Yo! It's me that girl who draws anime girls all the time!

I was just going to send this to @MFan168 since he has been working on drawing hands and I have a few basic tips, but I figured I'd post this here also in case anyone else finds it kinda helpful (And knowing me I'll type too much anyway).

As a key disclaimer, I don't claim to be a pro at all! These are just tips that I find helpful when going about things, there are lots of really good art tutorials online so this is more of just a starting point since it can be hard to just get started sometimes.



Starting on the top left, it's always good to have real-life references to look at while drawing any hand pose. As you can see, by simplifying the shapes it makes thing a lot easier to figure out.

If I had to break things down into a step-by-step process, Step 1 would be drawing the base of the hand. This is a simple square shape, but the sides are a little more rounded out.

Step 2 is the hand butt / figuring out the thumb position. I can't coin the term hand butt as it's something a few artists will use, but it's kinda the way to simplify the lines on the inside of the hand. It can be attached to where the thumb will be sometimes, but it mostly depends on the position and what you find to be aesthetically pleasing.

Then Step 3 is plotting out where the fingers will be. Remembering to give each finger the space it needs can sometimes be a challenge for people so having a vague idea is always nice.

When it comes to fingers, another nice guideline to have is the two arc shapes as seen in Step 4 - the middle line is where the first joint will be, and the second is the tip of the finger. Since the middle finger is typically taller than the other fingers it tends to have that boomerang-shaped arc to it.

Other tips when drawing fingers is to draw them with that curve shape as seen in the bottom left of the first picture. This can be seen in more stylized drawing styles but can also help a lot with defining each section a bit better when planning out what the hand is going to look like.

Last note is that a common mistake when drawing fingers is to bring them to a point at the end. It's good to keep in mind to keep the ends round since they look a little more natural that way.



Anyway, I think that's all I got for now. I hope that helps a little with understanding how to draw hands a bit more. I still have lots to learn myself, but it's all apart of the process. Good luck!!

wow, this is actually really cool. i'm just imagining all of the sonic OC's i'll be able to draw for next year's secret santa. keep the tips coming!

good thread pls help me convince more of mw to draw

can we get a tutorial on yrr feet next

can we get a tutorial on yrr feet next

ofc

A wonderful tutorial there! I usually have issues with hands and fingers myself, but this would help.

Part 2: Breaking down the head

I was asked for more body proportions, but this turned more into just the head so it works better with an image shared in the discord. (but I'll do the full body a different day if its wanted!) As always I'm mostly a self taught artist so theses are more of a starting point to learning to draw / understand how to break down images!



When drawing the head lots of artist will go about it in different ways. I know some like to start with the eyes, or some with the face shape so its got lots of variety within it! For the sake of simplicity, this is kinda just my quick way to break it down.

Step 1: The circle. It doesn't have to be perfect, it most cases you will just erase this part down the line anyways. Its just a easy place to start and will help you figure out the side of the head later on.

Step 2: The direction. As you start to think about where the face is going to sit, its again good to give yourself some guidelines. As seen in the image below depending on the curve / direction it can help guide you with what way the face will be looking.



Step 3: The chin. This part might be a little hard since it takes some practice to get the shape right. The middle point can also be thicker depending on style / preference. For this i'm doing things super simple so its like... an upside down house kinda shape. Looking at reference will help a lot in getting this figured out, especially if you're going for a specific style.

Step 4: Setting Up. Now I know this looks kinda weirdly complicated, but its more just to show some points here!
So if we take what we've done so far and break it into two we get the upper and the bottom part of the head. This middle section also tends to also be the mid point of the eyes! Since it's the mid point, if we draw a line above and below, we can create a space for where the eyes are going to sit. Being anime this can range depending on the style you're going for so there is lots of room to try different shapes and sizes here.

Now within this bottom part of the face, typically people will break it up into 3 parts. (See the A,B,C on that top image) The line that forms between that A/B part is about the place where the nose will sit, and the part between that B/C is where the mouth will sit. (Again this is just really simple general guidelines!) This will mostly help us when thinking about how to break down images and getting a feel for where things will go on the face.

Again a key part to remember here is that it will take a little time to get the feel for how thing are placed on the face, but by looking at reference and doing some practice drawings it will start to feel better over time.

As for Step 5: this is when you can start erasing some guidelines and placing in your basic features. There are lots of good tricks out there on how to better break down the face, but hey another good thing to remember is your ears are about the size of the top of your eye to the bottom of you nose and will sit lower or higher on the face depending on the direction the person is looking.

But Kright! How can I use this to better understand how to draw different anime styles and faces????

Well lets go to the discord and grab that image @MFan168 posted!



Like mentioned above - lets break down this face!

We start with a shitty little circle to create a space for out face. We find the direction the face is aiming and put in a chin on it using the circle we made. Then we figure out where the eyes / nose / mouth will sit, and then we erase all that work a little so we can start to draw in the features and details on the guidelines we made!

Anyways hopes this gives you a good starting point for things! Good Luck!