Art Post - Let's learn to draw MCU Sam

Everytime We Touch - Electric Callboy

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Samuel Sterns / The Leader & Bruce Banner (MCU version)

It started very simple. I asked on BlueSky what people would want to see, something angsty or something cute, whatever, I just wanted to draw MCU Sam.

The purpose was mostly to train to draw his bodyshape and face in my style, so a bit more "cartoonish", which is a pretty fucking hard exercice when your character is a live action character, especially when he is portrayed by the actor for who you developped a weird-ass daddy issue crush but anyway.

The point is, I'm trying to find a way to draw MCU Sam in my style while still having him kind of recognizable. I mean, he is recognizable, he has very specific features such as a very bright glowy neon green eye and a blind one, making him look like kind of odd-eyed, a brainish diformed head and neck and a very pale greenish skin so yes, he is.

But I also wanted to respect Tim's features. I love how he looks like, because he's handsome because it's my job, as an artist, to represent people how they are. To not erase any features, even the one people don't like (it happens, from time to time, people asking me to draw them without this and that and I don't do that, btw, I will draw you how you are and make you look as good as you truly are, through my eyes rather than your twisted perception of yourself).

I don't know how Tim feels about himself and it's not my place to try to guess anyway. But in a way or another, it's important to me that I respect his face and don't erase any of the traits that makes him special. And that, folks, is a pretty damn hard exercise, because it's hard to understand what features you need to keep and put extra care in and what features you need to remove in order to keep things simpler and cartoonish without erasing them. Because beauty isn't about goodness. Tim isn't beautiful to me because he's hot (tho it helps) but because of how I see him and how comforting he is to me. And if you ever loved someone (I'm not talking about romance folks, could be a friend, a family member, an idol, love has many many shapes) you get what I mean and how any kind of face, even when they don't follow your own beauty standards, can be absolutly beautiful. You don't love you mother or friends because of how they look, you love how they look because of how you love them. And so, every traits that make their face recognizable is important to you. That's what I mean. And as artists, it's our role to represent and respect this beauty. To give make people care for them through your own passion and care.

I made a few researches, I tried a few things to have "my own" TimSam (Sim). There's a few reasons to the cartoonization of a live action character (or a person). The first is because I'm mostly into composing and stuff like that so I have no personal interest in just reproducing photography, as impressive as hyper realism is, I just have no fun in that (and thinking a character in your style is the best part of the process). Second, Sam is a character I often draw, that's why I redesigned his comics self (which is easier 'cause he doesn't have a regular look or face so I can do whatever I want) to be able to easily and quickly draw him when needed. Let it be a big piece or a small doodle, I need it to be simple enough to be redraw a few time without struggling each time. It's a basic rule of comics art, actually, keeping things simple enough to be able to reproduce them quick without having to think too much about their face, their body, their outfit etc... Because of the publishing speed. Simple but recognizable enough.

But just because the goal is to keep MCU Sam as close as Tim as possible doesn't mean you're not allowed to add your own fun and headcanons (friendly reminder that a headcanon is something you made up in your mind that isn't "official/canon").

MCU Samuel Sterns research sketches

Here're some of my researches (the one I was the most satisfied with, still gotta work the faces but it will come with time).

For his body I made him very skinny because I don't think he was (and will be in his new prison) well nutrished. Wouldn't be surprised if they often starved him in camp echo one in fact. Beside, comics Sam is very skinny too.

I also headcanon that Ross upped his gamma dosage through injections that he'd do in the right arm, because that's where his neck is more diformed, right part. So, like his neck, I like to think his right arm would suffer that. More visible veins, dark green and burn scars on it (because of how you need electrochoc and all, I headcanon that it burnt inside his own veins).

Of course you try to keep Tim's nose, his hollow eyes (make them worst like they did with Sam's makeup), keep the "skull" shape on his face that they make visible through light play and makeup in that shot :

MCU Samuel Sterns in Captain America Brave New World by Julius Onah

(that's the trait on each side of his face I made). I don't always draw the nasogenian folds 'cause they're often use to amplify emotions, making him look kinda "odd" with a cold emotionless face. I add them through shadowing but not through a line (unless I wanna amplify an emotion, like I said). Of course it's important to draw him with little to no emotion except for annoyance, anger (and contempt, eventually) but I like having fun with more than that 'cause MCU Sam being very emotionless, every emotions he shows on his face is more impacting.

I also like to draw his little teeth gap, even if it's not that visible, it gives him a notable feature.

It suits MCU Sam very well, so I add that through one simple line. I give comics Sam a fang, it's only fitting that I find something else for MCU Sam's teeth haha. And I put a line on the corner of his lip to the nose (sometimes another one near the middle of the mouth) to draw that mouth shape he has.

As for the posing, Sam is an autistic emo edgelord and it's easy for me to draw that 'cause he basically stand and move like me (I'm working on my posture very hard atm for my back's sake, don't judge me lol) but for other people here looking for advices, it means you gotta draw the shoulders lowered.

Look at how I made it a triangle (or like the point of an arrow) on the sketch above rather than a straight line. As a little comparison, here's how I draw comics Sam shoulders (straight line) :

Samuel Sterns / The Leader

Comics Sam is a confident lad full of energy and you gotta reflect that in the way he poses and move, so a straight line to join both shoulders together (of course according to the posing it's not always THAT straight, but you get what I mean).

MCU Sam is tired and gloomy, he moves and look like a ghost so keep that in mind, avoid to give him too much dynamism (which can be as complicated, if not more, as giving dynamism because it's hard to avoid lifeless and flat arts. Just because you draw someone emotionless doesn't mean your art gotta be this way, quite the other way around, especially for MCU Sam who's actually incredibly expressive through his voice and facial expression, even if he tries not to).

The easiest way to do that is to play with his hands. People understimate hands, that's why they struggle so much with it, but it's as expressive as a face and more detailed, actually. For a face you gotta think a mouth, a nose, two eyes, two brows and some traits here and there. For a hand you have at least 17 parts to think, 3 per fingers, 2 to 4 on the palm depending on how you think and that's ONLY if you draw the palm side like I did with comics Sam above, otherwise you gotta think knuckles as well, hand bones etc etc...

Even if MCU Sam keeps his arms lifeless close to his body, you can still do that with dynamism. If you can't give dynamism through the pose, you gotta do it through your line and the shape.

That's why I give him exagerated triangle pointy shoulders and arm parts. Also why I make his wrist bending like this, it gives him that kind of gross "cracking" movement you see in horror movies, mostly on zombies or ghosts, without even moving.

Since we're talking MCU, you see that moment Scarlet Witch leaves the mirror in the most horrific undead-ish way? That's the kind of cracking movements I'm talking about.

As for his legs, I kept the same kind of logic. I keep the gaped straight legs standing but I add shape to that gap and I break the straight lines to add movement and awkwardness to his very simple pose :

So basically the point is to exagerate his pose, lower his shoulders even more, making the gap between his feet and knees weirder etc... I failed that part on this fanart, his legs are too "straight" (and too long, btw), that's something I'll have to work on. His pose was a bit too rigide in this quick fanart. Something you can also play with is his clawed hand. Look at these shots. His left hand is always relaxed while his right hand is kind of "clawed", as if he was grabbing something.

It's something I do with my right hand too so I suppose it's more of a Tim thing than a Sam one, but it's something he gave to Sam, so you can use it to break the monotony of his pose.

I think that's all I have to say about his design, for now, so let's go back to the art I'm supposed to talk about :

As I said the point was to do something cute. I kept that in mind through colors that I make both flashy and somewhat pastel (turning the black lines into dark blue).

I gave Bruce more curves in both his body shape (Mark Ruffalo having more curve than Tim Blake Nelson) but also in his pose, unlike Sam who's quite straight (in his pose only, that lad is incredibly gay). Made him slightly taller too as he's 8 cm taller than Tim, I think?

I felt in love with Sam's hoodie (I said several time that I had a thing for hooded figures), depending on how you draw him it can makes him look mysterious and threatening or just like an edgy awkward boy, it's a lot of fun to play with that.

I like to think that he'd hide his head around Bruce, because he clearly dislikes his appearance and while it's not a problem when he's around people he doesn't care about or when he doesn't need to hide, I think he would keep hiding himself around people he likes, inconsciously probably.

I love his sunglasses, also. My problem is everything has to make sense (it's a problem, the more you justify stuff, the less natural it feels) and my biggest problem with comics Samuce is I LOVE drawing couple in everyday situations, like dating outside. But how do you have Sam and his GIGANTIC head wandering casually with Bruce? You CAN'T. MCU Sam, however, you put the hood to hide his difformed head, you put sunglasses and you add a chirurgical mask and hop là, your Sam is incognito (you can add gloves too, lots of things you can do). But drawing sunglasses here or a mask would mean hidding his face and I wanted his facial expression to be visible, because it's what make this art cute, it's his reaction to his need to grab Bruce's hand (one day I'll talk about comics Sam's obvious touch craving). Physically looking away, blushing and just drinking his strawberry banana smoothie (that's what it is yes), like when you pretend to do something else when you're embarassed by a situation.

Totally opposing Bruce who turns around to directly look at him, not doing anything but focusing on Sam and only Sam, even if he's also blushing. Even his expression is very different, Sam's brows being very "è.é" while Bruce's are up because of the surprise. Samuce is a fun ship to draw because let it be comics or MCU they oppose each others so have fun with that in your design and pose. Sam is wearing big loose-y clothings (I like to think that he borrowed them to Bruce 'cause Bruce probably felt reponsible for Sam so he'd kind of sheltering him the way he did with She-Hulk, trying to "fix" him and shit, I'll go back to that another day) that covers most of his body, making him look awkward and insecured while Bruce as a more confident kind of outfit. visible torso, stuff like that. MCU Bruce used to be incredibly insecured and depressed and he's probably still full of traumas and very awkward but clearly recently he gained confidence and a way more joyful personality, I want that to be visible through the way he dresses, stands, talks. A mix of joy, confidence and awkwardness. 'Cause I think Bruce would still be very awkward with that kind of stuff (affection, I mean) and I think Sam would be more likely to do the first physical step each time. First to hold hands, first to hug, first to kiss and more if you get on. Not just because Bruce is awkward but because would respect Sam's personal space (someone with his past would probably be kind of traumatized by touch so Bruce would just be too scared of hurting him) and also because through his calculations statistical and shit, Sam would know when to initiate these moments.

Of course for the outfits I sticked to their signature colors and MCU outfits, giving orange to Sam and purple to Bruce. Black pants and very dark blue hoodie for Sam, brown pants for Bruce etc...

It's a quick art so I didn't think that deep for everything, no background, no elaborated clothes or poses etc... Simple but efficient was the mindness.

As I said, it was an excuse to try to draw MCU Sam in my style (and Bruce too, still have A LOT of work to do for Bruce). But it's also an excuse to learn to draw MCU Sam's leg (I also still have work to do, like I said above).

I don't have the occasion to have fun drawing thin legs like MCU Sam's, but I always loved this kind of shape on characters, pointy larger shoulders and very thin hips and legs. It's a bodyshape that is very fun to draw, very expressive also.

From time to time I wanna draw Sam like this but it would clash with the consistency that I try to keep in between each of my arts, that's also what people expect from me when they buy me a commission, they either want characters with curves of they buy a half-body so no legs visible so I don't have the occasion to have fun drawing thin legs like MCU Sam's so I'm happy to be able to explore this kind of morphololgy through MCU Sam.

There's also another thing I wanted to try and work on, these very black shadow mixing legs and feet.

I tried that on another very little art that I won't share just yet because I want to make a whole post about it when its purpose is done and not before. But anyway, I like that effect.

If you look at my past arts, you'll notice that in all of them I add a bit of purple on Sam and a bit of orange on Bruce. It's my way to illustrate their unbreakable "ying yang" bound (there's a part of evil in good and good in evil and humanity in the monster and monster in humans and blablabla you get it).

As I said, no background, but no background is stressing me out because I like cluttered shit so no background means lazy simple forms, like these. Stars, circles, they're the easiest and the one I use the most (they're on almost all my arts, it became a signature at this point haha). A touch of green to avoid plain white and make it more pastel and "softer" and voilà, you have your art.

Sam being Sam and being so conflicted with Bruce (I'll write a whole post about their potential relationship in the MCU) in a way that he probably feels ressent but also still admiration for him, would just kind of hate having feelings for him. Destabilizing him from his one goal (revenge and shit), so of course he would act reluctant and grumpy.

But that's the fun part of that ship haha, his tsundere behaviors.

But I'm also a romantic, y'know, I like giving happy endings to my little gremlins once in a while, so have this little bonus.

Don't get too used to MCU Sam softly smiling, it won't happen that much, but just, the thought of him smiling at Bruce with THIS SMILE is melting my heart

Samuel Sterns in Incredible Hulk by Louis Leterrier

I know it will never happen, but I would love for the MCU to explore their past internet friendship, to have Bruce feel guilt over Sam and Sam ressent over Bruce but mixed with admiration. As I said, I will develop that in another article that I hope Kevin Feige's ninja will read and steal LOL. But until then, enjoy~