(bright music)
- Hi, my name's Steve Thompson.
I've been an artist with the Disney company for 25 years,
and today I'm gonna be showing you how
to draw Belle from Beauty and the Beast.
She's a lot of fun to draw, so let's get started.
We always start off with a really rough, loose sketch.
This is basically just getting shapes down on paper,
so you have a general idea of where things are gonna be.
I'm starting with this basic circle shape.
Since she's turned slightly away from us,
the center line is gonna be a little bit off to one side.
Towards the bottom of that circle,
I'm gonna draw another indication line.
This is where her eyes are gonna sit.
And I always like starting any drawing
by starting with the eyes.
Her eyes are a little bit of an almond shape.
So I'm just gonna really quickly drop that in.
I can use the center line for my own reference
to figure out where her nose is going
to be between those two eyes,
and a little bit below this main circle.
So I'm gonna quickly draw her nose in there.
This is just my process.
You might find one that works for you a little bit better.
Now let's go and give her a little bit of a smile.
One of my favorite things about Belle
is she feels like she's kind of a bit
of an outsider in her own town.
She learns this really important lesson
during the film which is not to judge a book by its cover.
Then using a center line as an indication
as to where everything falls.
She's going to need her lower jaw and cheek,
but I'm using this circle,
which is actually her forehead.
Naturally comes in a little bit towards the eyes.
And you can see the chin falls right
at that center line that I drew earlier.
Then I can come in from this other angle,
start to draw her jaw line,
which leads me straight to her ear.
Ear lets me know where the earring is gonna go.
And now that I have her face blocked in,
I'm gonna go and figure out her hairline.
(bright music)
So now I'm coming back to the eyes.
I'm gonna have her looking off to the side.
She's in her ballgown, so she has hair up.
But I'm going off of the same shape
that I've created here with the forehead,
and letting that dictate the shape of her bangs.
I'll recreate that on the other side.
This is gonna be wrapping around
since she's turned a little bit away from me.
The center line, again, I'm always using,
because I know her hair is up
in a bun in the back of her head,
so I need to be able to follow that line
to see where that's gonna sit.
And then that leads me right back to this hair
that's pulled back and up.
So this circle line that I've done
leads me right into her neck and shoulder.
And from there, we'll drape a little bit of this hair down.
Maybe it's going back into a little bit of a curl.
Maybe a little bit draping over her shoulder.
Then I'll finish that, so you can get
a little bit of idea of that ball gown,
that great sleeve that she has.
So this is Belle.
So I'm gonna go on to this next stage.
That first drawing really gives me a reference point
so I can see for myself maybe what I wanna change.
This is your chance to experiment.
If you see something that's really wrong
and you wanna erase it and change it, feel free.
And even in this stage, I'm gonna keep track
of a few of these guidelines.
But I wanna start tying down parts of this drawing
that I'm feeling a little bit more confident about.
I've lowered the forehead a little bit.
Just making little adjustments here and there.
(bright music)
I'm gonna bring her chin over just a little bit
from where I have it in my original drawing,
but keep that nice, full cheek that I had.
I think it was really important for me
when I first started working for Disney,
and I saw those beautiful drawings on the screen.
When you're doing your rough drawings,
even when you're changing things as you go,
it's not because I made a mistake or you made a mistake.
It's just needing to get something down on paper,
'cause a blank paper can be really intimidating sometimes.
Even though her hair's pulled back,
I always like to give a little nod
to that stray strand of hair.
(bright music)
Even though this is a bit of a rough sketch,
it's starting to come together a little bit more.
You can see a little bit more of her personality,
and that's really what I wanna capture in any drawing,
inhabiting these characters and bringing them out.
It's like to me they exist,
and somehow I'm helping bring them to life.
And the cool thing is, once you find
that character looking back at you on this paper,
it's kind of like a friend stopping by to visit.
It always brings a smile to my face.
It's kind of like, there you are.
So maybe I just captured Belle here in a brief moment
before she's off to go dance with the prince.
The last stage is something that we call cleanup.
What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take a kneaded eraser.
I'm gonna just knock back some of these lines a little bit.
Some I'm really using what was there as an underdrawing.
So I'm gonna start with the eyes, like I always do.
They say that it's a cleanup drawing.
That just means it's a little bit
cleaner than it was before.
My lines are probably still gonna stay
a little bit on the rough side,
but just with a little bit more intention.
But I personally really love the sketchy look.
Kind of gives the drawing a little bit of life to it,
which I think is the magic of drawing.
Even at this stage, I might be making
little changes to certain shapes.
I started drawing before I could walk or talk.
It's something I always loved doing.
And the very film I ever saw
in the theaters was a Disney film,
and it completely captured my imagination.
I was obsessed with drawing.
I did it all the time.
When I was growing up, I didn't realize right away
that this is something that people could do
when they grew up, that there were people
behind those drawings that I was seeing on the screen,
and helping bring those characters to life.
And I wanted to find out how I could be a part of that.
And I drew Disney characters all the time,
so I was already practicing at a really young age
for something I would still be doing all these years later.
So it kind of felt like in some ways,
it gave me a little bit of a headstart.
Beauty and the Beast came out
when I was still in high school.
I remember going to see it.
Of course I saw it opening day.
I was really excited to get a chance
to finally see this film in the theaters.
And I just fell in love with these characters.
The music was amazing.
The story was incredible.
And at this time, I was a little bit older,
so I was very aware of how these films were made,
and wanting to be a part of that.
So for me, it was really inspiring to me.
It's like finding these little moments
that keep you on your path.
And I knew that's what I wanted to do.
I knew it's what I needed to do,
'cause I wanted to be a part of that magic.
(light orchestral music)
That is pretty much Belle.
I hope you enjoyed following along
as much as I enjoyed being able to draw Belle for you today,
and hopefully we'll see you next time.