Drawing Anime Design Ideas

The incredible inspiration about drawing anime design ideas.

Anime is an animation style which started in Japan and becomes very popular in game industry. Anime and Manga characters are often depictions of Japanese culture and characterized by colorful graphics, vibrant characters and fantastic themes. If you are looking to create your own manga or perhaps even your own animation you will probably have to draw and design at least one protagonist.

Even if you feel quite comfortable with your drawing ability properly designing a character that you will draw over and over can be challenging. Designing a character for an anime or a manga is quite different than doing a one time sketch. In a one time drawing you only have to worry about what your subject will look like from that one view for that one drawing. In a manga or an animation a character will likely have to be drawn many times from multiple views or angles.

Rough Character Sketches - Draw some rough sketches of your ideas. These can be from any view and in any pose that you like. Draw whatever you feel best shows off your character. Do at least a one full body sketches and some close up face sketches. If your character needs to be particularly big or particularly small you can sketch them next to what would be an average sized person to get a better idea of their size. Use the bare minimum details you need when drawing. Don’t make the designs complicated. You can always add more details later if you feel your character is too plain.

How to Draw Anime or Manga Faces - Drawing an anime face in the same way that a professional does is something that you can learn to do at home too. With a little patience and practice, following these steps will help you to achieve your desired anime drawing style. The chin shouldn't be a complete curve like a semi-circle. The outline should clearly change direction when it does, but it should do so in a way that is curved and subtle.

Take design cues from your character's personality and history - Add clothing and accessories. Let your choices help reflect your character's personality and history. For example, if you have a female character who tends to be very practical, put her in flats rather than heels. If you want to hint at a character's past, think of things that they might wear or keep that are significant to them.

Design characters to matches the story - A lot of manga have fairly generic looking characters and are still very good. Have a balance between originality and what is appropriate for your story. For example if you are doing a “Slice of Life” manga you should probably have character designs that are down to earth. If you are doing a fantasy or manga then you can create designs that are a little more unusual.

How to Draw Simple Anime Eyes - With a little practice, you can draw easy anime or manga eyes. These can be used on pretty much anything you want and look great on more realistic cartoon characters. Make a small curved line for the top of the eye, and add eyelashes. Then add another small curve for the bottom of the eye. Connect the two curves with two more curves, on the left and right hand sides. Make sure to leave room for after you draw the curve. Add the pupil. Draw a big black circle for the pupil of the eye, add some shade and colour, and you're done.