How to Draw a Sister of Battle

Finished Sister of Battle drawing with heavy armor, a large gun, and hatched shadows.

There are a huge number of very different factions in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. This tutorial will show you how to draw a Sister of Battle from Warhammer 40,000, a female warrior from one of its powerful and formidable forces.

The tutorial will follow the basic principles of drawing a female figure, but instead of ordinary clothing, we will draw armor and the other elements that characterize a Sister of Battle.

How to draw a Sister of Battle step by step

Step 1: Sketch the Sister of Battle figure

Mark the head as a simple oval. After that, draw a line for the spine. Over this line, sketch the chest and pelvis. With simple lines, mark the arms and legs of the female warrior. All these construction lines should be very light. Keep the underlying figure relatively slender.

Sketching the Sister of Battle figure with head, torso, pelvis, and limb guides.

Step 2: Build the warrior’s body forms

Draw the neck as a short cylinder, then outline the torso. Make the torso noticeably narrow at the waist. After that, build the arms and legs using simple cylindrical forms. Do not forget to draw two crossing lines on the face to mark the placement of the facial features. Mark the hands with simple forms and indicate the feet according to the directions established by the leg lines.

Building the Sister of Battle body forms and adding facial construction lines.

Step 3: Sketch the armor and gun

Starting from the head, outline the hairstyle and large armor collar. Then add the massive shoulder plates and the main armor shapes over the torso, arms, and legs. Sketch the shoulder armor beyond the actual shoulders. he silhouette should look wider at the top. Also sketch the long cloth panel descending from the waist. In the right hand, sketch the warrior’s large gun with light lines. You can first represent the weapon as a long box-like form with a short cylindrical barrel at the front.

Sketching the Sister of Battle armor, hairstyle, shoulder plates, and large gun.

Step 4: Refine the face and hairstyle

Starting from this step, use darker lines. First, carefully draw the Sister of Battle’s facial features and the outlines of the face. Use the construction lines from the previous steps to keep the eyes at the same level and place the nose and mouth near the center of the face. Then use long, curved lines to draw the short hairstyle. Draw the fringe crossing the forehead and separate the larger locks that frame the sides of the face.

Refining the Sister of Battle face and short hairstyle with clean lines.

Step 5: Draw the torso and shoulder armor

First, refine the large shoulder plates and armor collar, then draw the curved contours of the chest armor. The chest armor should follow the volume of the torso. After that, add the long vertical line down the center of the armored torso and the pointed armor sections at the waist.

Drawing the Sister of Battle shoulder plates, chest armor, and waist details.

Step 6: Refine the armored arms and weapon

We do not need to draw the joints and arm muscles because the armor covers these parts of the body. Refine the armored sleeves and massive forearm guards. Let the forearm armor become wider through the middle and narrower near the wrists. Then draw the hands and add the smaller details of the large gun. Refine the long planar sides of the weapon separately and trace the cylindrical muzzle.

Refining the armored arms, hands, forearm guards, and Sister of Battle gun.

Step 7: Draw the belt and lower armor

Carefully draw the long cloth hanging from the belt and covering the inner parts of the legs. Add a few long folds descending from the belt and make the lower edge of this fabric torn and irregular. Refine the belt and its smaller details. Draw the cylindrical containers attached to it. Then draw the knee pads, lower leg armor, and boots. Also remove all remaining unnecessary guidelines from the Sister of Battle drawing.

Drawing the Sister of Battle belt, hanging cloth, knee pads, leg armor, and boots.

Step 8: Shade the Sister of Battle armor

To render the shadows as accurately as possible, visually divide the drawing into lit and unlit areas, and shade those where the least amount of light falls. When drawing shadows on the curved and rounded parts of the armor, use smooth hatching that follows the form. Use light strokes to indicate highlights on the armor.

Adding hatched shadows across the Sister of Battle armor, cloth, hair, and weapon.

In this tutorial, we depicted the character in a characteristic pose with one arm raised and holding a weapon. To draw any other pose, use references or a miniature of the character if you have one. You can also draw a Sister of Battle from imagination, changing the details as you like.

Our tutorial on drawing a Space Marine from the Warhammer universe follows similar principles, so you can try drawing him as well.