Anime art is one of most popular fads around the world nowadays. This kind of cartoons is loved by many and it has evolved tremendously as more fans become hooked up in drawing their own anime characters. If you are one of those that want to learn to draw anime characters, here are the basics of what you should know in order to start out.
What Is Your Character?
First, you should identify the character you are drawing. Who is he/she? Is he/she old, teenaged, or a child? Is your character good or bad? Getting to know the features of your character would generally be your guide in being able to draw him/her out of your imagination. Try to have a set of personality characteristics for your character so that you can have a basis.
The General Styles
There are main archetypes used in depicting characters in anime. These could serve as your basis but not your prison in creating your own character.
Cute characters are usually depicted with large eyes, round cheekbones, and closely set facial parts. Evil characters are usually drawn more ‘realistically’. They also have sharp protruding cheekbones and very small pupils. Their eyes more often than not appear to be shady.
Shoujo characters or those girly-girl characters usually have sharp chins and huge expressive eyes. They also have elegant nose bridges and slender bodies. Stupid characters have round heads and bodies. They also have less details and simplistic features. Their eyes are most often tiny, in some cases are just dots. If your character is a fighter, just like those in Dragon Ball Z, he/she would also have simplistic features but with exaggerated body proportions and a small head.
These are the basic prototypes in creating Anime characters. However, do not limit yourself with those stated above. Try to experiment and play around with the features. This is the only way you can make your character your own and not just some plain Anime looking character.
Hairstyle
The possible hairstyles that characters could have are endless. This is the beauty of Anime art. They could have wild, out of this world hairstyles and they would still look good. Generally, hair strands are drawn in clumps. All you have to do is draw grass like shaped clumps of hair just to give their hairdo some form and style. Bangs are common with these characters. The color you can use is not limited to black, blonde, brunette or auburn. In fact, most characters have wildly colored hair such as green, purple, pink and blue.
Eyes
The eyes are usually prominent with Anime characters. This is what differentiates one character from another. If you observe, there are a lot of white portions in their eye. This is so that it would have a reflective appearance. This also makes the eyes more lively and appealing. You can observe this especially with Shoujo characters or other female characters.
There is also no limit with the color used. Some characters even have pink, and purples eyes. Usually, eye color also compliments the hair color. You may see some blue haired characters with blue eyes and purple haired characters with pink eyes. Skys the limit in choosing eye colors.
Clothing
Most Anime characters are in school uniforms or traditional Japanese costumes. However, there are also characters wearing Western style of clothing. It basically depend on the overall theme of the story.
