This tutorial shows how to draw a female person anime or manga manner elf character with several variations of the ears, face up and colors.

Anime elf girl drawing step by step
Anime elf girl drawing footstep by step

The main thing that sets anime/manga elves apart from homo characters are of course the ears. The pointy ears may besides be fatigued on other fantasy or sci-fi blazon grapheme types.

This tutorial provides the following:

  • A step by stride breakup of drawing an anime elf'due south face
  • Four different ways of drawing elf ears
  • Two variations of drawing the face
  • Two unlike color combinations (for regular or dark elf character)

If you are going to be drawing using pencil and paper be sure to offset with light lines that you lot can easily erase. You will demand to do so in betwixt some of the steps. Y'all tin can trace over your line with a darker stroke afterwards yous terminate placing the various parts of the head/face.

Footstep ane – Describe the Centre Guide Line & Peak of the Head

Anime elf girl head top drawing
Anime elf girl caput top drawing

Begin past making a vertical line through the eye of your cartoon expanse. This line can help you meet if both halves of the head are equal in width.

Side by side describe a circumvolve that will represent the tiptop part of the head.

Step 2 – Draw the Bottom of the Head

Anime elf girl head bottom drawing
Anime elf daughter head bottom drawing

Going down from the circle depict the bottom part of the caput. As shown in the above case the bottom portion should kickoff with a pair of lines that so bend into another pair that finally joins with a pocket-size curve to class the chin.

Pace 3 – Describe the Neck & Shoulders

Anime elf girl neck and shoulders drawing
Anime elf girl neck and shoulders drawing

From the bottom portion of the face depict the lines for the neck going down into the shoulders. Adding a bit of the shoulders will make the drawing look more than like an actual portrait instead of just a "floating" head.

For more than on cartoon necks and shoulders encounter:

How to Describe Anime Neck & Shoulders

Step iv – Position & Draw the Optics

Vertical Eye Positioning

Anime elf girl inner angled eyes drawing
Anime elf girl inner angled eyes drawing

To place the eyes first split up the face in half with a directly horizontal line. This line can likewise assistance you make sure that both eyes are on the aforementioned level.

In this case the eyes will exist fairly narrow so draw them slightly below the line.

For this starting time example depict the eyes with their inner ends angled slightly downward (towards the nose).

For now get out out the smaller details such as the eyelashes, pupils and reflections. These will be added in a later on step.

Horizontal Center Spacing

Anime elf girl eye spacing
Anime elf girl eye spacing

Space the optics about far enough apart that you lot can fit another eye between them.

Different Eye Types

Anime elf girl outer angled eyes drawing
Anime elf girl outer angled eyes drawing

Depending on the type of graphic symbol yous want to accept yous can draw some other variation of the optics as shown in a higher place. This particular one can be for a more "mild" personality.

For this set of optics draw them with their outer ends (towards the sides of the face) angled downward.

For drawing dissimilar eye expressions encounter:

How to Depict Anime Eyes and Eye Expressions

Footstep 5 – Position & Draw the Eyebrows

Anime elf girl lowered eyebrows drawing
Anime elf daughter lowered eyebrows drawing

A slight distance above the optics draw the eyebrows. For this set of optics draw the eyebrows angled downwardly towards the olfactory organ (same equally the eyes).

For drawing different types of eyebrows also see:

How to Draw Anime & Manga Eyebrows

Different Eyebrow Types

Anime elf girl raised eyebrows drawing
Anime elf girl raised eyebrows cartoon

If y'all chose the second fashion of optics in the previous step y'all tin can draw the eyebrows slightly raised and angled the other way.

Step vi – Position & Draw the Olfactory organ

Anime elf girl nose drawing
Anime elf girl nose cartoon

Depict the nose as pretty much just a dot or tiny vertical nuance. For this particular face position the nose slightly above the halfway point between the line used for placing the optics and the bottom of the chin.

For more ways to describe noses see:

How to Draw Anime and Manga Noses

Step 7 – Position & Draw the Mouth

Anime elf girl mouth drawing
Anime elf girl mouth cartoon

The bottom lip of the mouth (not actually drawn) will be roughly halfway between the bottom of the nose and the bottom of the chin. You can draw the actual rima oris just a tiny bit above that bespeak.

In this case the character volition have a bit of a grinning so you lot can draw the rima oris slightly loner and more curved than in it's natural state.

For more on oral fissure expressions come across:

  • How to Draw Anime Mouths Tutorial
  • How to Describe Anime and Manga Mouth Expressions
  • 12 Anime Facial Expressions Chart & Drawing Tutorial

Footstep viii – Position & Draw the Elf Ears

Anime elf ears drawing different types
Anime elf ears drawing dissimilar types

The way elf ears are drawn can sometimes merely be a style decision merely other times they tin can also help emphasize a character's personality. For instance more than up pointing ears can mean a more "upbeat" personality. Downwards pointed ears on the other hand tin be attributed to characters with a more a more than balmy or shy personality.

Ane explanation for this tin can exist that animals tend to raise their ears when warning/on guard and lower them when scared. This is something that pretty much everyone knows and is used to. Therefore drawing pointy anime/manga ears in a particular means tin can assist send a visual message about the graphic symbol they are attributed to.

You can use the first ii pairs in the case for the regular/upbeat face up and the last set for the balmy/shy one.

For drawing normal ears see:

How to Draw Anime and Manga Ears

Drawing Raised Ears

Anime raised elf ears drawing
Anime raised elf ears drawing

While quite often the base of the the ears is hidden behind pilus its a practiced idea to know how to identify them on the head for times when you do desire to bear witness them fully and to assistance avoid mistakes.

For this showtime fix of ears you tin can depict them with their tips raised fairly high up (by the eyebrows).

Generally you tin can either place the base of the ears with the bottom at the same level as the bottom of the olfactory organ or slightly below information technology. The meridian can be around the top of the eyes.

Since this is both a stylized and a fantasy character the ear placement is not that important merely if you are way off and then your drawing tin can end upwardly looking weird.

For some common drawing mistakes and tips on fugitive them come across:

Common Mistakes When Drawing Anime & Manga

Drawing Medium Raised Ears

Anime medium raised elf ears drawing
Anime medium raised elf ears cartoon

Equally an alternative to the previous example you can describe the ears with their ends slightly lower down.

Position the base of these ears the same way as the previous example. You can do this for the next two sets too.

Drawing Medium Lowered Ears

Anime medium lowered elf ears drawing
Anime medium lowered elf ears drawing

You tin can describe the ears with their ends fifty-fifty lower down and combine them with the second fix of eyes from pace 4 for the "mild personality" look.

Cartoon Lowered Ears

Anime lowered elf ears drawing
Anime lowered elf ears drawing

Finally yous can draw the "reversed" ears where they curve in the opposite direction and hang fairly far down.

Step 9 – Draw the Hair

When cartoon pilus you can call up of it as being split into the front, sides and back sections equally shown beneath.

For a more than detailed explanation of this as well every bit examples of other hairstyles see:

How to Draw Anime and Manga Pilus – Female

Depict the Forepart Department of the Pilus

Anime elf girl front hair drawing
Anime elf girl front pilus drawing

For this particular hairstyle get-go with the front department equally shown higher up. At that place will be a bit of a clump in the middle with the rest of the hair swept to each side.

Draw the Side Sections of the Hair

Anime elf girl sides hair drawing
Anime elf daughter sides pilus drawing

Onto the "front pilus" add together the sides. Generally hair of this length will tend to "hug" the head/confront so draw each side with a light curve.

Depict the Dorsum Section of the Hair

Anime elf girl back hair drawing
Anime elf girl back hair cartoon

Finally add the back/top section section as shown above.

Step 10 – Add the Small Details of the Facial Features

Anime elf girl raised ears drawing
Anime elf girl raised ears drawing

To finish the line cartoon add all of the smaller details.

These include the following:

  • Hints of the eyelids (between the eyebrows and eyes)
  • Eyelashes
  • Inner details of the eyes
  • Inner Details of the Ears
  • Pilus folds
  • Hints of neck muscles/collar bones

Eye Details Cartoon

Anime elf eyes drawing step by step
Anime elf eyes drawing step by step

You lot can come across a close upwardly pace by pace breakdown of drawing the optics in a higher place.

If you lot want to cease at a line drawing information technology's recommended that yous still add bit of shading to the optics (as shown in the case). If you lot are going to move onto the coloring part and so you lot can add together color instead of the grey.

For a detailed explanation of drawing anime optics run into:

How to Draw Female Anime Eyes Tutorial

For more variations of eyelashes meet:

How to Draw Anime Eyelashes Pace by Footstep

In one case done adding the small-scale details (if you were drawing in pencil and fabricated lite lines as was suggested at the start of the tutorial) y'all can at present trace over your drawing with a darker stroke. Alternatively you lot tin can too employ a black pen or mark, merely be careful not to make a error.

Alternative Face Details

Anime elf girl lowered ears drawing
Anime elf girl lowered ears drawing

Above you can besides see what the alternative version of this character with the slightly different set of ears/facial features can wait like.

Step eleven – Apply Color

Anime elf girl coloring
Anime elf girl coloring

This particular character will use just two main colors. 1 for the skin and the other for the hair, eyebrows and eyes.

Light-green is a fairly mutual anime pilus color. Information technology can besides be a good option for an elf as they are often associated with forests and nature.

Please note that if you lot are coloring on paper you may want to leave the pilus highlights white (encounter last footstep of tutorial) and colour around them. If you are coloring digitally you lot can add them in over acme of the pilus color. You can also add them with a white correction pen or white paints.

Night Elf Color Variation

Anime dark elf girl coloring
Anime dark elf girl coloring

Alternatively you can also make the character a nighttime elf by changing upwards the colors similar to the example above.

Pace 12 – Finish the Elf Graphic symbol Cartoon

Anime elves drawing
Anime elves drawing

To finish the elf drawing add some basic shading. In this particular case the character will have very generalized shadows that tend to occur in most common lighting conditions.

Add together the shadows as follows:

  • On the head/face cast by the hair
  • Around the eyelids (really small)
  • At the top of the eyes (from the eyelashes)
  • Inner parts of the ears
  • To i side of the nose
  • Below the bottom lip (lip itself not really drawn)
  • On the neck from the head/hair

For examples of shading a face in different types of lighting meet:

How to Shade an Anime Face in Different Lighting

You tin can add the shadow in exactly the same places for the night elf.

After you finish the shadows you tin can as well add some highlights to the hair. In this case they volition be done as a series of lines/zigzags just you lot tin can also do other simpler types of highlights.

There is no need to add highlights for the nighttime elf as the hair is pure white and they wont exist visible.

For examples of other types of hair highlights run into:

Dissimilar Ways to Draw Anime Hair Highlights

Normal Elf Grapheme

Anime elf girl drawing
Anime elf girl cartoon

You can come across a big finished cartoon of the first version of the elf girl above.

Alternative Elf Graphic symbol

Anime elf girl ears down drawing
Anime elf girl ears down drawing

An alternative version for the "balmy personality" look.

Dark Elf Character

Anime dark elf girl drawing
Anime dark elf girl drawing

The dark elf version is pretty much the aforementioned but with a unlike color template.

Shy Dark Elf Grapheme

Anime dark elf girl ears down drawing
Anime dark elf girl ears down drawing

And finally for the last example the dark elf version of the "mild personality".

For more on picking colors for an anime graphic symbol also see:

Beginner Guide to Picking Colors When Drawing Anime & Manga

Determination

Cartoon an anime/manga way elf character is pretty much the same as drawing a human. However with an elf you can use the ears to give them a bit of added personality equally shown with the four different ear types.

For more on drawing fantasy characters run into:

  • How to Describe an Anime Vampire Girl Step by Footstep
  • How to Draw Anime Wolf Girl Stride by Step
  • How to Describe an Anime Fob Girl Step past Footstep
  • How to Describe an Anime Panda Girl Step by Stride
  • How to Depict an Anime Cat Pace past Step

For more than on showing personality and cartoon different types of characters see:

  • How to Draw Anime Characters Tutorial
  • How to Draw a Cute Anime Girl Step by Step