Tutorial - Tips for Drawing A Manga Face

Hi guys .

So I'm starting a new tutorial series where it's gonna be casual and more of a follow along type of thing where I allow you guys to learn through observing rather than me telling you exact steps that you need , you know , to follow .

So as I go through this , you can alter the steps to how you want them .

Um If you personally don't like how , you know , I do the drawing the methods , whatever , then feel free to change it as you would like .

So let's get started .

So here , I'm just sketching in a circle as you can see , it doesn't have to be perfect just like a general circle and we're gonna be drawing the phase from there .

So I normally don't really draw guidelines at all .

However , it does help me to draw certain one .

So I'll show you what I do .

So for this , you guys have probably guessed we're gonna go and make a line right down the middle and from here , we're just gonna kind of gauge where we want everything else to be .

So the sides of the circle as you may have guessed , um we're gonna start drawing the side of the face .

So I like to do it slightly tangent or actually it is tangent to the circle .

Um And tangent meaning , you know , the line just kind of touches a single spot in the circle , but it doesn't really matter .

Um Just have it kind of slanted inwards .

So the more narrow and long the face you want to be , you're gonna make the line more inward or more diagonal .

While if you want the face to be chunkier , you will make it more like a straight line .

So for example , I will just quickly see if you were to make both lines like this , then it's gonna turn out chunky .

So now as I do that , now I'm gonna go and make a quick , slightly curved line .

Um these lines probably shouldn't be straight anyway , um make them curved only slightly , not too much , very gentle curved .

Um I'll do that right at the bottom and how I kind of gauge my faces .

If I'm doing a little kid , then I'll have the cheeks be curving closer to this line .

If I want it to be an adult or a teen , I will have the curve kind of start a little bit below that line .

So you see this here , this is the cheek curve and I have it starting a little bit below that line and then I just go inward and I'll do this to the other side too .

Um You might notice that .

It looks very asymmetrical and it's fine .

You can always just change it as you go .

And by the way , I live in a college dorm so you will be hearing some noise in the background here and there , please excuse that .

But anyway , you will see that it might be a little bit um uneven , but that's fine .

You can always go back and change your lines .

So don't ever feel pressured that .

Oh You know , everything has to be perfect like right at the start like no , you can change it .

I do that all the time .

If I don't like something , I erase it and I change it .

So here we are .

And for males , you are going to make this round part a little bit wider .

So I'll just demonstrate that with something below here .

So you're gonna have something that looks a little bit more like this at the bottom of their face .

Um You don't want it to be too pointy or you're gonna have a Dorito Chin , which you're not gonna want .

So then now that we have that we have the basic head shape and sometimes the head might be a little bit long .

So what I'll do again , I fix it , I just make the circle a little bit shorter like that and it all works out y'all .

So now something that really does help me is to actually draw in the ears first and I usually do this at the lower third I would say of the head and I just do some quick little things like that .

It doesn't have to be the exact shape or whatever , but it does really help .

So then from there , I like to do a small line right on top like that .

So I'd say maybe like 123456789 , 10 11 .

I don't know , like you can make the line um anywhere in the circle .

So if you want the face to be more realistic , then you're gonna have the line go further up .

So you'd make the line like here if you want the face to have larger eyes and you'd keep it here or make it a little bit lower .

But I'd say here is like perfect for all types .

What really matters is the top line .

So the top line , if you want the eyes to be big , then you're gonna make it like up here .

I want it to be pretty moderate .

So I will maybe do a little bit below that .

So the taller or the higher up this line that you make , the bigger the eyes are gonna be .

So there you go .

And now we're gonna get into the eye .

So before I actually apply that to this drawing , I'm gonna show you what I use to kind of help me draw even looking eyes , which is the reason why I'm making this tutorial to begin with .

Um you know , when you're in class or something , I don't recommend that you doodle and not pay attention .

But if you want to , I would highly recommend just practicing your eyes .

So usually the space in between , if you guys have heard the whole , like I think it's five or I think five like five eyes width of the face .

Um Anime is a little bit more unrealistic .

So you don't have to follow that rule to A T so the space in the middle of both eyes should be about the size of 1.5 of the eye .

So let's say this is one , I , this is the space in the middle is gonna be maybe one or 1.5 depending on what you want .

And then from there , you can just practice this .

And if you want to practice with because this will only help with the length of the eyes .

You can draw lines like this to help you fit it in .

And I would draw the pupils first just to make it easier and then you can put the um the eyelashes or the lash line in after .

So let's apply that to this .

So here I just draw one and if I don't like the placement of it , then I'll just move it .

So I make sure that there is a decent amount of space maybe like half a pupil um kind of in between the area of the rest of the face and the pupil .

And then here , as you can see , there's this line here , this would be half a circle .

So the other half would be over there .

So I'll stick that here .

It doesn't have to be exact as you can see .

This might , this is more of a pupil and a half I'm doing here .

So just go with the flow and see how it goes and I'll see that .

Oh , over here there's more space that's fine too .

Um I can just either add some more lines and fill that in or I can just leave it as it is because it doesn't have to be perfect .

So then from there , I'm just gonna quickly do some quick eyes .

Um You , you don't have to follow how I'm doing the eyes , just use whatever style you want .

So yeah , that's how I do my eyes .

And then from there I do , I add like a little line up here for the eyelid crease and then for the nose , I usually put it a little bit below or at where this line is .

The line that's right at the bottom of the circle that we drew .

I'll just do a little indication there kind of like that and I'll move it either up and down depending on what I want .

If you want a more cutesy generic , um more familiar anime look , then I would make the nose further up near the eyes .

If you want it to be more realistic and have a longer nose bridge , then you're gonna have the nose below .

So as for the mouth , I prefer to do the mouth right where the curve really starts for the cheeks .

So for this , the curve kind of really shows up around this area .

So I'm just gonna draw in the mouth there .

So , um I kind of tried to make this character more androgynous .

So this could be a girly looking guy or it could be a girl or whatever you want to make it .

So you'll see here that if you move the mouth up more , then you'll have a different look and if you move it down more , you'll have also a different look .

So it just depends on your preference .

Um Anime is very flexible .

So do what you would like .

And yeah , that's pretty much it .

That's how I do a straight on face and that's how I make sure to keep everything pretty symmetrical and I'll just quickly do some um of the neck lines .

So I usually like to keep it about half of the whole head shape and I'll just send that in the middle .

So as you can see here , you don't want it to be too thin , you don't want it to be too thick .

So for guys , you'd make the neck more thicker , but for girls , you're gonna want it to be pretty , more narrow .

So this is kind of in the middle and yeah , so I hope that helps somewhat and I'll see you guys in the next video .

Feel free to put down some suggestions .

I can't guarantee that I'll do them .

But if it's a majority request , then I'll definitely look into it .

So thanks again for watching and I hope this helped and remember if you don't like a certain way that I do something um feel free to change it to your liking .

So , yeah .

Bye .