How to Draw Anime Tongue Out Face Step by Step

This tutorial shows how to draw an anime character sticking out their tongue with four different facial expressions.

Often these types of expressions are seen in less serious anime such as comedy/slice of life shows. These shows can also have slightly more stylized (less serious looking) character designs.

The girl in the examples will also be drawn in a more stylized way then some other examples here on AnimeOutline. This means a few of the proportions will be slightly different then in some of the other tutorials.

The four different expression shown in this tutorial are:

• Focused/Sly Look
• Upset Teasing
• Playful Teasing
• Open Mouth Tongue Out

Be sure to start the tutorial in pencil and draw light lines as you will need to erase parts of the head after adding the hair. You can darken your lines later by tracing over them.

How to Draw Focused/Sly Tongue Out Anime Expression

This first expression is with the tongue sticking upwards and to one side of the mouth. It can be used to show a “sly” or “creative” face of a character that is focused on doing something like writing or drawing.

Step 1 – Draw the Outlines of the Facial Features

Draw the head and the proportions of the face as shown above. As the focus of this tutorial is mainly on getting the overall expressions that show the tongue it won’t go into too much detail on drawing each of the facial features.

You can however see the following tutorials for more information:

• How to Draw Anime & Manga Eyebrows
• How to Draw Female Anime Eyes Tutorial
• How to Draw Closed, Closing & Squinted Anime Eyes
• How to Draw Anime and Manga Noses

For this expression draw one eye lightly squinted with the other one closed. Draw the eyebrows with the one above the open eye in pretty much in it’s natural state and the one above the closed eye lower down in a bit of “wave” like shape. Draw the mouth smiling and make it wider on the side where the tongue is sticking out.

It’s important to note that while technically you always need to open your mouth to stick your out tongue these are stylized anime characters. This means that if the mouth is open just a bit you can draw the jaw in the same position as for a closed mouth.

Step 2 – Place the Ears

Position the ears as shown in the example above.

Step 3 – Clean up the Drawing

Once done with the basic outlines of the facial features you should have a clean drawing similar to the example above.

Step 4 – Add the Small Details

Add the smaller details of the facial features. In this case those will be inner parts of the eye as well as a hint of the eyelids (added between the eyes and the eyebrows).

There is no need to draw any of the inner details of the ears as they will be almost fully covered by the hair.

Step 5 – Draw the Hair

Add the hair over top of the outline of the head. The method used for drawing the hair is to split it into three parts. The front, sides and back/top shown in different colors in the example above.

Start with the front, then add the sides and finally the back/top.

You can see more on this in the following tutorial:

How to Draw Anime and Manga Hair – Female

Step 6 – Finish the Drawing

Once you finish the line drawing you can erase any parts of the head that are covered by the hair. You can also trace over your lines with a darker pencil stroke or a black pen/marker.

Next fill in the the eyebrows, eyelashes, outline of the eye and pupil with black or very dark pencil shading. You can add the a hint of individual lashes to the eyelashes as you shade.

Afterwards darken the hair, open eye and tongue. Shade the upper part of the eye and the inner part of the hair slightly darker than the rest.

How to Draw Upset Teasing Tongue Out Anime Expression

This expression is of an unhappy/upset teasing face.

Step 1 – Draw the Outlines of the Facial Features

Draw the head and position the facial features as shown above. You can again see the links in the first example for more information on drawing the individual facial features.

For this expression draw both of the eyes close with the eyebrows lowered and in “wave like” shapes.

Draw the mouth with a frown in an upside down curve (opposite of a smile) with the tongue sticking out downwards.

Step 2 – Place the Ears

Add the ears as shown in the example above.

Step 3 – Clean up the Drawing

Once done adding the facial features make sure you have a clean outline drawing similar to the example above before moving on to the next step.

Step 4 – Add the Small Details

Add the smaller details of the face which in this case will be just a hint of the eyelids and the split in the tongue.

Step 5 – Draw the Hair

Add the hair over top of the head as shown above. First draw the front section (red), next draw the sides (green) and finally the top/back (blue).

You can again refer to the tutorial linked in the first example for more information on drawing it.

Step 6 – Finish the Drawing

Erase the parts of the head covered by the hair. Next you can darken your lines by tracing over them with either a darker pencil stroke or a black pen/marker. After that fill in the eyelashes/eyebrows with black (or dark pencil shading). You can also add hints of the individual eyelashes as you add the black fill/dark shading.

To finish the drawing shade in the tongue and hair. Shade the inner/bottom part of the hair slightly darker than the rest.

How to Draw Playful Teasing Tongue Out Anime Expression

This expression is of a happy/playful teasing face.

Step 1 – Draw the Outlines of the Facial Features

Draw the head and proportion the face as shown in the example above. If you need to you can again refer to the links in the first example of the tutorial for more information on drawing various anime facial features.

For this expression draw the eyes closed with the eyebrows raised. Draw the mouth with a wave like shape (looking a bit like a cat’s mouth) and the tongue sticking out downwards.

Step 2 – Place the Ears

Position the ears as shown in the example.

Step 3 – Clean up the Drawing

Once you finish placing all of the facial features make sure you have a nice and clean drawing similar to the example above before moving on to the next step.

Step 4 – Add the Small Details

Add some of the smaller details of the face such as a hint of the eyelids and the split in the tongue.

Step 5 – Draw the Hair

Draw the hair as shown in the example above. Start with the front section (red), add the sides (green) and finish with the top/back section (blue).

You can again refer to the link in the first example for more information on drawing it.

Step 6 – Finish the Drawing

Erase the parts of the head covered by the hair and darken your lines by going over them with a darker pencil stroke or a black pen/marker.

Fill in the eyelashes and eyebrows with a either black or dark pencil shading and add hints of the individual lashes as you shade.

Finally shade in the tongue and hair. Make the inner/bottom portion of the hair slightly darker than the rest.

How to Draw Open Mouth Tongue Out Anime Expression

To be more precise this one is not really an “expression” but more of a character just opening their mouth and sticking their tongue out.

Step 1 – Draw the Outlines of the Facial Features

Add the facial features as shown above.

You will notice for this particular example the jaw is drawn a little farther down as the mouth is open wider than in the other examples.

Draw the eyes with their bottom eyelids slightly raised as compared to a normal. Draw the eyebrows in their natural/relaxed state.

Make the mouth open with the tongue sticking out downwards. You can also draw a tiny curve at the upper part of the mouth to give a hint of the top row of teeth.

Step 2 – Place the Ears

Place the ears as shown above.

Step 3 – Clean up the Drawing

Once done drawing the head and placing the facial features make sure you have a drawing similar to the above examples and move on to the next step.

Step 4 – Add the Small Details

Draw the inner details of the eyes and then add a hint of the eyelids between them and the eyebrows. You can also add a small line to show the split of the tongue.

Step 5 – Draw the Hair

Add the hair over top of the head as shown in the example. You can again draw it starting with the front section (red) then the sides (green) and finally the top/back (blue).

Step 6 – Finish the Drawing

To finish the drawing erase the parts of the head covered by the hair. Next you can darken your lines by tracing over them and fill in the eyebrows, eyelashes, outlines of the eyes and pupils with either black or very dark pencil shading. You can also shade in the mouth, tongue and hair.

Shade the open mouth darker than the tongue and shade the inner/bottom portion of the hair darker than the rest.

Conclusion

A character sticking their tongue out can help emphasize certain expressions and is fairly common in anime and manga. This tutorial looked into drawing these with a few different examples. For drawing other kinds of facial expressions also see:

• 12 Anime Facial Expressions Chart & Drawing Tutorial
• 16 Examples of How to Draw Chibi Anime Facial Expressions