The title says it all... How did you learn how to draw?

Hmmm, not sure if my drawing counts as anime anymore but that is how I started. From what I remember I studied drawings and pictures from my favorite anime/manga for stylizing the art, and I guess real life for posing and proportions. perspectives too, though pictures from animes help me figure out how to show certain perspectives on paper. That probably made no sense.^^;

Anyways I had my older sister always drawing with me too which also helped, would always try and catch up to her, though for some reason our styles never really became the same.

I had drawing books when i first started, Me and my Friend would draw and do the whole constructive criticism thing. I didn't get very good till i started seeing different styles and adding to my own.

It's simple!

I learned drawing thanks to these combination of factors:

1. My incredibly boring school hours
2. Overdose of AXN (at that time, Samurai X and Slam Dunk)

When I was little I always loved to draw, when I learned what anime/manga actually was, I changed my style. Looking back at some of the drawings I did back then I'm amazed that I drew them. They were so badly done. . . still can't draw male characters tho.

Didn't have any back then, but now I have a few books on drawing anime/manga. Although I really only use them for clothing ideas.

I've been drawing since I was really young. The first Manga style I attempted was when I was reading .hack a few years ago and I saw an illustration of one of the characters that I just loved, so I recreated it myself. After a few months of drawing things I saw in front of me (meaning, drawing different characters from different pages, exactly as they appeared) I started making my own characters. My brother had a How to Draw Manga book that I leafed through, but really didn't pay too much attention to it.

Basically, I practiced realism for a while to get my proportions in line, and then practiced my Manga style. It helps to focus on realism first so that your proportions don't get TOO distorted when drawing characters or cartoons.

I've been drawing (or "doodling" as I first called it) since elementary school. It just started with little things like dogs and cats, then I moved on to drawing fairies and the like. It's funny because the first people I started drawing with were fairies with blank faces and looked like their hands had been cut off. Because I couldn't either of them! Lol.

Then in middle school I started watching anime and copying how their eyes looked. Honestly I have pages and pages of school "notes" that have eyes drawn all over them. I kept practicing drawing eyes alot, and now I'm pretty pleased to say that I get alot of compliments from people saying that the eyes on draw on my characters are one of their best features. In highschool I started watching other genres of anime like Last Exile and Wolf's Rain, ones that aren't the traditional anime style. That's probably where I got alot of my inspiration from today.

I looked up tutorials on the internet and followed the steps... I copied some pictures for practice (by eye, not traced). I remember searching for tutorials all the time when I was around 14.

I agree with Symphonic Trance that learning anatomy first is crucial.

My first "anime" drawings were in elementary school, when my friend first introduced me to Sailor Moon, and they were unbelievably bad. =D
I wasn't able to draw anything worthwhile until I stopped copying manga, took some art classes and tried to understand the human figure--then went back and stylized from there. (Although my anatomy is still far, far from perfect, my stylized drawings have improved immensely.)

Well I'm don't know exactly. But when I was little I use to love watching the powerpuff girls. I love them so much, I started drawing them I kept drawing until I got better and better at it. Then on day saw Sailor Moon on TV; back then I didn't know what Anime was, but I knew I like it. I loved watch that show one day I saw it in a magazine then drew it. man the frist time had to be a nightmare because when I finished it was awful. I though maybe I should stick to stick figures. but no I continued until i got better, witch I did. but for some reason I can't find that picture anywhere. so sad, but atleast I keep track of my new arts there so good my Anime pictures ar so nice. I drew a Picture the girl from Maburaho,Yunu and she looked dead onand here it is tell me what you think.

heres more







I don't really like this one I forgot to shade it in and its not the whole picture. its on a big paper sooo...

I have more but this should be enough

I pretty much taught myself to draw, watching a couple of other people do proportions, foreshortening, etc.
I still struggle with it, though since I've come to college as an art major, I've gotten a lot better.
The biggest thing seems to be using an appropriate reference... reference material (stock photography/friends, etc) are absolutely crucial in getting proper proportions and foreshortening...

It's no coincidence that many people see anime and decide to mimic it when they're first learning how to draw. Anime doesn't abide to natural proportions which isn't just hard to figure out when you're just starting to draw, it's daunting. It also tends toward simplicity while still being both beautiful and impressive.

Way back in '98-'99 Fox was showing Cardcaptor Sakura and though I had been drawing before then, I hadn't before had a 'style' I was trying for... So I suppose making Cardcaptors fan art was when I really started drawing and improving. 10 years later and my artwork looks nothing like the "show that started it all".

I've drawn since I was 11 years old.
My techneique was to pause the t.v. at a pose - and try your best to draw it.
Keep at it - dont give up if it doesnt look perfect - just teach your hand and you hand will teach your brain.

At first it may not look right, but eventually if u go with the flow I'm sure you will do fine. Another thing most people do is look at themselves in a mirror and involve their body features with their art.

Like me - I'm naturally curvy, so my art has men and woman who are really curvey and super skinny.

I will post an example later.

(( hope that helps ))
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((random))

I draw in anime style sometimes. Personally, I learned how to draw realistically first, and then I learned by drawing from anime screen shots, trying to mimic mangaka's styles, and prayer. I think people can learn by repetition, too.

How I learned how to draw? Well, as for anime, I've always been into it, so I just kept practicing and taught myself. I used to look up tutorials, now whenever I feel like changing or fixing something I try to look around, see what type of styles I enjoy, and mimic/change those styles to fit my own. :3

I started out just doodling simple heads... what I would later know as chibi. I just drew anytime I wasn't writing notes for school... like in the margins.
I bought tons of how to books. How to draw manga... sculpting human bodies... etc. I just... practiced and changed what I didn't like...

I was inspired to start drawing anime from my friend, and when i look at the old stuff i drew it's like "AAAAGH!!! IT BURNS!!!!!" they were SO awful. But i'm getting better all the time! 8D i'm trying to learn all the anatomy and proportions really well so i'm able to draw realisticly so i can exagerate stuff later on.

Hm....I know I was young when I learned. I was problly about 8yrs old. And all started with pokemon LOL oh the good old days. Umz...Now I draw and then scan my pic's in on the computer and then do ALOT of work on Adobe....life was easyer when I just drew scribles but I've come along way ^__^=:yumeh1:

I learned myself...drawing outlines of human bodies....everything has shapes. Circles, triangles, squares...etc..

this is a comparison drawing of my art back when i first started drawing, to sometime recently.
i started out just copying people on the internet and getting tons of drawing books from the library. :]
but i mostly learned techniques and things with help from tutorials, and also just paying close attention to the details in the manga i was reading.
and i've just been practicing and trying to improve ever since. experience is really key on improvement.

I learned to draw the old fashioned way. Art classes in school, so I started drawing realistically and branched out to anime after falling in love with DBZ and Sailor Moon. I've always had a firm belief that understanding the natural body is a must before characterizing it, was given that belief by my art teacher Mr. Getman (best teacher ever :D) when we started a course on cartooning.

I just tried drawing InuYasha&Hamtaro characters. Over&over until I got things the eyes&'anime things' down perfectly.
Simple I know, but that's how I got started.
After that I got those "Learn to draw manga" books and did my homework on the bodies. : |

Now, I can't say I draw anime anymore-
I more or less branched off into a more realistic-style with the anime face. : |
BUt, that's just cuz I can't draw realistic faces anyways. : P

How to draw manga books helped me a lot. The thing that's helped me the most is figure drawing class. I highly highly suggest anyone who wants to draw people well, especially for anime, to take that class once they get into college. Anime is simplifying the human figure and when you know where everything is it makes it so much easier. Also you can develope your own proffessional style once you know how the real human body works. Draw as much real people as you can. Shade them... try to avoid drawing outlines for a while and hone your skills. Yes classical/traditional studies can be boring in comparison but it has helped my SO much. It'll help you. For now I'd suggest drawing from an anatomy drawing book. Also, it helps immensly for putting the figure in space. I didn't know how to have two people together, or have a human figure sitting very well or connected with anything else in general. Now, I can draw my person doing whatever I want. Trust me. This helps. A lot. :)

I copied pictures out of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time guidebook. Yes, video games taught me how to draw, or at least got me started.

After that it was just drawing all the time and reading manga which tuned me in to mistakes I was making in my work.

I learned how to draw by lots and lots of practice.* I started out drawing anime when I was in 8th grade and my best friend said that I'd be really good at it.* Then I started getting more and more into anime itself by famous anime and manga artists and that really inspired me.* I love to draw and create new characters everyday.* lol.* It's my passion one might say.