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The eyes are one of the most important features of anime style characters; they are the most expressive parts of the face, and are part of what makes each character different and recognizable. Thus, it is very important to be able to draw them correctly. In this section of the general face tutorial, I will show you how to draw a variety of anime style eyes.

Female Eyes

Lets begin with the most basic and common of anime eyes, the large female type. Start off by drawing a line that curves upwards, and is slightly thicker at the highest point. This eye will be on the right side of the face, so make the left end of the curved line higher than the right. The top of this particular eye (Lina Inverse's eye, (from Slayers) actually ^.^) isn't a perfect curve; it is slightly angular. Some styles of eyes are nearly perfectly curved on the top.

Next, you want to draw in the lower part of the eye. To help you place the lower half, lightly draw diagonal lines pointing down, starting at the edges of the top part of the eye. The steepness of the slope of these lines will determine how large and wide the eye will be. Using these lines as a guide, draw the lower part of the eye. It should slope down to the right a little, and should be thicker at the right corner.

Erase the guidelines and draw a long oval within the eye. Some characters have large circles for irises, but this particular one has thin ovals. You can adjust the shape so it's wider, if you like. Make part of the oval obscured by the upper part of her eye. With all styles, the complete iris is rarely visible; part of it almost always is concealed by the border of the eye.

Next, draw the outline of the light glares. Anime characters' eyes should always have at least some sort of shading. Anime females in particular tend to have really heavy shading and lots of shiny areas. Make sure you choose a light source, and stick with it throughout your picture. For example, since the light is coming from the left in this picture, I have to make sure all the highlights on the rest of the picture originate from the left, or the lighting will be inconsistent (unless I'm using multiple light sources, but I won't get into that). Draw two long ovals: a large one on the left side of the iris (which overlaps the outline of the iris, as you can see), and a very small one on the other side of the eye.

Next, draw the pupil underneath the light glares. The highlights are always on top; never draw the pupil on top of the light glares. Draw the eyelashes, too; with this particular eye, the eyelashes are a series of spikes coming off of the top-right part of the eye. Make the spikes follow the curve of the eye, so it looks like they are coming off of the eye; don't just draw zig-zag lines sticking out of her eye. Also, draw the eyelid on the left part of the eye. Its just a thin, curved line originating from the top of her eye.

Then draw in the eye brow and darken the lines.

Another female eye

Okay, now we are going to draw another style, one that isn't as common. This eye is much more slender, elegant, and realistic looking, and is used in more serious anime and manga. Begin by drawing a long, slightly curved line. The left side should be lower than the right, and the line should curve in sharply at the left edge.

To help you define the sides and bottom of the eye, lightly draw two diagonal guidelines that originate from the edges of the eye. Unlike the previous tutorial, these lines are not very steep; the more horizontal the lines are, the smaller the eye will be. Don't make them too flat, though, because you don't want this eye to be too squinty. Using the guidelines, draw the bottom line of the eye.

Erase the guidelines and draw the outline of the iris. If there were no eyelids, the iris would be a perfect circle. However, since the iris is bordered by the eyelids, the top and bottom of the iris will be hidden from view. The iris should not be so small that you can see the entire thing (unless you wanted to convey certain emotions like anger or surprise, but that is covered in another section).

Next, draw the light glares on the iris. The placement is the same as in the previous tutorial, but like the iris itself, the glares are much smaller and more circular. Draw the eyelid above the top line of the eye, as well.

Draw the eyebrow and shading in the rest of the iris. Remember to draw the pupil beneath the light glares, and to make it stand out from the rest of the eye a little no matter how darkly you shade the rest of the iris.

Here are some other female eyes that you can play around with.

Positioning the Eyes

Once you have the right eye drawn, you're probably going to want to draw the left eye, too. ^_^ All you have to do is draw the mirror image of the exact same eye. The placement of the second eye can be tricky, though. Anime eyes, no matter what style, are always drawn about one eye length apart. The distance may be a little more or less, but one eye length is a good measurement.

You probably are not always going to draw your characters facing towards you, though, so you'll need to know how to line up eyes at different angles. On the head portion of this general face tutorial, you will see that I use curved guidelines to define where I'm going to place the eyes. Always draw guidelines to help you position the eyes, until you are really good at it and no longer need them. You don't want the eyes to be off-center. Notice that in this picture, the right eye is smaller and flatter than the left since it's further away from you.

This is pretty much the same thing, except the head is tilted in the other direction. In this picture, the left eye is smaller than the right. Both eyes still follow the curve of the face. Eyes that don't line up properly can look very sloppy, so be careful.

Hair

Depending on the style, anime hair can be very complex. However, if you break it down into its basic components, the process of drawing anime hair becomes a little simpler.

Like real hair, anime hair is composed of many strands. However, rather than drawing each individual strand, the hair is often drawn in various sized/shaped clumps, as shown here. These are some of the simplest forms of each hair style. Notice that in most cases, the outline is more curvy on the bottom of the hair clump. This is especially apparent on the top leftmost example; the lower line is curvier than the top line, giving the hair more depth and more of that anime-ish look. Sometimes this is highly exaggerated, and other times it is hardly noticable, but for most anime hair styles, each individual strand of hair will have this basic shape.

Once you know how to draw each strand/clump of hair, you can start putting them together to form more something that more resembles anime hair. Look at each example here and notice how the basic strands from the first step are used. The same similar shapes generally persist throughout many different hairstyles. Making one line curve out more than the other on each strand can really help to flesh it out.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you can make the hair as detailed as you like; just keep adding more strands.

Now, we are getting into some slightly more complex shapes. Notice how varying the size and shape of each strand gives the hair different character; the strands can be long and thin, thick and curvy, or sharp and spiky. Again, notice that you can either make the hair very detailed, or very simple, depending on how many individual strands you draw.

Here are more examples of different basic shapes of hair. Take note of how the hair overlaps and is nested in itself when it bends or twists. You can make some really interesting hair by having it twist and turn all over the page.

Hair motion

Next, I'm going to go over some different types of hair styles, but before I continue, I want to go over a few things regarding the placement of the hair on the head.

No matter what hairstyle you are going to draw, the hair always grows from the same region of the head, as shown by the example in the middle. It grows out from the entire back part of the scalp, from the forehead to the back of the neck (not just the base of the head, but down the back of the neck, too). It isn't just plopped onto the top of the head. You can generally get away with not paying attention to this fact, but if you are drawing hair that has been pulled back or hair that is trimmed really short, then it will be important that you know where exactly the hair is placed.

One reoccuring problem I've noticed with a variety of artists is that they do not take into account the fact that there is a skull underneath the hair. Sometimes artists draw the hair too small for the head, as in the example at the bottom. The bangs stick out, but there is no forehead beneath them; the hair curves down on the head far too low, cutting the head off and making the skull oddly shaped and flat. This is not a good thing. ^_~ If you need to, draw out the character's entire head before adding the hair, so that you are it will fit and look natural. Well, as natural as anime hair can look.

Okay, now that I've gotten that taken care of, here are some examples of different anime hairstyles, all with short hair. Hopefully it might give you some ideas. Notice also that many of these can be used for either male or female hairstyles. I'm sorry these aren't as detailed as some of the previous examples, but you still get the basic idea and shape of each style (hopefully).

Here are some different examples of longer, flowing hair styles; again, some of these can be used for either male or female, so don't whine at me for only drawing hair for one gender.

In contrast to the shorter hair styles, you'll note that a lot of these are composed of long, curving lines. When drawing longer hair, try to avoid making the lines perfectly straight; make sure that the hair follows the form of the head and the body, esepcially if it is sitting on or over the shoulders.

When drawing longer hair, you'll especially want to make sure the lines follow the shape and flow of the hair, rather than have it simply fall down in straight lines regardless of the hair's shape. It will give your character's hair much more depth and form if you make your lines work for you; make them show that the hair turns and twists, not that it just sits there on the character's head, or that the main outline of the hair is curvy but the interior strands are all straight.

Here are a few more examples of different hair styles, this time focusing on hair that has been pulled back in ponytails. I don't have much to say about it; I just thought that I should put these in their own section since I had so many of them drawn up. Just remember that when the hair is pulled in a specific direction, the lines and strands of the hair are drawn in that direction, too.

Bodies

I am going to begin this tutorial by addressing one of the most commonly asked questions that I receive: how to draw women's breasts (heh, I never thought I'd actually be making a tutorial about this.) One of the most important things you should consider is to make your subject look natural; you can draw an attractive female without making her look like a "silicon implant ad," as a friend of mine put it.

The main problems people seem to have with drawing breasts are the shape and the placement. A lot of artists (professionals as well as ametuers) make them look like balloons that have been taped onto the subject's chest; this is hardly a natural look. If you look through figure drawing books, you'll see that they are more like halves of a sphere or overturned teacups rather than balloons.

Now, note the position. Imagine a central guideline that runs down the center of your subject's body, as shown at the left. The breasts are at 45 degree angles from that center line, and are about halfway down the chest (shown by the red diagonal guidelines). Be very careful not to draw them too close together or too far apart, or too high on the chest; these are commonly made mistakes. As you will see in examples below, this basic rule of the 45 degree placement will apply to pretty much whatever pose you are using.

Here is another pose, showing the torso from a front view. Note how the breasts are still located at 45 degree angles from the center line of the body. Oh, also take note of the shading. After looking at various examples, I find that shading in this fashion (rather than just following the lower curves as you would shade a sphere) makes them look more natural.

Here is one last pose to go over the size and placement. It's harder to see here, but the breasts are still at the 45 degree angle from the center line (which isn't draw in this picture; sorry about that. Notice that the leftmost breast is drawn as a half-sphere, not as a full sphere. If you want to exaggerate the size, that's your choice, but I personally don't think its necessary.

Now, lets move on to the neck and shoulders. When you draw the shoulders, notice that they are slope down smoothly, they aren't flat. Try to take the musculature structure of the neck and shoulders into consideration, especially if you are going for a more realistic look. They should be shaped more like a clothes hanger, and not drawn flat an hard.

Here are some more examples of various shoulder positions. Notice that the shoulders are never drawn flat and dull.

One more thing I wanted to cover regarding the torso is how to draw it if an arm is lifted. I have personally found this difficult sometimes, so I figured it was a good thing to go over. If the arm is lifted, then the back of the torso will be exposed. Although a female's torso isn't as round and full as a males, it should still stick out in the back. Don't make the upper torso too narrow. Notice also how the top of the right-most breast doesn't just keep curving inwards in a circle; remember that it is not a full sphere, so it is attached to the muscles of the shoulder.

Next, let's move on to the arms. The arms consist of three basic sections: the upper arm, the foream, and the hand. Each can be represented in prelimiary sketches by oval shapes. Now, I know some people don't like using the shapes; you do not have to do it this way, this is just one possible way to go about sketching arms. Some books recommend using cylinders, but it's better to use flat ovals because they more closely match the shape of the arm. It isn't shown here, but if the arms are held loosely at the side, the hands should come down to the middle of the thigh. The elbows should be at about waist length.

Once you have your basic shapes of the arms down, you can refine them and make them look more realistic. This is a little more difficult. When drawing the arms, don't make them straight and flat; arms have muscles, after all. Never draw a straight arm as just a long cylinder (unless you are doing a super-deformed/chibi pic). The arm starts at the shoulder. Notice how the shoulder bulges out slightly, then curves back down. The arm tapes slightly inwards until you reach the elbow. At the elbow, the arm widens again just after the elbow where the biceps are (as shown in the topmost picture here). The elbow itself can be a little daunting to draw. Remember that the arm doesn't just start curving in the other direction; there is a joint, and it should be shown (as in the top and bottom left pic). There are more examples below.

Here are some more poses for arms, this time showing how the parts of the arm overlap. It is sometimes easier to visualize the overlapping or foreshortening if you use basic oval shapes first, but again, you do not have to use them if you do not want to. Notice how in the topmost picture, the arm that is moving away from us tapers and grows smaller the further away from us it is.

These poses are a little more difficult to refine. It is very important that you pay close attention to the way each part of the arm is facing, and how the elbow is to be positioned. Try to imagine the arm as two different shapes stuck together: the cylindrical upper arm, and the forearm, which is sort of shaped like a bowling pin with a bump on the bottom. That should help you in determining the position of the elbow.

Legs can be another problem area for artists. It's hard to make them shaped properly (especially when you don't practice very much, like me...) Just like with the arms, it is important not to make them perfectly straight like cyliders. It is especially helpful to use ovals to help you get the shape right rather than cylinders, because the ovals better suit the shape of the thighs and calves. The upper part of each leg should be thicker, rounder, and shorter than the lower part of leg. When drawing the legs, start them thicker at the top, then taper them down until the reach the knee. As with the elbow on the previous page, the knee should be defined; it's a joint and should be drawn, the leg isn't made of rubber. Notice how the knee bulges outwards slightly; the leg doesn't just go straight down. The muslces on the lower leg, especially the calves, should protrude a little.

Here are some more poses. I didn't use the prelimiary ovals this time because I forgot, but you should be able to see the oval shapes of the various parts of the legs. Again, I would like to bring attention to the knee, especially in the lower pictures. When the leg is bent, the knee can be drawn like a flat plane. I shaded these legs to help give you a better idea of their form. There are better details on this in various figure drawing books, but since you don't often see every bone and muscle on an anime character, I didn't feel the need to go over everything. On the picture to the far right, notice how the calves obscure part of the thigh. In the left pictures, notice that the lower part of the legs that are lifted up are not visible, since they are hidden behind the rest of the leg.

Well, just as its important to be able to draw someone from the front, you may also wish to draw them from behind. In which case, it helps to know how to actually draw someone's behind. I wasn't going to add this, but since many anime girls are draw in skin tight suits or swimsuits, it's kind of important. Umm... I don't know quite what to say; just be careful how you make the legs connect to the rest of the body. There's more info in the next section of this tutorial. If you need extra reference, get that figure drawing book by Burne Hogarth mentioned in my recommended reading section. He has several pages devoted to the subject.

All right, now that we've gone over the major areas in detail, lets put them all together and make a full body pose. When drawing your subject, you can either begin with the prelimiary ovals and circles, or you can go straight to the final draft, whichever you are most comforable with. If you are using circles and ovals, then you will notice that the main body (torso and pelvis) are composed of two basic shapes, both of which curve inwards towards the stomach. I'm not going to go over these a lot, because they have been well documented in other figure drawing tutorials. Make sure that both of these shapes, as well as the head, are aligned along a central guidline (as shown). This guidline is pretty much the spine of the character, and will determine the pose she is going to be in. Notice here that the center line curves to the left a little on the pelvis; this is because her weight is shifted and her left hip sticks out slightly (which makes the pose a little more interesting than if her weight is evenly balanced). The body can be equally divided in half as shown to by the red guidlines. You can use that as a general reference when determing how long the legs should be in proportion to the rest of the body, but often times in anime the length of the legs is exaggerated, for both males and females, and it looks just fine.

When drawing the midsection, remember to try to keep the hourglass figure shape. Female anime characters will generally have thin shoulders, a thin stomach, and a somewhat round waist. Be careful to make the curves look natural, unless you are really good at figure drawing and can exaggerate the proportions.

Here is a similar pose, this time shown at a side angle. I have found side views to be difficult, since I had a hard time finding decent reference pictures. Notice that the body is composed of the same basic shapes, except the shapes have been rotated around. One of the things you need to consider when drawing from this angle is the shape of the upper torso. It isn't shown very well here, but as you come straight down from the neck, the chest will stick out slightly at a sharp angle as you come to the collarbone. After that point, the torso is drawn at a smooth diagonal until you reach the hemisphere shape of the breasts (remember that they are half spheres; don't draw them like beach balls!) Beneath that, the torso continues to protrude outwards slightly until reach the bottom of what would be the ribcage (its a little over one headlength down from the shoulders). After the ribcage, curve back inwards a little for the stomach. Other things to look out for are the shape of the legs (the thighs round out in front, and are flatter in back, while the lower legs are just the opposite) and the subject's behind (make sure you don't exaggerate it too much).

For the final pose of this tutorial, here is an example of someone drawn from behind (which you may actually need to draw at one point, especially if you are going to do manga). Just as before, the subject can be equally divided in half. Things to look out for at this angle include the neck; it connects up into the skull, and should obscure part of the face. The midsection should be somewhat hourglass shaped, but again, don't overexaggerate the curve unless you really know your anatomy (you have to know the basics before you can start bending the rules). Don't overdefine the lines on the behind, since there's little reason too. Be careful when drawing the arms; from the back, the elbows should be more prominent than usual. Check out the section on arms for more information.

That concludes the female figure drawing tutorial. I hope this gives you an understanding of basic anatomy, and helps you out when drawing full body subjects.

hey thanks for the help i couldn't find any good hep but here i've been needing help with the eyes for awile! biggrin

woot