So, you’ve got the drawing down. You’re able to draw certain anime characters and now you plan on making one yourself. But, maybe you’re a bit struggling with where to begin. Don’t worry, we’ll help you in that department. Today, we’re going to talk about the important steps in drawing your own character.
Table of Contents
Making an original character is fulfilling because you’d be able to create something unique to you. Inspiration is always found from any anime or manga and it gets the creative juices flowing. But, before you begin drawing your character I think it’s best to start with these important steps so you can make your own anime or manga character or maybe even a chibi version.
Oh, and well before you actually start, don’t forget to be kind to yourself all throughout the process. It’s okay to get artist’s block at first, try to get into the mood and slowly piece together your ideas. If it would help, watching anime or maybe reading some manga could help jumpstart those creative juices!
STEPS TO DRAW YOUR OWN MANGA OR ANIME CHARACTER
1. Character Conceptualization
We start by brainstorming the character in our heads. So, grab a piece of paper, pop up a notepad on your phone or PC, and start writing some concepts or ideas about your character. It’s a good idea to picture what your character will look like, where they come from, what type of being they are, and what kind of personality they have. Think about your favorite anime or manga characters and study how detailed their information is.
Although you don’t have to plan out the rest of their lives right now—you get the point right? Just start with the basics like a short description of the character or you can start with the description of your story–then build the character. And if you’re still struggling with the conceptualization, you can try out character randomizer apps or art websites or even websites that help build characters to help you. For some inspiration, you can take a look at mine for example:
This is the initial concept I had for my character and the comic I made with my cousin. I know, it feels a bit cringey… I had this planned when I was 12 years old so you can see how much it leaned towards magical girls. I was inspired by Lyrical Nanoha, Mermaid Melody, and Magic Knight Rayearth.
I started with simple details and fleshed out the story a bit in the description. This is how I pictured her in my head, the typical school girl with pigtails, and then she transforms into a magical girl who manipulates and creates wind.
Today, I recently picked up this character again and decided to upgrade her and her story a little bit—well at least make it modern.
So, after conceptualizing your character and writing down the important details about that character, we can proceed to bring that image to life by drawing it.
2. Drawing The Character
If you’re still unsure about what your character would look like, you can pull up references and try to get inspiration from there—I usually go to Pinterest to look for my references. This is important so you would be able to get acquainted with drawing specific features of your character.
Once you’ve had a face in mind, you can start drawing your character’s head. We start here so you would be able to stress out on this portion first before we get to other details.
Once you’re happy with how your character looks, you can try drawing other facial expressions so you would be able to see what your character’s face would look like. Knowing what your character would look like with certain emotions can help you draw the features more efficiently if you’re starting your own manga. You can also use this part as practicing your skills in drawing different features and emotions.
Now, once you’re satisfied with drawing your character’s head we can proceed to draw the body of your character or the entirety of your character. You can pull up references again to try either dynamic or simple poses. Try to keep things simple for you, simple in the sense that you won’t get tired of drawing or animating your character.
Oh! If you recall in the How to Draw Chibi Anime Character tutorial (or if you haven’t seen it you can check it out after this), we mentioned throwing away the idea of physics and anatomy… well, now you’re gonna have to pick those up and apply them when drawing your character. Common sense is basically what we’re after when thinking up your character and what follows it.
Female vs. Male Characters
So, to reiterate common sense… there is a slight difference between drawing female and male characters. There are also different body types of these characters that make the distinction prominent. 
Female characters, when drawn, have more curved jawlines—basically not as sharp compared to male characters. However, there are other artists who like to play with the boundaries of gender and create characters that essentially look feminine and masculine at the same time.
But for us beginners, female characters there are aspects that allow us to instantly get that this character is female.
- Female characters usually have longer hair than male characters
- Seeing these characters wearing their school uniforms (probably the sailor fuku ones) where pleated skirts can be often seen.
- Female characters tend to have more exaggerated features with eyelashes, lips, and sometimes with blushing.
For male characters, of course they definitely have aspects that we can easily identify as well.
- Their features are less exaggerated in terms of eyelashes
- Their eyes are more square rather than oval-shaped
- Essentially their bodies have straighter torsos, wider shoulders, and are a bit blockier.
3. Designing Your Character
Now that we’ve got the general idea of your character, we can start designing their clothes, accessories, and some other details that accentuate the personality of your character. You can start sourcing some references to piece together like clothing items, poses, or even weapons.
Now, it’s important to draw or replicate your character from all angles so you’d be able to map out how your character looks. You can refer to the guide below or again, pull up some references.
Tip: You can also add more angles to practice your drawing skills.
What we’re doing in this step is somewhat like a character design sheet where you draw your character from different perspectives and have full body illustrations. Having the character design sheet can definitely help you decide what kind of art style would work for you, what kind of character you’re making, and essentially if it fits what kind of image you’ve had in mind.
Coloring and Shading
When it comes to coloring, I, myself, am still new at it so my only piece of advice is to try and experiment with which colors would appeal to you first. Try to get a feel of those colors, and see if they match what you’ve been visioning… or chances are you’re probably better at coloring than me so…
For coloring your character, it’s important to know that there are certain colors that go well with each other and there are some that clash. Aside from that, colors are good indicators of what kind of character you’re making.
For example, the colors I used for the piece below lean more on the soft pastel shades because I just drew an ordinary anime school boy. If you were drawing a character who wields certain magic, then you’d probably choose colors that help highlight those abilities.
Tip: If you’re still worried about learning color theory and whatnot, I think it helps to just go crazy and let the reins loose a little bit. Since you are still practicing. Also, there are a bunch of other artists out there who are struggling in certain aspects. What helps you grow and learn the most is by having fun and continuing to explore your talents.
Conclusion
I guess that’s it! Did you have fun with this tutorial? I really hope you did, so remember that everything is a process so just continue to be kind to yourself. You can always go back to the other steps and try to create more characters or refine the one you made now. You can always take it a step further if you feel like it and soon enough, you’ll probably make your own manga!
Got some tips you might want to share? Leave a comment down below and we can talk about art and anime!
The article is very well written with useful information.