Common Mistakes Young Anime Artists Make
When you start out drawing manga there are a few pitfalls and lazy tricks that almost everyone is guilty of doing.
If youre starting out then learn what they are and how to avoid them. These mistakes are so common then nearly every great anime artist was guilty of doing at least one of them when they were learning!
Remember: Youre still gaining knowledge and growing. Its not about the end product you create, but rather what you learned in the process.
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Mapping A Cute Easy Anime Face In Real Time
A very in-depth video on how features a placed in the head. This art tutorial is a bit lengthy, but it does explain rather nicely how to draw manga face and head.
In the video, you will learn how to draw a nose, for example, from different angles and how the nose curve smooths out when the face is looking more forward than to the side.
When you are starting out, do use guidelines to help you place the facial features in the right places.;
Finish The Elf Character Drawing
To finish the elf drawing add some basic shading. In this particular case the character will have very generalized shadows that tend to occur in most common lighting conditions.
Add the shadows as follows:
- On the head/face cast by the hair
- Around the eyelids
- At the top of the eyes
- Inner parts of the ears
- To one side of the nose
- Below the bottom lip
- On the neck from the head/hair
For examples of shading a face in different types of lighting see:
You can add the shadow in exactly the same places for the dark elf.
After you finish the shadows you can also add some highlights to the hair. In this case they will be done as a series of lines/zigzags but you can also do other simpler types of highlights.
There is no need to add highlights for the dark elf as the hair is pure white and they wont be visible.
For examples of other types of hair highlights see:
Read Also: How To Draw Anime Side View
How To Draw Anime Face Female
Please if you want me to show you how to draw like these anime girl faces, tell me in comments.
In this post I will show you just how to draw anime girl heads, if you want to learn how to draw like these anime girl faces Ive created a post where I explain how to draw anime girl face similar to this. Lets start drawing.;
Anime Girl Sitting Pose

Start with three lines. One at the top and two others in a V turned on its side shape.
Now, youre going to draw all the sketches of each part of the body.
Starting at the head: once again, make a circle with a triangle at the bottomthe circle for the top of the head and the triangle for the base.
For the torso: make a rectangle, followed by sausages for the arms. The shapes of the hands will depend on your desired shape. Remember that not every part of the arms will be shown, although I advise you to draw the full sausages and not cut parts of them out of the sketch.
Make a circle for the hips, and sausages for legs, followed by shapes for the feet. In this position, the legs are really close to the top of the circle.
Also, mark the main joints again to help you with movement and anatomy: shoulders, elbows, and knees.
Your sketch is finished. Now for the Lineart, try to follow all the main lines and think about fluidity when drawing. Try to make separated lines instead of continuous ones. Pay attention to the curves and straight points.
After youve finished, erase your sketch. Add details such as bone structures and shadows for better results.
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How To Draw An Anime Boy
If youre , you can use the body proportions we mentioned earlier on in the guide. However, you should make the character slender if youre planning to draw a teenage boy.
Make the face narrower by drawing a slightly long jaw. The neck should also be more muscular, so you should draw the necklines closer to the jaw.
How To Draw An Anime Girl Body Step By Step Tutorial
In this tutorial you will find very detailed step by step illustrations and instructions on how to draw a female character in the anime and manga style.
Below is an explanation of how to draw an anime girl from the front and side views.
For drawing a female anime character in three quarter view you can see:
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Sketching An Anime Body
How To Draw An Anime Body
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If you want to draw your favorite anime character or even one of your own, designing the body can seem like a challenge. Anime characters can vary in shape and size, but start by drawing them with human proportions before modifying them into your own design. While proportions are similar between male and female characters, their body shapes vary slightly. With a bit of time and practice, youll be able to draw any sort of anime character!
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How To Draw Anime Boy Face
A very simple and straightforward video on how to draw boys face in anime style starting by drawing the circle and adding the needed lines for the jaw and eyes.;
As you might have seen, the basics are always the same. Draw a circle and then add lines. Its that simple, yet it isnt when you want to draw a beautiful face. Its all about proportions and how things are placed in the head.
The video has a narration that makes it easy to follow through and learn at the same time. Its also nice to see the hand movements from the artist and the thought process behind the lines.
Place & Draw The Mouth & Lips
Anime mouths are usually drawn as a single line . The lips are generally not shown at all or just hinted at. However older characters tend to sometimes be drawn with more pronounced facial features so in this case the mouth will be slightly better defined. The woman will also be wearing lipstick which means that the lips can be shown as well.
Position the mouth so that its bottom lip is halfway between the bottom of the nose and the bottom of the chin.
You can see a close up drawing of the mouth and lips with all the details in the example above. Again wait until you are done with the entire line drawing of the face to add color.
For more on drawing anime lips see:
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Draw The Character’s Ears
To draw the ears of the female anime and manga characters, first divide the head into four parts as shown, drawing the ears at the 3rd part from the top, near to the chin.
With a view from the side, the ear draws back to the back of the head.
Since the ears will be covered by hair in the next step, we will not go into detailed drawing in this section.
The Ultimate Guide On How To Draw Anime

You dont have to be an anime fan to learn how to draw anime. But if you are, youll find this tutorial thrilling since it will be your first step towards being able to create some fan art one day.
Were not promising that youll be a pro by the time you finish going through this guide. However, we think that you should be able to draw something decent enough to make you want to pat yourself on the back.
The guide will provide you with an overview of what youll need to do when drawing anime. It will also have links to detailed tutorials that break down the steps even further.
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Anime Head Side View Guideline Construction Process
Lets get straight into it! Please note that this is just how I create guidelines for my drawings. Different artists will have different ways in which they construct their guidelines, some can just Freehand everything!
First, as usual, draw a circle. Next, draw a vertical line down the left or right side of the circle, this is where the head will be facing. Now, decide where you want the bottom of the chin to be for your head. If youre drawing a more mature head, the chin will be longer; if youre drawing a younger person, the chin should be shorter. in this example, Im drawing a young female, so the chin is pretty short.
Next, draw a horizontal line in the middle of the head (between the top of the head and the bottom of the chin. This line is where the top of the eye will be
Draw another horizontal line between the top of the eyes and bottom of the chin, this guideline is for the bottom of the nose.
Draw a horizontal line slightly into the face from the vertical line, this line should cut across the bottom line for the chin and the eyes. Add a slight inward curve around where the eye is. The intersection between the guideline for the bottom of the chin and the vertical line will be where the tip of the chin touches.
Where the top of the eyes is, draw a slight dip inwards the head.
From the bottom of the mouth to the chin, theres a slight inward curve.
Now you have a basic shape for the head! Time to start refining and adding in details.
Male And Female Anime Faces
Although manga style faces are pretty feminine to begin with, there are certain ways to make the face look more masculine:
- The eyebrows are placed low above the eyes.
- The eyebrows may be thicker and less curved.
- The eyes are narrower.
- The eyelashes are minimal and less prominent.
- The pupil is small and circular.
- The lips are even less pronounced.
- The jawline is more pronounced.
- The neck is thicker.
- The nose is more pronounced.
Of course, not all of these methods must be applied. Sometimes, the sex difference is shown only by the clothes and the hairstyle!
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How To Draw A Manga Female Head
If the other video from Sophie Chan was about drawing anime male head, this tutorial covers how to draw female manga head.
What I think is beautiful about this tutorial, is the use of guidelines. When you draw the circle and the horizontal and vertical lines, chin and all, its nice how Sophie shows you how to use those guidelines to your advantage.
Use the lines to draw nose, eyes, eyelashes, and so on. This video is a very good tutorial to learn the basics of drawing that manga looking head.
Position & Draw The Elf Ears
The way elf ears are drawn can sometimes just be a style decision but other times they can also help emphasize a characters personality. For example more upwards pointing ears can mean a more upbeat personality. Downwards pointed ears on the other hand can be attributed to characters with a more a more mild or shy personality.
One explanation for this can be that animals tend to raise their ears when alert/on guard and lower them when scared. This is something that pretty much everyone knows and is used to. Therefore drawing pointy anime/manga ears in a particular ways can help send a visual message about the character they are attributed to.
You can use the first two pairs in the example for the regular/upbeat face and the last set for the mild/shy one.
For drawing normal ears see:
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How To Draw Anime Girl Face
While the video isnt such a high-quality, the thing that I like about it is the authenticity and the realness of it. There might some coughing and things going in the background, but I still like the drawing that the artist creates.
If anything, the drawing is solid and looks very nice. Its also easy to follow through the video and learn while watching.
How To Draw Anime Head & Face
Are you still struggling to get you anime faces right even though youve been practicing for a while?
Get back to basics with this clear step-by-step tutorial that teaches you every construction trick in the book.
If you practice the techniques in this video your anime faces are guaranteed to improve.
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Position & Draw The Mouth
The bottom lip of the mouth will be roughly halfway between the bottom of the nose and the bottom of the chin. You can draw the actual mouth just a tiny bit above that point.
In this case the character will have a bit of a smile so you can draw the mouth slightly loner and more curved than in its natural state.
For more on mouth expressions see:
Drawing The Details & Finishing The Line Drawing

Erase the parts of the head hidden by the hair and add the smaller details of the eyes such as the pupils and highlights. Afterwards you can also go over your drawing with darker lines and add black fill or pencil shading to parts of the eyes and eyebrows.
For the full step by step breakdown of drawing male anime eyes see:
After you finish this step you should have a clean line drawing of the face. You can leave it at this stage or move on to the next step if you want to add shading.
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The Shape Of The Head
For the basics of how to draw a manga face, we will only be looking at a front view. You will need to work with perspective to draw the face in other poses.
Anime characters have rounded cheeks and pointed chins; more adult characters have longer faces, but rarely with a square jaw unless hes a bad boy or a villain.
Read Also: How To Draw Female Anime Face
How To Draw Anime Or Manga Faces
This article was co-authored by our trained team of editors and researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness. wikiHow’s Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article is backed by trusted research and meets our high quality standards.There are 14 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 1,267,646 times.Learn more…
Anime and manga are popular Japanese forms of animation and comics that have a very distinctive art style. If you want to draw your favorite character or design one on your own, start by designing their head and face so you can sketch what they look like. When you first start the head, draw the outline and the basic shapes so you can properly place the features. Once you add the eyes, nose, ears, and mouth, you can erase your guidelines and sketch in a hairstyle. With a bit of practice and patience, youll be able to design anime faces in no time!
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