Easy Hip Hop Alien Drawing Tutorial Using Simple Shapes
This hip hop alien drawing was so much fun to create! In this step-by-step tutorial, I’ll show you exactly how to draw your own cool alien character with a hip hop style, even if you’re just starting out. Don’t worry if you’re new to drawing, I’ll break everything down into simple, easy-to-follow steps.
As we work through this art tutorial, you’ll see how easy it is to turn basic shapes into a fun, stylish character. I’ll guide you step by step so you can build confidence as you draw and create an alien with bold hip hop personality.
Let’s grab some supplies and get started.
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Art Supplies
- Thin black marker
- Paper or cardstock
- Markers
- Pencil
- Click Eraser, Pink Pearl Eraser
- White Gelly Roll pen
Why Drawing Creative Characters Is Great for Beginners
Creative mashups like this hip hop alien drawing are a great way to loosen up and have fun. When you combine two unexpected ideas, it takes the pressure off trying to make something “perfect.” Instead, you get to experiment, play, and build confidence with each step.
As you follow the steps, focus more on the overall vibe than tiny details. A few simple shapes and the right accessories will turn an ordinary alien into a stylish character with tons of personality.
Alien or Hip Hop Sketch Practice
Doing a quick sketching exercise is a great way to warm up and work on generating some new ideas. And it only takes a few minutes. Here’s how to do it.
- Get some paper and something to sketch with (pencil, pen, marker, etc.)
- Pull up some reference photos of aliens or hip hop characters
- Set a timer for three or five minutes
Then do as many quick sketches as you can before the timer goes off.
As an alternative to using the timer, you can choose to stop after you have run out of room on your paper. Either way is fine as long as you keep your lines loose and sketchy. This is meant to be a quick exercise.
How to Draw a Hip Hop Alien
Today we’re going to take the classic alien and add a little bit of a twist by making it a bit more stylized. For a lack of a better description, I called him hip hop. But it’s really more about taking the traditional concept of an alien and giving it some personality.
Check out this tutorial on drawing an alien for a more basic version.
I like doing my drawings on artist trading cards. They are the perfect size and since they are a smaller scale it makes finishing a drawing much easier.
I make my own blank cards from sheets of cardstock that are cut down to the proper size. But you can use whatever type and size of paper that works for you.
Step 1: Basic Shapes
The easiest way to start a drawing is with basic shapes.
So let’s begin by drawing a simple circle for the head. Then sketch in a rough shape for the hat and his shoulders.
This step doesn’t need to be perfect. You just want to get a general idea of how things will look. Think about the overall size and placement on your paper when doing this step. Make sure everything looks correct before moving onto the next step.
Step 2: Rough Sketch
Now you can start adding the details for your hip hop alien drawing. Let’s begin by drawing the face.
I like to start with the eyes. Aliens have big, almond shaped eyes that are at an angle. Try to keep them fairly symmetrical. But don’t stress if they’re not perfect. Then draw the nose and the mouth.
You can give your alien character a lot of personality with the mouth. I gave mine a crooked smile.
After the face is sketched out, draw the shape of the head. And then his hat and jacket. When drawing in your extra details, you can keep them really simple like I did. Or, you can add more details.
Step 3: Final Details
Finish up your sketch by adding in any extra details for your alien or the background.
I kept the hip hop alien drawing pretty simple so it would be beginner friendly. But you could easily add more detail to the drawing to whatever your artistic skill level is.
You could add a necklace or give him a hoodie.
Hip Hop Alien Outline
Before adding color you need to ink your drawing. I like bold, black outlines on artwork. So I usually use a black outlining pen.
You can use whatever you have available, but if you’re using markers make sure it’s not going to bleed.
When outlining your drawing you can make your lines the same thickness or you can vary it. It looks better if you have a combination of line weights but that’s also a little harder to do.
After you have your hip hop alien drawing outlined you can use a block eraser to clean up your pencil lines.
Hip Hop Alien Drawing with Markers
Learning to color with markers is easier than it looks. You just need to follow a few simple rules. And you need to know what look you’re going for with your markers. Let’s start with some basic information.
Start by picking out which colors you want to use. Then for each of those colors you’ll need to find two or three markers that are slightly different. Try to find a light, dark, and medium value of each color.
For my drawing I used green, red, and gray for the alien and his clothes. So I picked out two markers for each color since I’m working on an artist trading card so the areas are a bit smaller.
Start with one section of your drawing and add the lightest color first. Then use the darker colors to add some shadows. This will help create some depth so your drawing doesn’t look flat.
You can use the lighter color to blend the two markers where they meet. Then just repeat this process for each section of your drawing.
A white Gelly Roll pen can be used to add highlights.
For the background I added a galaxy with my markers. If you want to see how I did it, check out this tutorial on how to draw a galaxy.
Final Thoughts and Next Steps
I hope you enjoyed this hip hop alien drawing tutorial as much as I enjoyed making it. And hopefully you feel inspired to create your own artwork.
Art and drawing are skills that you learn and develop through practice and repetition. The more fun you have with your drawings, the more you’ll want to practice.
Doing a series of drawings is a great way to improve not only your drawing skills, but also your creativity. I like doing a seven day challenge. It’s a great way to come up with variations of your drawings.
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