If you want your character to have a wider face, widen the bottom of the oval so it’s just slightly narrower than the top. Or, if you want your character to have a slender face, make the bottom of the oval even narrower than the top. There’s no single head shape used for all anime characters, so you can experiment until you find one you like.
If you’re drawing a feminine anime character, make the eyebrows fairly thin. For a masculine character, thicken the eyebrows so they’re more prominent on the face.
Make the nose the smallest feature on your character’s face. The nose will overlap with the vertical line you drew. To see it better, make it darker than the vertical line, or erase the vertical line around the nose. Masculine anime characters sometimes have noses that are more pronounced, but that’s not always the case. If you want your character’s nose to be more noticeable, draw a short horizontal line under the vertical line to represent the bottom of your character’s nose. Also, draw a triangle-shaped shadow on the side of the nose so it looks like the light is hitting your character from the side. For certain styles of anime, like chibi, you don’t even need to draw a nose at all!
Curve the line upward if you want your character to be smiling or downward if you want them to be upset. If you want your character to be smiling and showing their teeth, draw an upward curving line underneath the horizontal line you drew for their mouth. The white space between the curved line and the horizontal line should be about half as tall as the mouth is long. That space will be your character’s teeth.
Experiment with the size of your character’s ears if you want them to be bigger or smaller.
If your character has long hair, you could draw 2 pigtails, one at each side of the head, with spiked ends. Or, you could draw their hair pulled up with a round bun at the top. Alternatively, you could give your character bangs by drawing 3 or 4 distinct sections of hair coming down over their forehead. For a shorter hairstyle, you could draw 3 or 4 distinct sections of hair swooping to the side over your character’s forehead. Or, you could draw a hairstyle without any bangs and draw a few lines running from their hairline to the back of their head so it looks like their hair is combed back. Alternatively, you could draw a chin-length bob that’s divided into several thick sections.
Once you erase both lines, your character’s head and face are finished!
To get the proportions right, make your stick-figure outline about 7 times as tall as your character’s 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.
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 character’s upper and lower arms the same length and size. Make their upper legs thicker than their lower legs. For the torso, draw a quadrilateral (a 4-sided shape) that’s wider at the top and narrower at the bottom. Eventually, the wide corners at the top will become your character’s shoulders. To outline the hips, draw an oval over the point where the torso and upper legs meet. Anime characters tend to be tall and thin, but you can experiment with different heights and body shapes!
To connect and refine the legs, draw around the outer edges 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) so you have one seamless outline of each leg. Make the outline smooth (without any gaps) so the legs look realistic. For the upper body, you’d do the same with the arms and torso. Round out the corners of the torso for the shoulders, and draw 2 lines curving up away from the center of the torso for the neck. Also, connect the shape you drew for the hips to the torso and the upper legs.
As you’re drawing the clothes, think about where they would naturally crease and fold if someone were actually wearing them. Then, draw the creases and folds to make the clothes look more realistic. You can also look at images of clothes online to see how they crease. You can choose any kind of outfit for your anime character. Some conventional anime outfits you might consider include school uniforms, formal dresses and suits, and traditional Japanese attire. To improve your drawing skills find a good teacher. Do plenty of sketching and read about drawing. [12] X Research source Make an effort to develop an artist’s eye.
