If you like the picture and want to see the finished deviation, click here

How to Draw Ko-Chan: =^__^=

Basic Guidelines for drawing anime

You can use this and all the other tutorials connected to it as a general guide to drawing anime, or you can copy this picture as precisely as you want. The choice is yours. If you actually use this to draw Ko-Chan, which I doubt most people will do, remember to give me credit for my character. If you try to copy this picture exactly, then don’t forget to give credit to me for that as well. I think this goes without saying, but it is better safe than sorry. More than anything, these tutorials are to help you in your art of anime characters in general. The title, “How to draw Ko-Chan” is just because it is fun to say, and because I am using him as a model. XD


1. Before you draw anything permanent, you need to plot out the picture. This can be done in a number of ways. You can draw stick figures with names… you can draw basic blobs to represent things, and you can draw a really rough version of everything. The important elements to this are that the lines need to be reeeeeeeeeeeally light, and this is where you consider composition. Composition is basically, the overall look of the picture, where you place things, and how you are going to draw the eye into the focus of the picture. When doing this step, when composing your picture, the best thing to do is start lightly sketching something, stop, look at it, see if it looks like it will work, modify or continue… This is when you consider the proportions of the human figure. How big do you want the head in comparison to the rest of the body, how much space do you want around your character? Also consider where you are putting your character. Only when this is done, is it recommended to move on to the next step. Trust me; this quick step makes a huge difference.
2. Now you can start drawing everything. I strongly recommend that you continue to use light pencil strokes throughout. I darkened the lines on the computer after scanning them so you can see them, but trust me; the lines are really still very light. Darker than the first step, but still really light. The first thing one should always draw after plotting the picture is the center of focus; the part of the picture that you want the viewer’s eye to be drawn to. This is because that part will get the most attention, so it should be done first. This gives you more time to look at it as you work on the picture, more opportunities to get it perfect, and of course, by starting with it, you can make sure it looks the way you want, and the rest of the picture will be drawn to match it. In this case, as is in many cases, the focus is the face. If you feel comfortable drawing faces, feel free to draw it as you please. If you want more help, I have separate tutorials for that. front view of an anime face, Click here three quarter view of an anime face, click here I will later include a side view tutorial.
3. Naturally, you start drawing around the focus point. In this case, as is with any anime character, after drawing the face, it is time to draw the hair. If you already know how to draw hair, than do so as you please, and move on, but if you want to draw Ko-Chan’s hair, I have a tutorial just for that. Ko-Chan’s hair tutorial, click here
4. Next, after drawing the hair, it is time to draw the rest of the body. Don’t bother with clothes yet… in fact it is best not to even think about them yet… I know this means that your character will temporarily be NEKID!!! Whoo hoo! … but don’t get carried away. Don’t draw every detail! Not unless you want a naked character… er… yeah… just draw the shape more completely, draw the arms and legs so they aren’t blobs, and the chest and all that stuff. Any part that might not be covered by clothes, you do want to draw completely. Remember, we are still doing light sketching. The reason for this step (yes, there IS a reason) is because that when you have an actual figure drawn, drawing clothes that fit to the form becomes possible. Without this step, you run the risk of making clothes that look like they are just sort of there, not attached to anything, like they are on a hanger. The folds and wrinkles in the fabric will make more sense this way, and the end result will be the appearance of clothes that are worn, not just there. I don’t currently have any tutorials for this, everyone has their own way of drawing figures. If you do want a tutorial on drawing the human figure anime style, let me know and I might make one for you.
5. Yes, the next step is to draw clothes, and to finish details up… (like hands). I just made a tutorial on how to draw a hand, How to draw a hand, click here Remember, you are still drawing lightly. Also take into consideration the surroundings, what parts of the background touch the character? Draw these parts as well. If you want a tutorial on drawing clothes, I have one for you. It is a bit elaborate, but it is organized, so you can focus on the parts you aren’t sure about. It includes everything from how to draw folds, you how to fit the clothes to the wearer. How to draw clothes, click here
6. Now, you have the line art for the character and the surroundings that touch him or her drawn. In this picture, that would mean that Ko-Chan is drawn and the part of the tree that he touches is drawn as well. There is a place where the stump is in front of the foot, and that is drawn in front accordingly. This puts the character (Ko-Chan) into the pictures, rather then give a feeling of being superimposed. The next step is to ink the character. There is a reason why I do this before working on the background. Pencils smear. If you leave the pencil marks there too long, then the smearing will stain the paper and the picture will not look as clean. This is also why it is so important to sketch lightly. Remember, I darkened the pictures so that it would be easier for you to see them. So now, you trace your own lines vary carefully with a pen. When this is done, you can erase all the pencil marks and you will have a very clean line art of the character. IF there are still a few smudges, you can use photoshop to erase them… but the goal is to not need to do this. The picture next to number 6 is not darkened.
7. Time for detail. That means that if there are any patterns on the clothes, you can draw them now. If the hair is dark, you can color it or draw in the lines. Once again, you wish to know how I ink in Ko-Chan’s hair, I have a tutorial for that… though you may have already seen it. Ko-Chan’s hair tutorial, click here
8. The main part of the picture is drawn. Take a breath of relief. This is the part of the picture that makes the biggest impact on the viewer, and it is done. Now draw the surroundings… you may wish to leave your character floating in space… I hope not… that is up to you. I haven’t got a tutorial on how to draw backgrounds and surroundings, there are too many kinds. nor do I have a tree tutorial for you. My best advice here is that you use references if you are not familiar with surroundings. Look at a picture of a tree, or a room… I do have a tutorial of sorts on rooms. Room Tutorial, click here . But really, this is up to you to do as you please. One more piece of advice, draw the surroundings in pencil first and then trace it in ink (with a pen) afterward… just like you did with your character. Remember, nature is imperfect and irregular, asymmetrical, and odd. Don’t draw things straight and even it you are drawing nature. The more unusual it looks, the more real it will look in most cases.
9. When the line art is done, maybe you want to color it. The following tutorials are focused on coloring in photoshop, but they may be helpful in general shading as well, especially the skin coloring and clothes shading tutorials. First thing I like to color is the hair. I do this on a separate layer so that I can color under it later. If you want help in coloring dark hair in photoshop, here is a tutorial. How to color dark hair in photoshop, click here
10. After that is done, you might want to do the eye. This is also helpful to do before coloring skin because then you can color under it without worrying about going over the lines. Here is an eye coloring tutorial for you. How to draw eyes, click here
11. Next, you will want to color the skin. You can dot eh clothes first if you wish or the skin, but it feels more natural to do it this way. Here is a tutorial in skin coloring. If you are shading, this step is helpful to look at because in coloring, you add shading, and while you may not be using photoshop, it still helps to point out where you might want to focus, both on light and shadow. If you are just shading though, it is usually easier to leave skin white and only shade in the shadows. The more shadow you add, the darker the implied environment is, so mid day pictures need less shadow. Here is the tutorial for skin coloring. how to color and shade skin, click here
12. Coloring clothing can often be broken into two different steps. The first step is to put on the base colors. What does that mean? Well, it is the color of the clothes before the shading is added. Many anime characters have simple clothes; they are one solid color for the shirt and one solid color for the pants for example. Or a dress is worn that has one solid color. This makes it easier for the animators, but when just drawing a picture, that might be a little boring. You might want to give the character some patterns. Ko-Chan has patterns. For a tutorial in how I color the base colors for his outfit (designed by ) here is a tutorial. coloring Ko-Chan’s base colors, click here . This shows how to do tone progressions and flames on clothes. Other patterns might be pictures. The best advice I can give there is to remember to follow the shape of the folds when drawing it. Give the picture bends that match the contours of the fabric.
13. Now you can shade it. Here is a tutorial in shading. This can be helpful for people not using photoshop as well. how to shade clothes, click here
14. The last step I do not go into detail. There are too many kinds of backgrounds out there to teach you, and as for doing trees and stuff, I am just a learner, and I do not feel confident enough to tell you how to do it, but I can however give you some advice for backgrounds in photoshop in general. Number one is to toss the word background and replace it with “surroundings.” You can work with layers in photoshop, so do so. Make a background that is behind the character and a foreground that is in front of the character. You can do layers for different levels as well. For this picture, I had one layer for the tree, and a layer of the sky behind it, and a layer for the leaves on the tree and a layer for the fuzzy leaves that are closest. The closer the object is to the viewer, the higher up the layer. But putting things at different levels, you accomplish two things, depth in the picture and also a feeling that the character was NOT super imposed. Another important key to remember when coloring and making surroundings in photoshop is to NEVER forget the shadow. Draw a shadow coming off the character, draw shadows coming off objects in the picture. This gives a feeling that the character and the objects are in the picture rather than on it.
Good luck, and thanx for looking at my How to draw Ko-Chan Tutorial. I hope this all helps.

Other tutorials:
There will be more coming, but these are general tutorials that really have nothing to do with this particular picture (made long after I made this)

[link] <--Difficult Angles

Chibi drawing
[link]

Hair tricks
[link]