How to Draw Anime Characters
Dateline: 02/20/00
We've gotten a good bit of mail lately about the topic of drawing anime,
so we thought that we should address this concern in our readers. As we
explored the web we discovered that information was organized into two
camps. The first group was concerned with the act or process of becoming
an animator. This included links to schools, serious animation magazines
and articles about being an animator. The other group of information concerns
specific techniques and tutorials on drawing characters in the 'anime'
style. These instructions ranged from highly detailed instructions for
those already familiar with character drawing to simple guides that anyone
could follow to produce a 'reasonable' picture. I'm going to cover each
of these areas one at a time, starting first with the serious information
about drawing for animation.
Drawing for Animation or Becoming an animator
If you are interested in learning how to draw for animation, the very
best online resource is Animation World Magazine.
This magazine covers all types of animation techniques, industry issues
and contains frequent interviews and articles about individuals in the
animation business. In addition, contains a lot of useful information for
the aspiring animator. A list of few of those in the lists below. Aside
from Animation World Magazine, there are a couple of very good Tutorials
and some interesting articles about being an animator.
Animation World Magazine Highlights
Student Corner - A special
section of the magazine site which contains special recommended articles
and resource information
Schools,
Schools and More Schools - A useful article providing guidance on choosing
the correct animation school to attend.
Suggested
Reading List - A list of suggested books for the aspiring animator
provided by AWM.
Drawing in the Anime Style or How to draw your favorite
Anime Characters
A big part of Anime Fandom are the Fan Artists. These fans believe
that imitation is the best form of flattery and they love to flatter their
favorite artists. Learning to draw existing characters is just the first
step and many go on to develop their own character designs. Many go on
to work in the industry. The tutorials below are for individuals who already
understand the basics of drawing figures and faces.
Anime Tutorials
-
The Artlair: Drawing
Lessons - Lessons, tips and techniques for drawing anime faces and
features. Good hints and a nice gallery of her work. Note: her tutorials
are not limited to Anime.
-
Baka Nekos How to draw
anime page - A collection of tutorials on how to draw anime figures
and faces, also including super deformed characters.
-
Rocket's How
to Draw Manga - Basic step by step instructions for drawing in
the japanese style. These are instructions for those who are already familiar
with figure drawing. Contains guides to creating generic figures as well
as specific information on creating Lum, Sasami and other anime characters.
-
How to Draw Anime-
A
tutorial on drawing anime from a fan artist. Very simple lessons on drawing
anime eyes, heads and bodies.
-
Julie's How to Draw
Anime - More Advanced guides to drawing anime characters by another
fan artist. Contains many guides to drawing specific characters from Dragonball
Z as well as other popular anime. Another very guide.
Just for Fun
-
PikaOhki's
Anime HQ: How to Draw Pokemon -All your favorite Pokemon
characters. Part of Japanese CD Note: these are very basic figures. Not
real anime images (not unless you are very good already).
More Anime Drawing Information
Finally, If you want even more guides to drawing specific anime characters
or if you would like to make your own guide available to other artists,
then I suggest that you check out the following rings
-
How to Draw Anime Web Ring.
It lists of lots more tutorials sites with information about the types
of tutorials and their quality.
-
Artist Support Ring -
A small but useful ring with many anime fan art sites. Many of these sites
contain tutorials.
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