The Complete Idiot's Guide to Drawing Anime Characters in 13 Easy Steps

1. 1

   Create a four-part oval by drawing a line down the middle. Your anime character's head design will largely adhere to these guidelines. You don't have to be precise, but the chin should take up a smaller portion of the oval. After the oval has been drawn, a horizontal line should be drawn down the middle. Then, connect its center with the horizontal line by drawing a vertical line. The facial features can then be drawn following these guidelines. [1]

   • Making the bottom of the oval just a little bit wider than the top will give your character a wider face. Alternately, you can make the bottom of the oval even narrower than the top if you'd like your character to have a slim profile. Since there is no standard for anime character heads, you are free to try out a variety of different styles until you find one you like.

2. 2

   Place the pupils under the horizontal line. The eyes in anime are typically between a quarter and a fifth of the face's total height due to their size and exaggeration. The first step in drawing one is to make a thick upper lash line underneath the horizontal line and to one side of the vertical line. Then, create a black pupil in the center of a semicircle that descends from the upper lash line. Underneath the circle, sketch a thin horizontal line for the lower lash line. At last, darken the area around the eye's pupil while leaving some white space, simulating light reflection. Repeat the process on the obverse of the vertical line to create the mirror image of the first eye. [2]

   Advice: Whether drawing a male or female anime character, change the eye shape and size accordingly. Make the eyes bigger and rounder, and add some thick lashes at the upper lash line for a more feminine look. Male characters benefit from smaller, shorter eyes.

   Advertisement

3. 3

   Eyebrows drawn on top of the horizontal For each eyebrow, sketch a long, sloping line downward. Draw them so that they are just a hair longer than the upper lash line you made for the eyes. Then, make the brows that frame your eyes and nose even thicker. [3]

   • Thin eyebrows are appropriate for female anime characters. Make the eyebrows thicker and set them higher for a more masculine look.

4. 4

   Draw a horizontal line halfway between the eyes and the chin, then add the nose. Noses in anime are often unobtrusive and only become noticeable when viewed from an angle. Draw a short, simple vertical line in the middle of your character's face, halfway between the horizontal line and the chin. This will serve as the nose. If you want your character to have a large nose, extend the line. [4]

   • The nose should be the smallest facial feature.
   • If you draw a vertical line, the nose will go over it. Make it darker than the vertical line or remove the line around the nose if you're having trouble making out the nose.
   • Male anime characters may have larger noses than female ones, but this is not always the case. Draw a short horizontal line under the vertical line to represent the bottom of the nose if you want it to stand out. In addition, make it look like light is striking your character from the side by drawing a triangle-shaped shadow on the side of the nose.
   • Noseless characters are perfectly acceptable in chibi and other noseless anime styles.

5. 5

   Carve out a smile that sits about in the middle of your face, between your nose and chin. Cartoonish and understated, anime mouths are similar to the noses they share a universe with. Draw a horizontal line about the same length as the distance between the eyes to represent the mouth of your character. Those lips can be drawn without any stress. Make the mouth smaller than both the eyes and the nose on your character's face. [5]

   • You can make your character happy by drawing a swooping upward line, or sad by drawing a swooping downward one.
   • To make it look like your character is smiling and baring their teeth, draw a curved line up and under the horizontal line that serves as their mouth. About as much height as the mouth width should be left in white between the curved and horizontal lines. The teeth of your character will go there.

6. 6

   You can't have a side profile without the ears. Don't draw the ears if the character's long hair is supposed to hide them. If the character's hair is going to be short, however, draw a skinny oval on either side of the head. Arrange the ears so that the tops meet the horizontal center line of the face and the bottoms meet the tip of the nose. Next, sketch the ear's folds inside each oval. [6]

   • Try different ear sizes to see what works best for your character.

7. 7

   Fill in your character's head with hair. Your character's hairstyle can be whatever you like, but typical anime hair has sharp bangs and choppy sections. Hair can be drawn in a variety of lengths, from short and buzzed to medium and long. No matter what you do, don't draw individual hairs. Use large sections of hair to draw 4 or 5 spikes at the ends. [7]

   • Long-haired characters can benefit from two spiky pigtails drawn on either side of the head. As an alternative, you could depict their hair pulled back into a bun. You could also give your character bangs by sketching three or four separate strands of hair that fall over their forehead.
   • A shorter cut could be represented by drawing three or four swoops of hair to one side of the forehead. You could also make it look like their hair is combed back by drawing a style that doesn't include bangs and instead features a series of lines that extend from the front to the back of the head. As an alternative, you could depict a bob that is chin-length but is broken up into several thick sections.

8. 8

   Get rid of the drawn lines, both horizontal and vertical. Be cautious when erasing them, though, or you might end up with a faceless image. You can reduce the likelihood of making mistakes by using a miniature eraser.

   • When you've erased both lines, the head and face of your character are complete.

Advertisement

1. 1

   Put your character's body on paper as a stick figure. The arms, the body, and the legs should all be drawn using straight lines. Scale the legs about a third longer while keeping the arms and torso at a similar length. Then, sketch out some triangles or ovals to represent the hands and feet. Carve out hands that are about a fifth of the length of the arm and feet that are about a sixth of the length of the legs. [8]

   • Stick figure outlines should be about 7 times as tall as the character's head to be proportional.
   • Place the beginning of the arm lines one fifth of the way down the line you drew for the torso.
   • Put your character in whatever position you like by having the outline of their stick figure strike that pose. If your character is supposed to be sitting, draw their legs in a seated position. Another option is to draw a bent arm for your character if you want them to wave.

2. 2

   Draw out the major proportions of your character's body. Over the stick figure sketch, add the basic contours of your character's trunk, arms, hips, and legs. If the outline isn't perfect, don't stress about it. For now, it's sufficient to use simple shapes to stand in for the various body parts.

   • Create upper and lower arm and leg ovals, as well as knee and elbow circles at the joints. Make the upper and lower arms of your character the same length and size for a balanced look. Heighten the difference in thickness between their upper and lower legs.
   • A quadrilateral (a shape with four sides) that tapers at the bottom will do for the torso. In time, those top corners can develop into your protagonist's broad shoulders.
   • Draw an oval over the intersection of the torso and upper legs to define the hips.
   • Characters in anime are typically tall and slender, but other dimensions are fair game.

3. 3

   Bring the shapes you drew together and make them more precise. You can make a clean outline of your character by tracing around its perimeter. Beginning with the hands, shoulders, hips, and neck, begin detailing each part of the body so that it appears more realistic. When you're done, the more general shapes you drew earlier will be surrounded by a complete, detailed outline of your character's body. [9]

   • For the next step, connect and refine the legs by drawing around the perimeters of each shape that makes up the legs (the ovals for the upper and lower legs, the circles for the knees, and the shapes you drew for the feet). Leave no voids in the outline, and the legs will look more realistic.
   • Arms and the midsection follow the same pattern for the upper body. For the shoulders, round off the upper body's squared-off corners, and for the neck, draw two sloping lines outward from the body's midline. Join the hip outline to the upper body and lower legs as well.

   Draw a wider chest, waist, and shoulders for a more masculine look when drawing male anime characters. Shoulders should be narrowed, hips should be widened, and breasts should be outlined if you're drawing a female anime character. You should also have the waist narrowed.

4. 4

   The stick figures and shapes you drew should be erased. Carefully erase so that you don't erase any of your carefully crafted final outlines. When you're done, the body outline shouldn't have any traces of the guidelines you used to sketch it. [10]

5. 5

   Embellish your anime character with clothes. Rather than drawing the garments separately, you should lay them out over your character's sketched outline. If your character is wearing a shirt, you would draw the sleeves over their arms and the body of the shirt over their torso. Next, erase the insides of the garments where the lines are, as these will never be seen. If your character is wearing shorts, for instance, you should erase the outline of their upper legs that is inside the shorts because it is irrelevant. [11]

   • Consider how the garments would naturally crease and fold while the person was wearing them as you draw them. Next, sketch in the folds and creases to give the garments a more lifelike appearance. Images of garments on the Internet allow you to observe creases in advance.
   • Outfitting your anime character is as flexible as it gets. School uniforms, formal dresses and suits, and traditional Japanese clothing are all good examples of the kinds of clothes often seen in anime.
   • Find a qualified instructor if you wish to advance your artistic abilities.
   • Draw a lot and study the art of drawing. [12]
   • Try to train your eyes to think like an artist.

Advertisement

Inquire Here