How to Draw Anime Characters

Anime is a section of animation, which originated in Japan, in the 20th century. Until recent years, the typical manner of drawing anime characters was by hand. However, with the advent of technology, the technique that is now used for this purpose is computers and animation software. To draw by hand, the basic essentials that you would need are a lead pencil, color pencils, and an eraser.

There is a wide versatility in anime characters, with many different standard characters not having same conventional features and accents. Therefore, you generally would need to make these characters in many different settings and themes, and with distinguishing features. However, there may be some characters which may have a similar face and body pattern.

Tips on Drawing Anime Characters
You need to first be proficient in drawing the characters by hand. You essentially should start to draw with a pencil on a paper, which is the basic of making anime characters. The first step you need to take is to decide what type of character you would be making.

It is recommended to draw the face first. Typically, they have an oval-shaped face. For making the details on the face proportionately, you need to divide the oval face into four parts drawing horizontal and vertical lines across. Remember that the eyes should be bigger, so make an outline of big eyes. Make the chin a little sharper, and mark the nose and mouth. Ensure that the gap between the end of the eyes, nose, mouth, and chin is symmetrical. While drawing the face, keep in mind, the emotions and facial expressions of the character. Make sure to keep the size of the mouth and nose small.

Now, you need to draw the character's hair. You can choose any hairstyle, but just make sure that the hair looks appropriate to the character. Typical anime characters have hair with strands and clumps, with a rough fill in. When drawing the body of an anime character, it is suggested that you make the body look thinner. Generally, when drawing a woman's anime body, you should make the torso short and the legs longer. Also, make sure that the body size and shape is in proportion with the head. Whichever body posture you draw, a suitable proportion of the body size and the face should be considered. Also, ensure that the arms and neck are in accordance with the body and face.

After drawing the face and the body, you now need to put some clothes on to the character. When drawing the clothes, make sure that the character would look good in that apparel. This is just the rough figure which you then need to finalize with a marker. Finally, fill in the colors you want the character to have.

After you have done a considerable amount of practice in drawing anime characters with a pencil and paper, you can try your hands on different animation software.