How To Draw Chibi Characters Step By Step .pdf

What's a Chibi?

A chibi is a form of stylized character cartoon that originates in Japan. Chibi characters are usually between 2 and four heads tall.

They are often used on merchandise for popular anime series. With huge, singled-out facial expressions, they are also useful when skillful at creating a fun or cute atmosphere.

In this tutorial, I will teach you how to draw chibi characters.

Once you know how to draw chibis, you may observe it much easier to draw these beautiful characters compared to typically proportioned characters.

Notes for Drawing Chibi Characters

● Chibis take uniform size and shape

Most chibi characters are around the same size and body shape, regardless of the gender, face size, height, body shape, and age of the original blueprint.

In other words, a half dozen-head-alpine girl and an eight-head-tall homo would have the same body shape every bit a two- to three-caput-alpine chibi character.

If you lot learn the main points of cartoon chibis, you can create whatsoever character in this way.

● Find points that brand the characters stand out

Even though chibi characters accept the aforementioned basic body shape, you need to find a way to differentiate betwixt multiple characters.

You tin can bring out the character'south personality by emphasizing the essential features of each character. In detail, the eyes, hairstyle, and clothing.

●Focus on balance

Chibi characters can be anywhere from two to four heads tall, merely I'll use two-head-alpine chibis for these examples.

At that place isn't a rule on the proportions, and people will have different preferences on how they draw chibis. To outset with, try to learn how to draw one item proportion.

Once you learn how to depict a chibi, you can utilize the aforementioned principles to versions with slightly dissimilar body proportions.

In that location are a few differences based on the proportions, which we'll embrace in the torso section later.

Drawing the caput

● The head is a sphere, not a circle

The first step of a chibi character is the head.

When cartoon a chibi character, focus on the overall roundness and remember that the head is spherical.

Most people think of chibis as a 2D stylization. Merely actually, there are many chibi anime dolls as well, such as "Nendoroid" from Good Smile Visitor, Inc. Try to retrieve of your chibi character in a 3D space.

The caput is circular and big compared to the body.

….In fact, and so big that I'm non sure how the head is supported!

A chibi character with a sense of depth will announced much cuter, so keep the 3D space in mind as you draw.

●Drawing the head (ii-caput-tall version)

1. Draw a circle

Get-go, draw the rough outline as a circle.

ii. Draw along the circle

Depict the outline of the head effectually the circle.

I feature that differentiates a chibi from a typical human is the lack of sharp edges around the jawline. I mentioned earlier that you lot should focus on the roundness, as most parts of chibi character are soft and circular. I replace the sharp jawline with a shine bend.

3. Draw guides

Describe guide lines for placing the eyes and oral cavity.

Every bit I mentioned before, since the caput is a sphere, draw the guide following the shape of a ball instead of flat paper. (Yous can imagine the bend of the latitude and longitude lines of the earth every bit an instance of this.) The eyes of a chibi are quite big, so place the horizontal line for the optics slightly lower.

4. Draw the eyes and rima oris

Draw the grapheme'southward eyes and oral fissure. The eyes of a chibi express the almost emotion, and so draw them very large.

For some comical expressions, the eyes are drawn only with straight lines.

The rima oris is modest, and y'all can often omit drawing the olfactory organ. Yous can as well use a minor dot to stand for the nose.

Since I will change all abrupt edges into a curve, I omit sharp parts such equally the nose.

5. Depict details of the eyes

Make the eyes neater and add some more than detail compared to the previous simple eyes.

vi. Draw the hair

Depict some hair for your chibi. First, describe a voluminous shape of the hair around the outline of the head.

It's a good idea to utilise a simplified hairstyle compared to the regular-sized character. Use soft tips for the ends of the hair.

Now the head is finished.

Compared to a regular confront, keep the lines every bit elementary equally possible.

The key to creating a chibi character is to reduce information while leaving the central features.

When cartoon the side profile, keep in mind the spherical shape of the back of the head.

The position of the cervix is slightly tricky when drawing a side profile. Yous can place the cervix under the ear.

● Emotion comes from the eyes

Chibis have huge optics that limited their characteristics and feelings. Does the graphic symbol have upturned or downturned eyes? Does the grapheme have round eyes or thin eyes?

The eyes are the nigh important, as they tin create a totally different effect with expressions.

Chibis can have exaggerated features for a comedic result, so don't be afraid to push their expressions to the extreme.

Since they are so tiny, you can bring out the childish aspects of the characters.

Drawing the Body

● Ignore the skeleton when drawing the trunk

When drawing a chibi trunk, focus on softness, and ignore the usual rules of bones and joints.

When I say "softness," I mean a squishy and soft feeling similar a stuffed animal. Yous don't need to worry as well much about the skeleton frame or joints.

Of grade, knowing the basics of how the body works will bear upon the drawing, but you do not have to be strictly bound to these principles. Since the body is already too small to support the head, you can ignore some rules of physics when you draw. This freedom is one advantage of chibi characters.

● Drawing the torso

A 1:i residual between the torso and legs will create a well-balanced body.

With that said, you don't need to obey any specific rules for chibi characters!

A longer body will make the chibi look cuter and more than doll-like.

Longer legs create a more mature outcome, even with the aforementioned head-to-body ratio.

Choose whichever proportions you prefer.

・ Neck

The neck can disappear with a two-head-alpine character.

If you draw the cervix, proceed it curt and thin.

You should omit whatsoever unneeded parts on a chibi character, so you don't accept to describe the cervix.

Even so, make certain the head and torso connect at the right position.

・ Shoulders

Drawing broad shoulders creates a more than rugged outcome and reduces the cuteness.

Sloping shoulders suit both male person and female person chibi characters.

・ Torso

On a normally-sized drawing, a woman might have a divers figure, but you can ignore those features for a chibi character.

If the character has some defining characteristic, you can draw that.

Draw a elementary trunk that appearsround and soft.

The main chemical element of chibi characters is cuteness. A detailed body shape would be besides realistic, so they are typically drawn with a childlike body.

・Arms and legs

Slender limbs will make the character look too mature, then keep the artillery and legs relatively thick, ignoring realism with the joints and muscles.

You tin brand the legs thinner towards the feet, or go along the thickness consistent.

You can determine whether or not to describe the fingers and toes, simply the chibi can look a little odd with detailed fingers. I recommend dividing the mitt into two shapes: the thumb and the four fingers. Y'all can consider cartoon the hands and fingers in more than detail if the character is three heads tall.

Annotation: When drawing a 3-head-tall body, you should define the shape more conspicuously than a two-head-alpine body.

In item, past drawing curves around the chest, waist, and hip, the character will expect more than mature than with a two-head-tall trunk.

Express more personality!

● Maximize and emphasis unique features

At present that you lot can draw a chibi, let's focus on bringing out the grapheme's personality.

Mini characters have identical body shapes, so it can be hard to distinguish between them at a single glance. How can we differentiate between characters? The respond is, of course, exaggerate the grapheme'south features!

For example, if the character wears glasses, draw them larger. If the character has long pilus, make information technology fifty-fifty longer. The same applies to the clothes of the character.

In this style, y'all can clearly distinguish the different characters y'all describe.

Changing the hair is useful in many cases.

If you lot increment the amount of hair, brand information technology resist gravity, or make the character's hairstyle more unique, it will change the character's advent.

Did you enjoy my tutorial?

As I mentioned at the beginning, if you learn how to blueprint a chibi grapheme by yourself, you volition be able to draw more than characters with the aforementioned body shape. You lot can also utilize the tips for drawing the face and the torso to other chibi characters.

Based on the same torso shape, you can differentiate between characters by drawing unlike hairstyles, centre shapes, and dress.

And since chibi characters can ignore gravity, you tin draw poses that are usually incommunicable.

Always prioritize the cuteness of the character over the realism of the pose.

BONUS: How to create accessories

Creating a zine or a comic is pretty complex, so why not start with creating small items?

Today, I will explain how to prepare art for acrylic keychains, which are like shooting fish in a barrel to brand and await cute with chibi characters!

(Y'all tin brand about other acrylic goods, such equally acrylic stands, in the same fashion.)

An acrylic keychain usually requires three split data, depending on the press vendor template.

Open up the template, and paste these images on dissever layers, normally the following:

・Artwork

・White fill

・Cut surface area

And so, send the data to the printing vendor.

For the artwork , cull the data y'all desire to utilize.

At the top, indicate where to identify the hole for the keyring concatenation.

Make certain you don't depict anything over the hole.

The white fill is the base color under the analogy.

Without this white base, the illustration will be printed straight on the transparent acrylic, which makes the colors appear translucent and difficult to see.

To print your illustration as you created it, make certain to create a white fill layer.

Information technology is easy to create this data – create a duplicate of the illustration layer and fill information technology with a solid color. The press vendor will print this layer in white.

Because it sits nether the illustration, the shape should be a silhouette of the artwork. If you desire certain parts to announced transparent, yous tin can remove the white make full on those parts.

Cut area shows where the acrylic board will be cut.

The layer tin be purely black. Fill up the surface area surrounding the illustration in black.

Avert creating a complex cut border, equally the keyring maker may not be able to cut it.

Once you know how to set data for an acrylic keychain, yous can brand other acrylic accessories in the same manner!

Make certain you understand the size of each item.