how to draw manga Face Tutorials

HOW TO DRAW MANGA -- OFFICIAL SITE AND STORE

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D R A W I N G T U T O R I A L S
Face Tutorials
In this tutorial, I will attempt to
Female eyes
go over some basic methods to
draw general anime faces, so
Male eyes
you can both get a better idea
of how anime faces are drawn
Nose and Mouth
and proportioned, as well as an
idea of how use what you know
Shape of the Head
to create interesting original
characters. I've divided this
Facial Expression
tutorial up into four sections.
RETURN TO MAIN

© Copyright 1997-2002 Japanime Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
PRIVACY POLICY
http://www.howtodrawmanga.com/tutorial/generalface.html [15.11.2002 13:14:53]

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HOW TO DRAW MANGA -- OFFICIAL SITE AND STORE

O F F I C I A L S I T E & O N L I N E S T O R E
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Copic Markers
Tools
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D R A W I N G T U T O R I A L S
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. A lot of other sites only show you how
to draw large female eyes, without really going over the large
variety of other styles. In this tutorial, I will cover different types of
male and female anime eyes, plus give you examples of numerous
other styles for you to use to help you draw your own original
characters, or to refine your style with existing characters.
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.
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HOW TO DRAW MANGA -- OFFICIAL SITE AND STORE
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. If you look at the other tutorials
on this page, you will see that the steepness of
these lines varies. 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.
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HOW TO DRAW MANGA -- OFFICIAL SITE AND STORE
Set Layer 1 to "Preserve Transparency" by checking
the box on the Layers menu, as shown at the left.
This allows you to paint on top of the existing lines
without coloring over them and messing them up. Its
a very handy feature. :) Select a big paintbrush and
paint over the entire picture with pure black. The
outline should be back to its former darkened self. :)
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. This particular eye
belongs to Deedlit from Record of Lodoss War, which is a
considerably more serious show than Slayers (which is where the
previous eye came from). 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.
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HOW TO DRAW MANGA -- OFFICIAL SITE AND STORE
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 a variety of other styles of female eyes you can make
using the same
methods. Try to
see the
differences
between each
style, as well as
the similarities.
Though the shape
and proportions
change, the top
border of the eyes
is always thicker,
there are always
multiple layers of
shading on the irises, etc. Some of these were sketched fairly
quickly and are a little messy, but I hope they are still helpful. ^.^;
On to the Next Section!
RETURN TO MAIN

© Copyright 1997-2002 Japanime Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
PRIVACY POLICY
http://www.howtodrawmanga.com/tutorial/eyesf.html (4 of 4) [15.11.2002 13:17:50]

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HOW TO DRAW MANGA -- OFFICIAL SITE AND STORE

O F F I C I A L S I T E & O N L I N E S T O R E
How-To Books
Pens & Nibs
Copic Markers
Tools
Paper
Screen Tones
Anime Fanzines
Home
HTDM Gallery
Tutorials
Order & Shipping Info
Affiliates
Contact Us
Bulletin Board

D R A W I N G T U T O R I A L S
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. A lot of other sites only show you how
to draw large female eyes, without really going over the large
variety of other styles. In this tutorial, I will cover different types of
male and female anime eyes, plus give you examples of numerous
other styles for you to use to help you draw your own original
characters, or to refine your style with existing characters.
Male Eyes
Next we will draw some male eyes. Male
characters are sometimes neglected by fan
artists, because many fan artists have trouble drawing guys. They
really aren't that hard, though, just different. Most male eyes are
more thin and narrow than female eyes, though there are several
exceptions. This particular eye (which I think belongs to Hotohori
from Fushigi Yuugi) is narrower than other female eyes, without
being so thin that it looks like it belongs to a more shady,
suspicious character. ^_^ Begin by drawing a thick, very slightly
curved line. Its almost horizontal, but still has a slight curve to it.
The edges should curve inwards a little, more so on the left.
http://www.howtodrawmanga.com/tutorial/eyesm.html (1 of 5) [15.11.2002 13:18:01]

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HOW TO DRAW MANGA -- OFFICIAL SITE AND STORE
Lightly draw two diagonal lines, starting from
the edges of the top line, to help define the
lower part of the eye. The lines are almost
perpendicular to each other. Don't make them
too steep or too flat, or the size of the eye will
be off. Draw the lower line of the eye, using the guidelines to help
you position it.
Erase the guidelines and draw the iris. The iris is a
perfect circle, but is paritally covered up by the
eyelids. Do not draw the iris so small that you can
see the entire thing (unless trying to convey a strong emotion like
surprise or anger, which is covered in the expressions section).
Male characters have light glares in their eyes,
too, though they often are not as large or obvious.
Draw one oval light glare on the left side of the
eye, and a pointed one on the right side.
Draw the pupil benath the light glares and
shade heavily, especailly if the character
has darker colored eyes. Draw the eyelid
and eyelash. Male characters tend to have
darker, thicker eyebrows, so make sure they aren't too thin. There,
that wasn't too hard, was it? ^_^ Don't worry if the eyes look too
'girly'; often times its hard to tell if some eyes belong male or female
characters. Some styles of eyes are interchangable and can be
used for either gender.
Slender, narrow eyes are often (but not always)
associated with darker, brooding characters.
Villains often have narrower eyes, but not all
characters with such eyes are antagonistic. To
draw this style of eye, start with a long, curved line. Notice that the
curve is steeper on the left hand side than the right.
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HOW TO DRAW MANGA -- OFFICIAL SITE AND STORE
Next, draw two diagonal guidelines from the
edges of the top of the eye. The angle of
these lines are different from the ones in the
three previous tutorials; the left one is much
flatter than the the right. Draw in the lower
part of the eye using the guidelines; it should be curved, rather than
a straight line, so that the entire eye is like an elongated, pointy
oval.
Erase the guidelines and draw the iris. The iris is
covered up by the upper eyelid; if the eyelids
weren't there, the iris would be a perfect circle.
Thicken the lines on the right side of the eye.
Draw in the light glares, as well as the upper
eyelid on top of the eye.
Finish up the eye by adding the pupil and
shading the iris, and adding the eyebrow.
Smooth and darken your lines, and you're
done. ^_^
Here is a
collection of male
eyes. Notice that
some could be
mistaken for
female eyes; the
difference
between the two
genders isn't
always that
distinct, especially
in young children.
Most of the eyes
here are narrower
than the female
eyes, and the
tops of their eyes
aren't as thick. Male characters don't always have light glares on
their eyes, but I tend to draw them in anyway. ;)
http://www.howtodrawmanga.com/tutorial/eyesm.html (3 of 5) [15.11.2002 13:18:01]

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HOW TO DRAW MANGA -- OFFICIAL SITE AND STORE
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.
On to the Next Section!
RETURN TO MAIN

© Copyright 1997-2002 Japanime Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
http://www.howtodrawmanga.com/tutorial/eyesm.html (4 of 5) [15.11.2002 13:18:01]

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HOW TO DRAW MANGA -- OFFICIAL SITE AND STORE
PRIVACY POLICY
http://www.howtodrawmanga.com/tutorial/eyesm.html (5 of 5) [15.11.2002 13:18:01]

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• howtodrawmanga.com
  • HOW TO DRAW MANGA -- OFFICIAL SITE AND STORE
  • HOW TO DRAW MANGA -- OFFICIAL SITE AND STORE
  • HOW TO DRAW MANGA -- OFFICIAL SITE AND STORE
  • HOW TO DRAW MANGA -- OFFICIAL SITE AND STORE
  • HOW TO DRAW MANGA -- OFFICIAL SITE AND STORE
  • HOW TO DRAW MANGA -- OFFICIAL SITE AND STORE

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