How to Draw Manga Faces - Drawing Manga People

Do you want your Manga faces to be more lifelike?

WE ALL KNOW THAT adding expressions to OUR FACE DRAWINGS is tremendously important, but sometimes, a face can be drawn with a good expression and still lack that certain sparkle. Why? It's because they're attempting to draw a "face," when instead, they should be thinking about drawing a "head."

What's the difference between a head and a face? Plenty. When thinking about a how to draw manga faces, most people picture a flat surface seen from the front. Others might picture it turned to a 3/4 view. But no matter which angle it's drawn, most people envision the face as the "flat" part of the head. And this is exactly where the problem lies.

A human head is round and therefore, the face is ROUND as well. But as long as we "think" of the face as flat, we'll continue to draw it flat. And a flat face also flattens out the liveliness of a character.

Here's what you can do to improve how you draw manga faces:

Start by drawing your face with rounded sketch-guidelines. (Center Line & Eye Line).

1. Draw the features on and along the rounded guidelines. In the popular 3/4 view (which shows perspective), the shape of the features will stretch just slightly, as they appear to wrap around the face.
2. Only in the front view will the Center Line be drawn as a straight line.
3. Remember that the Eye Line needs to be curved to reflect its horizontal orbit around the head.

Okay, here's the recap: A slightly rounded face adds emphasis to the curves of the eyes, eyebrows, bridge of the nose, and stretched lips. A slightly curved face will add life to your characters and make you a better artist. 

Was this tutorial on how to draw manga faces helpful? Check out my book:

Basic Anatomy for the Manga Artist: Everything You Need to Start Drawing Authentic Manga Characters

Learn more about this book
Buy this book at Amazon.com
Buy this book at Barnes&Noble.com

This most basic and complete book on manga anatomy ever written is targeted to beginners, the widest segment of manga fans. Packed with dynamic step-by-step demonstrations detailing how to draw correctly proportioned manga faces and bodies, plus lots of tips and tricks of the trade. 

Let me know if you found this tip useful.

Your drawing colleague,

Chris