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This guide is an introduction to the basics of drawing with a focus on the anime
and manga style. It provides tips on approaching the drawing process in the right
way and suggests some beginner friendly exercises to help you get started.
For a list of other things you can learn that will help you draw anime and manga
you can check:
This guide covers the first part of that list (The Basics of Drawing).
Light lines are easier to erase if you make a mistake and easier to make (you
don’t have to press as hard on the pencil so your hand will be less tired).
Even if drawing digitally it’s still a good idea to first make a sketch and go over it
with cleaner lines afterwards.
Tracing your own lines will also work as another exercise to help steady your
hand.
Try and draw with as few lines as possible. If you make a mistake with your first
line it’s fine to add more lines until you land the correct one but don’t scribble or
draw extra lines just for the sake of it. If you make too many mistakes erase that
part of your drawing start over.
Estimate your proportions before you start drawing. You can see that in the
above example the girl is 6 1/2 heads tall (as anime characters tend to have
larger heads in relations to their bodies then real people). By comparing the size
of different parts or objects in your drawing to one another you will be less likely
to make a mistake.
Regardless of what you are drawing start with the larger shapes first. You don’t
need to always start with the absolute largest shape but definitely don’t start with
the smaller details.
If you area drawing a person start with the head and work your way down
through the rest of the body. Don’t draw the smaller details like the facial features
until you have the shape of the entire body.
Drawing this way will make it a lot easier to fix mistakes. For example if you fully
draw out the head with all of the details of the facial features you may then find
that the body doesn’t actually fit on your drawing area. You will then have to start
over and redraw the entire face again.
Some of these mistakes can be easier to fix if drawing digitally but that doesn’t
mean that you should not learn to draw in the correct order.
Try and keep the various objects in your drawing in roughly the same state of
completion. If for example you are drawing eyes than draw the outer shape of
each eye and then draw the shape of each iris. By doing so you will be more
likely to notice if the first one is out of place and you will only need to do a little
back tracking if you make a mistake (similar to the previous example).
It’s sometimes a good idea to draw things that are hidden by something else.
In the above example some parts of the head and face will be hidden by the hair
in the final drawing but you may still want to draw their basic shapes and erase
them later. The reason for this is to insure the correct placement of the parts that
are visible. For example by doing a light drawing of the second eye you will be
able to check the spacing between the eyes which will help you insure that the
visible eye is correctly placed. You can also draw the outer shape of the ears to
estimate the volume the hair needs in order cover them.
The most basic exercises is drawing straight lines in different directions. Draw
horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines without rotating your drawing area (paper,
tablet, etc…).
Try and draw each shape with only one stroke per side. Draw the circle and ovals
with one solid line from start to finish.
Don’t worry if your shapes don’t come out right, simply try and improve on the
next shape.
You can also combine the drawing exercises. For example you can draw a
square than inside it draw lines going from one corner to another followed by two
more lines going through the intersection point of those lines followed by drawing
a circle inside the initial square. But unlike the previous exercise draw this circle
a quarter at a time.
In addition to all of the previous benefits this exercise is also really good for
learning to draw symmetrical shapes.
Anime head from basic shapes structure
In the above example you can see how an anime style head can be broken down
into three simple shapes. The same can often be done with other parts of the
body and various other objects. You don’t need to actually draw all of these out
every time you want to draw something but its a good example for why learning
to draw basic shapes can be so useful.
To make art that looks like anime and manga you have to understand their
defining characteristics. Fortunately there are plenty of tutorials here on
AnimeOutline to help you study these styles. Simply see the Anime & Manga
Drawing Tutorials section and pick whatever it is you are interested in drawing.
If you are having trouble spotting your mistakes turn your drawing upside down
or hold it up to a mirror. This will give you a fresh “perspective” making it easier to
see them.
For mistakes beginners commonly make when drawing anime (and fixes for
them) see:
Conclusion
Doing the exercises and applying the tips suggested above will help you with the
basics of drawing anime. Once you you have a fairly steady hand with good
control of your pen or pencil you can move on to more advanced aspects of
drawing. These include things such as perspective, color and shading. For some
basics on all of these see the following tutorials:
For a suggestions on things that can help you learn to draw anime see: