How to draw a Good Enough ninja

[blockquote source=”Jarius Raphel”]Ninjas don’t wish upon a star, they throw them.[/blockquote]

When I was in high school, my friends and I recognized only two kinds of ninjas: Bruce Lee, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Today, ninjas are everywhere. The idea has morphed from a silent and highly skilled assassin to someone who can kill it in their field. So whether you need a Fruit Ninja, a Business Ninja, or even a Whiteboard Animation Ninja, draw one up just when you need them! Here’s how:

Three Tips

For our step-by-step ninja, I kept his outfit in white so you could see how the strokes came together. And it all starts with the head. Ninjas can wear just about anything from the neck down, from a traditional shozoko to a seersucker suit. The distinguishing feature of any ninja seems to be the mask. Some ninjas (like the TMNTs) wear masks over the eyes only. However, I find that the full-face mask is easier to draw, so I go that direction. Try both ways and see which one you prefer!

I drew our ninja wearing more of a typical martial arts outfit. To nail the scale of the body to the head in step four, I draw the shape of the torso’s top first, then add the cross-lines to give it the robe look. At that point, it’s easy to draw in the arms and legs to scale in an awesome ninja pose!

White-robed ninjas are fine and good, but sometimes you want them to show up at night. And that’s where the black outfit comes in. When drawing a black-robed ninja, use a different color to outline key shapes where definition is required. Check out this Whiteboard Animation ninja below:

In order to show the collar of the top, I outlined those sections with a light color, then filled them in with the dark color. If I didn’t do this and simply drew everything in black, once I filled it in it would look like a solid v-neck tunic instead of a wrapped ninja top.

And that’s it! What does YOUR ninja look like? Don’t just wish upon a star…throw it! Draw yours up, Tweet it out to @jeannelking #goodenough, and see who rises to the challenge.

Looking forward to seeing what you draw forth,

P.S. Want to have fun drawing AND inspire others to pick up the pen at the same time? Got something you wish you could draw, but you’re not sure how to approach it? [highlights color=”ffea00″]Tweet your drawing or idea to @jeannelking and tag it with #goodenough: it could be featured in an upcoming “how to draw Good Enough” blog post![/highlights]

[header_title title=”Recorded Trainings: How to become a Whiteboard Animation Ninja!” header_size=”h3″][/header_title]

In this 4-part recorded training series, whiteboard animation veteran Jeannel King teaches you how whiteboard animation videos are made…from script to storyboard to setup to shoot!

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How to draw a Good Enough ninja