How to Draw Anime Holding a Sword
- 1). Draw the first half of a sword-wielding character's stick figure. Stick figures are frequently used by animators to help them position characters with complex poses in three dimensional space. The proportions given will let you draw ideal (i.e., muscular or slender) characters, which is an essential quality of anime. Use the following guide, which relates the needed "sticks" or segments, including their size and position.
Torso: Vertical segment at least three inches long.
Pelvis: Horizontal segment one-half the length torso. Attach the pelvis' midpoint to the bottom point of the torso.
Upper legs: Vertical segments attached to both ends of pelvis. Same length as pelvis.
Lower legs: Vertical segments attached to bottom points of upper legs. Same length as upper legs.
Feet: Horizontal segments attached to bottom of lower legs. Two-thirds the length of the lower legs. - 2). Form the second half of the stick figure:
Clavicle: Horizontal segment whose midpoint attaches to the top point of torso. Length: slightly longer than pelvis segment.
Upper arms: Vertical segments extending down from both ends of clavicle. Length: slightly shorter than upper legs.
Lower arms: Vertical segments extending down from bottoms of upper arms. Length: same as upper arms.
Hands: Vertical segments extending down from bottoms of lower arms. Length: half of lower arm length. - 3). Complete the stick figure by drawing an oval for the head. Size the head to have a diameter slightly less than the pelvis length.
- 4). Flesh out the stick figure into a three dimensional figure: For each of the body segments you drew in the previous steps, surround the segment with a rectangle, which represents flesh surrounding bone.
- 5). Smooth the character's harsh edges into a more natural-looking body: Curve the edges of each rectangle so that they flow into the edges of the rectangles they're joined to.
- 6). Begin posing the figure: Erase the figure's lower left arm and hand. Redraw these parts so the lower arm is significantly shorter than its original size, and extending left from the upper arm, rather than down. The shorter length represents foreshortening, the visual phenomenon displayed by objects you see from oblique viewpoints.
- 7). Add the sword: Draw a rectangle extending upward from the hand rectangle. Make the rectangle's length equal to the torso length, and taper its top to a point.
- 8). Draw the eyes. At the horizontal center of the face, draw two ovals that cover one quarter the face's length. These are the eye outlines of an anime character.
- 9). Complete the eyes by drawing two concentric ovals inside the eye outlines. Blacken the inner-most ovals, which represent pupils.
- 10
Form the nose and mouth. Add a small backward "L" at the face's center (the nose). Draw a short horizontal segment aligned vertically with the nose, and positioned midway in the space between the nose and the chin.