How to Draw An Anime Side Profile. Whenever you draw a human head and face, there are always challenges, regardless of the style.

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Each angle you draw the face from presents unique challenges which apply to a side profile.

When drawing a side profile, you need to get the proportions and shape of the face right, or it won’t look recognizable.

The ideas will be the same, whether it’s a realistic drawing, a simple cartoon, or an anime character.

This anime side profile drawing guide will show you how to draw a character from this angle. It will be in a typical anime style, and you will see how easy and fun it can be!

As we draw a specific character in this guide, you can translate what you’ve learned into other characters and designs.

We’ll also review a few ways to get this right in this guide, so there’s plenty to cover and lots of fun!

You’ve come to the right place if you’ve always wanted to learn how to create your anime side profile drawing.

Now let’s start breaking down this drawing so you can start creating your cool anime characters!

How to Draw An Anime Side Profile

Step 1

There are some tricky parts to this drawing, so before we start, we will slow things down and prepare for the drawing.

One of the most difficult things will be getting the proportions and smaller elements of the face right.

Because of this, it is highly recommended that you use your pencil to draw a rough version of a head. It doesn’t have to be exactly the shape of the final head or anything like that.

When doing this trick, you should capture at least the size and general shape of the side profile we will draw. Once we have this, we can draw the first line of the drawing.

This will be the front of the face, which includes a view of the nose, mouth, and where the chin begins. When you draw this line, match it to the one in our example as closely as possible.

If you drew a rough shape of the head as we suggested, then this part will be placed on the left side of this rough shape. As you will see, the longest and largest curve is above the nose.

The nose then protrudes slightly, with a rounded tip protruding. The lips will be much smaller, and we’ll draw the chin later.

That’s all there is to that particular step, and we can move on to the next one! The next step is to draw the chin and jawline, which will help bring this drawing together.

Step 2

The line we drew in step one still looks like little.

We can tell what it is because we know what builds it, but when someone looks at it for what it is, they may still need to learn what it is.

After this step, it will be easy to see what it should be! In this step, we’re going to draw the chin and jawline of the character, and this part might be more complicated than you might expect.

As in the example, the chin can be drawn as a rounded square. This may not be realistic for real life as our chins tend to be much more rounded, but it all works to create the kind of anime style we aim for.

This chin slopes to a slight slope with a slightly wavy line. The back of the jaw will also be fairly rounded, as you can replicate from the sample image.

The jaw will connect directly to the ear, where we’ll finish this step. Again, drawing this ear, we aim for something other than realism.

The ear is quite large on the head and feels round but boxy. It might seem unclear to read it that way, but the image shows you what it should look like. That’s all for now, so let’s move on when you’re ready.

Step 3

We won’t be working on the face for a while. Instead, this and the next few steps in this guide to drawing an anime side profile will focus mostly on this character’s hair.

Let’s draw just a small portion of the hair, focusing on the bangs and the hair near the ear.

While there are many interesting hairstyles in anime, many hairstyles are quite spiky and jagged.

This particular hairstyle we’re designing is a little more muted and realistic than some of the crazier anime hairstyles out there, but it still has that signature anime edge.

There are no straight lines for these sections of hair. Each part is drawn with a curved line, merging into a pointed point at the end.

It doesn’t have to look exactly like ours when you draw this part, but keeping it close enough is recommended.

If you wish, you can lengthen or shorten these sections of hair depending on your preference.

If you decide to lengthen your hair and see the character’s eyes later, leave enough room for them!

We’ll finish the outline for the hairstyle in the next step, so continue with this part if you’re happy with the look.

Step 4

As promised, we will add the rest of the hair outline in this step. We’ll also draw the neck and a few other details, so there’s a lot to do in this step!

As always, we’re going to take it slow, so let’s focus on the contour of the hair first. The sections of hair that we drew in the previous step were quite spiky and pointy, and the rest of the outline is smoothed out.

There will be a few jagged sections here and there, but overall we’ll mostly use fairly smooth curved lines.

Add a curl above the top of the section we finished earlier, and then add the rounded outline that extends toward the back.

There will be a little dip in the middle of the top of the canopy, and there will be some really small, sharp points showing where the separation is.

The back of the head has a few more pointed tips than the front, which closes the contour of the hairstyle. Next, we draw the neck.

The nape at the back is drawn with a slightly curved line going down from the back of the base of the hairstyle. At the front of the neck, we use much more angular curved lines, as shown in the reference image.

Finally, we add a curved line with a sharp kick on the left side above where the eye will go.

This eyebrow adds attitude to the character, and you can change it up a bit if you prefer a different facial expression.

Step 5

Now we will finish this anime side profile outline so you can focus on some coloring fun.

Before adding the final details, erase any remaining pencil lines you don’t need.

This is how we will attract attention. The outline of the eye is drawn with two small curved lines that connect at a sharp point.

Next, draw some small round, oval shapes for the iris and pupil of the eye. Now it’s time for minor details to help bring this character to life!

First, add some intricate lines in the ear to make it more realistic. Next, add some lines to the hairstyle to give it more volume and texture.

Now that those final details have been added, it’s time to take over and show off what you’ve got! This drawing was always about creating the character you wanted, so we encourage you to bring some of your ideas to the drawing.

You could add more characters by drawing their body and a pose. Adding a background would also give this design a greater sense of space.

Adding accessories like glasses, hats, or trendy clothes can also add further personalization. Then we go to the last step, where we will have fun with colors!

Step 6

For this last step, we have shown you one of the endless possibilities you can use when coloring your creation!

Anime characters can have all kinds of amazing colors and designs so that you can have a lot of fun.

We’ve kept things smaller for our example to show you how it can be done. We used a lighter skin tone for the character and then some simple shades of brown for the hair.

This more understated look certainly works, but you don’t have to respect it! If desired, this sign could have colored highlights that glow neon.

You can also use glitter or stickers to shine the hair. These are just a few ideas, but you can use your favorite mediums effectively.

Mixing media can also help add some amazing highlights and effects to the colors, and there’s no wrong way to do it. The best thing you can do is have fun and get inspired!

Your Anime Side Profile Drawing is Finished!