Tutorials on women are honestly a dime a dozen. Most “how to draw Manga” books that I have bought and read (and do recommend) are all on how to draw women. There is like one how to draw men book, that’s it, lol. So naturally I’ve focused most my drawings on women and with due process I had to remake my women’s tutorial. This also means that there will be a “how to draw Men” tutorial added as well.

            I’m using Minka here as my example for an adult women specimen because the rest of the girls here aren’t adults yet, lol. (there like teenaged or still children)

Anyways-

             This first picture is my pencil rendering, the character design for Minka, so be kind. >.> She’s just a child, lol, an infant thought in my head at this point anyways. The basic anime women averages about 6 ½ head lengths to 8 head lengths tall. As you can see in my pencil sketch Minka is 7 ½ head lengths tall. A head length is the distance between the top of the skull to the chin running vertically. (That means top to bottom.)

           Next here we have a clothing idea sketch. As you can see in the straight forward view Minka is wearing a poncho or short cloak if you wanted to be fancy about it. There is lots of extra fabric that piles up around the neck so it has a high color that when viewed at the right angle, side the lower part of her face.

            She’s wearing kakkii like pants that get cut off at the knee by a pair of high boots. Beneath the cloak is a mid-drift bearing, spaghetti strap tank top. With how I imagion her personality to be its contradictory that she wear’s a cloak that covers up everything and a small tank top that reveals a lot. She is a reserved, quite, respectful person, which is why she wear’s the poncho. Remember boys and girls, its important to take into consideration your character’s personality when dressing them. If you have a book worm-ish type who doesn’t get out much, the last thing you would dress her in is a string bikini complete with thong. >.> its just not right, lol.

           Here we have a colored outline of Minka. In both examples you can see her at a straight forward view, then a profile view facing right, and then a back view. Remember how I always stress the importance of adding shading and high lights to your pictures? Well here is why. You can see between the two here, the picture on the right looks better. She looks closer to being three-dimensional. This more easily allows people to see the natural curves of a person’s body. First off though its important to know how to get the body properly proportioned.

            Yes here Minka is bold! Lol. Actually I did this to better show you the neck, shoulders, and head. Minka has a lot of hair and it hides stuff. This also allows you all to see her large pointed elfin ears. Yes, Minka is an elf, isn’t she pretty? ^_^ lol

Anyways-

            The average width of a women’s shoulders should be the same as two of her head widths. On a man its two head lengths. Width is from ear to ear in this face. Knowing this that plainly tells you women’s shoulders are much smaller then a mans. A women’s hips shouldn’t stick out farther then her shoulders, and her feet shouldn’t come out father then her shoulders either. That is a rule of thumb on any bi-peddle creature I believe. When the feet do not stand directly beneath the person’s shoulder it makes them looked stressed out and off balance like they are about to fall over.

            In all three of these picture everything lines up all the way across the bored so to speak. In the frontal, profile and back view, the chin’s all line up, the shoulders all in up, belly button’s, hips and so on. This is because the person is standing at the same distance from all angles. Now if she was standing at a three-fourth’s view that would be a different story, but in this face, everything lines up nice and symmetrical like.

           On a women, unless its important to the character type, there is no muscle definition. The idea is to promote a soft curvy look. To many lines will make her look hard and more manly. Minka here is not manly at all. The only lines shown are the kind that state’s a feminine body type. Thin lines for the caller bones, simple lines at the hips on the side view shows where the hip bones are, and on the back thin straight lines for the back bone and shoulder blades let you know she is lean and fit. The lines just above the buttocks there are optional, and the lines just below the butt shows she has a curvy bottom. (in other words its not flat, no person’s butt is flat)

           Its really funny that I can draw women the easiest out of anything else anymore and I can’t really think of a way to explain about drawing them, lol. Lets see… The elbows should reach down to the point where the waist is the smallest. The finger tips should reach down to the middle of the thigh. All women have a space between there legs just before the crotch, this isn’t as easily seen on women with large thighs though, but it is there.

           As you can see in this colored example here of Minka all the places there high lights are likely to be placed. The cheeks, across the bridge of the nose. The caller bones, the top of the breasts, the shoulders and the top of the legs; ie. The thighs. The area’s on her body that are darker in color are the most common places to add shadow. Under the chin, between and under the breasts, and the lower part of the stomach.

Another part to this tutorial will be added later. I hope what I have said and shown here is helpful in some way.

Women part III is coming with the big update.