Hello everyone, how are you? I hope you're all doing well. In this lesson, we'll be learning how to draw an anime girl holding something. One of the essential things when drawing characters holding an object is maintaining balance between the body and the object being held, as we'll need this in manga, webtoons, and other forms of media. We might need to draw an anime character holding a cup, clothes, or even heavier objects, and I'll show you how to balance the body and adjust the weight to make the drawing look realistic.
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First step
- We begin by drawing the circle that represents the upper part of the head.
- We add a dividing line from the middle to divide the face in half, indicating the direction of the face, and two parallel lines that help us to accurately locate the features.
- Next, we draw the jaw and chin below the dividing line, taking into account the angle of the head.
We will not need to draw the facial details at this stage; it is enough to create the foundation that we will rely on later.
Step two
- We draw the body using simple lines and shapes that define the position of the shoulders, chest, waist, pelvis, and then the joints.
- We make sure to draw the arms extended downwards, to mimic the nature of carrying something heavy.
- We move on to drawing the legs, so we draw one leg half-bent, and the other extended straight downwards.
Step three
- We use the sketch we drew earlier to draw the face, and now we fill the drawing with details, such as the eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, and ears.
- We also explain the jawline, and we must take into account the guiding lines that determine the direction of the face.
- Let's not forget to add facial expressions here.
Step four
- We begin by clarifying the shape of the neck, shoulders, arms and the rest of the body parts, and we maintain the body posture as we defined it previously.
- We add some important details, and this is where the topic of personal taste comes in.
We leave a blank space for the box that the character is carrying. We shouldn't draw important details in the space where the box will be located, because we will naturally not draw them later.
Step five
- Moving on to the step of drawing the hair and clothing, we follow the shape of the skull, i.e., the same circle, and from it we determine where the hair strands will start. We must ensure that the hair does not follow the circle's boundaries precisely, but rather extends slightly beyond them to achieve volume, or according to the chosen hairstyle.
- Next, we draw the clothes, which will be a shirt and shorts. It's essential to remember that the clothes should move with the body perfectly, and we shouldn't overlook the necessary folds.
Step six
- We move on to the stage of drawing the box, and we draw it in the empty space that we have identified. It must be in the shape of a cube, with the internal direction drawn.
- Next, we draw the hand at its lower base, holding it naturally from below.
Step seven
We draw the fine details more clearly, then we get rid of the extra guidelines.
Inking stages
- We add multiple new layers to the drawing using New Raster Layer, for the body, features, hair, and clothing.
- We select the Pen Tool from the Tool Palette menu.
- We define the color black because it is the primary color for inking, through the Foreground Color.
- We begin by going to each layer separately, and we ink using the previous lines.
Step eight
We add multiple coloring layers here as well, just as we did in the inking, using New Raster Layer.
We color with the primary colors shown in the picture.
Next, we move on to adding shadows of the same colors that appear in the image, but on a separate layer as well, with the possibility of using Clipping if we want to confine the coloring and shadows within the boundaries of the base layer.
Step nine
In the final image, the character appears complete after coloring, shading, and adding the background. We must not forget to add some cosmetic effects that improve the drawing, such as glitter or lighting, as in the image below.
An important point to note is that, during the drawing process, we ensured the addition of weight by slightly bending one of her legs to make it appear to the viewer that the box is full of contents. If it were light, we should have drawn her carrying it along her chest, without extending her arms downwards.
And that concludes the lesson on drawing an anime character carrying something. Pay close attention to every point mentioned in the lesson, and repeat the exercise until you can master drawing any manga or anime character carrying any weight. Thank you, and I'll see you in other lessons, God willing.
