How To Draw Anime Characters? Here are some tips

Anime is a popular drawing style that originated in Japan. Drawing anime characters is easy. There are some steps you can follow.

To draw anime characters, start drawing an anime head and face. Start drawing an oval and divide it into four sections. While drawing faces, make the oval narrower towards the bottom to draw the chin. Then draw a horizontal line through the center of the oval and a vertical line that intersects the horizontal line.

Draw the eyes underneath the horizontal lines. Eyes are drawn as big and exaggerated. Then sketch eyebrows just above the horizontal line. Draw a long downward curving line for the eyebrow.

Add a nose halfway between the horizontal line and the chin. Make the nose as the smallest feature of your character. Anime mouths are also drawn simple. Draw mouth halfway between nose and chin. 

Then add ears to the side of the head. If a character has long hair, you can skip drawing ears. If short hair is needed, draw an oval on each side of the head. 

Finally, draw hair on your anime character. Generally, anime hairs are with pointed ends and distinct sections. 

Now remove the horizontal and vertical lines and sketch from your anime body.

Steps to Draw an Anime Female Body

Imagine messing up the body of your anime character after spending so much time on drawing its head. We all can understand the pain and frustration.

Here are five steps to draw a female anime body.

First, lightly sketch the basic shape of the head on top of the paper, leaving enough space to draw the hair on top and the body below.

Anime female characters are usually 6.5 heads tall. Draw a vertical line down from the top of the head and make markings using head length as the base.

Leave some space for the neck and draw two circles within the first two markings below the head. Join the circles to form an hourglass shape for the torso.

Draw arms starting from either side of the top edge of the torso. Add joints of elbows and wrists aligning with the narrowest part and bottom end of the body, respectively. 

Draw legs from the bottom of the torso to the end of the guides. Add the knees and ankles at four and six heads from the top, respectively.

Add features to the face and draw hands, feet, and clothing to complete your drawing.

Drawing Anime Characters: What Beginners Should Know

If you are an otaku, you would have tried to recreate your favorite manga characters. Drawing a brand new anime character is not as easy as copying an existing one.

Let’s Discuss some basics of drawing anime characters.

Use construction lines and guides: Be it body or the face of the character, guides help you to set its form and stance.

Draw from large to small: Use rough sketches to plan the whole structure first, rather than starting from the face and building the rest of the body eventually.

Work on Different Elements: Work on different elements of the drawing simultaneously so that mistakes can be noticed easily.

Draw hidden parts too: Some elements of the drawing will be hidden in the final artwork. Do not forget to draw them in your basic sketch. This step helps to maintain the proportion of each element.

Observe: Watch a lot of anime movies and series, read tons of manga, and study the characters and their styles. Observe their face structure, anatomy, clothing, and stance to get inspiration for drawing your anime characters.

Do not hold back your urge to draw anymore. Grab your art supplies and create your character now.

Steps to Draw Chibi Anime Characters

Chibi is an Anime character drawing that’s usually two to four heads tall. They have an expressive face and cute appearance as well. Chibi has been a widely adored form of Anime and here are some tips to draw the characters.

Drawing the head: Chibi heads are spherical. Features on the face are usually smooth and rounded. Eyes are big and distinctly expressive. Hair is made voluminous. Draw the linework as simple as possible. However, be careful to emphasize the unique features like eyes, hairstyle, among others of the character.

Drawing the body: The body is usually too small to support the head. No basic principles of anatomy have to be followed when drawing a Chibi. Place the features to create a balance between the torso and legs. Many times necks are omitted in a Chibi drawing. Shoulders are rounded with a simple torso, arms, and legs. Bodies are usually as uni-sexual, without any specific feature standing out.

With simple lines and minimal features, Chibis are super easy to draw and super cute in appearance. This is why much popular anime series in Japan has an equally popular Chibi version too.