position is nearly the same as the last one--make sure the head flattens a bit where it encounters the ground. The spines will distort a lot if he lays on them, so they'll squash down all over the place while trying to maintain their original shape. Again, soften his features to give the impression of sleep.
The spindash! Curl into a ball with your arms around your knees, and that's the spindash position. Sonic and Shadow are mostly head here, so draw their spines very large and spikey. They will be swept back by the hedgehog's speed, but Shadow's one crooked spine will still manage to curve out a bit, which probably makes his spindash more damaging than Sonic's. Make sure to draw his ears extra-spikey, too. Here they look more like horns than usual, which probably means he's going to smash something. Draw a circle around him to emphasize his "sphere" shape, and some speed lines coming off him to show how fast he's going.

All tutorials created for NetRaptor.org by NetRaptor and other artists. Copyrighted by NetRaptor.