Sketching Anime Faces
Start sketching expressive anime characters from absolute scratch using simple geometric scaffolding. Learn how to place iconic facial features, shape dynamic hair clumps, and rotate the head into a believable three-quarter view.
Like Duolingo, but for Sketching Anime Faces. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
A short one: 12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes end to end, roughly 5 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Constructing the Frontal Portrait and Form, Silhouette, and Angles. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Sketching Anime Faces
- Pivoting from the wrist creates short, choppy arcs that result in scratchy 'hairy' lines
- Driving large curves from the shoulder and elbow gives the sweeping range needed for a clean, round skull circle
- The base circle represents the cranial ball (the rounded upper skull)
- The jaw lines start near the circle's horizontal midpoint (equator) and taper down to create the characteristic anime chin wedge
- Beginners instinctively place eyes too high because they underestimate how much space the cranial dome takes up
- Measuring from the very top of the head to the chin tip places the eye level right around the halfway mark
- The space between the eye line and the chin is evenly stepped down into landmarks
- The nose sits roughly halfway between the eyes and the chin, followed closely below by the mouth and lower lip shelf
- Underdrawings need minimal pressure so construction marks erase effortlessly once clean lines are added
- Pressing hard carves grooves into the paper or leaves stubborn dark smudges under finished line art
- Light lines make it painless to test and adjust proportions before committing
- Anime upper eyelids are built from bold, sweeping ribbon curves rather than rigid mechanical lines
- Enclosing the entire eye in an unbroken oval makes the sketch look like a diagram rather than stylized anime
- Varying the thickness along the upper lash curve gives the eye dynamic flow and weight
- Modern anime style leaves open space between the upper eyelid and lower lash mark
- Connecting the lash lines into a fully enclosed loop tends to look harsh, heavy, or dated
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Sketching Anime Faces the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
Which joints should drive your movement to sketch a smooth, confident circle for an anime head?
Get it right to open this lesson and 11 more in the app.
Where Sketching Anime Faces takes you
- 1
Constructing the Frontal Portrait
- The Circle and Cross: Head Scaffolding
- Anime Eyes and Facial Shorthand
- 2
Form, Silhouette, and Angles
- Sculpting Anime Hair in 3D Clumps
- Turning the Head: The Three-Quarter View
2 sections · 4 units · 12 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
Sketching Anime Faces is taught in the Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Sketching Anime Faces today.
Download Tomo, search Sketching Anime Faces, and play your first lesson in under a minute.