How to Draw Anime Tutorial: Drawing the Head

This is a tutorial that which I have written so that beginners make experience how fun drawing can be. For more tutorials visit my site at http://alvinsart.wordpress.com.

So you want to draw anime/manga? Well the first thing we should start off with is the human head. The head is actually a very complex place, much more than the rest of the body. The head shows a lot of emotion and how the character is feeling.

This tutorial will show you how to draw a head front on

Step 1. Shape

Start with a circle, or an oval.

Draw a vertical (up and down) line in the middle of the circle.

Also draw a horizontal line a bit lower than halfway through the circle.

Step 2. Draw a horizontal line at the bottom of the circle. This is to guide you when you draw the jaw of the head.

Draw the jaw. Note that female characters have smaller and less squarer jaws than male characters.

Step 3. Features

Now we start with the features. I usually start with the eyes first, but this is just preference. There are many ways to draw the anime eye, but that is planned for the next tutorial. If you are an absolute beginner just do dots, or circles with a smaller circle inside.

Draw the eyes on the horizontal line.

Note that usually the two eyes are usually another eyes width apart from each other.

Then we can draw the nose and the mouth on the face, and eyes on the side of the head. The nose is usually between the two horizontal lines, and the mouth is below the nose (obviously, unless you're drawing an alien).

Male characters usually have a lot broader and bigger mouths than female characters.

Step 4: Hair

Draw the hair. Remember that anime styled characters usually have thick, large hair that looks cool. Once again hair will be a seperate tutorial maybe.

Step 5: Finishing touches

This is where you add all the finishing touches, like accessories, cleaning up all your lines, and generally just personalising your character.

There you are, you can shade or colour it in if you wish. Make sure to rub out all the excess lines, or you can keep them to remind you the steps you have to do.

With practise you will eventually be able to do it in less steps, til finally (though not really recommended) you don't need to do all the guide lines and can just draw the whole head straight away.

Females

For females, you usually have a smaller head, with a lot smaller and less squarer jaw. Females also have smaller noses, ears and mouths than their male counterparts. But other then that, its the same steps as above :D

Hope you liked my first ever How to draw anime/manga tutorial.

Note: To see all pictures with each step, visit the full tutorial on http://alvinsart.wordpress.com