How to Draw Anime Faces & Expressions
- 1). Collect anime reference pictures. Look for anime that has close-ups of the character's face and expression. Choose pictures that have faces that capture your attention. It might be a quirky turn of the mouth or the squint of the eye.
- 2). Draw a grid on the anime picture. Make the grid squares 1/2-inch by 1/2-inch.
- 3). Use pencil to draw a grid on your illustration board. It should possess the same measurements as your anime grid as well as the same number of squares.
- 4). Look on your anime picture and find the grid square that has the character's right eye. For example, the grid square is five squares down from the top of the picture and five squares in from the right side.
- 5). Locate the square of the same number of your illustration board's grid.
- 6). Observe how the lines curve within the grid square to form the character's eye. Look at the way the eyelashes intersect the lines of the grid square. Notice where they touch the walls of the square, such as in the middle of the line.
- 7). Make a line drawing of the eye grid square on your illustration board's grid square. Replicate the lines of the anime character's eye as you see them. Recreate the curves and angles of the eye within the square.
- 8). Finish drawing the anime character's face and expression. Draw the lines forming the face exactly as you see them. If the eyebrow curves so that it looks like a check mark, draw it that way. If the character wears a smirk on her face, draw the lines to create that smirk. Draw in the lines that create the character's dimples.
- 9). Get rid of the grid lines around the anime character. Don't erase the lines that form the character's body.
- 10
Shade the anime character's face and expressions using flat-tipped markers. Study the face of the character on your reference picture. Notice how the the layering of the colors creates the shading. Replicate this in your drawing. Lay down the lighter colors first. Afterward, create the lights and darks by adding a darker shade of the same color on top of that color just as you see it.
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