The first thing that catches your eye with anime is the overall drawing style. Emotions are quite expressive because there are many ways to draw anime eyes, gestures, to convey the character and mood of the characters.
In order to learn how to draw anime, you have to understand what are their features and what they are typical.
Features for drawing anime characters
- Eyes – this is the first advantage of the characters from the anime. Large, very bright, with a detailed elaboration of glare, there are even several levels and types of glare. And closed eyes can be drawn quite simply, with just a few lines.
- Face – nose and mouth, not much attention is given to cheekbones. They are drawn with very thin lines of small size.
- Keep in unreal – in anime, the characters may not always be realistic, they may have hair of different colors (up to red, green, blue, etc.), cat ears and much more.
- Build the body – as in the anime there is no concept of realism, choose the standards and proportions of the character. When drawing a tiny “Chibi” (a sort of little cute anime character), use the simplest drawing technique. This style is suitable for beginners.
- Draw a face – based on an oval. The face is characterized by large eyes. Draw in the style of anime lips and mouth, usually the mouth is small (depending on emotions). At the base of the face is an oval and it is worth starting with drawing just from the oval.
- How to draw anime hair – hair should not be drawn in small sections, but it is advisable to outline the whole mass at once, but do not forget that they do not go in pieces, but in strands!
- Draw clothes – there is already no limit to fantasy. There can be anything: from a simple school uniform to a suit, for example, a cat.
How to draw an anime girl step by step for beginners
Step 1
To begin, make a simple sketch. Depicting the head, t-shirt, arms, and hanging hair.
If you already have any experience in drawing, then you more or less cope with this stage.
Step 2
Work on hair. Draw a braid and a bang in the form of long, sharp and uneven triangles. Also, do not forget about the bow.
Step 3
Turn to the detail of our picture. Work on the girl’s face. Big eyes, eyebrows over hair (this technique is often used in anime), small nose and mouth.
By the way, the eyes are depicted much more complicated than it seems.
Do not forget about the pupils and glare.
Step 4
Great, draw some lines with a bold pencil and shade some elements.
Also, depict the collar of a dress and draw circles on it. Of course, if you do not like circles, then you can choose any other shape or pattern.
Step 5
Well, at the last stage, paint this dress and shade our hands.
What is important for a newbie to know about how to draw anime?
Well, now a little theory, if you don’t need it or are not interested, you can go straight to the following step-by-step examples.
In general, if you can’t draw at all and never draw, but you want to learn how to draw only anime, this is a slightly wrong approach. You should want to learn how to draw in principle.
Anime is not much different from ordinary drawings, so if you are masterful at portraying ordinary people, then you will learn how to work with anime without much difficulty.
Here’s a couple of tips:
- When drawing, try to occupy the entire area of the sheet, drawing large objects. So you will learn faster.
- If you have poor hands, but your legs are good, then your hands are probably not very good either. Draw the whole body from head to toe.
- Save the old drawings that you drew a year or two years ago, so you will see progress.
More Resources and Tips for Drawing Anime
Get inspired! One of the best ways to learn to draw anime is by watching lots of anime. There are many different places to watch anime on the Web. Some are free and some cost a subscription, but all of them are great sources of ideas, style, and tips.
Watch anime tutorial videos on YouTube. There are hundreds, if not thousands of great anime instruction videos on YouTube. Sometimes there’s no better way than to watch and learn from both experts and amateurs in anime. On YouTube, you can pick up a lot of tips and tricks.