Be it Pokémon Go or Sailor Moon, if you’re familiar with these titles, chances are that you have had a brush with the world of Anime Drawings. Not only is it a popular form of entertainment in Japan, but it’s been gaining popularity across the world, too. Kids as well as adults, enjoy watching different animated characters, wrapped up in engaging narrations and scenarios. Which is why anime culture has made its way towards movies, fan fiction, memes, and so on. From Wandering Samurai to Attack on Titan, you can find engrossing series that have fans glued to their screens for hours. The characters are fun and are adored by the masses.
But what’s more astonishing are anime drawings. With realistic looking characters, one genuinely wonders how to draw anime that appears perfect and flawless. If you’re curious about it, read on for steps that help you create stunning anime drawings.
What are Anime Drawings?
Anime is a unique animation style that has its roots in Japan. But, in the West, anime pfp is more synonymous with an art form that draws upon Japanese Cartoon style. What sets anime apart from other art forms are the distinct features that anime drawings have. Instead of realistic images, anime uses striking or sharp illustrations that pop out.
For instance, anime characters often adorn large and expressive eyes. As in the anime world, eyes are seen as the window to the soul, so artists use them to express emotions or feelings. As for hair, it’s common to see long, spiky, and unusually dyed hair. Their characters are often tall and attractive. There’s also a misconception regarding manga characters and anime in the West. They’re seen as different genres. However, manga is the term used to describe Japanese comic books and graphic novels.
Difference between Manga and Anime
Oftentimes, people get confused between Manga and Anime. However, the terms have entirely different connotations and purposes. Anime refers to animation in Japan whereas the term Manga is used for comic books. Another factor that sets them apart is color. Manga prints in black and white weekly whereas anime always publishes in colors. It’s also reasonable to print and only a handful of artists can produce it in a short time whereas compilation of anime requires a lot of efforts.
Manga is more on the realistic side than anime, because most of the artists publish original content. And they opt for self-publishing. If you find this interesting, you can search how to draw a manga character with photoshop and try creating your own manga.
Why Anime Style Art is Popular?
Although anime characters with large, expressive eyes, and other aesthetics captivate a viewer’s attention, it isn’t its only charm. Anime art is popular for easy to understand characters. With strong character development, anime grabs audience attention almost instantly.
Clothing and expressions serve as additional factors that contribute to making an anime series interesting and appealing. Japanese artists are, undoubtedly, the masters of their craft which they showcase in their art. Which is why this cartoon style art is widely appreciated amidst an adult audience, as well. They have achieved this with the help of stylized characters and unique exaggeration, as well as immersive human and inhuman experiences. An average viewer can relate to those experiences that anime depicts flawlessly.
Types of Anime Style Art
Anime art has the following types:
1) Realistic Anime Style
Kind of rare, anime that feature realistic style always contain stories and are closer to reality. For example, Death Note has the anime style that resonates with the real world. With realistic emotions, characters seem relatable, too.
Death Note features a dark theme. It’s a story of a Japanese teenager – Light Yagami who is intelligent, however, he loathes the environment he lives in.
2) Chibi Anime Styles
This anime style is childlike in terms of shape, characters, and form. Chibi art features younger looking characters. For instance, Kinmoza and Lucky Star make the perfect example of Chibi art styles. In Lucky Star, even characters depicted between the ages of 17-19 look quite young. Similarly, Kinmoza features a 16-year-old main character that is portrayed as a child.
3) Josei Anime Style
The word Josei refers to “female” and this anime style is all about the everyday experiences of adult women around us. While this art is free from action or drama, you can nevertheless spot a hint of romance in this category. But, it’s more on the realistic side if you compare it to the romance of Shojo anime style which also features feminine themes, such as friendship and comedy. See Chihayafuru or Nodame Cantabile if you want to enjoy a well-thought-out Josei anime.
4) Shonen Anime Style
This anime style caters to the interests of young male audience. In Shonen anime style, you’ll see a little bit of everything like adventure, action, fight, and comedy. Although Shonen anime also centers on romance, it’s mostly from a male perspective. Attack on Titan, Full Metal Alchemist, and Hunter x Hunter are some of the best examples of Shonen anime.
5) Kodomo Anime Style
Kodomo – the anime genre dedicated entirely to children. It features themes related to children or revolving around families. This anime style usually doesn’t interest most adults, but some watch it for its short episodes and easy-to-understand plot. Pokemon Sun and Moon make the best Kodomo anime style examples.
How to Draw Anime in Simple Steps
After exploring all the fun and interesting anime series, if you want to know how to draw anime, the following steps can help you.
Draw Basic Face Structure
Although anime artists follow a basic structure to draw a character’s head and face, they utilize basic principle to get the job done.
Start with drawing a circle, then draw horizontal and vertical lines through the center of this circle. Draw the eyes either on or below the horizontal line. To create the mouth, you should opt for the bottom part of the circle.
Place nose of the character between the eyes and mouth. And keep the chin below the circle.
Add Facial Features
Eyes
You must have seen anime characters with large and beautiful eyes. You can begin by drawing upper and lower lash lines. Now, draw a curved line for the upper lash line, adding a tail in curved form at the outer corner. It should go down and back to the other end of the line, creating a C-shaped upper lash line.
Then, use pencil to thicken the upper lash line. For your lower lash line, draw a curved line – a short and upward one under the already drawn lash line. Draw an oval overlapping these lash lines.
Draw a small circle on top side of the oval, leave this circle white, so it’ll look like the eye is reflecting the light.
Nose and Mouth
To sketch the anime character nose, draw a dash, a dot, and two short lines on the sides to give an impression of the nostrils. However, ensure to draw these elements in the right place. Following this approach, you can easily draw the front view of the nose.
Moreover, drawing a mouth is quite simple and quick than eyes and nose. Draw a simple but neat curved line. Keep it slightly long. Then, add a slight dash below the curved line to complete the mouth.
Hair
You can’t ignore hair while learning how to draw anime. Hair gives personality and completes the entire anime character. So, start by drawing an outline to use it as a guide to draw rest of the hair. You can increase or decrease hair length, depending on your preference.
Next step is to draw hairline. Then, think of the hair style and decide on which direction you want hair strands to flow. Add more lines to this style to make it look as realistic as possible. Darken up the outlines of hair using a marker. And remove extra lines or curves from the outline.
Draw Rest of the Body
The steps to draw anime character body for male and female are different. However, the body anatomy includes a few shapes to draw each part.
For example, use rectangle to draw the chest, go for smaller circles to create flawless shoulders or even leg joints, and to sketch hips use oval shape precisely. Once done drawing the circles, fill the shape of the upper body.
Start by drawing a waist and connecting the rib cage to the hips. Draw legs as the next step keeping the height similar to character’s upper body. Then, add arms to the body sketch, aligning elbow to anime character’s waist. Extend the remaining arm with hand and keep it to the mid-thigh.
Add Further Details
Once you get a sketch of your anime character, add in details, such as clothes, accessories, shoes, or colors, etc.
Is Photoshop Good for Creating Anime or Manga Characters
The answer is, yes. You can use this graphic design software to draw anime or manga characters.
It’s also one of the recommendations you see on the search engine when you type how to draw a manga character with photoshop. However, drawing or painting digital characters require highest level of technical skills.
Photoshop offers a wide variety of tools and easy integration that you can use to bring beautiful anime or manga characters to life.
Wrap Up
Manga or anime one piece filler list have become widely popular sources for entertainment. Be it a child or adult, everyone knows or adores at least one manga or anime character.
On the flipside, artists also do 10x more work to add life to those characters, so fan can understand the plot and enjoy the story.
Lastly, thanks to the internet as it has made how to draw a manga character with photoshop easier. Now, fans can learn creating a character just as quickly as they learn to design logo.
