Konnichiwa! Welcome to the wonderful world of animé art! Before you begin this tutorial, I recommend you print this page or save it and the examples to your hard disk, because good art takes time and besides, what if somebody's trying to call? ^_^
Now that you're ready to start, you'll need the following:
At least one sheet of white paper
a pencil (for drawing guide lines)
a nice eraser (I use "Pink Pearl")
a black pen, preferably plastic or felt-tipped, but ballpoint will work as well
a bottle of Arizona Plum Green Tea, because drawing is thirsty work!
To begin, draw the shape of Sailormoon's face using your pencil (You'll use the pen later). The forehead should slope outward ever so slightly, and the face curve inward where you plan to put the eyes. The chin always comes to a point unless you're drawing a chibi-style senshi, and the jaw should stop about halfway through where the neck is supposed to be. Remember that the distance from the chin to the center of the eyes is the same as the distance from the center of the eyes to the top of the head (ignoring the hair). It may be helpful to draw some light guide lines with your pencil, just make sure to erase later!
Next comes the most important part: the eyes. By changing the eyes and hair, you can change what character you're drawing, since everything else is the same. The eyes in this example can be used for Sailormoon, Sailorvenus, Sailorjupiter, or Sailor Chibimoon. Start by drawing some guide lines (not shown) as tall ovals for where the eyes will go. (The eye turned away from the camera will be thinner). Draw thick lines across the top and bottom of your ovals for eyelids, then draw an oval inside of the eye for the iris (the colored part). More circles inside create highlights; yes, they're really big! Add some curly eyelashes (not too many...) and VOILA! Big watery Sailormoon eyes!
The nose and mouth are relatively simple to draw. Since her head is sorta sideways (this is called a 3/4 view, BTW) draw her nose as a little "less than" symbol, a tiny triangle. The mouth seems to be at an odd position when compared with the nose, but strangely enough, it works. Draw two lines instead of one connected line for that particularly Sailormoon-ish look. It's something that carried over from the manga. ^_^
This part is the hardest at first, but with practice, it gets easier, especially when you realize that you don't need a line for each individual hair. (I learned the hard way ~_^) Sailormoon's bangs are parted right down the middle, and curl around into a heart shape. Her odango are slightly larger than her eyes, and are just circles. The pigtails are pretty thin; if you're just drawing her face, make them two lines each, going straight off the paper. Once you've drawn the hair, you can draw the eyebrows. These always go on top of whatever hair the character has in his or her face, no matter what the anime series. Don't make girls' eyebrows too thick, and don't place them too far from the eyes unless you're trying to create an expression of shock or surprise. Together with the eyes, the eyebrows make up the most expressive part of the anime face.
Now for all the fun little accessories! The ones shown here are for Eternal Sailormoon, but from this point you can easily draw her at any stage in her evolution. ^_^ Some pointers: *Don't make the moon on her forehead too big or too wide. In the manga, her moon is very thin and small. Sometimes less is more. *Curve the hair lines in her odango. They just don't look quite right when the lines are straight. Curving them gives them depth and makes them look round. *There is no logic to feather placement. They will look like they're falling out no matter what you do with them, so go crazy!
Use your pen now to trace all the lines you want to keep and when it is dry, erase the pencil marks. Congratulations! You're finished! Does your finished Sailormoon look like this one? If not, that's perfectly OK! Keep practicing. Try drawing other senshi, and date all your pictures to record your progress. Practice is the only way to get better. If you have any specific questions about proportioning or technique, e-mail me at cauldron@sailormoon.com and I'll be happy to answer them. Until then, jaa mata ne, and happy drawing!
