How to Draw Anime Women

Starting with the head

With your lighter pencil, sketch a circle. Try not to skip this part as it may make the head look very strange and alien-like. You can use guide lines/stencils to help.

Draw a dot or a mark about a centimetre below the head where you want the chin to roughly be. You're going to connect the circle up to this dot, but don't rush ahead to this step just yet.

On the sides of the circle, draw two lines coming down. This will give the face a fuller look, rather than it just being completely round. If you examine your own face, your face only really starts rounding off at the chin. It would be rather weird if your own face only just passed the forehead and then rounded off!

Connect the lines to the dot where the chin will be. This is a woman's face, so the drawn lines should be soft. The chin shouldn't be too pointy; instead, round off the chin slightly. If you want, you can also add a soft indent about halfway up the face, for the eye socket.

Add guidelines and ears. You don't have to add guidelines, but it will make drawing in the face a lot easier. Simply draw one line down the center and then two lines through the middle of the face, leaving a gap between these two lines big enough to draw in the eyes. The nose will go just under these lines and the mouth beneath the nose. The ears should go on either side of the head, in between these lines. Don't draw in any detail on the ears yet; only draw a slight oval shape.

Drawing the neck and shoulders

After you've drawn in the head, you're going to want to draw in the neck. In anime women, the neck is usually slightly narrower then the head. For this step, draw two very slightly curved lines coming down off the head.

Draw the shoulders. For this step, draw two curved, slanted lines off either side of the bottom of the neck. Each of these shoulders should be about the width of the head. After you've done this, you can add in a collar bone if you wish, which is merely two lines slanting inwards into the body, where the shoulder and the neck meet.

Drawing the body

Once you've drawn the shoulders and neck, it's time to draw the torso. Leave about a centimetre down from the shoulders (enough room for the arms to start nicely at least) and draw two slightly curved lines coming in. This will be the top of the torso.

Draw the hips. For the hips, stop going down and gradually start going out. The hips should be wider on the woman than they would be on a drawing of a man, and the shoulders should be less broad as well. Draw in a mark for the groin so that you know where the legs are going to start.

Draw in the breasts. This step isn't too difficult––two curves slanting outwards from the chest will do. Don't draw them as circles, or keep them confined the body space you've drawn out, or have them going inwards. Instead, draw two arcs slightly jutting out of the body and curving into the chest.

Drawing the arms and legs

Note that the technique for drawing the arms and the legs is roughly similar for both.

Draw the thighs. For the thighs on the legs, begin to slant in until they aren't wide. Don't be afraid of how long or short the legs are; just try not to make them too long or short. You want them to in proportion to the body. Once they've slanted into a reasonable size, you can start on the calves. Never draw the legs or arms as noodles. If you look at your own arms and legs, there is a very distinctive shape to them, they aren't just straight.

Draw the calves. For the calves, start slanting outwards. Try not to make the points too sharp though. Once you've slanted out a little, come down in a nice curve for each leg and end in an ankle. Add a triangle for the foot.

Draw the arms, do roughly the same thing as outlined for the legs. You can add triangles for the hands for now, as well. If you want, you can draw two lines coming out of the thighs and slightly into the calves for knees.

Adding facial features

Draw in the eyes first. As stated above, the eyes go in between the two guidelines you added earlier, next to the ears. There are many different ways to draw female eyes, but in general they tend to be softer. For this tutorial, draw an arc. Draw an oval attached to the top of this arc and a line underneath for the bottom of the eye. Draw another oval inside of the previous one and a little circle in it for sparkle. Shade in the second oval and draw in a little line for the eyelid and lines for the eyebrows.

Draw the nose. This goes just below the eyes and doesn't need much detail. Merely draw a little curve or tick and add a dot for the nostril if you wish.

Draw the mouth. This is just a line with a little line curving in or out beneath it, to add depth.