Mark Crilley - Chibi! The Official Mark Crilley How-to-Draw Guide

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This book is dedicated to my lovely wife, Miki

Many aspiring artists worry too much about art supplies. There almost seems to be the belief that buying the right stuff is the single most important part of creating great art, but thats like thinking youll be able to swim as fast as Olympic gold medalists do by wearing the right swimsuit. It doesnt work that way.

What really matters is not the pencil but the brain of the person holding it. Experiment to find the size, styles and brands you like best. If it feels right to you, thats all that matters.

I almost want to cry when I see that someone has put hours and hours of work into a drawing on a piece of loose-leaf notebook paper. Do yourself a favor and get a pad of smooth bristol. Its thick and sturdy and can hold up to repeated erasing.

Pencils come down to personal preference. Perfect for me may be too hard or soft for you. I like a simple no. 2 pencil (the kind we all grew up with), but there are pencils of all kinds of hardness and quality. Try some out to see what kind of marks they make. The softer the lead, the more it may smear.

Get a good permanent ink pen at an art store, one that wont fade or bleed over time. Dont confine yourself to superfine tips. Have a variety of pens with different tip widths for the various lines you need.

Get yourself a nice clear plastic ruler so that you can see the art as you make lines. A 15-inch (38cm) ruler is good for even some of the longest lines.

These big soft erasers, available in art stores, are great for erasing huge areas without leaving tons of pink dust behind. However, they arent always precise, so feel free to use them in combination with a regular pencil eraser.

Ive come to prefer a simple handheld disposable sharpener over an electric one. Youll get the best use out of it while the blade is perfectly sharp.

Lets begin with a little practice lesson. This will help you get used to the step-by-step teaching method Ill be using throughout this book. Your drawings dont need to be perfect. Just do your best and have fun with it!

Using a pencil, draw the shape of a chibi head. The top of the head is very much like a circle. The sides are straight lines, tilted inward just a bit, and the bottom curves gently to form the chin.

Add the shapes of the eyes and mouth. Note that the eyes are very far from the top of the head. (This is true of almost all chibi drawings.) The eyes are oval-shaped but flattened a bit on the bottoms.

Draw eyebrows, upper eyelashes and ears. The eyelashes are quite thick. Ive added a small circle in the top of each eye to make them appear shiny. Note how low the ears are on the head compared to the eyes.

Draw a basic outline of the hair that roughly follows the shape of the head. Ive added details to the eyes: eyelid folds above each eyelash and a U-shaped line inside each iris to indicate the pupil.

Almost done! Just add a series of V-shaped lines to serve as her bangs. Note that they all point in slightly different directions, curving across the shape of the forehead.

Take your pen and ink all the lines. Allow plenty of time for the ink to dry, then erase all the penciled guidelines. Congratulations! Youve drawn a chibi head, and youre ready to move on to the next lesson.

Chibis have a more lighthearted spirit to them than other manga characters, and I believe the process of learning how to draw them should be similarly lighthearted. Rather than sweating over lessons on anatomy and perspective, why not just hop straight into drawing chibis in all their hypercute glory? The ten lessons in this first chapter will allow you to do just that.

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