Hi.
My name is Andy Park, and I'm the Director of Visual
Development at Marvel Studios.
Me and a group of artists, we have the fun job
of designing the characters that you see in the Marvel
Cinematic Universe.
We thought it would be a fun opportunity to give you
a little bit behind-the-scenes glimpse into how we sketch,
how we design a character, these heroes and villains.
And, in this case, I'm going to be drawing
someone that's very near and dear to my heart,
Natasha Romanoff a.k.a.
Black Widow.
So check out this video.
Hopefully, afterwards, you'll get a little bit
something out of it.
We're going to make this drawing that I do available
for download, so feel free to color
it, to draw over it, to trace it.
The whole point is to learn and to have fun.
So with that said, let's get drawing.
OK, let's get started.
Normally, for my work, I use Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop.
And I work digitally because in my job as a concept artist
I'm always making changes to my drawings,
to my designs, based on the directors,
or the producers, or sometimes the actors.
So I need to be able to make changes very easily.
So drawing digitally is just the easiest way to make changes.
You can draw traditionally using pen and paper.
But it's always harder to like, you know,
you have to erase all the time or do a new drawing.
So I typically will do all my concept illustrations
and my drawings in Photoshop for my job at Marvel Studios.
So as you can see, this is the Photoshop layout.
I'll usually start off about 8 and 1/2 by 11, pretty much,
or 8 by 11 inches, 300 DPI.
And I'll start sketching just using, you know, a circle
brush that's squashed, you can see in the lower right corner,
and about a 25% gray.
And then I'll start sketching.
I'm going to start roughing out whatever I'm trying to draw.
In this case, I'm trying to draw Black Widow.
And I'm thinking of her in a, you know,
fairly not too action-y of a pose.
But I want her to look like maybe she's
like walking forward or she's walking down a corridor,
and she's seeking out Taskmaster as you'll
see in the upcoming Black Widow film, hopefully soon.
So that's my thinking in doing this initial sketch.
So I'm just trying to rough out, you know,
proportions, the size of the head, the body,
the pose, the flow of the hair.
So a lot of times, what you'll see me--
what is you're seeing me do right now is just,
you know, doing adjustments.
I can take a part of the head and just
shrink it because I felt like it was a little too big.
And then I can make some adjustments.
You can also do this in Procreate
if you have an iPad as well.
So working digitally has these advantages
where I can make these adjustments
and make something larger or smaller
on the fly versus if I drew it on paper,
which is totally fine.
I used to draw comics for about 10 years
where I would have to erase and redraw it.
So either way it works, but I'm just
taking advantage of the tools that I have in Photoshop.
So you know, I can make some adjustments.
I felt like the belt was a little too high,
and I added a little bit of a curvature.
So what you're seeing is me just constantly
making adjustments to that original sketch that I did.
I feel like I have a good base to work off of.
Now, I'm just trying to refine, you know,
side of the foot, the details, going up and down
throughout the figure to figure out.
And then I can zoom in and start doing--
I don't want to go detail at this point.
I'm still trying to just get the overall feel.
I'm not thinking about lines.
I'm thinking more about just overall drawing.
So I moved her head a little bit forward
because I felt like that would make it a little bit more
interesting than just straight up and down.
So going a little bit forward on the body
makes for a little bit more ready for whatever
is coming around the corner.
I lowered the opacity, and I added a new layer
so that I can draw on top of the old drawing that I just had,
that I just did.
And at this point, I am adding a little bit of details
on the costume now that I have the general figure
kind of blocked in.
And I'm trying to figure out like,
OK, now I can start drawing in the costume.
Although, all this while, I'm not
thinking about pretty lines.
I'm not thinking about, OK, I need to get all
these lines to look beautiful.
I am merely just, really, going as fast as I can to just kind
of rough in all the details.
And then from, you know, later on, you
can start refining more and more and start getting
more and more the pretty lines.
I'm not necessarily going to be doing that in this tutorial
because it's not about that.
It's more about just my thinking when it comes to drawing, how
I go about going from a blank page, start laying in details,
and figuring out the gesture, the character,
the pose, the costume, and all that kind of stuff.
So for this tutorial, I am drawing one of Black Widow's
costumes that you're going to be seeing,
eventually, in the theaters from the Black Widow film.
So this is one of her costumes because she has a couple.
And it's always fun to draw because this is a character
that I had the honor of designing ever since Avengers
way back in--
when I was working on it, it was 2010, the film came out 2012,
but I designed all of Natasha Romanoff's costumes
and all her film appearances since the Avengers.
And it's really been a pleasure because this character,
played by Scarlett Johansson, is just really interesting.
It's always a character that I've always wanted-- you know,
I think the audience, myself included, always
wanted to know more about--
you know, we get hints of her past.
We get hints-- you know, she talks about her red ledger
There's so many things.
And the way that Scarlett Johansson portrays her
has just always been such an interesting character.
And of course, if you've seen that Infinity War and Endgame,
you see kind of the culmination of her journey,
and it's such a heroic gesture that she made.
I don't want to spell it out for those 10 people
on this earth who haven't watched Endgame
because they would be spoilers.
But you know, for those of you who
have watched it, know what a heroic
act she made in that film.
And she is the ultimate hero.
You know, that's her story.
And of course, we're going to be diving way deeper
into her story, her back story, who Natasha is as a person,
as a hero, from her present to her past.
And she's just a really interesting
Avenger, a really interesting person,
a really interesting character.
So to be able to design her costumes throughout all
these years, from Avengers to her next appearance
in, what was it?
Captain America: Civil War.
I think I'm right.
I'm sorry, Captain America: Winter
Soldier is what I meant to say.
And then, after that, was Avengers: Age of Ultron, then
Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War,
and Avengers: Endgame and then, in the upcoming solo
film, Black Widow.
I think I named all of her film appearances.
So to be able to revisit her look again for this film
was great.
And you know, I'd love to talk about my thinking behind
this costume maybe briefly.
I can't go too into depth because I don't want
to spoil anything for the film.
But you know, her costumes have always been very utilitarian.
It's all about practicality.
It's all about efficiency and getting the job done.
She's a spy.
She's adaptable in any situation.
She's intelligent, brave, and sneaky.
[LAUGHS] And she's got all the moves.
So you know, she's got that look from the comic.
It's just very sleek.
It's always pretty much black.
That's why it was fun in this film
to be able to tackle that suit that was
the opposite, which is white.
So you know, she can't always hide and be stealthy in black
because there's certain situations where, you know,
she might have to blend in with a white environment.
So yeah, I'm drawing in all the details from her Black Widow
film costume, her latest one.
This one has a lot of gray in it.
There's always black, but this one probably
have more light gray or medium gray
than any of her past films.
And that was, you know, a nod to one of her designs
in the Marvel comics back in the '80s.
So you know, I've always liked that look with big collar,
gray costume.
And the other thing that I really
wanted to infuse into this costume that she's never had
but she's always had in the comics
was her gold gauntlets and her gold belt.
So those are two things that I was really happy
that the director and the producers
were totally happy to allow her to have, gold.
So maybe, in the past, gold was just a little bit too
like, why gold?
This is not very stealthy.
It kind of stands out.
But I think we found a good, happy medium in doing gold.
But it's, you know, not bling gold, jewelry gold.
It's more weathered.
It's more toned down.
So it looks pretty awesome in the film.
So I was really happy with the way it came out.
So yeah, I've been drawing all the elements
from the guns to the hands.
The guns in the hands, as you notice,
I drew last because guns and her hands
are always, like, challenging, and I want to get them right.
So a lot of times, I'll use reference.
And in this case, I had not shown it here.
But I took photos of my hands holding a toy gun so that I can
just kind of get that right.
And I'm making some adjustments in the foot
because I felt like it needs to look more
like she's walking for rather than, you know, flat foot
in the back foot.
And that looks a little better.
You know, she's on her toes in the back.
I felt like her head was a little weird tilted that way,
so I straightened it out.
I darkened the entire drawing.
And again, as you can tell, like,
I'm not thinking about-- this whole drawing tutorial is not
about how to do great, amazing line work because it's really
rough as you can still tell.
But you know, it's got enough detail that, you know,
you can tell what's going on.
It's still interesting.
But it's not, you know, like a lot
of times comics are like really refined, nice, pretty line
drawings.
This, I would have to go another step to make it really pretty.
But you know, that's not the point of this.
It's more about how to draw.
It's not so much how to ink or do pretty line art.
And this one I felt like I need to add a little bit
of the tone, so that's why I added the darks for the blacks
to suggest the blacks and these grays for the grays.
And then she has red hair, and the Red color is dark.
So that's why I felt like it needed that to kind of have
this kind of completed look.
And at this point, I felt like I want to do just a little bit
more detail and refinement on the face,
so I zoomed in a little bit.
I don't want to go too much.
And you know, I'm just going to start cleaning up a little bit.
This drawing is not about doing a drawing of Scarlett Johansson
because it's clearly not a likeness.
But it's just more the essence of the character Black Widow
rather than the actress because that would be a whole 'nother
tutorial in itself.
But at this point, I'm trying to just add a little bit
more detail, interest refining a little,
because I felt like it's just--
you know, the face is the focus of any figure
drawing that you do, character.
So I just wanted to make it a little nicer,
adding little details, a little bit of value color.
I think that adds a lot in refining just so that, you
know, when you see the drawing, you know, the rest of it
can be really rough.
And the face is still going to stay rough.
But adding a little bit more detail,
I think, just adds so much more.
So when you're doing your drawings,
just keep that in mind.
People, we all tend to look at the face
whenever we look at a drawing if it's of a character,
so you definitely want the head and the face
to really be strong.
And the rest can be rougher.
It doesn't have to be as detailed as the rest.
And it all kind of, like, holds together.
And here I'm kind of just chiseling out.
I felt like there was too much cranium, too
much hair on top and the sides.
So that's just refining.
And I really love just drawing faces, painting faces.
In my job, as a concept designer,
I'm not really drawing as much as I am painting.
So what you're seeing me do here is not really
something that I do on my day-to-day job
because, at this point, I'll start painting or adding colors
and using more brushstrokes.
So there, you can see the difference.
I just went on and off with that layer
to show the before and after.
And so, at this point, I feel pretty good.
I feel pretty good about this drawing.
I think it's, you know, again, like I could spend
another hour refining this even more, adding
textures and all that stuff.
But this is just to get an overall drawing.
You're seeing me flip the canvas a lot.
And basically, that is just to see my mistakes.
When you see something in a different perspective,
that's when you see, oh, one eye is lower than the other.
So I definitely advise you guys to constantly flip your canvas
or, you know, hold it up to a light
or look at it in a mirror.
I hope this has helped because this is definitely a fun one,
a fun character for me to draw.
I think, right there, I added Scarlett Johansson's mole.
Again, this is not--
I'm not claiming that that's a great likeness
of Scarlett Johansson.
But if you were to see this character or this drawing,
you know, most people would say, oh, that's Black Widow.
They would know who it is.
They might not necessary say that's Scarlett Johansson,
but they'll know it is Black Widow.
So that's what I was trying to accomplish.
And the last thing that I'll do and that everyone out there
should do after they draw it-- they don't have
to do all the time, but, you know, 2020, Andy Park
is my signature.
And yeah, there you go.
If you want to see more of my drawings
and my paintings, the stuff that I do at Marvel Studios,
please check out my social media @andyparkart on Instagram,
Twitter, and YouTube.
Well, I hope to see your drawings.
I would love to see your take on Black Widow or any other Marvel
Studios hero or villain, and please tag me because I'd
love to check it out.
I'll try to make whatever comments
or critique that I can.
But keep drawing out there.
Stay safe.
And I hope to see all of your awesome drawings very,
very soon.
Take care.