How To Draw Anime Characters Easy

Section 21 Drawing Manga Eyes

There are probably hundreds of different styles you can use for eyes, but we will just go over some of the basics. For obvious reasons, male eyes differ greatly from female eyes, just as evil eyes look much different than good guy eyes. We could spend hours going over every single nuance, so for this tutorial, well keep it simple.

If youre interested this quora anwser is a reasonably comprehensive explanation of what different aspects of eyes could mean when drawing your Manga.

Lets start off with a basic female manga eye first. Start by drawing a curved line where the top of the eyelid and the eyelashes will sit. From here you will want to draw a large oval shape underneath, roughly the same width and the first line you made. Leave one side of the oval open .

Now you should have something that is starting to resemble an eye. If for whatever reason you arent happy with it thus far, just gently erase and start again. This is why you are pressing so lightly with the pencil. When the inking starts, theres no going back.

Inside this first oval, youll want to draw another smaller oval that is slightly overlapped on the top by the eyelashes. Then, draw yet another oval around pupil to represent the iris . If youre tired of drawing ovals, too bad There are more coming.

This next part is something very common among manga and anime character eyes.

Light reflections.

For the interested, these reflections are called catchlights in both film and photography.

Anime Character Face Drawing Step By Step

To draw any of the characters in this tutorial you can use the steps in the above illustration.

For an explanation of why you want to draw this way and other helpful drawing tips see:

Drawing An Average Guy Anime Male Character

The average guy character is usually meant to be someone the viewer can relate to or cheer for. These are often the protagonists of anime shows and manga or the lead male character if the protagonist is a female.

Somewhat messy medium length hair is very common for these types of characters.

To draw a male protagonist character with their normal expressions draw the eyebrows in their natural position and draw the eyes with fairly large pupils/irises.

If you want a friendly looking character draw the mouth with a light smile.

Read Also: How To Color Anime Eyes

Learn How To Draw Manga

Wouldnt be cool to know how to draw manga character or even better a couple of them? I was wondering what anime character to start from on the following pages.Here in Japan, the selection and variety of manga and anime is just so huge that I do not even bother to learn all about it because that would be nearly impossible.Manga and anime is a cultural thing in Japan and I can tell you that almost every child knows how to draw manga character. I mean at least some simple one.

Maybe you have heard that Japan is a country of manga. It is very true indeed. If you purchase lets say an electrical appliance, the users manual is illustrated. Thats incredible and very easy to understand.You can often see the similar thing in textbooks. Text combined with illustrations.National TV broadcasting have some funny characters appearing here and then on the TV screen joining the conversation in some programs.Many educational programs are prepared as anime manga. Very serious ones. You wouldnt believe.In Japan, you can buy books with serious content made in a form of manga. That was very surprising for me because I have never seen such books in Europe. They are actually very easy to read. The whole content of such book is derived into a written essence appearing as a conversation among manga characters. The secondary content appears not in written but in manga form.

Learn To Draw The Step

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Drawing A Surprised Intellectual Male Anime Character

The intellectual may make a surprised face like the one in the example when they make some sort of a discovery.

To draw the surprised look for the intellectual character draw the eyebrows raised and draw the eyes wide open with small pupils. Draw the mouth open in an O type shape. Since the mouth is open you can also optionally draw the jaw slightly lower down.

Drawing A Friendly Male Anime Character

The friendly guy is usually a positive supporting character such as the protagonists best friend.

A short and messy hair can be a good fit for the friendly guy as it can reinforce a down to earth and slightly carefree personality type.

For the friendly guys normal look draw the eyebrows in their natural state. Draw the eyes wider and make the irises and everything inside them larger than the base example at the start of the tutorial.

Give the mouth a light smile.

Larger eyes will make for a friendlier looking character and a light smile will further reinforce this look.

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Drawing An Angry Tough Anime Character

The though girl anime characters tend to be fairly emotional and can get angry easily.

For the angry face draw the eyes a lot more squinted than normal and the eyebrows even lower down.

Draw the mouth open and fairly wide with the bottom being slightly wider than the top.

You can also give her a bit of medical tape on her cheek to reinforce the idea of her active character .

Drawing An Intellectual Male Anime Character

The intellectual character type in anime and manga does not necessarily mean a shy or weak male character. On the contrary quite often these characters can be both physically though and intelligent. Often these tend to be the school council president or some type of leader.

For the intellectuals normal look draw the eyebrows in their natural state with the eyes slightly narrower than the default character example at the start of the tutorial. Make the irises slightly smaller as well. Smaller/narrower eyes will both make the character look more serious and hint that they may have impaired vision.

Draw the mouth in a light upside down curve to again make the character look more serious.

Also Check: How To Draw Anime Jawlines

How To Draw Male Anime Characters Step By Step

This step by step tutorial shows how to draw male anime and manga characters. It includes a total eight examples of some of the more popular character archetypes with three variations of each.

The main focus of this tutorial is on personality. It shows how you can take the same anime style male face and transform it into different characters by tweaking the facial features and hairstyle. It also shows how to draw some of the facial expressions these characters are likely to have.

The character types covered in this tutorial are:

• Average Guy

Adding In Facial Features

Firstly, add the ears. From top to bottom they should go from the eye line to the nose line. Add in the nose, which can be of any shape but it must just touch the bottom of your horizontal nose line.

NOTE: To help with how big to make the eyes, the eye guideline from ear to ear should be roughly five eyes wide. This means that your eyes should have an eyes length that separates them in the middle.

The eyebrows require simple curved lines above the eyes and the placement doesnt really matter too much, they just need to follow the placement of the eyes. You can experiment with different shapes and placement to portray various different emotions.

Lastly, draw the mouth line halfway between the bottom of the nose guideline and the bottom of the lip line.

That’s the proportions sorted, now let’s make it Manga…

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Drawing An Embarrassed Anime Tsundere Character

As already mentioned a tsundere character tends to get embarrased when showing their true feelings so this can be a fairly common expression for them.

For an embarrassed tsundere face draw the eyes squinting and looking downwards. Draw a horizontally wide mouth with the bottom ends wider than the top. Also keep in mind that when the mouth is open you should draw the jaw slightly lower down.

Draw the eyebrows lower down.

How Do You Draw Anime Hair

When you learn how to draw anime hair, you will begin by creating the basic outline and shape of your desired hairstyle. After this, you will start adding some layers to create more realistic hair. Just like the eyes, anime hair can be any color at all! But, do not forget to add elements of shadow and light, as shading is always needed when you draw hair.

Well done! You have now finished your manga drawing! We hope that this manga drawing tutorial has everything you need to be well on your way to creating many more awesome anime characters! Be creative and think out of the box, and most importantly, have fun!

Hanna Kirchner | «Hanapen»

From a very young age, Hanna Kirchner has loved to draw, where she would always be found in the art corner of her Kindergarten class. Since, she has graduated as a graphic designer. Hanna resides in the Karlsruhe area of Baden-Württemberg. Also from a very young age, Hanna enjoyed watching anime shows on TV. Among her childhood favorites were Yugi-Oh, Beyblade, and of course, the ever-popular Pokémon! Hannas love for the Japanese artform was certainly encouraged by her older sister, who also adored manga. She recalls seeing one of her sisters German manga magazines, Daisuki, and knowing exactly what she wanted to do as a career. Now, Hanna is an accomplished graphic designer who still enjoys drawing anime part-time.

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Drawing An Antagonist/villain Anime Character

The antagonist or the main villain is usually the direct opposite of the protagonist. A negative character with few to no good traits.

To draw an unfriendly looking anime character like this example draw the pupils of the eyes and irises fairly small with the top eyelids covering a good portion of the eye.

Do not add any shadows to the top of the irises . Also draw fewer highlights in the eyes and make them fairly small for an even less friendly look.

Draw the bottom eyelids and the mouth in reverse curves .

Position the eyebrows lower down in wave like shape for a sort of semi-permanent frown.

You can use what is often referred to as a Hime Cut for the hair. As Hime means princess combined with a look like the one above it can reinforce the idea of a stuck up or spoiled character.

Background And Foreground: Creating A Mood And Atmosphere

At this point, if you are creating a background and/or foreground, you can begin sketching some elements. Because you are working digitally, you will do this on a separate layer. To help create shadow and light relations, work with your background. Create a layer above your rough sketch while in multiply mode.

Now, you can choose where your shadows fall in a color that is lighter than that of your sketch. You can add a soft light mode layer with some white, which will bring in light. You can now plan your drawing a little bit better, as your sketch will still be visible. While learning to draw manga, the perfect background and the right atmosphere is as important as the character itself!

A helpful tip is to keep order by using folders within your layers tab. This will help you to identify individal layers quickly when you need to make an edit or adjustment.

Anime Line Art

Your anime figure should now be taking shape! Once your character has been well prepared, you will start to clean it up with line art contours. Your sketch will be much wilder-looking, so just go over the most important lines. The result will be a far cleaner drawing.

A useful tip here is to use strokes in varying lengths, which will help to liven up your linework.

What this means is that you should use lines of varying thicknesses to create more nuance in your artwork. Using omissions can also look really good, especially later on when they start to complement the colored-in areas.

Base Coloration

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Anime Drawing Tutorials For Beginners Step By Step

If you are a beginner and are trying to learn how to draw anime, keep in mind that you can learn, but you have to practice. Dont give up! Furthermore, the good thing about anime drawings is that you can turn anything into an anime. Even your own self-portrait. So, we have prepared a few step-by-step tutorials for beginners, which are going to help you get started on face, body and facial expressions. So, if you keep practicing, we bet you are going to get better and better. Enjoy!

How to draw anime

Create The Basic Structure Of The Face

First, you will create the general composition of the characters face. While artists have varying preferences about how to structure an anime characters head and face, they all start with the same basic principle: First draw a circle, and then draw a horizontal line and vertical line directly through the center of the circle.

Generally, you will draw the eyes on or just below the horizontal line and the mouth at the bottom of the circle, with the nose placed between the eyes and the mouth. The chin will extend down below the circle.

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Drawing Anime Heads And Hair

1. Anime Hairstyles for Women

If youre focused on how to draw anime girls, Skillshare instructor Yanting Sun can help you create the perfect hairstyle for your character. She breaks the hair drawing process down by using simple, known shapes and reference photos.

2. Anime Hairstyles for Men

In this course, graphic novel artist Rush Hamden shows you how to draw anime hair on your male characters, from pencil sketches to traditional Japanese anime inking.

3. Simple Head Shapes

As Skillshare instructor Jay Dubb says, drawing is fun, but it can be frustrating. Save yourself the hassle and learn how to draw anime heads using his tried and true simple shapes methods. Hell show you how to create a character head using a circle, rectangle, and triangle.

4. Heads From Any Angle

When planning your anime drawing, it is helpful to have the ability to draw your characters head from any angle as they move and animate across the page or screen. In this course, Skillshare instructor Nina Rycrof shows you how to draw a head using a three-dimensional model and gridded axis points.

5. Anime Head Guidelines

If youre on the hunt for a precise guide to how to draw anime heads, Skillshare instructor Coffee Allens course will be helpful. Shell teach you how to sketch your anime characters head using a series of lines and measurements.

Drawing A Bullying Delinquent/thug Male Anime Character

The bullying face is another expression the delinquent/thug is likely to make especially when they corner their target.

For the delinquents/thugs bullying face draw one eyebrow lowered and one raised. The eye under the lowered eyebrow should be squinted and the one under the raised eyebrow opened slightly wider than normal.

Draw the with a grin/smile tilted to one side and draw the top portion of the mouth in an upside down curve .

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Cleaning Up And Finishing The Drawing

Tip: Practice drawing different hairstyles on a piece of tracing paper over your drawing so you dont have to erase your character if you dont like the style you drew.