Drawing Chibis

Step 1.

The basics of chibi art may come easier to some than others. The whole idea is to massively warp your character to turn it into something cute. Some people have a natural eye for anatomy though and can have a hard time perfecting this concept, like me. But keep practicing your chibi anatomy! You will get it if you practice.

Step 2.

The main thing you need to keep in mind when drawing chibis is that they should never be taller than 3 of their heads. Super cute chibis should be about 2 heads tall so their huge cute heads are emphasized. Taller chibis can stretch to be 3 heads, but if you make them any larger they can start to be considered a normal style.

Step 3.

Here is a drawing I did some time ago of a character I made as compared to the chibi for this tutorial. As you can see, the drawing of my character is only a partial body drawing at it is already 4 heads tall. Keeping the head heavily inflated is so important for chibis.

Step 4.

Now for the anatomy. Using my character again, you can see the difference between regular style and chibi. First lets start off with the foundation for the anatomy, the shoulders. Notice how tiny the chibi shoulders are compared to their head, and in the regular style they are broader than her head. Keeping the shoulders and your basic foundations small will help you achieve your desired chibi look. From your small shoulders, you can start to draw in the rest of the torso. If you need help, draw in an extra circle about the same size as your head underneath the head like in the previous step to give you an idea of how tall your chibi needs to be. Your chibi body should not have complicated detail to it and should resemble that of a child.

Step 5.

Chibi eyes are massive compared to any form of regular eyes. They are also a lot lower on the face. Notice the large eyes take up most of the lower area of the face? The low set large eyes create a cute factor that can't be as easily achieved by having the eyes smaller and higher on the face. Try to have the iris of the eye as large as you can get it without it completely taking over the entire face.

Step 6.

Another trick that chibi artists use is done with the hair. Puffing your chibis hair out a bit makes your chibis head seem larger. The red circle is how large the circle for the head actually is, and the blue circle shows how large it seems after the hair. This can help you build that large head feel even if your head isn't as large as you wanted it to be. Just make sure the hair isn't flat and plastered against the chibi head circle because this will shrink your chibi head.

Step 7.

Now that you have some knowledge under your belt, lets try to draw a chibi.. or both! You can pick which one you wish to draw. Start with the circle for the head. Keep it fairly large and don't worry if it isn't perfect.

Step 8.

Now lets add in some basic stick figure shapes so we can start to build the bodies. Keep the stick figure bodies much smaller than the head. Do not make them proportional to each other.

Step 9.

Now lets draw in some bodies and chins! If you're drawing the boy, try not to add too much curve around his mid section. it needs to be fairly flat. For the girl, you can draw a big curve to show off her waist. Notice her legs even are a little curvier than the boys.

Step 10.

Now some bangs. Your bangs will come to a little lower than halfway down the face. Make the boys bangs messy and choppy as he has a messy type hair style. Make the girls bangs more uniform and stylized because her hair is styled.

Step 11.

Now we can draw that puffed up hair style! Remember to keep the boys hair choppy and the girls hair nice and clean cut. If you've seen any of my other tutorials, you already know that you should make sure the hair falls away from the part in opposite directions. The hair should never all be going one way.

Step 12.

Now for some clothing! Lets put a nice baggy hoodie on our boy. Draw the neck and hidden hood kind of puffy by using curved lines, then using more curves, you can puff out the hoodie and bring it in very close to the arm to give it that worn rippled look. (Click the image for a better view of the ripples) And for the girl, draw a nice little dress. Follow the curves of her chest and back and fan the dress out at her thighs. Don't cover her knees though!

Step 13.

Now we can draw pants on our boy. Make sure that they're close to the body at the top and flare out and cover the feet a bit on the bottom. We're keeping with the baggy look! With the girl, draw in her choker, the bow on her arm and her cute little stockings and slippers. These can all be done close to the body because these are tight fit on her.

Step 14.

You may have to click the image to see the fine detail for this step. Next we put a seam on the pants, with pockets and lines to emphasize the baggy pant leg over the shoe. Follow the edge of the pants with a dotted line, then follow the very bottom and around the pocket for the seam. For the girl, draw a line to show that her collar isn't just flat and has movement, then draw in the fold details of her bows and the ribbons that lace up her stocking. Go ahead and draw in some collar bone lines too.

Step 15.

Now for some eyes. Keeping with what I said at the beginning of the tutorial, make sure your eyes are lower on the face than with a regular style. Draw in some happy closed eyes with your boy and some wide eyes with your girl. Her bangs cover one of her eyes.. other styles draw the eye over the bangs that hang down, I don't, but you may draw it this way if you choose. Draw in some eyelid lines as well.

Step 16.

Now draw in some eyebrows (don't forget the girls hidden eyebrow!) and mouths. Make an open happy mouth for our happy boy and a generic smile for our wide eyed girl.