How to Draw Anime for "Shaman King"

As a genre, anime encompasses several distinctive artistic styles, ranging from realism to extreme stylization. "Shaman King" is drawn in a style common to shounen, or boys', comics, featuring exaggerated hairstyles and somewhat large eyes. Most of the characters in "Shaman King" are young adults, so the body proportions of the characters are very different from those of an adult.

• 1

  Find a reference picture of the character you wish to draw (see Resources for some examples). Drawing from example is an important step in honing your artistic skills. Additionally, a reference picture will give you queues on how to draw the character's costume.

• 2

  Draw a straight line down the center of a sheet of paper lightly using a ruler. This line will bisect your drawing in two. Mark the line at every inch.

• 3

  Select one of the inches at the top of the page and lightly draw a bulbous egg in it. The egg should be exactly an inch long. This will be your character's head.

• 4

  Count out five of the marked inches below the head and make a notch there. This represents the total height of your character. Young adults in anime and manga are usually about six heads tall, whereas adults tend to be seven or eight.

• 5

  Draw the basic shapes that make up the character. The human body can be divided into a number of basic shapes that join with each other. For example, a rectangle stretching between inches 2 and 4 can serve as a guide for the torso.

• 6

  Draw a pair of stretched ovals under the torso that end at inch No. 4.5. These will be the character's upper leg. Draw smaller ovals underneath stretching to inch No. 6 for the lower leg. Draw the feet as a pair of trapezoids at the end of each leg.

• 7

  Draw the upper arms in the same way as you drew the legs. The upper arm should begin at the shoulder and extend down to inch No. 3.5. The lower arm should extend down to inch No. 4. Draw a pair of small trapezoids at the end of each arm to denote hands and add fingers. Each finger should be about the same length as the trapezoid.

• 8

  Draw the character's clothing, using your reference picture as a guide. Clothing follows the natural curve of the body, but it does not lie flat against it. Instead, draw the clothes so that they lie 1/16th inch away from the body.

• 9

  Add details to the face. The eyes of "Shaman King" characters are very large, and each should measure 1/6th inch tall. Draw them in the middle of the face, not the top. By contrast, the nose is a small dash just under the eyes. The mouth is a slightly longer dash under that.

• 10

  Draw the character's hair. Like clothes, hair actually lies a little way out from the character's body and does not lie flat against the scalp. Also, the characters of "Shaman King" often have very pointy hair. Draw a series of triangles to help serve as a guide when you need to draw such points.

• 11

  Go back over your drawing with a pencil and darken the outline of your character, his clothes, face and hair. Use an eraser to erase the underlying shapes and guides.