How To Draw Manga and Anime: Walkthrough 1

I labeled this as a walkthrough because I can't really call it a tutorial. We'll get to the manga tutorials on future posts, but right now I'll just walk you through my design process as I drew a simple character design. Like I mentioned before, we'll start with the very basic. This walkthrough is for beginners only but everyone is welcome to check it out. Hopefully after viewing this, you can be on your way to learning how to draw manga.

On this walkthrough, I used a free drawing software called MyPaint. If you want to find out more about this application, check out my reviews. This is the finished product. Find out how I made it.

First let me remind you again that this is not a tutorial, I'll be posting those on future updates. Now its time to begin the How To Draw Manga and Anime: Walkthrough 1.

Part 1

Guess what this is

Believe it or not, that is actually the chin and jaw. This is how I would normally draw face. There are infinite ways to draw and it's important that you find the one you're most comfortable with. I like starting with the chin and jaw because they are a great indicator of the angle and direction of the head. More on that when I post my tutorial on how to draw manga and anime heads.

 Part 2

My handwriting sucks, especially while using a graphics tablet

Why does it look like a box? Maybe because I find it easy to associate manga and anime faces with a box. The guide that you'll use should be entirely up to you because you're the only who'll know what works for you. Take the guide that I used for example, I use that as I make my sketch just to remind me of the basic shape of the head. It'll remind me where I'll place the ears, where the hairline is and gives me an idea as to how the finished product will look. These lines are my references and it works for me. As you learn how to draw, you'll develop your own ways to guide yourself, that's the reason why we sketch.

Part 3

I apologize for those who can't understand my handwriting

Now if you've seen other tutorials you might be familiar with the cross on the face. I personally don't use these but I can see why it's a great idea. If you're just starting out, I definitely recommend that you use them especially if you want to be consistent. They serve a lot of purpose. Most important is you'll know where the center of the face is. With that as a reference you'll know where to place the other parts of the face.

Part 4

This part is very straight-forward. Just draw the basic shape of the eyes, mouth etc. This is to know whether you're getting the look that you want without taking a lot of time making a full render. For example, do I like the placement of the eyes, are they too big? Whether they're aligned right or if they match the look that I'm going for. The same goes for the nose and mouth.

Part 5

These lines are normally just imaginary. It's not required to draw them but it's a good idea if  you want to be consistent. Say for example you're making a character for your manga or comics. The shape of the head is entirely up to your style. They can be more round or more elongated depending on the look you're going for or the genre you're working with.

Part 6

I finally used a proper text tool

Because I used the head outline as a reference, I know immediately where and how I'll place the hair. On this example I used a very generic hairstyle. There's nothing wrong with that, you can go as plain or as wild as you like.

Part 7

I chose a very cutesy style for the eyes and I changed the shape of the mouth. I'm quite happy with how it turned out because I have no experience with drawing with this style, kind of a typical shoujo character. My preferred character style is more akin to what you'll see on shounen and seinen genres.

Part 8

This is the finished line art, it changed slightly from how it looked on my sketch. I used hard lines on this example, it's not necessary and should depend on you. Very rarely do I make colored character designs, I also prefer rough looking and very organic styles. I usually don't clean my line art, I like it that way.

Part 9

This is a basic color tone. I start with the neutral color then darken for shadows and lighten for highlights.

Part 10

And we're finally done. Thank you for visiting my blog and be sure to come back from time to time for more walkthroughs and tutorials on how to draw manga and anime.

You can download the images and the ORA file for MyPaint here: http://www.fileserve.com/file/VSX9G7p