Drawing Anime Clothing Folds

This is one of the difficulties I had to overcome when I first started to draw anime.  I've noticed that anime clothing folds tend to be quite sharp and 'unnatural'.  In this tutorial, you'll be learning how to make folds look somewhat more 'natural'.  This tutorial works with almost every type of flowing fabric.  

Approx. Time: 10 mins (not very long if you have lots of practice)

Feel free to share your work!  I'd love to see them!  ^ ^

Step 1: Outline

Ok...  So, we'll be working with a robe I suppose.  You know how robes tend to have HUGE sleeves that make you want to twirl around?  We'll be working with those in this tutorial.  Yes, it's meant to be an arm.  Ignore the fingers cause this tutorial is about the sleeve.  Start by drawing a right triangle for his extended arm.  This is used to guild you.  

Comments

[tokyo101]

thank you so much i am good at alot of manga stuff but clothing is my art blocker and its about to break

[Thergox]

I love drawing loose clothing like this because of the many directions they go! However, I am in need of help when it comes to tighter clothing -- not skin-tight, but something along the lines of a uniform. Is it possible for you to make an instructable for such a thing?

[cynthia2901]

Of course! Here's the link: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Draw-Body-hugging-Clothing/ ! Sorry about how long it took for me to reply! Summer came into the way. ^.^|||

[kaylaangelkisses]

Can you do a tutorial on the hands please? And if you can't, how did you learn to draw them?

[cynthia2901]

I'll try to make one. I'm not exactly sure how I learnt to draw hands... It started out ugly and I guess it just kind of got better... Probably from watching too much anime XD

[kaylaangelkisses]

Thanks! I don't really watch anime alot, mostly read it. Great tutorial by the way

[kaylaangelkisses]

manga I mean

[kaylaangelkisses]

manga I mean

[cynthia2901]

I barely read manga. Cause I'm far too lazy to actually read the words. ^ ^

[Dream Dragon]

I love this! Being more of an "engineery sort" I'm not really big on the "arty" sort of drawings, but it's really nice to see a well written and easy to follow tut about getting some of those tricky bits right. one thing I ALWAYS struggle with is the folds and flow of fabric, hands always look like a bunch of bananas, and general proportions are always wrong. But then I'm something of a perfectionist too and I'm easily frustrated if things done turn out right first time.

[cynthia2901]

Thanks! I'm glad you found my tutorial easy. I know what you mean. It was quite a challenge to figure out the anatomy of things. Took quite some time. Like you, I'm somewhat like a perfectionist too. I try my hardest to make sure everything I do is satisfactory. I'm more of the kind that gets really mad if I don't see any improvement. And I tend to see all the faults first.