How to Draw a Kokeshi Doll in Photoshop

Kokeshi dolls originated in northern Japan. In the "real" world, they're made from wood and have a few thin lines on the face but a lot of design on the body. These dolls, first produced by Kiji-shi (wood artisans) have one unfailing characteristic in common ... they have no arms or legs.

The combination of no limbs with a lot of simple decoration make these really - really - fun dolls to use as inspiration for clipart or graphics made in Photoshop. They're easy and offer limitless possibilities. Once you learn how to create the basic body, you can use that body as a template to design thousands of different dolls.

In this Photoshop tutorial, we'll learn how to make a simple body "template" and work through the steps to make one Kokeshi doll. A Photoshop tutorial designed for beginners, I'll detail every step so that you can follow along even if this is your first time using Photoshop.

What will you need? A copy of Adobe Photoshop (any version from 7 through the current CS3 will work) or another graphics editor that can handle layers (like GIMP, which is free). Since this tutorial is written using CS3, you may need to look around for some of the tools discussed but in general they're right where the steps say they'll be.

Draw a Kokeshi Doll: The Steps

One: New Canvas

Before we get started, we'll need to get set up. Open Photoshop and create a new canvas (File, New). It should be in RGB mode, sized about 500 x 500 pixels, with a white background. Then, set your foreground color to a light flesh tone (the example illustrations use #fdf5e8) and set your background color to black. The quickest ways to change colors is to click right on the color "box". This pulls up a color window that you can choose your colors from.

Two: Draw the Head

Kokeshi doll heads aren't perfectly round. They look like a ball of clay that has been smooshed a little so that it is flatter at the top and bottom. We can do this in Photoshop easily.

First, grab your elliptical (circle) shape tool. This shape tool hides behind the square shape in your palette. If you can't see the circle shape, right-click the square one and choose the circle.

Then, draw a perfect circle on your canvas. To make a perfect circle, hold the "shift" key down on your keyboard while you drage the circle out.

Now we're going to smoosh the circle on the top and bottom. To do this, click "Edit" and choose "Transform Path". From the pop-out list, select "Warp". Use the inside center handles to make the top and bottom of the face flatter. (Reference Illustration 01).

When you're happy with the shape of your doll's face, right-click the layer your head shape is on and choose "Rasterize Layer". This will make the edges of the shape nice and smooth.

Three: Draw the Body

Kokeshi doll bodies are easy to draw, because they're basically a rain drop shape. Lucky for us, Photoshop even includes a raindrop shape.

Right-click your shape tool (it should be the circle shape right now) and choose the shape that looks like a blob or splat. This is the custom shape tool. When you select it, a new toolbar appears below your main toolbar. Inside it is a box that says "Shape:" and a little icon of the shape you have selected. To change that shape (we're looking for a rain drop), click the down-arrow beside the icon. Then, click the right-arrow in the new box and choose "All". This loads up all your Photoshop custom shapes. Scroll through the list until you find the rain drop. Select it, and draw it out on your canvas.

When your body is drawn, right-click its layer and choose "Rasterize Layer". Then, click and drag that layer so that it is below the head layer in your layers palette.

Four: Make a Face

Our basic doll "template" is done. From this point on, everything in this tutorial shows you how to make one specific doll. You're not stuck with just that doll, though. You can change the look of anything in each of the following steps to make your own unique Kokeshi doll.

First, we'll start with a face. Kokeshi dolls don't have detailed faces. Instead, they have an indication of eyes, nose and mouth. What I've done in Illustration 02 is simply use black and a thin paintbrush to "draw" out lines representing each of these pieces.

You can also find Custom Photoshop Shapes that have face shapes (eyes, nose, etc.) in them. Many beginners find this to be a life saver.

Five: Do the 'Do

Remember that Kokeshi dolls are made from wood. Their hair reflects this, and is made from very simple shapes. The easiest shape is to begin with a circle and use the circle marquee tool to cut out pieces that you don't want. Reference Illustration 03 to see the order of steps I took to make this very basic hair.

Six: Decorate the Threads

The clothes are the part of a Kokeshi doll that really adds personality. They're highly decorated, and often represent a traditional Japanese dress. Use your imagination when performing this step to create clothes that you think are just plain pretty, cool, unique, or so different they've never been seen in this world before. Reference Illustration 04 to see the order of steps I took to make this basic dress.

When you're happy with the look of the clothes, save your work and show it off!