Freehand circles mandalaTo draw actually good kawaii information technology's not necessary to draw perfect circles freehand (although information technology's a very absurd skill!). Every bit long every bit the circumvolve is mostly circular, it volition work!

After all, we are drawing real living kawaii, non machines. And real living heads and bodies are never perfectly round.

What we don't want is aiming for a circle and producing a potato :).

In this post I will share how I expert drawing circles for a week and my drawing results (similar this freehand mandala design).

This is Week three of my personal drawing claiming to learn how to describe kawaii in 6 months.

How I Practiced Drawing Circles

I used to think that I suck at cartoon, considering my circles were never circular… Just after some practise (just a couple of days), they got MUCH amend!

Start, I good lots of circles on graph paper. This develops the eye-hand necessary for drawing circles.

Here is a sample page:

circles on graph paper

Case of drawing lots of circles on graph paper

When I felt confident with circles on graph paper, I drew random circles on printer paper (folded in one-half) and colored around them. This created a fun doodling folio! Yous tin can wait for a bus and practice your circles at the same time :).

Doodle with circles

Doodles with circles

Another fun style to practice circles is to create designs with them and utilize as coloring pages. The finished coloring can be a folder cover or a cute bulletin card.

Beneath is an case of a pattern I did. The circles are not all perfect, ha. But information technology doesn't thing!

Coloring page with circle designs

Coloring page with circumvolve designs

How I Skilful Drawing Believable Spheres

By the cease of the calendar week I was curious about how to make my circles look three-dimensional. Similar a real caput! I tried to draw curved lines over the surface, but they nevertheless didn't look round :(.

What to do???… Employ a reference!

I got a $1 styrofoam brawl from a dollar-shop and drew the axis on it with a permanent marker.

How to draw believable spheres by using a reference ball

How to draw conceivable spheres by using a reference ball

So I used the ball to describe lots of circles at different angles.

3D Spheres

Spheres exercise, perfect for learning to draw faces

This understanding of how to draw spheres will be VERY useful, when I go to drawing heads and faces. The axis testify where the eyes and nose and mouth will go. No matter what the bending, I will exist able to place the face correctly!

Techniques for Drawing Perfect Circles

When if comes to cartoon circles, the biggest factor is "muscle memory". Your hand needs to know how a circle feels and how your arm needs to move. Then in one word: practice.

2nd virtually of import thing is existence able to complete the circumvolve in one move. To achieve this, you need to be able to see the infinite where the circle volition go. Motility your paper around until you are confident that the circumvolve will not be obstructed as you draw it, and that you take enough space for the hand to motility.

Below are a few more tips:

  • Outset by drawing lots and lots of circles on graph paper to get used to the movement
  • Experiment with drawing circles in different directions. Sometimes, get left-to-correct, then change right-to-left. You might find that i of the directions works better for y'all.
  • If you get frustrated and unhappy with your cartoon results, lower the claiming. Draw something simpler until you become satisfied again. When I start drew the circle mandala (at the beginning of this post), I made if very complicated, and it came out to be a mess! I was upset. Then I simplified it to but three layers, and I was enjoying myself once again. Phew!
  • Use smaller drawing paper (A5 works well) to make sure that yous can easily motility the folio effectually
  • If you do need to produce a perfect circle (say, y'all are drawing a robot), just use a compass or a round object to outline. That's why we have them!

Materials I Used

Here is a complete list of materials I used this calendar week.

  • Micron pen, blackness, size 04
  • Artline pen, black, size 04. I've always used Micron pens before and I thought they are the best. Simply I decided to endeavor Artline, just on a whim, and I really like information technology! Information technology draws smoother than Micron, and information technology feels more juicy. I still use Microns, when I demand a precise line. But I will at present add together Artline to my tool box for more expressive lines.
  • Tombow Dual Brush pen, black
  • Styrofoam craft ball to use every bit reference
  • Staedtler permanent marker, black, to describe on the styrofoam ball
  • Graph paper
  • Printer newspaper (so you can depict with no pressure, if you mess upwardly you can but throw it out!). Fold the paper in half to make information technology smaller and easier to motion effectually the table. This is very important for cartoon circles!
Total disclosure: I personally ain and use all of these. If you buy anything using my links, Amazon volition pay me a small committee (no price to you - cheers!). But if yous normally store somewhere else, it'due south totally ok too.

Drawing Time Diary

Monday, Nov 28: two sessions, 45 min, 1 60 minutes
Tuesday, Nov 29: two sessions, 20 min, 40 min
Midweek, Nov thirty: two sessions, 45 min, 1hr
Thursday, Dec 1: ane session, 35 min
Friday, Dec 2: one session, 1.5 hr
Sat, December three: no drawing 🙁
Sunday, Dec iv: one session, 30 min

Full cartoon time: seven hr 5 min