Anime with me!

I like messing around with photoshop, illustrator , not that I am a pro, at all... and I would probably not be able to teach you anything. But I love a creative outlet every now and again and I was fascinated with a picture I saw on the internet and thought I would try it out for myself.

I wanted to design a simple face with hair blowing in the wind and her eyes like a starry night to make her feel alive and free.

It was very simple and easy to draw, and I designed it a few months ago really, but its my favourite work so far. I thought why not add it to steam and see what people come back with. Put your anime design in the comments below !

The Process:
Firstly I opened Adobe Illustrator CS6, of course and I created a new art board with a custom size. This depends greatly on you and where you will be using your artwork.

I just chose an A4 Art board and made sure it was in landscape for this.

The first thing I drew was the facial shape with a normal brush tool on a 2 px size, just to get an idea of where the hair and eyes should go. I preferred a diamond face shape for my character, but you can choose any facial shape you prefer.

The basic eye shape I also drew with a normal brush tool 2px and the pupils too, however I left areas open in the pupils as they do with many anime drawings, it helps to make your character feel alive.

For the hair and eyelashes I used a combination of 2 brush strokes in order to give it the fine ends,I made sure the top of the stroke blended in with the rest of the hair, and I finished the hair off by placing some white strokes in between in order to give it some 'shine'.

For the white areas of the hair I used this brush tool as to not give it a block appearance, but rather a smooth appearance from start to finish.

The lips I created by making them with a normal brush tool and using the eraser to fine tune the edges and the inner area of the mouth.

Lastly, I created the nostrils, mouth and chin, all in black. For these I used another brush tool, one that has a more round end on the one side and a pointy end on the other side.

Hope you enjoyed.