This tutorial will show you how to draw an anime boy. It also includes a breakdown of the body’s proportions and tips for creating an anime look.
This tutorial’s boys can range from 10 to 15 years old. Depending on the artist’s style, older characters in anime can still look young depending on their age. The more stylized characters look, the younger they will appear (Chibi).
Keep in mind that these proportions are only suggestions. They can change depending on your style and character.
You will be following along with pencils and paper. Make sure you draw light lines to start the drawing. Later, you’ll need to erase it.
Step 1 – Breakdown of the Anime Boy’s Body Proportions
You will want to make your character appear younger by drawing them slimmer than their older counterparts. Muscular characters will naturally look older.
The head is a great way to measure your body.
The heads of anime characters are larger than those of real people, especially younger ones. The boy will be six-and-a-half heads tall for this tutorial.
These are the other proportions:
The Body and Head Proportions
The height of your head and “above the knees” areas of your body is approximately half of your entire body.
Arm Proportions
The horizontal halfway point of your body will be the place where the hand attaches to the arm. Also, keep in mind that these joints are slightly lower if the arms are held straight up against the body.
The length of the area between the elbow and hand joint is approximately the same.
Leg Proportions
The length of the legs is approximately half that of the body.
The length of your legs from the bottom to below your knee is approximately the same length as the length between the bottom of your knee and the horizontal halfway point of your body.
Please note that the “front” leg in the side view is drawn wider due to perspective than its back leg.
You can find more information about perspective drawing at:
Tutorial for Beginning Artists and How It Relates To Anime
Step 2 – Drawing your body
Start at the top and work your way downwards.
Begin by drawing a light line around the body.
You can use this image to draw the head and hands.
- 8 Step Animation Boy’s Face Drawing Tutorial
- Step by step Drawing Manga and Anime Hands
Drawing the Front View
Drawing the body from the front view is not easy.
You can help by drawing a vertical line from the center of your body. This will allow you to ensure that both the body’s halves are equal in width.
Drawing the Side View
It can be more difficult to draw the side view than the front view.
The side view shows that different parts of the body curve slightly in different directions, as shown in the example above.
Drawing Different Views
You can project lines from one view to draw the body from different perspectives. This will ensure that the proportions of your body are approximately the same in both views.
After you have drawn the body’s shape, you can erase any construction lines.
Step 3 – Draw the Face
Before you draw the hair, make sure to draw your facial features (including the areas that will be covered).
This is why you should avoid making mistakes. You can see a detailed explanation of why you should draw this way:
Beginner Guide to Drawing Anime & Manga
You can see the detailed step-by-step guide for drawing an anime boy’s face again:
8 Step Animation Boy’s Face Drawing Tutorial
Step 4 – Draw the hair
This particular hairstyle is for those who have volume.
Draw the ends of your hair extending into clumps of different sizes and curves.
You can find more information about drawing hair here:
How To Draw Anime & Manga Male & Female Hair
Step 5 – Draw the Clothes
In this instance, we will draw the boy in a t-shirt and shorts with shoes.
The T-shirt drawing
The top of the tee shirt should be drawn so that it fits the shape of your shoulders. The sleeves should “fan out” towards their ends. The shirt will hang wider from the chest if it isn’t too tight.
The shirt should be drawn a little wider towards its bottom, as this area will have folds.
Drawing the shorts
Start by tracing the shorts from the bottom of your shirt, just touching your legs. Next, fan out slightly as you go down.
See:
How To Draw Manga Clothes
The Drawing of the Shoes
The shoes can be drawn roughly by drawing the shape of your feet, but you will need to allow for some distance so that the shoe’s thickness is not overlooked.
Step 6 – Draw the Details
Eye Details
Draw the details inside the eyes, such as the pupils or reflections.
It is also possible to draw a hint of the eyelids just above the eyes.
You can find detailed instructions on how to draw the eyes here:
- How To Draw Male Manga Eyes
- How To Draw Anime Eyes & Eye Expressions
Shirt Details & Folds
To show the folds, you can add a few lines to the bottom of your t-shirt.
As there are usually stitches at the ends of sleeves, you can draw thinner lines.
Shorts Details & Folds
You can fold the bottom of the shorts so that tension is created by the legs pulling in opposite directions.
For a little more detail, you can add two lines to the bottom.
Knees
In the front view, you can see just a hint at the knees.
Shoe Details
You can only draw the details of the shoe’s design.
Step 7 – Coloring
You can color the drawing by filling in the areas with the desired color. (Remember to leave white the reflections if you are coloring on paper). You can start with the largest areas, and then work your way down to smaller ones.
You can see the following:
A Beginner’s Guide to Picking Colors for Drawing Anime & Manga
You can find a step-by-step coloring tutorial here:
Step-by-step instructions on how to color an anime character
Step 8 – Finishing the Drawing and Shading
You can add shadows to the areas that are commonly shaded in anime-style shading. The light coming from the top will cast shadows downwards in most lighting situations. The shadows will fall on the neck, between the ears, and the shoulders of the shirt or shorts.
There will be shadows on the face as follows:
- The hair
- The eyelids
- The top of the eye (from the eyelashes).
- To the right of the nose
Conclusion
This tutorial provided a lot of information about drawing anime characters for young men. This tutorial is a great starting point for drawing these characters. To create a completely different character, you can experiment.
You can use this image to draw a slightly older man character.
Step by Step Instruction Drawing an Anime Guy Body
To draw a muscular male body, see:
Step by step Drawing the Anime Muscular Male Body
