Heads and Faces
The face is far and away the most important aspect of manga drawing. If you’re great at drawing backgrounds and clothing but are getting the faces wrong, you’ll have a hard time getting your art accepted by manga fans.
Happily, drawing a manga face well is within the grasp of even the most inexperienced artist, provided you are willing to start with a few basic guidelines.
Female Front View
Some artists draw faces that are nearly photographic, others draw characters with eyes the size of dinner plates. In this lesson you’ll learn to draw a face structure somewhere between those two extremes: Recognizably “manga” in its approach, but not too over-the-top.
The emphasis is on getting the head shape right and placing the eyes, nose and mouth in their proper locations.
STEP 1 Draw Your Circle
Draw a rough circle divided by a vertical line and a horizontal line. The vertical line is to help you place the nose. The horizontal line will help place the eyebrows and eyes.
STEP 2 Mark the Feature Lines
Divide the lower half of the circle into four equal sections with three lines. The first line will be for the eyebrows. The second will be for the upper eyelashes of the eyes. The third will be for the irises.
STEP 3 Outline the Jaw
Add lines for the jaw. Focus on the angles of each line and the shape created between them and the circle. The distance between the bottom of the circle and the chin is about a quarter of the circle’s diameter.
STEP 4 Place the Features
The upper eyelash lines touch the edge of the circle on each side. Keep the width of one eye blank between the eyes. This blank space is as important as the eye shapes.
The nose rests on the bottom of the circle. Place it exactly in the center if you prefer. The mouth is midway between the circle and the tip of the jaw.
STEP 5 Draw the Ears and Eyes
The top of the ear is about as high as the middle of each eye. The bottom is not quite as far down as the line of the mouth.
The line above each eye indicate the fold of the upper eyelid. Many artists place these lines above the inside corners of each eye, not stretching all the way across as they do in real life.
STEP 6 Form the Hair and Neck
Add lines for the hair, neck and shoulders. The upper line of the hair is a fair distance above the circle, nearly a quarter of the entire diameter. Manga heads tend to be fairly top heavy this way, which contributes to the youthful look of the characters.
STEP 7 Fine-Tune
Indicate the shadow beneath her chin and add details to her hair. The hair lines curve following the shape of the head.
STEP 8 Finish the Drawing
Ink all the lines you want to keep and erase the rough guidelines once the ink dries completely. The finished drawing can be enhanced with gray tones or given the full color treatment.
Female Three-Quarter View
The most important way of drawing a manga face is not the front view but the three-quarter view. After all, in an actual manga story it’s uncommon to have a character speak straight to the reader. More often the character speaks to another character within the story and will be slightly turned to one side.
Fortunately it’s not that difficult and takes just a little practice to draw like a pro!
STEP 1 Draw Your Circle
Divide it with a horizontal line.
STEP 2 Mark the Feature Lines
Divide the lower half of the circle into four equal sections by adding three more lines.
STEP 3 Outline the Jaw
Add a gently curving vertical line that starts at the chin and heads a little off to one side. Focus on these lines and the shapes they make in relation to the circle. The line should stop at the brow line, second from the top.
STEP 4 Place the Features
Draw the eyes, eyebrows, nose, and mouth. All four of these facial features touch the curving line at various intersections. Be careful placing the left eye. The blank spaces surrounding it are as important as the eye itself.
Note that in the three-quarter view her right eyebrow is not directly above the eye, but a little off to one side.
STEP 5 Draw the Ears and Eyes
Create a highlight near the top and a curving shape at the bottom of each iris. Also add short curving lines just above the inside corner of each eye.
STEP 6 Form the Hair and Neck
Draw the neck so that it meets the intersection of the ear and cheek on one side, and the tip of the chin on the other.
Begin sketching out the hair.
STEP 7 Fine-Tune
Add shape to the hair with additional lines. An extra stray hair or two at the top of her pigtails can add a natural look. Indicating a shadow beneath the chin helps the picture look three-dimensional.
STEP 8 Finish It
We’re nearly done! Grab your pens and ink all the final lines. Let it dry then erase the guidelines to leave a polished, professional finish.
Happy Hairstyling
Of course, there’s no need to make your character have the same hairstyle you see here. You can find more hairstyle ideas in 20 Female Hairstyles.
Male Front View
In the American and European style comic book tradition, male and female characters are drawn in dramatically different ways. Superman’s face is much more square-jawed than Lois Lane’s, and if you were to reverse the two facial structures the results would be bizarre indeed! This is not the case with the majority of manga characters, where the differences between male and female facial structures are often negligible. We are left to tell which is which mainly by the hair and just a hint of a difference in the eyes.
This is good news for aspiring manga artists. If you can draw female faces well, you’re just a few line adjustments away from drawing males. In fact, the first five steps are almost exactly the same!
STEP 1 Draw Your Circle
Divide with horizontal and vertical lines.
STEP 2 Mark the Feature Lines
Divide the lower half of the circle into four equal sections by adding three more lines.
STEP 3 Outline the Jaw
Focus on the angles of each line and the shape that is created between them and the circle. The distance between the bottom of the circle and the tip of the jaw is about a quarter of the circle’s diameter.
STEP 4 Place the Features
The upper eyelash lines touch the edge of the circle on each side. Keep a blank space the width of one eye between the eyes.
The nose rests on the bottom of the circle. Place it in the center if you prefer.
The mouth is midway between the circle and the tip of the jaw.
STEP 5 Draw the Ears and Eyes
The top of the ear starts at the middle of each eye. The bottom is just above the line of the mouth.
The lines over the eyelids indicate folds. Place these lines above the inside corner of each eye. The small circles in each iris are highlights and make the eyes look shiny.
STEP 6 Add the Hair and Neckline
Not all boys have short hair, but a comparatively short haircut makes your character readable as a male.
STEP 7 Fine-Tune
Manga artists often structure the hair as I have here with the strands on the forehead parting so they don’t obstruct the eyes. Add an indication of shadow beneath the chin and you’re ready to ink.
STEP 8 Finish It
The lines of the upper eyelashes are a little more thin than in the female version, a small but crucial detail because it is the only facial difference between the two.
Let the ink dry completely, then erase. Leave as is, shade or color!
Male Profile View
Drawing a realistic face in profile presents unique challenges that can trip up even the most experienced illustrators. A manga face in profile is considerably more streamlined and simplified, but nevertheless requires special effort to master. The distances between the various facial features must be learned, of course, but added to this is the challenge of drawing the contours of the forehead, nose and mouth.
STEP 1 Draw Your Circle
Divide the circle by vertical and horizontal lines. This time the vertical line is there to help you place the ear. The horizontal line will help you place the eyebrow.
STEP 2 Mark the Feature Lines
Divide the lower half of the circle into four equal sections by adding three more lines.
STEP 3 Outline the Jaw
Begin with a line that curves off from the circle between the 2nd and 3rd lines. The angle as it reaches the tip of the nose is just a touch higher than the bottom horizontal line. From there draw a line down to the chin with small bumps for the lips midway down.
Finally, add the curving line of the jaw, making it point back toward the bottom of the vertical line, without quite touching it.
STEP 4 Place the Features
Add the eye, eyebrow, ear and mouth. The eye rests between the 2nd and 3rd horizontal line’s, and is close to the edge of the circle, but doesn’t touch it.
The ear sits between the 2nd and 4th horizontal lines and is flat against the vertical line. The mouth is close to the midway point between the nose and chin.
STEP 5 Add Details
Join the neck to the head a touch to the left of the ear on the back of the neck. The line of the throat starts halfway between the tip of chin and the bottom of the vertical line.
Add pupils to the eyes and curves to the inside of the ear.
STEP 6 Add the Hair
Sketch in a rough hairstyle with a few lines.
STEP 7 Fine-Tune
Add individual strands of hair and a shadow beneath the chin.
STEP 8 Finish It
Carefully ink the drawing, taking care not to ink any of the rough guidelines. Let it dry, then erase the pencil lines.
The finished drawing can be left as is, enhanced with gray tones or given the full color treatment.
20 Female Hairstyles
Knowing how to draw hairstyles is absolutely crucial in manga. With facial features and sometimes even school uniforms rendering characters all but indistinguishable from one another, the hairstyle may be the reader’s only means of telling one kid from another. These pages show twenty ways to draw manga hair for female characters.
Short Hair
A short haircut is often used to convey innocence and a childlike nature.
Long Hair
A long, straight haircut can make a character appear more worldly.
Curly Hair
Manga artists tend to avoid the impression of frizzy hair and render curls in the form of waves or ringlets.
Pulled-Back Hair
Drawing hair into a ponytail or pigtails can be a quick way of differentiating one female from another in your story.
Spiky Hair
Manga artists tend to save seriously spiky hair for the boys, but can give a female character a bit of artistic flair.
20 Male Hairstyles
Male hairstyles are somewhat more limited in variety than for females’. Still, creative artists find ways of coiffing manga guys in distinctive ways that make them instantly recognizable.
Long Hair
Drawing a male character with long hair creates a special challenge. To distinguish your long-haired guy from your female characters, give him a thicker neck and angular facial features.
The Pompadour
This unusual hairstyle is generally reserved for bad boys, but who says you can’t have the bad boy with the heart of gold?
Ponytail
Female ponytails tend to be more fluffy and full-bodied, while his is a bit more minimalist.
Windblown
Manga characters tend to get caught in convenient “gusts of wind” when artists feel like calling attention to their hair. Why not play it up? Manga is all about creating a certain mood.
Adult Front View
Manga stories tend to be dominated by youthful characters in high school or fantasy characters who are vaguely teen-aged. Still, that doesn’t mean you’ll never need to draw an older character.
Manga artists tend to regard the older characters as inhabiting a different world in terms of the way they are drawn. They often bear little resemblance to the kids at the heart of the story. Not only is the facial structure quite different, but there are all those wrinkles to contend with.
But never fear: given the right guidelines, drawing an older character need be no more difficult than drawing the young protagonists.
STEP 1 Draw Your Circle
Divide the circle by a vertical and horizontal line.
STEP 2 Mark the Feature Lines
Divide the lower half of the circle into four equal sections by adding three more lines.
STEP 3 Outline the Cheeks and Jaw
The shape is considerably more complicated than that of the youthful face, so extra attention must be paid to get the lines right. Note the distance of the tip of the chin from the bottom of the circle: It’s roughly equal to a third of the diameter of the entire circle.
STEP 4 Place the Features
Note that the eyebrows and eyes are a full line higher on the face than in younger characters.
Probably the biggest difference between young and old manga characters is the depiction of the nose. It is much more fully rendered for older characters.
STEP 5 Add Details
Time to add ears, eye details and wrinkles. Note that simple crow’s-feet and a single line beneath each eye are enough to convey the age of the character.
Lines on either side of the mouth also add age.
STEP 6 Form the Hair and Neck
Sketch the neck lines in and add the basic lines of the hair. A larger forehead is typical. The hairstyles of older characters are generally less flashy than those of younger characters.
STEP 7 Fine-Tune
Add a shadow beneath the chin and more lines to define the hair. An elderly character will also have a line or two delineating the wrinkles of the neck.
STEP 8 Finish It
Ink the lines and let it dry, then erase the guidelines. You can keep it black and white, add some gray tones or color..
Less Is More
Adding lines to the sides of a character’s mouth ages them. Be careful with details for any character you want to look youthful.
Adult Three-Quarter View
Just because you’re drawing an older character doesn’t mean they have to look like they’re ready for the retirement home. Sometimes you want to draw someone who simply looks slightly older than your teenaged protagonist.
With these characters you can’t rely on wrinkles and gray hair to show their age, so it’s going to be more about the facial structure. Most manga artists opt to depict grown-up characters with faces that are considerably closer to real human anatomy. This means that starting out with proper guidelines is more important than ever.
STEP 1 Draw Your Circle
Divide the circle by vertical and horizontal lines.
STEP 2 Mark the Feature Lines
Divide the lower half of the circle into four equal sections by adding three more lines.
STEP 3 Outline the Jaw and Ear
The upper cheek begins where the second horizontal line intersects the circle. Observe the unusual white shape created between the edge of the circle and the lines of the jaw.
STEP 4 Place the Features
Add the eyebrows, eyes, nose and mouth. The iris of the eye on the left touches the vertical line. Use that to place the left eyebrow.
The tip of the nose falls between the third and fourth horizontal lines on the edge of the circle.
Place the mouth a little less than halfway between the chin and nose, just outside the edge of the circle.
STEP 5 Add Details
One line below each eye suggests maturity without making him look grandfatherly.
Add lines defining the cheek bones and the curves of the ears.
A line below the mouth defines the lips while one on the side adds maturity.
STEP 6 Form the Hair and Neck
The lines of the hair curve up and back to follow the surface of the head. A single line on the neck is not only anatomically accurate but also adds a few years to the character.
STEP 7 Fine-Tune
Add a few more lines to the hair and a shadow beneath the chin. I’ve made my character clean shaven, but many manga artists give fatherly characters a mustache or beard to separate them from the youthful protagonists.
STEP 8 Finish It
Ink the lines and let it dry, then erase the guidelines. You can keep it black and white, or add some gray tones or color.
Find a bonus demonstration of an older character’s profile online at impact-books.com/mastering-manga.
Fuller-Figured Character Front View
Just as older characters rarely get the limelight, fuller-figured characters are generally sidelined or left out. But this doesn’t mean you’ll never want to include such characters in your stories.
Cartoonists have long rendered fuller-figured characters in an exaggerated, humorous way, but that is not what I’m interested in. I’d like to present a respectful way of depicting fuller-figured characters, allowing them to be among the main characters of a story rather than forcing them into the background as comic relief.
STEP 1 Draw Your Circle
Divide the circle by vertical and horizontal lines.
STEP 2 Mark the Feature Lines
Divide the lower half of the circle into four equal sections by adding three more lines.
STEP 3 Outline the Jaw
This is the main difference between the standard manga face and a fuller face. Instead of a point, the chin curves at the bottom.
STEP 4 Place the Features
Add the eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth. The locations of all these facial features are more or less identical to their locations on the standard manga face.
STEP 5 Add Details
Add the ears, details to the eyes and a double chin line near the bottom. Not all fuller-figured people have double chins, but it can be a good way to define your character.
STEP 6 Form the Hair and Neck
The neck is considerably wider than that of the standard manga character.
STEP 7 Fine-Tune
Add an indication of shadow beneath the chin and more details to the hair.
STEP 8 Finish It
Ink the lines, let it dry, then erase guidelines. You can keep it black and white, and add some gray tones or color.
Fuller-Figured Character ¾ View
The three-quarter view is the one we see in manga again and again. There’s just something more natural and appealing about this point of view.
In essence it is only the shape of the jaw, not the facial features, that changes in comparison to the earlier three-quarter view lesson. It’s a tricky line to draw, though. At what point does the double chin become comical and overdone? I advise approaching it with subtlety.
STEP 1 Draw Your Circle
Divide the circle by a horizontal line.
STEP 2 Mark the Feature Lines
Divide the lower half of the circle into four equal sections by adding three more lines.
STEP 3 Outline the Jaw
Like the front view, this chin curves. Draw a second curving line from the chin up to the second of the four horizontal lines. Take care to maintain the distance between this line and the outside line.
STEP 4 Place the Features
Add the eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth. The locations of all these facial features are more or less identical to their locations on the standard manga face, but the distance between the mouth and the chin line is markedly different.
STEP 5 Add Details
Add the ears and details to the eyes. The highlights will make the eyes shiny. The little dash above each eye denotes the folding of the eyelid.
STEP 6 Form the Hair and Neck
The line of the neck begins at the base of the ear, and there is also a short line here suggesting the edge of the cheek. This hairstyle is, of course, up to you..
STEP 7 Fine-Tune
Add an indication of shadow beneath the chin and more details to the hair.
STEP 8 Finish It
Ink the lines and let it dry, then erase the guidelines. You can keep it black and white, and add some gray tones or color.
Child Front View
Youthful manga characters intended to be teens (or even adults) are often drawn with oversized eyes that make them reminiscent of children. So what do you do when the character you’re drawing is supposed to be a real child?
Relax. The main thing is to push things a little further than you do with your teen characters in terms of the eyes, cheeks and hair. As always, guidelines will give you your best chance of drawing the character consistently from one panel to the next.
STEP 1 Draw Your Circle
Divide the circle by vertical and horizontal lines.
STEP 2 Mark the Feature Lines
Divide the lower half of the circle into three sections by adding two additional horizontal lines. The first of these two lines will be for placing the eyebrows. The second will be for the upper eyelashes.
STEP 3 Outline the Jaw
This is one of the big differences between the standard teen face and a child’s face. The jaw still comes to a point, but the cheeks are squared off to create that baby-faced look. Replicate the angles on each side, connecting the jawline to the skull at the middle line.
STEP 4 Place the Features
Add the eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth. The key difference here is the space occupied by the eyes. This tyke’s eyes are nearly twice as big. The mouth is halfway between the circle and the tip of the chin.
STEP 5 Add Details
Draw the ears and fill in the eyes. All of this is much the same as you’d do with a teen character, though you could experiment with making the ears a bit larger if you want to add to the cuteness of the character.
STEP 6 Form the Hair and Neck
This bowl cut is a bit on the cartoonish side. The reader will see this character as a child from a mile away, but you can give him a more natural ‘do if you’re so inclined.
STEP 7 Fine-Tune
Speaking of cartoonish, I decided to add a couple of stray hairs popping off the top of the head. Again, ignore this part if you think it’s ridiculous. (It is.) Add a little shadow beneath the chin.
STEP 8 Finish It
Ink the lines and let it dry, then erase the guidelines. You can keep it black and white, or add some gray tones or color.
(Admit it: those stray hairs make the drawing!)
Child Profile View
Drawing characters in profile can be tricky regardless of what kind of characters they are. Still, you’ll need to draw all your characters in profile at one point or another, and the child’s facial proportions make profiles a new challenge from their older siblings.
How do we get it right? How else? Guidelines!
STEP 1 Draw Your Circle
Divide the circle by vertical and horizontal lines.
STEP 2 Mark the Feature Lines
Divide the lower half of the circle into four sections by adding three additional horizontal lines. The first line is for placing the eyebrows. The second is for the upper eyelashes of the eyes.
STEP 3 Outline the Jaw
Draw a line that gently curves off from the circle near the second of the four lines. It comes to a point at the nose—the same level as the bottom horizontal line. From there bring the line down at an angle. This line is equal to the space between the first and last horizontal lines. From the point of the chin the line curves back toward the bottom of the vertical line. Keep it mostly horizontal, curving up only at the tail end. Don’t let it touch the circle.
STEP 4 Place the Features
Add the eyebrow, eye, mouth and ear. The eyebrow starts roughly above the chin; don’t let it touch the circle. The mouth is halfway between the tip of the nose and chin. The ear connects at the vertical line; the top hits the second horizontal and curves just below the bottom line.
STEP 5 Add Details and Neck
Fill in the pupil and highlight to the eyes. Add curves to the ear.
Draw the lines of the neck and shoulders. The front of the neck begins about two-thirds of the way along the line of the jaw. The back begins about halfway between the vertical line and the back of her head.
STEP 6 Form the Hair
It may be cliché, but pigtails are a great way to identify a female child. Of course, your teen character might want to adopt a girlish look, but placing the pigtails high on the head and making her jaw and eyes youthful will keep her little sister looking like the baby of the family.
STEP 7 Fine-Tune
Add more details to the hair—a stray hair popping off the forehead if you are so inclined (you know me, I can’t resist drawing stray hairs).
STEP 8 Finish It
Ink the lines and let it dry, then erase the guidelines. You can keep it black and white and add some gray tones or color.
101 Manga Eyes
Nothing says manga like the big, shiny eyes that the style has come to be known for. But every artist comes at it a different way. Find the styles you like, then adapt them for your own characters.
Semirealistic Reminiscent of real human anatomy, but still recognizable as manga eyes.
Cartoony Typical of kids’ manga, this style is fun and never takes itself too seriously.
Highlights
Most manga eyes include at least one highlight to create a shiny effect. It can be at the top of each iris, at the bottom or both.
Big Eyes A mainstay of shojo romance, these eyes get so big they become a landscape unto themselves.
Hyper-Realistic Though rare, some manga artists do go for realism.
No Pupils Manga artists sometimes leave out the pupils to create an unusual, glassy effect.
Single Highlight The “less is more” approach can be powerful. A single white dot is all these eyes need to achieve their haunting effect.
Tiny Irises Sometimes artists shrink the irises down dramatically. The effect can be menacing or shifty looking.
12 Common Manga Facial Expressions
Japanese artists have found a way of conveying emotions that is fresh, original and instantly readable to people all over the world. Here are twelve facial expressions manga artists use most.
Cheerful
The default manga facial expression. The smile is subtle with a small, gentle curve. The bottoms of the eyes are often somewhat flattened, suggesting the cheeks rising to cover the eyes just a touch as the character smiles.
Ecstatic Joy
Pull this one out when simple happiness just won’t cut it. The “squeezed shut” eyes are a classic form of manga shorthand for conveying big time happiness. The bottom of the mouth may be left unrendered as a stylistic quirk.
Confusion
This look of quiet befuddlement is conveyed mainly by the eyebrows. One is angled down as if slightly angry, the other raised as if surprised.
Concern
This is a great all-purpose expression to use whenever a character is serious or making an argument. The eyebrows are slightly curved, with just a hint of furrowing to the brow.
Sadness or Regret
The expression is in the eyebrows. They follow a crooked path as they curve toward the center of the forehead. The heavy eyelids and the tiny frown add to the sense of melancholy.
Boredom
Flatten the upper eyelashes and tuck the irises at least halfway underneath. The eyebrows float above the eyes at a very neutral angle, and the mouth is small and closed.
Determination
A common emotional state in any action oriented manga. Make sure you get the angle and proximity of the eyebrows to the upper eyelashes right. The clenched teeth and the break in the line surrounding the mouth are common in manga faces.
Anger
Similar to the look of determination, but with extra crooks on the ends of the eyebrows. The wide-open mouth, the bared teeth, everything comes together to convey her rage.
Distress
A manga staple, this look comes out at moments of crisis. The eyebrows curve upward and at least one of them ends in a zigzag, signifying a furrowed brow. The irises don’t quite touch the upper eyelids, adding to the sense of heightened emotion.
Surprise
This look is seen again and again in love stories as the character discovers new information. Note the small irises, and how they float within the whiteness of the eyes. The open, gasping mouth also adds to the effect.
Embarrassment
A great one for comedic moments: the character is caught in an awkward position and must talk her way out of it. Combine the apologetic upturned eyebrows with a big smile. Add blush, wide-open eyes, and you’ve got someone going very red in the face.
Sadness
Make the irises large and tuck them well beneath the upper eyelids. Don’t overdo the streaming tear. One or two are plenty. The shape of the mouth suggests a quivering lower lip.