# How to draw manga: Step-by-step guide for learning to draw basic manga chibis

Sofia Kim

## Introduction

Have you ever drawn stylized mini versions (“chibis”) of your characters? Small and cute chibis are great for illustrations or for printing on keyrings and other accessories. In this tutorial, I’ll show you some tips for drawing chibi characters and preparing the image file for printing as keyrings or other items. A chibi is a form of stylized character drawing that originates in Japan. Chibi characters are usually between two and four heads tall.

They are often used on merchandise for popular anime series. With huge, distinct facial expressions, they are also useful when good at creating a fun or cute atmosphere.

In this tutorial, I will teach you how to draw chibi characters.

Once you know how to draw chibis, you may find it much easier to draw these cute characters compared to typically proportioned characters.

## How to draw chibis

### Big head / small body ratio

When drawing the chibi character, the head should be drawn larger. This drawing technique that contrasts with the height of the small body can highlight the cuteness of the character. Under normal circumstances, the length of the torso and legs are basically equal.


Under normal circumstances, the two head figures are divided into two equal parts, the length of the head and the body are basically equal; the figure of such a proportion is exaggerated, the head is big and small, very cute.


The character can be divided into three equal parts, the length of the torso and legs are basically the same, about the height of one head. Similarly, the figure's body is smaller than the head, which makes the figure look more lovely.

### Short limbs and simplified hands and feet


It can be seen from the example that chibis have short limbs.


The normal palm ignores the details, and the geometric outline becomes simple.


In addition to changes in body proportions, the contours of the characters and limbs of chibi have also changed. When drawing, some details are ignored on the basis of the standard scale character, and the shape of the limbs is geometricalized.


The picture above is a comparison of the normal foot deformed into the chibi's foot, which is almost the same as the hand deformed. Ignore the performance of details when drawing, and gradually draw the outer contour of the foot round and full. At the same time, we must maintain the smoothness of the lines.


When drawing the legs, it is also necessary to ignore some details on the basis of the standard proportional characters, to simplify the drawing of the legs.

The chibi’s legs of the character are very round and there is no obvious distinction between muscle contours and joints. Just outline the outer contour when drawing.


The detail performance of the chibi's legs has been weakened a lot, just a simple line performance, without too much detail.

## Chibi’s face drawing

### Round face


Draw a square first.


Cut the four corners of the square with a straight line.


Continue to cut the circle with a straight line.


Draw a circle to represent the head.


Determine the position and orientation of the facial features.


Draw the girl's face and head


Draw the appearance of the facial features on the auxiliary line.


8 . Use black, brown, light gray lead pen to draw the color of the girl's eyes.


9. Use a deep flesh pencil to draw your skin tone.


10. Use brown pencil to draw the color of the girl's hair.

### Sunflower face


First draw an ellipse, representing the head


Draw the face of the person based on the original figure.


Determine the position of the facial features.


Draw the facial features and face shape of the character.


Draw the girl's hairstyle.


Then draw the girl's neck and shoulders.


Use black and brown pencils to draw the colors of the eyes and pupils, and brown, ocher, orange, and yellow pencils to draw the gradient colors of the pupils.


Use a deep flesh-colored pencil to draw the skin color of the girl, and use light pink to draw the color of the cheek.


Then use orange pencil to draw the color of the hair.

### Square face


Draw a square shape first.


2. Draw an ellipse in the upper half of the square.


3. Draw the shape of the character's head on the original basis.


4. Use crosshairs to determine the position of human features


5. Draw the girl's facial features.


6. Draw the girl's hairstyle.


7. Draw the upper body of the girl.


8. Use black and ordinary blue lead pens to draw the colors of the eyes and pupils, and ordinary blue, dark blue, sky blue, and light blue pencils to draw the gradient colors of the eyes.


9. Use a deep flesh-colored lead pen to draw the skin color.


10. Use the sky blue pencil to draw the hair color.

### Eyes and eyebrows


Draw the position of the character's head and facial features first.


Draw the outline of the facial features on the basis of the crosshairs.


Draw the internal structure of the facial features.


Draw the highlights of the eyes and the position of the tongue in the mouth, and draw the face of the character.


Draw the girl's hair style and body.


Use brown pencils to draw the colors of the eyes and pupils, and dark green, olive green, grass green, and yellow-green pencils to draw the gradient color of the eyeballs.


Draw the skin tone in dark flesh.


Draw the shadow of the eye socket on the eyeball in light gray, and the mouth in pink and dark red.


Draw the color of the headdress in sky blue and grass green. Draw the hair color in dark gray.

### Girl's eyes


Draw the girl's head and shoulders.


Draw the outline of the facial features.


Further portray the facial features.


Draw the details of the facial features and the faces of the characters.


Draw the girl's hairstyle and hair accessories.