How to Draw a Beautiful Anime Girl Step by Step
This in depth tutorial explains how to draw a beautiful anime girl in 15 steps. In particular it looks at drawing the face of such a character from the front view.
As the title states, the focus of this tutorial is on drawing a beautiful female anime character. In anime and manga these often have roles such as the “pretty girl” at school and may not necessarily be the protagonist. However, drawing an anime girl to look beautiful is actually a bit of a challenge as most of them are drawn to be fairly cute by default. To help this tutorial provides a thorough guide on how to draw and position the head and facial features for a “pretty girl” character archetype with a bit of a “classy” appearance.
Please note that if you’ve seen other similar tutorials here on AnimeOutline there may be some overlapping information. However, this particular character does have slightly different proportions so be sure to read the guide carefully.
Also, please note that while the proportions in this tutorial can help achieve a “beautiful girl” look, this is just one example and there are many more ways to draw such a character.
Overall the tutorial combines good drawing practices that can apply to art in general with tips on getting a particular anime/manga style look.
Step 1 – Draw the Center Guide Line & The Top of the Girl’s Head
Star by making a vertical line through the middle of your drawing area. In this case it should be tall enough to accommodate the height of the head, neck, and the upper part of the shoulders.
The purpose of this line is to act as a guide that helps insure that both sides of the head/neck/shoulders are of relatively even width. Later on it can also help with spacing and positioning the facial features.
At the top of the guide line draw a circle for the top of the head.
Step 2 – Draw the Bottom of the Head
From the lower half of the circle project two lines that are angled towards the center line. These should then transition into curves followed by yet another pair lines angled even more towards the center. Join the two sides of the face at the bottom with the curve of the chin.
Because the girl is drawn in an anime style and because the intention is to make her look beautiful you want the lower part of the head to be fairly small. This will create a rounder face and rounder faces tend to look cute. Also, be sure to make the curve of the chin quite small as well. This is an important little detail. At the same time you don’t want to make it so small at to look sharp as this will have the opposite effect. Drawing the girl with smooth curvy lines will help give her a more feminine appearance.
Step 3 – Draw the Neck/Shoulders
Make the neck fairly thin in relation to the head and fairly long. It should eventually transitioning into the shoulder muscles which should then transition into the shoulders.
A slender and long neck will help emphasize a beautiful character.
As this tutorial mainly focuses on the face it won’t go into too much detail on drawing these parts of the body. For more information on drawing anime necks and shoulders you can see:
How to Draw Anime Neck & Shoulders
Step 4 – Position the Eyes Vertically
To position the eyes draw a straight horizontal line through the middle of the head. You will want to place the eyes slightly below this halfway point. Drawing the eyes low down on the head will create a large forehead which can look cute and thus help contribute to creating a beautiful overall looking character. However, read the next step before you actually add them.
Step 5 – Space the Eyes Horizontally & Draw Their Basic Outlines
When spacing the eyes you will want to leave roughly the distance of one more eye in between them. At this stage simply outline their main shapes without drawing any of the smaller details (save those for later).
Make the the eyes fairly narrow with thick upper eyelashes. The thick eyelashes are generally associated with a beautiful look and will help achieve the goal of this tutorial.
For tips on good drawing practices and explanations as to why you want to draw a certain way see:
Beginner Guide to Drawing Anime & Manga
Step 6 – Position & Draw the Eyebrows
Fairly high up above the eyes draw the eyelashes with thicker and slightly raised inner ends. This will help give the character a slightly “innocent” look. Again, adding to her cuteness.
For more examples of various types of anime/manga eyebrows see:
How to Draw Anime & Manga Eyebrows
Step 7 – Position & Draw the Nose
Place the nose slightly above the halfway point between the horizontal middle of the head and the bottom of the chin. Draw it’s outline as a tiny oval but make the side closer to the center of the face slightly flatter.
Step 8 – Position & Draw the Mouth
Place the mouth where it’s bottom lip (not actually drawn) would be about halfway between the bottom of the nose and the bottom of the chin.
Make the mouth fairly small with a very slight downwards curve. It’s very important not to draw too much of a curve though or the girl can end up with an unhappy looking expression.
Drawing the mouth in such a way will give a bit of “condescending” expression. However, this is offset by the “innocent” look created by the eyebrows. The end result is an expression that is cute but has just a slight hint of arrogance. Such a look can be very fitting for a beautiful girl of upper class.
For drawing a cute girl with a different expression and appearance see:
How to Draw a Cute Girl’s Face in 12 Steps
Step 9 – Position & Draw the Ears
Position the ears with their tops slightly below the top of the eyes and their bottoms slightly below the bottom of the nose. For this particular character the ears will be drawn slightly smaller and lower down than is recommended in some other guides here on AnimeOutline.
For the other placement example as well as more information on drawing ears see:
How to Draw Anime and Manga Ears
In this case the ears will be mostly covered by the hair so there is no need for drawing their inner details.
Step 10 – Draw the Sides of the Hair
After placing all of the facial features you can move on to drawing the hair.
To emphasize that the character is beautiful (takes care of herself) She will have a fairly neat hairstyle.
When drawing the hair you can think of it as being split into the sides, front and back/top sections. For a more detailed explanation of this as well as examples of other hair styles see:
How to Draw Anime and Manga Hair – Female
Begin by drawing the “sides” part of the hair. In this case it will be two fairly long sections that begin from around the top of the head and end with a pair of splits below the shoulders.
Make these slightly curved as though they are hugging the head/face and also make each one slightly wider near the bottom.
Step 11 – Draw the Front of the Hair
Draw the front portion of the hair (along the forehead) split down the middle and tucked under the sides.
Step 12 – Draw the Top & Bottom of the Hair
Add the last section of the hair starting with a split at the top of the head and running all the way down to the shoulders (eventually going behind them). Draw it’s outline slightly farther away form the head as it goes up from the split and then gradually closer to it around the upper sides. The outline should then again get farther away as it goes down to the ears. Going past the ears the outline should curve very slightly inwards towards and then away form it near the shoulders.
After you added this last section erase the parts of the head/and ears that are covered by the hair.
In case you are wondering why you needed to fully draw out the head and ears and not just start with the hair there are several reasons for this. One is that seeing the exact size of the head makes it easier to place the facial features (as was shown in the previous steps). Another is that by drawing out the shape of the head you can easily see how much volume you are giving to the hair (this last section in particular).
For a list of common drawing mistakes and ways to avoid them see:
Common Mistakes When Drawing Anime & Manga
Step 13 – Add the Small Details
After you finish drawing the outlines of the hair and placing all of the facial features add the smaller details.
These are:
- Collar bones
- Details of the face
- Hair folds
- Mole/Beauty Mark
Draw the Collar Bones
Going up from below the neck draw the collar bones. These should be partially hidden by the side sections of the hair.
Draw the Details of the Eyes & Darken the Facial Features
You can see a basic step by step drawing of the details of the eyes above. Continuing from their basic outline in step five first add the pupils and reflections. Next, add hints of the eyelids and some individual lashes. Fill in the eyelashes, pupils and upper ends of the irises with black or dark pencil shading.
If you want a black and white drawing you can make the lower parts of the irises grey. If you wish to color it than make the eyes blue later on.
For a detailed tutorial on drawing a different pair of female anime eyes see:
How to Draw Female Anime Eyes Tutorial
Fill in the eyebrows and nose with black or dark pencil shading similar to the dark parts of the eyes.
Draw the Hair Folds
Add some folds to the hair as shown in the example above. Draw a couple along it’s forehead section and several more along the area between the sides and the neck.
Draw the Beauty Mark/Mole
Finally, you can also add a little beauty mark/mole just slightly below one of the eyes (or other places). This will again help emphasize that the girl is beautiful as some famous models have had these. Simply draw the mole as a small dark/black dot.
Once you’ve added the mole you should have a beautiful anime girl drawing that you can color.
Step 14 – Color the Girl to Make Her Look More Beautiful
Before you begin coloring the character it’s important to note that if doing so on paper you may want to leave some white spots for the highlights in the hair (see next step). If coloring digitally it’s easier to add the highlights in at the end.
For the actual color selection you can go with many potential options. In this example the girl has fairly light blonde hair and complimentary colored blue eyes. In this case the skin is a very light pink/orange but again, you can go with a different tone if you prefer.
For an explanation of which colors go well together see:
Beginner Guide to Picking Colors When Drawing Anime & Manga
Fill in the hair, eyes and skin with the colors of your choosing and move to the next step.
Step 15 – Add the Shadows & Highlights to Finish the Drawing
For some very basic shading you can add shadows in the most common place. Generally you would get shadows like these when the light is coming from above (a very common setup in many scenes of anime and manga). Place them as follows:
- Tiny shadows around the eyelids
- Small shadows below the eyelashes (cast by the eyelashes)
- Very tiny shadow to one side of the nose
- Fully shaded ears
- Large shadow on the neck in the shape o the chin (cast by the head)
- Fully shaded inner part of the hair between the head/neck and the side hair
As mentioned earlier you can also add some hair highlights as sort of white zigzag lines across the hair. As already suggested you can either leave these white and then color around them or add them in over top of the color.
If going with the second option you can either use a white correction pen (if drawing on paper) or if drawing digitally add them in a new layer (depending on the software you use). Alternatively, you can leave the highlights out all together.
Conclusion – Creating a Beautiful Anime Girl Drawing Can be a Challenge
As mentioned at the start of the tutorial, female anime characters tend to be cute by default so it can be a challenge to draw one that is supposed to be beautiful. However, using the proportions and drawing the facial feature as described in this guide can help create such a character.
The large forehead adds to the “cuteness” while the big but slightly narrower (than common in anime) eyes give her a bit of a more mature face. The raised eyebrows create a slightly innocent appearance while the downwards curved mouth gives just a tiny bit of “condescending” look (not necessarily negative), sort of like a queen, princess or someone of the upper class.
For drawing a character that is supposed to be an actual princess see:
How to Draw a Princess in 12 Step (Anime or Manga)
For more on drawing different kinds of anime characters and creating various character archetypes see:
- How to Draw Anime Characters Tutorial
- How to Draw an Anime Elf Girl Step by Step
- How to Draw an Anime Girl in a Mask Step by Step