This beginner friendly tutorial explains how to color a graphic symbol in the anime fashion with detailed step by step examples and explanations.

Anime girl coloring step by step
Anime girl coloring footstep by step

The coloring style used in anime is known equally "Cel Shading". Cel shading is a technique by and large used in animations and manga/comic book mode fine art likewise as 3d renderings where there are no gradients used betwixt the shaded and normal areas.

To keep this tutorial beginner friendly it will focus on applying the blank minimum shading mostly used in anime in most normal lighting conditions.

Yous can likewise apply the tips in this tutorial to drawing other anime characters. You tin simply add more steps if you want to color a more circuitous character.

For assist with picking a color combination for your character you lot tin meet:

Beginner Guide to Picking Colors When Cartoon Anime & Manga

Coloring  & Shading Order

When coloring and shading a drawing you lot want to start with the largest areas of the drawing first and work down to the smaller details. You volition too want color in your whole drawing earlier applying the shadows.

If you lot are going to be drawing on newspaper be certain to leave the highlighted areas white. If you are going to be coloring digitally y'all can add the highlights later on you lot color the entire drawing.

Y'all may also be interested in:

Should You lot Buy a Pen Tablet for Drawing Anime and Manga?

Step ane – Outline Drawing

Anime girl waving outline drawing
Anime girl waving outline drawing

Earlier you can color you should accept a nice and make clean line cartoon of your anime graphic symbol.

If you demand help drawing an anime character you tin can meet the Tutorials section of the site.

Step 2 – Black Areas

Anime girl drawing black fill
Anime daughter drawing black fill

The first areas you will want to fill in are any parts that will be completely black or basically the same color as the lines in the line drawing.

If you lot are drawing an anime character similar the i in the in a higher place example the black areas will commonly be the eyelashes and pupils of the eyes. Once more be sure to leave the reflections white when filling in the pupils if you are drawing on paper.

Step 3 – Body Colour

Coloring anime girl body
Coloring anime daughter torso

As the trunk will be the ane of the major areas of the drawing nosotros will color that in starting time. At this stage simply make full in the entire area with one solid color

Step 4 – Apparel Color

Coloring anime girl clothes
Coloring anime daughter wearing apparel

In this example the apparel are just the shirt which. Fill it in with one solid color just like the body.

For drawing anime clothes see:

How to Draw Anime & Manga Clothes

Footstep 5 – Hair Color

Coloring anime girl hair
Coloring anime daughter hair

When coloring the pilus over again go out the highlight expanse white if drawing on paper. If cartoon digitally you tin can add together the highlight in over top of the colour.

For drawing anime hair see:

How to Draw Anime & Manga Male person & Female Hair

Step 6 – Eye Colour

Coloring anime girl eyes
Coloring anime girl optics

As the pupils volition be blackness simply color in the iris of the eyes.

For cartoon anime eyes see:

  • How to Draw Anime Eyes and Eye Expressions
  • How to Draw Dissimilar Types of Anime and Manga Optics
  • iv Means to Draw Crying Anime Optics
  • How to Describe Anime & Manga Eyes – Side View

Pace 7 – Rima oris Color

Coloring anime girl mouth
Coloring anime girl oral fissure

Color in the rima oris area excluding the teeth.

For cartoon anime mouths see:

  • How to Describe Anime and Manga Mouth Expressions
  • How to Draw Anime & Manga Mouths – Side View

Step 8 – Body Shading

Shading anime girl body
Shading anime daughter body

For the sake of keeping the tutorial fairly easy we will but utilise blank minimum shadows to the torso shading the most commonly shaded areas. In this case we will add:

  • Shadows on the head from the hair
  • A shadow on one side of the olfactory organ
  • Some tiny shadows around the eyelid areas
  • A shadow to the neck cast by the head
  • Shadows to emphasize the collar bones

Step nine – Dress Shading

Shading anime girl clothes
Shading anime girl clothes

Equally the wear for this example is fairly tight with no folds merely add a tiny shadow below the breast expanse.

For shading more than complex anime clothes yous can see:

How to Draw an Anime School Girl in 6 Steps

Step x – Hair Shading

Shading anime girl hair
Shading anime girl hair

To again keep the shading to a bare minimum for the pilus merely darken the inner expanse of the back of the pilus.

Stride xi – Eye Shading

Shading anime girl eyes
Shading anime girl eyes

Shade in the top of the irises as there will usually exist a shadow/reflection there cast by the eyelashes.

Footstep 12 – Rima oris Shading

Anime girl waving color drawing
Anime girl waving colour drawing

Finally darken the oral cavity area excluding the natural language and you lot should exist done.

Conclusion

Cell shading can on i hand exist easier as it'southward adequately basic shading but at the same time it tin be difficult to find the right areas to shade. Every bit mentioned earlier the suggested shading areas in this tutorial volition by and large be the ones that are darker in nearly normal conditions but you tin certainly experiment with different types of lighting.