Learn how to draw Jack Skellington
A few well-organized lines and this iconic character develops easily.
Tim Burton has a creepy yet wacky style that you either love or hate. If you are one of the many people that have been entranced by Burton’s unique style, here is something that can help you learn how to draw one of his most famous characters, the beloved Jack Skellington from the Nightmare Before Christmas film.
One of the key parts of Tim Burton’s style is the exaggerated shapes of his characters. Jack Skellington is incredibly thin and very tall and lanky, which gives him a rather stretched out look. This is probably the most important part of drawing Jack. His chest is an upside down triangle shape, and then he is basically a straight line below (if he is standing with his legs together).
Before you draw his body, it is usually a good idea to draw the head first, as this is something that most artists do, Tim Burton being one of them. Jack’s head is pretty simple, as it is just a circle. His face consists of two large black circles for the eyes, two black teardrop shapes in the center to represent his nostrils, and then, of course, he has his famous wide-mouthed smile. Jack’s mouth stretches across the entire front of his face, with little vertical lines that almost make it look like his mouth is stitched closed. After you draw the head, you can connect it to the body that I described earlier with a very thin, straight neck. Jack’s arms and legs are extremely long and thin just like the rest of his body, and he has rather large yet delicate-looking skeleton hands.
Once you have finished drawing the body, you can move onto Jack’s iconic pinstriped suit. His suit fits tightly to his thin body, with vertical black and white stripes that make him look even thinner. His coat is longer in the back and tapers out into a few strings at the end, which makes it look like a cape. His coat is closed with only one white button, with a plain white shirt. And then, of course, there is the most iconic part of his suit, the bat bow. Jack wears a bowtie that is shaped like a bat, with two beady white eyes, two pointed ears, and three points at the end of each long wing. Once you have completed the outfit with the bat bowtie, you should have an easily recognizable drawing of the famous Jack Skellington!
