Let's draw chibi characters!

Hello! Kenage here!

This tutorial will be a basic guide to drawing chibi characters.

 

If you don’t already know, the word “chibi” (or デフォルメ/deform) is a term used for small, cute characters.

Most commonly, the character will be squished down to a small size with a large head and eyes. Their limbs may become tiny and baby-like, or in some depictions, their hands and feet become larger and characterized. Details of the character design may be condensed, or simplified to scale down to such a small size. The focus of chibi characters is usually their cuteness, with lots of round features and child-like expressions.

With chibis, there is no right or wrong way to draw them! As long as you maintain the above key characteristics, you have the complete freedom of designing and drawing them however you like!

A common use of chibis is for simplification in animation. Or in comics, a character can suddenly turn into a chibi for comedic effect! They can also be used as a quick doll for drawing outfits to design characters.

 

Chibi characters also make great designs for merchandise like stickers, figures, keychains, and acrylic charms.

I use a chibi doll to sketch out outfits for my characters to wear!

Here is an example of characters turning into chibis for humor in my manga, “Welcome to AfterLife”.

How to draw the head

A chibi’s head is large and round. Start with a circle and add the cheek on the bottom. Draw large eyes, and a small mouth, keeping them low on the face as a whole.

 

 

I don’t draw a nose on my chibis, I think it’s cute.

But if you like, you can draw a nose!

 

"How will I smell fresh-baked cookies without a nose!?"

Capture the cuteness!

To capture cuteness, the character's eyes are enlarged and the face is drawn much lower on the head than normal.

If you were to look at “normal” proportions of the face on a chibi head, it looks sort of boring. Generally, the head is also shorter and rounder than a “normally” proportioned head, so the face almost looks out of place!

If we move the facial features lower, push them closer together, and make the eyes larger -- you can see that suddenly it looks 100x cuter!

Chibi styles and proportions

Here are a few examples of chibi styles.

This is just a few examples out of MANY chibi variations. As you can see, their proportions may vary!

Some may have taller legs, longer torso, wider limbs, smaller head, etc. You can play around with the proportions and draw what you like best!

Example 1 has quite a large head in comparison to the body, no neck, and very short legs. The arms are skinny and taper a bit into round nubs.

Example 2 has nearly the same size head as the body, has a visible neck, the legs are long enough to imply knees, and the hands have 5 small fingers

Example 3 has a longer torso, arms, and legs. There are visible knees, the arms are skinny and taper into small, mitten-like hands.

Example 4 is tall, with long limbs. The arms and feet become larger and share the mitten-like hands from example 3.

This is the side view. Note the bean-like shape of the body.

Chibi bodies are similar to a pear shape, bean shape, or a rounded triangle. Usually starting thinner on top and rounding out by the bottom.

To make it easier to see the sections, I colored them accordingly. With these two forms, the elbow nearly reaches the waistline, similar to normal proportions.

Finally, there are many variations of hands, with 4, 5, or no fingers. They may become smaller or larger at the wrist.

Expressing emotion and character

Here is an example of chibi expressions.

Remember to keep the placement of the eyes and mouth the same for each emotion! Have fun exaggerating expressions by drastically changing the eye shapes and sizes.

Add things like hearts, stars, or blushies for more cuteness or comedy!

And here are just a few examples of chibi face styles with various eyes, eyebrows, and mouths!

Generally, the eyes will have more shine or gloss than normal characters. But it can also be good to leave it simple, like the bottom left and middle examples. Experiment, mix-and-match, and find a style that works for you.

There are also many different ways to color eyes! A greater amount of highlights will bring out the cuteness more!

Converting a character to chibi form

Now I will demonstrate how to convert a character into a chibi.

This is a character from my manga.

The pose she is doing captures her sense of authority and gives off a commanding presence, so I want to keep that intact.

I start with a sketch and make sure things like the placement of her feet and arms match the original. As you might notice, her head is too large for her hair to sit on her shoulder like the original, so it’s sort of …flowing there. And the details of her shoes became super simplified because of how small her feet are!

Next is the line art and flat color. Compared to the original, things like clothing folds and the strands of her hair have been simplified.

When lining chibi art, I like to use a thicker pen than usual. I don’t worry as much about line-weight as I do with my usual art, since everything will be in a thick outline. I especially like the outer edges to be a bit bold.

That’s just my personal preference! Please feel free to draw the lineart any way you like. ☆

 

 

 

TIP: You can quickly change the thickness of a line by using the Sub tool, Correct Line > Correct Line Width. It’s helpful to quickly correct thickness/thinness in lineart on a vector layer!

This sub tool. ^

Select “Thicken” to make the lines thicker. The arrows to the right (1.1) adjust how much thickness will be applied.

Alternately, you can select “Narrow” to make the lines thinner. You can adjust the thinness with the arrows to the right.

You can also scroll down in this window to adjust the brush size.

Then simply brush the cursor over the area of line you want to adjust!

Remember that this only works on vector layers. If you aren't already using them, you should definitely start! They can really speed up workflow.

Here is the final result! Isn’t she adorable? I really think turning already existing character art into a chibi form is a ton of fun! It’s a quick and simple process, too. It can be a nice change of pace from bigger works.

Extra: How to outline for a sticker effect

As an extra, I will show how to make an outline for a sticker!

Take the image you want and place it on a canvas with no paper, or background.

Example below:

Using the magic wand tool, click on the transparent area by the subject. Select only AROUND the subject.

 

 

Now press this icon to invert the selection. ^

Then press this icon to expand it. ^

This time I’ll expand by 10 pixels. Don't clear the selection yet!

On a new layer BELOW the subject layer, fill in the selection with white.

I could stop here with this result, but I want to add an extra line in color, in case of a white background. That way, the line will still be visible.

Pick a color you want the outline to be (I recommend black or grey). Then go to Edit > Outline selection.

Choose the width you like. I will use 2 here, but anything between 2 and 5 should be good!

I have selected to draw on the border of the selection.

Press “Ok” and the selection will be outlined. Now it looks like a sticker!

You can print your own stickers and cut them out this way!

Closing

Thank you for reading. I hope that you learned something, or are inspired to draw chibis for yourself!

If you are interested, you can visit my web page below for more of my art, as well as my manga project.

Until next time! ☆