Drawing profile faces in anime/manga style

Drawing faces in profile might seem challenging for those who are used to drawing front or ¾ side faces , and one of the main reasons for this is the fact that instead of drawing the face as an “egg shape” it’s actually more like a strange ice-cream cone with a large scoop.

 

Basic shapes

Before drawing the face in profile, let’s define the basic shapes that make up the face.

We have a circle which will include the eyes, ears and part of the nose.

A trapezoid that will include the other part of the nose with the lips

And a tilted cylinder for the neck .

Just like this diagram.

Difference between Female, male and chibi characters

Before actually starting with the tutorial, let’s look at the major differences between female, male and chibi characters.

Remember that you have the freedom to change the size and shape of the facial features according to your character design.

Female faces

The female face in anime and manga is usually inspired by the profile of a cat, you will notice that the nose is pointed upwards with the chin area being rounder. This gives females a cute look.

 

This is the female profile face from the complementary 3d models that come with Clip studio paint. you can see that the rules still apply with the basic shapes which makes the face structure

Male faces

Male characters have a boxy overall shape with sharper defining lines on the jawline , tey also have narrower eyes and their eyebrows are closer

and this is the male version from the 3d model that comes with clip studio paint, notice how it looks bulkier and sharper than the female profile face ?

Chibi faces

Chibi characters are inspired by babies, hence the big head, insanely large eyes and full cheeks. The overall shape of chibis is full of circles.

I got this model from the assets store and it depicts the chibi character’s face profile. notice how the head size is relatively larger than both male and female characters with bigger eyes and a small body in ratio with the head

keep this general idea in mind, lets learn how to draw the head now!

Tutorial time !

We start by drawing a simple circle, here’s how it looks using the supplementary 3d model in CSP.

if you’re following the Youtube tutorial, it will be roughly from the first to the end of the forth line

We divide the circle vertically in the middle.

and then horizontally in half

this is how it would look if you’re using the Youtube tutorial and the PSD file attached.

we see that we can divide the overall face to 3 equal thirds like this.

These are the features that will be included in each third. this isn’t a solid rule you have to follow and it applies to normal-sized characters, Chibi characters have different-sized facial features. but following it would make the drawing more cohesive and well-put together.

We add a straight line that barely touches the outside edge of the circle.

It’s based on where the character will be looking

We decide on the location of the ear which will be just around the corner of the face

The eyes are between the ears and the nose is just around the end of that circle.

Facial deatures

The lips in the side profile resembles the number 3 with the upper lip slightly larger than the lower one.

Depending on the character we are drawing, we determine the jawline and the overall mouth shape, here i’m drawing a female so i’m going with cat like proportions

 

 

**TIP: When we connect the jawline to the cylinder, add some skin at the bottom of the chin attached to the neck for a more natural look.**

Eyeballs are what they are, eyeballs, so when you look to one side, the shape the eyes make is that of a triangle without a base, so keep that in mind.

When it’s time to add the hair, we don’t attach it directly to the skull but we add some volume, then we draw accordingly.

Brushes used

***I’m using a general pencil brush that came with the program for sketching

And a milli pen from teh marker section for coloring

**TIP** when coloring the shadows, choosing a color that is grayish blue or grayish white will make the drawing pop more than grayish black

Now that you understood abit of the basics on how to draw profile faces, lets open clip studio paint !

Video Tutorial !

Outro !

I haven’t spent much time on the personality of those characters and this is just a brain storming sheet , but remember practice makes progress, the more you draw the better you’ll get !

Use references of hair and come up with more personalities.

Can’t wait to see what you make !

Good luck !