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Description
When drawing a character with a rifle, carbine or SMG, I like to start with the head and build the weapon around the head and the body around the weapon, as it is in real life. Your eyes find the target, and your body does what it has to to bring the sights up, align them with your eyes and the target, and then fine-adjust your positioning to ensure the lead hits target.

So, the order is head, gun, body. More specifically, eyes gun body, but eyes are tough to just draw.

A common mistake that's easily avoided is having the shoulder-fired weapon too far up on the character or the head too low. The weapon should rest against the shoulder, and the weapons are commonly designed to allow the shoulder to be at rest (as opposed to spiked up) and for the ironsights to be engaged. if your head is too low, your gun may be too small. If your head is too high, your character may be gripping the weapon incorrectly, and it'll come out awkward. A gentle tilt of the head is all that's needed.

Don't forget legs. I see a lot of very detailed work go terribly wrong when a character doesn't have that action-feeling to it because his or her legs are smack together. When you're running and gunning, you're going to have a wide stance, and your characters will seem more natural if they do, too. Don't be afraid of going too wide, either. Short of doing a split, it'll look cool.

Some more notes:

Some shooters advocate one-eye-open, while others swear on the two-eyes-twice-as-good theory. Personally, I say that the shooter must (not should, MUST) go with what's most comfortable for each and every shot. It depends on your character. Generally, the farther away the shot is, the more likely your character is only going to have one eye open.

Shell ejection ports are almost always on the right side. If your shooter is left-handed, find him or her a port deflector.

Do some homework on the fire rate of your weapons. Generally, the shell casings come out at about 100fps. If your weapon has a normal rate of fire, say, semi-auto, there's no way that any more than two shell casings will be visible in a shot mid-air. Unless you're using, say, a Glock 18 on full auto (some 900 rounds a minute) try to keep the shell casings well spread out. Also, those casings don't fly uber-far. Six to ten feet at the most. And they're hot. Very, very hot. Picture leaving an old metal pen on the oven for an hour, then picking it up. yeah, it's hot. I mean, they cool down quick, but if a character were to have a casing land on him/her straight from the weapon, they'd know.

Like I said a second ago, do your homework. Get references. Lots of them. Don't be shy about using a picture of a weapon to draw one. We all use references. it's not a dirty little secret or anything.

Oh, and for the record, rifles are just as powerful as shotguns at close range. It's a physics thing.

Description
When drawing a character with a rifle, carbine or SMG, I like to start with the head and build the weapon around the head and the body around the weapon, as it is in real life. Your eyes find the target, and your body does what it has to to bring the sights up, align them with your eyes and the target, and then fine-adjust your positioning to ensure the lead hits target.

So, the order is head, gun, body. More specifically, eyes gun body, but eyes are tough to just draw.

A common mistake that's easily avoided is having the shoulder-fired weapon too far up on the character or the head too low. The weapon should rest against the shoulder, and the weapons are commonly designed to allow the shoulder to be at rest (as opposed to spiked up) and for the ironsights to be engaged. if your head is too low, your gun may be too small. If your head is too high, your character may be gripping the weapon incorrectly, and it'll come out awkward. A gentle tilt of the head is all that's needed.

Don't forget legs. I see a lot of very detailed work go terribly wrong when a character doesn't have that action-feeling to it because his or her legs are smack together. When you're running and gunning, you're going to have a wide stance, and your characters will seem more natural if they do, too. Don't be afraid of going too wide, either. Short of doing a split, it'll look cool.

Some more notes:

Some shooters advocate one-eye-open, while others swear on the two-eyes-twice-as-good theory. Personally, I say that the shooter must (not should, MUST) go with what's most comfortable for each and every shot. It depends on your character. Generally, the farther away the shot is, the more likely your character is only going to have one eye open.

Shell ejection ports are almost always on the right side. If your shooter is left-handed, find him or her a port deflector.

Do some homework on the fire rate of your weapons. Generally, the shell casings come out at about 100fps. If your weapon has a normal rate of fire, say, semi-auto, there's no way that any more than two shell casings will be visible in a shot mid-air. Unless you're using, say, a Glock 18 on full auto (some 900 rounds a minute) try to keep the shell casings well spread out. Also, those casings don't fly uber-far. Six to ten feet at the most. And they're hot. Very, very hot. Picture leaving an old metal pen on the oven for an hour, then picking it up. yeah, it's hot. I mean, they cool down quick, but if a character were to have a casing land on him/her straight from the weapon, they'd know.

Like I said a second ago, do your homework. Get references. Lots of them. Don't be shy about using a picture of a weapon to draw one. We all use references. it's not a dirty little secret or anything.

Oh, and for the record, rifles are just as powerful as shotguns at close range. It's a physics thing.