How to Draw Gothic Manga Both Sweet and Elegant

Gothic Manga is a subset of manga or anime cartoon drawing that focuses on gothic styles. Gothic styles became popular in Japan with the Gothic Lolita style, which is a fancy, elegant type of gothic fashion worn by a young, female subculture. In manga, you can achieve a gothic look with dark colors and typical gothic accessories like skulls and cats.

Instructions

1. Draw a heart shaped head with pointed chin first. Leave the facial features for later.

2. Draw a long, narrow trapezoidal shape for the torso with the waist narrowing down from the shoulders. Draw another trapezoid inverted below the torso for the lower part of the body. You can turn this trapezoid into a long, form-fitting skirt or into a mini-skirt and add legs below it.

3. Add long, slender arms from the shoulder, and tuck them behind the waist. Add long, slender legs as well if you are drawing a mini-skirt instead of a long skirt. Draw a bodice onto the torso with a curved, corset top and no straps.

4. Draw a slender neck connecting the head and torso. Add shading detail to the neck, collarbone and cleavage. Color the bodice with a dark color and color over the forearms to add long gloves.

5. Add decorative details like lace trim and red ribbons. Gothic style combines elegant details with dark colors, so add any decorative accents that you like.

6. Add smooth long or short hair around the head. Add bangs or other hair details as desired. Like the clothing, color the hair red, black or purple or a combination of gothic colors.

7. Draw the facial features. Like typical manga or anime characters, Gothic Manga faces have very large eyes with flattened bottom edges. For Gothic Manga, color the eyes using the same color scheme as the clothing and hair, and add very dark eyelashes above and below the eyes.

8. Finish the face with a small curved line for the nose and a small line for the mouth. Gothic Manga typically involves a somber (but not scary) face, which means a barely visible mouth and glistening eyes that dominate the facial features.

Tips & Warnings

• Put Gothic Manga characters in context by drawing grim, romantic surroundings like castles, crosses, bones and even kittens.