Anime Proportion Tutorial
Anime, which is a type of Japanese animated comic art, is visually very different from traditional American animation and comic art. Anime characters are generally drawn with certain proportions in order to emphasize certain body areas. Anime characters tend to have large eyes, a fantastic amount of hair, and unusually long legs. Characters drawn in the anime style can appear incredible and unusual. This may make it difficult to know exactly how to draw these characters. Achieving the right proportions can help your anime characters look authentic.
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Instructions
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Draw the head of your character. Choose whatever size head you like, but leave enough room on the paper for the hair and the rest of the body.
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Fill in the hair. Although you can choose whatever style of hair you like and still have it be correct in the anime style, most anime characters have full, flowing hair.
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3
Draw the eyes. The eyes themselves should be drawn in the middle of the face, between the top of the head and the chin. The eyes should be placed near the edges of the face, and spaced about one eye length apart. Anime eyes are usually overly large, with a pupil that takes up most of the space in the eye.
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4
Sketch the ears. Ears should be nearly in line with the eyes, but slightly smaller.
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Add the nose. Anime noses tend to be proportionally small, sometimes just a slight angle or even bump on the face. The nose should be centered halfway between the eyes and the chin.
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Center the mouth halfway between the nose and the chin.
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Decide how tall you want your character to be. Many anime characters look slightly stretched and have thin bodies. A good rule of thumb is to measure the length of your character's head, multiply it by seven, and use this as your character's height, including the head.
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Draw the neck. It should start just inside the angles of the jaw and be slightly elongated.
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Draw the shoulders, keeping in mind that shoulders should typically be about twice as wide as your character's head.
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Add the torso. The torso should start just after the shoulders and end at about the midpoint of your character. End the torso a bit higher if your character is a female.
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Draw the legs. Remember that the area from hip to knee and the area from knee to calf should be about the same length.
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Sketch the arms. Each arm should be long enough so that the character's fingertips come to the mid-thigh area. The area from the shoulder to the elbow should be as long as the area from the elbow to the wrist.
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Add hands and feet. These should be in proportion to the size of your character's arms and legs.
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Tips & Warnings
Although it's helpful to stick to traditional anime proportions, characters should be your own, so tweak the proportions until you're satisfied.
Changing facial proportions slightly can sometimes be helpful when giving your character a new expression.
References
- Photo Credit pencil image by AGphotographer from Fotolia.com
