How To Draw Anime Characters For Beginners

Add Details To Your Manga Art

The final step in learning how to draw manga characters is adding intricate details.”Even the smallest details are in need of careful decorating,” Petrovic advises. “When doing a pattern on the clothing, make sure the pattern follows the shape of the character’s body.”

“And lastly, white outlines can make all the difference, by marking all the objects and parts of the character which are closest to the observer.”

For more information on manga, including tips and tricks, as well as full tutorials, subscribe to our best-selling digital art magazine, ImagineFX.

How To Draw Anime

How to draw Anime: Anime drawings are mostly used in Japanese comics or better known as manga. Anime drawing is a favourite among young and the old. In this post we are going to see how to draw anime characters from the comfort of your homes. If you are beginner trying to learn anime drawing, start with squares, circles and rectangles. I know it sounds funny, but once you perfect them, you will understand that anime characters are created with just circles, lines, squares. Once you are happy with result try to draw something every day. Improvise on angle drawing. Remember a cube, it has even sides, if you keep it farther away from you, it looks smaller and when you go near it looks bigger. Try drawing cylinders and cubes at different angles producing a 3d effect. In fact this will help you to draw complex anime characters in the long run. Learn the basic anatomy of people as most of the anime drawings are based on real human characters.

How To Draw Anime Face Step By Step Tutorial

These step-by-step tutorials focus on the face, which, as it turns out, is pretty easy to do:

Draw a circle and add a cross in the middle this will keep the face symmetrical.

Start by shaping the face you can choose the shape you want.

Then draw the eyes, while using the cross as a balancing point.

Draw the ears and neck and dont forget to use the cross for symmetry.

Continue with the nose and mouth

Finish with the hair, which can be designs to your liking.

How to draw anime face

Heres a video tutorial on how to draw a girl face

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Drawing A Shy Anime Character

These types of characters are usually nice and harmless but may be loners due to being afraid to talk to others.

A good hairstyle for this type of character can be the hair over one eye to reinforce the idea of hiding and shyness. But in case you want to draw a different hairstyle both eyes are show in the example below.

You can pretty much draw this character the same way as the ordinary girl but with slightly smaller irises/pupils to give her a bit more of a scared look.

Sketching An Anime Body

1Draw a stick-figure outline of your characters body. Use straight lines for the arms, torso, and legs. Make the arms and torso similar in length, and make the legs about 1/3 longer. Then, draw triangles or ovals for the hands and feet. Make the hands about 1/5 the length of the arm, and make the feet about 1/6 the length of the legs.XResearch source

To get the proportions right, make your stick-figure outline about 7 times as tall as your characters head.

Have the arm lines start about 1/5 of the way down the line you draw for the torso.

Have the stick-figure outline of your character capture whatever pose you want them to be in. For example, if you want your character to be sitting, draw their legs so they’re bent. Or, if you want your character to be waving, draw one of their arms so it’s bent.

2Outline the general shapes of your characters body. Drawing over the stick-figure outline you made, sketch a rough outline of your characters torso, arms, hips, and legs. Dont worry about making the outline precise yet. At this point, you just want to represent the different parts of the body with basic shapes.

Draw ovals for the upper and lower arms and legs, and then draw a circle at each joint for the knees and elbows. Proportionally, make your characters upper and lower arms the same length and size. Make their upper legs thicker than their lower legs.

To outline the hips, draw an oval over the point where the torso and upper legs meet.

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Drawing A Happy Ordinary Girl Anime Character

A happy face is another expression that can be fairly common for the ordinary girl character.

For more on drawing anime and manga style blush see:

For the happy face you can pretty much draw it the same as the smiling face but draw the mouth slightly open showing the white of the teeth and add some blush just below the eyes.

Manga Crash Course By Mina Petrovic

Subtitled: Drawing Manga Characters And Scenes From Start To Finish, you get a good idea of what to expect between the covers of this book. The author provides unique tips and guidance on taking your characters and doing some amazing things with them.

There are 25 step-by-step demonstrations, over 130 lessons that cover anatomy, fashion, hairstyles, and poses plus, a fun character invention game that will assist you in creating new and different characters.

Recommended Reading: Side View Anime Hair

Drawing A Delinquent Anime Character

This type of character can often be a bully/hostile and pick fights. A good hairstyle for the delinquent can be short and maybe slightly messy hair. It will help create a sort of tomboy image for the character.

You can draw the delinquent face similar to the tough girl but draw the bottom eyelids almost straight and the irises much smaller. Draw the top of the irises covered by the top eyelids and leave some space between them and the bottom eyelids.

Draw the mouth in a light upside down curve.

How To Draw Manga Faces Step By Step

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Struggling to get your Manga characters’ faces looking how you want them to? Well, look no further. Manga faces are a fun and challenging way to showcase your talent. Not just that, theyre a great way to develop basic skills needed for more advanced pieces too. This post will outline everything you need to know and about how to draw Manga faces step by step. To make sure they were easy to follow, we’ve included step by step images of what your Manga drawings should look like at each stage. Have a go yourself…

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Drawing The Basic Head Shape

1Draw a circle on your paper with a vertical line running through the middle. Use a pencil so youre able to erase your lines if you make a mistake. Lightly draw the circle in the center of a piece of paper so you have room to add features to it. Find the middle of your circle and lightly sketch a straight line that extends from the top of the circle down your sheet of paper so you know where the middle of the face is.XResearch source

Start by drawing your circle large so you have room to draw the features. Otherwise, your lines may get messy and it could be hard to draw correctly.

Tip: If you have trouble drawing a circle without help, either use a compass or trace something circular.

2Make a guide line for the eyes a third of the way up from the bottom of the circle. Measure about a third of the way up from the bottom of your circle and use your pencil to make a mark. Use a straightedge to draw a horizontal line that extends past the edges of the circle to use as a guide for the characters eyes. Dont apply too much pressure when you draw the line since it will be hard to erase otherwise.XResearch source

Your measurements do not need to be precise. If you dont have a ruler, estimate the distance with the end of your pencil instead.

If youre drawing a female character, place the mark at a distance equal to of the circles diameter since female anime and manga characters tend to have rounder faces.

Drawing An Angry Antagonist/villain Anime Male Character

This is an expression the villain tends to make when they are ticked off/angry/upset.

For an angry look draw the eyebrows closer together and very low down on the face . Give a hint of wrinkles between the eyebrows to further indicate they are being squeezed together. Draw the eyes squinted and draw the irises of the eyes smaller then normal with tiny pupils and no reflections.

Not drawing reflections will make the eyes appear more cold and uncaring.

Draw the mouth open and shaped similar to the number 8 thats been flipped on its side with the teeth showing. You can also make the mouth slightly wider on one side and give a hint of the split between the top and bottom rows of teeth with curved lines on each side.

For more on drawing anime teeth see:

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Male Manga Characters From Basic Shapes

The cheerful tea-loving narrator makes this tutorial easy to follow and fun to watch. Youll learn how to draw both a muscular man and a skinny teenage boy standing at different angles.

Even though the video is comprehensive and detailed it only takes 22-minutes to watch.

If you want to cram in a little extra practice, the artist shows how to dress the characters and shade them accurately.

Bangs Fringe & Curly Hair

Getting hair to fall naturally is no easy feat. When drawing manga its standard practice to simplify the hair into large clumps called bangs.

In this tutorial youll learn how to form the curve of the bangs accurately and how to add extra detail.

The artist takes it a step further by discussing how pigtails influence the shape of the hair and the best way to construct them. Lots of info here for anime hair lovers.

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The Benefits Of Using Procreate

• Procreate makes it easy to organize your artwork in a gallery format familiar to Photoshop users import files from other devices and locations use hand gestures to zoom in and out of your artwork and undo changes to work. You can also perform professional-level compositing and adjustment of layers and generally create and develop your artwork at a speed that can keep up with your imagination.

• Perhaps most important to many seasoned professionals, Procreate offers easy integration with existing workflows you can move back and forth between other apps and platforms as required by your preferred methods, your clients, or the needs of a specific project. There are other professional-grade digital art apps available, but at the moment none match the power, flexibility, and complete functionality and feature-set of Procreate.

Learning To Draw Human Anatomy

its not easy to draw human anatomy, but with the right guidance, it becomes so much easier. If theres one teacher who knows his stuff, its Proko.

Proko has online courses and tutorials for you to learn how to draw correct anatomy, and its all taught by an artist well-known in the area.

Muscle groups, proportions, and bone movement are all the things you need to draw believable human anatomy.

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Be Skeptical Of Praise From Family And Friends

People who love you will always say your artwork is perfect, but heres the thing: theyre not being totally truthful. Sometimes, artists end up buying into all that praise and stop trying to improve. Always seek out people wholl give you honest feedback and constructive criticism. Its the only way youll grow as an artist!

Learn The Basics Of Drawing

Drawing anime characters is great. But if you are a total beginner to drawing in general you should start by learning the basics. Practice drawing simple things like straight lines and basic shapes like circles and squares. This can be boring at times but will help you improve.

Continue drawing anime or anything else you might like. Practice drawing basic lines and shapes a few minutes a day and then draw anything you find fun or interesting after that.

For a detailed guide on the basics of drawing as well as tips on approaching the drawing process in the correct way see:

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Manga Girl Sketchy Style

Youve learned how to create clean, stylized manga artwork. You may not have mastered anything but youve got some ideas.

But did you know that manga can be sketchy too?

Grab some watercolors or colored pencils and get ready to paint outside the lines!

This video teaches valuable lessons about style and how to go about creating that classic romance manga look.

Drawing An Alarmed Henchman Male Anime Character

The alarmed look is one that the henchman type characters are especially likely to get when they are guarding something and notices a break in.

For an alarmed looking face draw the eyebrows low down on the head and closer together but with one slightly higher than the other. You can also draw some wrinkles between the eyebrow to show that they are squeezed together. Draw the eyes looking slightly to one side with one eye squinted and one opened wider.

Draw the mouth with even more of an upside down curve than normal.

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How To Start Drawing In A Manga Style

Aspiring manga artists can learn by trying to replicate particular comics or cartoons that inspire them. The first step is to allow yourself this period of complete lack of originality, says author and manga instructor Mark Crilley. Consider yourself like the apprentice learning from a master. Writer and illustrator Mildred Louis began that way too. I started drawing by basically copying anime, she says.

As you learn the skills, consider yourself like the apprentice learning from a master.

Not only will you sharpen your eye, but youll get your hand accustomed to the pen or stylus. Your muscles are not trained yet, and so much of drawing is muscle memory, comics artist Ethan Young says.

However, copying is very different from plagiarism. While replicating other work as a drawing exercise is valuable, dont pass it off as your own.

Shade The Hair And Add The Chin

Hair is typically shiny, so, therefore, shaded with high contrast. The shading can be the difference of making hair look Manga-tastic or taking you back to square one. It goes without saying, the better the pen and the stronger technique you have, the more likely it is that youre going to produce the best results. Click here to read more about which pens are best used for shading.

TIP: Use photographic reference for help on highlighting hair.

Draw lines that curve slightly inward down from the chin. These simple lines form your characters neck. Men usually have thicker necks than women, so bear that in mind. The age also determines the neck as in Manga, very old and very young males are drawn with skinny necks. You can shade the neck if you like but keep it simple and dont overdo it.

From here, you can use a Chameleon Art Products Detail Pen to make permanent line drawings, an eraser to remove the pencil lines and use a Chameleon Pen and its innovative Mixing Chamber to shade the hair.

Clips taken from How to draw Manga with Sonia Leong.

Image by nashimanga

If you’re curious, here’s a bit of background to answer “What is Manga?”

Manga first became popular in the 20th century when laws prohibiting the publication of this kind of artwork were lifted. It has since become a great part of Japanese culture and the majority of the country often read Manga cartoons.

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Things You Need To Know To Be A Better Manga Artist

September 9, 2014 ByAlex and Monique& filed under Art Blog.

Big eyes, exaggerated expressions and cute chibi characters are only some of the appeal of drawing anime. But before you launch into a drawing tutorial, it helps to have a few words of wisdom from a manga pro. To be a better manga artist, here are some essential, actionable tips and some pointers on avoiding beginner mistakes.

Draw Manga Faces For Expressive Characters: Learn To Draw More Than 900 Faces By Hosoi Aya

Facial expressions are critical for good manga art. The style can be highly expressive, but its surprisingly hard to use simple lines to convey what a character is feeling properly. This book can help you understand how to do that.

It provides over 900 sample illustrations for a variety of expressions and types of characters. This is not the best starting point for a beginner, but it is a great reference book to keep on hand, even for an experienced manga artist.

Check it out.

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The Manga Artists Workbook: Easy

As you learn more and more about how to draw manga, youll probably want to create your own characters who have a distinctive personality and look. Its one of the appeals of the style.

This book provides a guide to basic proportions and also explains how to draw several manga hairstyles.

This is not a book for people with no experience drawing manga at all, since it does not break down how to draw a character step-by-step, but its very useful for people who are still early on in their manga drawing experience.

Interested in reading this book? Buy it here.