How To Loathe Drawing In The Manga Style

17 tips for drawing manga faces

(Image credit: Zakary Lee)

Manga faces are a vital part of drawing manga. I began my cartoon career by learning how to draw manga. During this time I purchased many how-to guides for creating this distinctive fine art way, and discovered that the drawing methods were similar to those of western comic fine art. Substantially, you'd use a pencil to draw the head shape and then add together lines to point the eye position and centre of the face. Once this construction sketch is complete the final line-fine art is created using ink.

I followed the same cartoon method when I first explored digital art with a Wacom Graphire that a friend gave to me. Nonetheless I couldn't get my manus-drawn line-art to look correct and I had to use the Pen tool. The resulting line-art was clean, but it felt lifeless and lacked the free energy that I would take wanted in the drawing.

After years of practice I gradually changed my method of cartoon characters. Instead of working from a sketch and and so moving to line-art before adding colours, I paint in greyscale, then conform values and apply colours until I'chiliad happy with the drawing. So here are some of my tips for drawing manga faces digitally.

For more than advice on drawing, meet this how to draw roundup of tutorials, or this mail service on how to describe manga.

01. Get fix

Spend a few minutes configuring your drawing tools before you get stuck into the creative process. For example, tablets have Pen Pressure set up to maximum past default. You lot'll take to press down difficult with the pen on the tablet's surface to hit maximum output. Cartoon with the maximum Pressure and Threshold settings tin result in wobbly lines. By adjusting my Pressure Threshold and reducing the maximum output Threshold to about 60 per cent of the Pressure level, I can create steady lines without worrying virtually making my lines wait consistent. For Wacom products, this setting is accessed through Wacom Tablet Properties, while for XP-PEN products access the PenWin/Mac driver.

02. Utilize an arrow to place primal facial features

Afterwards blocking out the head (1) I determine which management the character is facing. Treating the head as a 3D shape, I draw a horizontal line that curves along the surface. When I depict this line I bear in mind whether the head is tilted upwards or downward, or facing left or correct. To gear up the direction of the caput and so I'll draw an upwardly pointing pointer (2). This helps me locate where the olfactory organ bridge meets the root of the nose. One time this primal location of the face has been identified, I can quickly paint and sketch in the centreline for the face, eyes, eyebrows, oral fissure and chin (3).

03. Employ a painting arroyo to sketching heads

I paint my sketches instead of drawing them with fine lines. I utilize a big brush with about 60 to 80 per cent values to cake in the head. Adjacent, using a darker value, I'll outline the caput and paint key features. I'll fine-tune the expression of the mouth and eyes past colour picking the grey tone and painting over the line. Finally, I'll refine the pilus to become a sense of its shape, painting over lines to reach the shape that I desire.

04. Capture expressions in cartoons sketches

The key expressive features of the human face comprise the mouth, eyebrows and eyes. When I draw a figure that has a particular emotion I'll first putter a drawing-like epitome of the expression that I have in mind. After this sketch is complete, I'll try to pick out certain facial aspects inside the expression. Is the rima oris open? Are the teeth clenched? What do the eyebrows look like in the simple expression? I'll have notation of those features and keep them in mind while I draw a refined version of the character's design on summit of the initial sketch.

05. Depict forms

Here are a collection of shapes (top of epitome). Drawing a line across these shapes will requite a sense of depth to the object, turning it into a 3D form (below). After sketching the shape design, I think of them every bit forms so that I can shade accordingly to the management of light in the composition. This is proficient practice when drawing unlike-shaped heads.

06. Get the head measurements correct

Manga characters tend to have exaggerated features such as big optics and tiny noses, only I feel that the profile of the skull should nonetheless be consistent with the measurements of the human being skull. To a higher place is a simplified drawing of a skull, with the braincase and the facial bones in proportion with each other. Compare this to a more 'manga' head and y'all can see that the proportions are pretty similar. The ears all the same sit on the vertical half of the braincase, while the forehead line lies on the horizontal half of the braincase.

07. Create manga fangs

Teeth are 1 of the things that I really like to draw, and I don't usually depict perfectly straight teeth. Some manga or anime characters accept "cute little fangs" that give them a sense of unconventional cuteness. I incorporate this look into some of my characters, although I'll mix things upwardly past painting kleptomaniacal teeth, some teeth that are pushed to the back and canine teeth that are pushed to the forepart.

08. Use light and shadow on the nose

The nose bridge expanse of the face is actually a slope, and the protrusion would exist less pronounced on a manga-styled character. Instead of cartoon a difficult line to indicate the olfactory organ span, I use the shadow or highlights with a precipitous border alongside the nose, which highlights the form of the nose bridge.

09. Create frontal head tilts

Attempt visualising the head tilt from the profile view. Using a circle and a box, I tin can visualise what the head tilt will expect like from the side. I draw vertical lines extending from key features such as the mentum, middle of the braincase, ears and the peak of the head. This enables me to run across what I'll need to paint when attempting to depict the head from the front. To a higher place are examples of a manga character'southward head tilted up and downwards. Remember to describe the underside of the jaw when drawing a tilted-up head, and the crown when cartoon a head that'southward tilted down.

10. Use a swimming cap for head angles

Cartoon a swimming cap tin can assist you to determine the angle of the head. Visualise a swimming cap with a seam in the middle and put that on your character. By covering all your character's pilus and ears, yous tin can at present focus on cartoon the facial features. Furthermore, you can use the cap's edge as the hairline, and because swimming caps embrace the ears, I can draw the ears backside this edge with conviction, thus placing them in the right position.

11. Keep the cartoon of the eyes simple

The curvature of the eyeball makes it complicated to draw at an bending and symmetrically, so keeping information technology simple will improve your skill at drawing realistic eyes quickly and relatively easily. Furthermore, take note of the shape of your character'due south optics. Does the eye have an inward or downward tilt? Is the iris normally modest or large? These will help y'all sketch your grapheme'southward eyes at more circuitous angles.

thirteen. Beginning with a flat colour when painting eyes

When sketching and drawing the eyes, pigment the whole iris equally a flat colour. It can be the same color as your sketch brush. Painting the whole iris during the sketch phase volition help make the sizes of both irises consistent with each other. It also makes it easier to compare and check whether both irises are the aforementioned size or not.

14. Use the eyes to explain the lighting

During the painting process, I'll spend a little time rendering the upper and lower eyelids. Because the eye socket is concave in shape and the light source is coming from an up direction, I paint the upper eyelids in a dark value and the lower eyelids in a lighter value.

15. Pick an iris colour based on your limerick

Finally, I return to detailing the iris. I'll take a look at the overall picture show and colours that I've used and so decide what color the iris of the character should be. Because the painting features predominantly red colours, I decide to go with a green colour for the eyes. I also save my white value for the very cease, applying a piffling highlight to the eyes.

16. Utilise shapes in your character designs

Whenever I've run into a brick wall when attempting to design an original outfit for a character, my solution is to duplicate a character's head a few times and and then doodle whatever shape that comes to my mind alongside each one. And so I'll focus on a single shape – a crescent or triangle, say – and and then design a costume which resembles that shape. This method works with hairstyles, too.

16. Describe hair in clumps

You don't have to draw every single strand of hair. Instead, I recommend drawing hair equally groups of shapes. Start with big shapes such as the whole fringe, back of the head and any ponytails or pigtails that the grapheme might have. Break those big shapes down into medium-sized shapes and then into smaller clumps of hair. You can then add single strands of pilus subsequently for added detail.

17. Experiment with dissimilar methods

Above is a method of constructing the head with a rounded-edge box instead of the traditional egg shape. I also utilise the same method to draw three fantasy characters. I skew and manipulate the human skull proportions to fit fantastical characters. Make the eyes smaller, the jaw bigger, or even enlarge the olfactory organ. You lot can use different construction methods to either draw people in a similar style or draw different styled characters, all using the aforementioned construction method. It's all about finding the form of the discipline that you lot're drawing. There are many methods of constructing heads, I would suggest testing and trying every one of them that you can detect out there! Find a method that suits your art, or develop ane for yourself.

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX , the earth's best-selling digital art magazine. Subscribe to ImagineFX hither .

Read more:

How to color your manga fine art like a pro
How to create an authentic manga comic strip
15 tips for improve manga characters

Zakary graduated from DigiPen Institute of Technology (Singapore) with a BA in digital art and animation. He now works at Collateral Damage Studios.