How to Draw a Manga Face

 

Who among you has always wanted to learn to draw manga? Wow, not all at once! :D With the numerous volumes on library shelves and the multitude of series and games that have invaded our homes, in dynamic and original styles, few are those who don't feel an attraction to manga! There is a manga drawing course on our website for those who are interested!

Today, we're going to look at how to draw a manga face. Of course, there are lots and lots of variations, as many as there are manga styles!

So, we are going to tackle a fairly classic face, in a fairly simple style. Feel free to customize your drawing as you like afterwards :3

 

SKETCHING THE MANGA GIRL'S FACE

Let's start with the basic circle!

 

Add the cross of the eye line and the nose, a little lower than the middle.

 

We are going to start outlining the face. We will begin with the brow ridge, which will recess at the eye line.

  

 

Then the swelling of the cheek and the beginning of the chin, which will be slightly pointed.

 

Finish at the bottom of the jaw, trying to maintain a relatively round face shape.

 

Add the end of the jaw that runs towards the ear, which should be tilted quite a bit, always with the aim of following the round shape of the face.

 

 

 

Now that we have the base, we can place the important elements of the face to find their proportions and position them correctly before detailing everything.

Let's start with the eyes, placed on the eye line. A bit higher than they are wide, they should be spaced about an eye width apart (you should be able to place another eye of the same size between them). And since we are looking at a three-quarters view, the left eye will be a bit narrower (perspective, perspective!).

 

Now place the eyebrows, you can place them higher than me if you wish, but not lower ^^ Remember that the eyebrows should be a bit more forward compared to the eyes (the eyes are located in the hollow of the face if you prefer), so the eyebrows are located more forward. So we can shift them a bit to the left (in this specific case ^^).

 

For the nose, we'll go with something super simple: a small dot. See the line we drew to place our eyebrow at the level of the left eye? Continue it a little lower and you have the tip of the nose! The nose should remain relatively close to the eyes, so be careful not to go too low!

 

 

 

For the mouth, it's a simple straight line, relatively close to the nose as well. Depending on the manga styles, it can be even closer than what I did. Start it right below the nose then continue it to the right (from this angle). The mouth should remain small and subtle, like the nose.

 

 

ENHANCE THE FACE BY DETAILING THE EYES

And we've already placed the important elements of the face! :D So we can start adding details. I want to make a kind face, so we'll go for slightly droopy eyes. We'll start with the upper lash line that will descend on the outer corner of the eyes:

 

 

Place the irises, which should be large, oval, and looking towards us. Make sure the eyes are well aligned to avoid them looking crossed :3

 

 

The pupils should be in the center of the irises and don't forget the inevitable reflection! As this is not a tutorial on eyes, I will not go into any more detail, but feel free to customize the eyes as you like, of course! For more information on how to draw manga eyes, you can check out the article on our blog dedicated to it! ;)

 

 

Now let's add the eyelids.

 

DRAW THE NECK, SKULL, AND EARS OF THE MANGA CHARACTER

Let's now add the ears! These start at the level of the eye line and descend to the level of the mouth and are relatively round in shape.

 

 

And before we tackle the hair, we need to draw the skull. We'll draw a completely round shape.

 

The neck, which is relatively thin, should be located at the back of the skull (not too close to the chin).

  

 

You can find me on the Dessindigo Youtube channel if you want video explanations! ;)

 

DRAWING MANGA GIRL HAIR

At this stage, our face is ambiguous, it could be either male or female. But for the hair, I'm going to go with a lady. Feel free to draw a different hairstyle according to your wishes, of course! :D

Regardless, we need to place the point or the line from where our strands of hair will start:

From there, all that's left is to draw bangs. I want to start with a fringe. I want a somewhat wild fringe tht isn't cut neatly or straight.

 

 

Then, we will draw two small strands a bit like Card Captor Sakura, but longer, which always start from the same base point, of course.

 

 

And we will finish by the back of the skull. As always for hair, we do not stick it to the skull, but leave a margin to suggest volume. However, the hair will be slicked back if it is wet, tightly tied or cut short. There is an article on how to draw manga hair, if you would like more information on this topic! :D

 

Our sketch is done! All that's left is to clean everything up! There's no particular advice for this step. If you need to take some time to refine and rework some things, don't hesitate to do so, of course ^^ Anyway, be careful, some lines will disappear, especially the construction lines, but also everything that we can still see in transparency, etc. For example, our eyes will not be "closed." The strands of hair will not rise from the base point either.

Here's what it looks like in my case:

 

 

I took the opportunity to add a bit more detail to the eyes and to modify them slightly: I tilted them. This is optional; it simply better served the droopy eye shape I initially wanted. Be careful if you would like to make the same modification: I only tilted the iris (and therefore what is inside it, such as the pupil for example). I also modified the reflection at the top to make it larger and change its angle.

Again, this is optional ^^ I left the construction lines here so you can see what I've cleaned up or not and some small changes between the sketch and the final drawing. Notice that I didn't necessarily aim to strictly follow my sketch (for the hair, for example).

And here is the drawing once I erased the sketch:

 

 

 

 

 

Recap:

• Draw the general shapes of the face
• Add detail afterwards
• The face should remain mostly round

 

Get your pencils ready!

 

Illustrator and writer: Camille Rakjah