for the example picture I'm using here, I decided that I wanted a fairly well built male figure - standing slightly to the side - face front - and holding a spear. I find that if I don't plan for something to be done with the hands, that they end up appearing out of place - so it's a good idea to decide if you are going to have the hands fisted, relaxed to the size, holding something, etc. before you begin to draw.

Everything must have a foundation. Buildings, thoughts, and drawings. When drawing a figure, the foundation is the guide lines. Without the guide lines, the chances are very high that you're figure will end up misproportioned, deformed, and very unrealistic looking. They help you get the height and pose figured out, they help you lay a base from which you will draw everything else - and that is why I stress how important it is to NOT skip this step!

The guides are very simplistic and are therefore easy to fix and change. This is great for trying to figure out what type of pose you want. We all know what it's like to have spent (what seems like an eternity) on something, just to look at it afterwards and think - shoot! That arm is too long! - or - Ack! The neck is too short and the elbow too high up! - This step will help illiminate some of these occurances.

The basic guides are: Circle - Head. Horizontal-ish Line - Shoulder blade. Circular shape with a curved indent towards the bottom - rib cage. Curved Semi-Virtical Line - a center guide for the bilateral split down the chest. Shorter Horizontal-ish Line - Hips. And of course the lines for the arms and legs.

The guide lines are always variable in length, depending on what sort of appearance you are looking to acheive. Traditionally, the wider the shoulder line is, the more 'massive' or 'bulky' the character will look. For making very muscular male figures, it is best to have a very wide shoulder span. No matter what, it's best to keep the hip line shorter then the shoulders.

To better explain the guides for the feet and hands, it's important to understand the mental picture I had for these parts. First the hands. The right hand is clasped around the spear. I knew that the 'top' of the hand would be facing away from the body - the palm faces in - so the fingers would be curling around the front of the spear, and the thumb would come around and up. If you're having trouble pictureing hands, you can always look in the mirror or see if you can get a friend to do a quick model for you. For the left hand, I wanted it to be balled into a fist, facing in towards the figure. The 'top' of the hand smooths back to the arm, but where the thumb comes out from the wrist, it forms a ball. These guides are very simple but provide a good enough base to add more detail later on.
As for the feet, I decided that the left foot would be facing the viewer head on, while the right foot was turned slightly to one side. Once agian the guides were very simple and quick.

The next step was to add some 'muscle' to the stick figure. These were all rather quick lines - all curves, and very few details. Here I show it with all the primary guides still in place to show you how the curves form over the basic skeleton.

A horizontal line is placed across the front of the chest as a guide for the location of the pecktoral muscles. If you were drawing a male figure with a lot of intense muscle tone, the shape would be altered slightly and the top would be emphasized a lot more then in this example.

The shoulders slope down from the neck (slightly thick - the higher the muscle tone, the thicker the neck) to form a curve for the shoulders. The biceps come out from there, and down to the elbow where the arm comes in again. The top of the forearm curves outward, but slowing comes back in where it meets the wrist.

With the waist and legs, you should come in on the waist and go out for the hips/butt in a gradual curve that slowly comes in for the knees. The calves curve out a lot to the base of the knees and then back in for the ankles.

As a few extra touches, I cleaned up the shape of the feet, the hands, and drew in the basic shape of the face/head.

Once I was satisfied with the basic shape, and sure that I was happy with the proportions and pose I began the first clean-up process. It's a good idea to keep doing this as you go so that it does get so messy that you can even tell what's what anymore. I erased all of the basic guides and any extra things that I knew I wouldn't need. I also drew in the basic neck details. The collar bones create a small dip at the base of the neck, and then two virtical areas that extend from that.

At this point I knew it was time that I would have to begin to seriously think about the clothing. Sometimes it seems that, to draw anime, you also have to become a fashion designer. For somethings it's simple - A T-Shirt! Jeans! - but of couse nothing in my life is that simple - I've just got to have Mr. Past Person with some historically influenced style of clothing.

I decided that I'd take a lot of ideas from some different types of Japanese clothing with this one, while still making it at least a little original. Besides, I really didn't want to draw kimono pants on this character ^_^

To give you a better idea of how the layering works when I add the clothing, here is a picture of the clothing, only partially drawn out. I began with the areas that I knew would practically be the same as the outline already present - the shoes and the bands of cloth that go up the legs to the calves.

Then I drew in the belt and the arm guards. From there I began work on the shirt. I knew that it would be much looser on the body so I wanted to make sure I had the main things that would be 'holding the cloth to the skin' drawn out first.

I cleaned up the areas that were no longer needed, and continued to draw in the clothing over the basic figure.

I also began to concentrate more on the details of the clothing - the wrinkles etc. Basically there is a little breeze present that is blowing both the small strands of cloth attacked to the spear, but also the only 'loose' cloth, capable of being blown - the base of his shirt. Since the cloth is being pulled slightly to the right, there are some stress lines - wrinkles - going in that direction from the point where the shirt comes down from the belt.

Also wrinkles are coming out from the knees, the base of the pants where they come out from under the leg bands. As well as from the shoulders and the areas of the arms where the bend effects the cloth.

And finally it's time to add in the face details. For help with the basic shape of the face, I suggest you check out the male faces tutorial - it was recently redone and gives several examples of different types of male faces and covers the basics of the features as well. If you need help with hair and eyes, visit the Misc. Section. A tutorial on anime eyes and another on anime hair can be found there.

And finally the hair - I would say that is drawing is completely finished! for help with hair, there is a tutorial on the basics of anime hair in the Misc. Section. It discusses how to understand where the hair is coming from and how to better form it into the desired shape, to appear attached to the head - not just a foating bowl above the head.