How to Draw Mashiro from Bakuman

Step 1

Step 01: All of the blue lines you see in the tutorial are only construction lines and will be erased later on, so don’t press too hard on your pencil. Our final lines will be in black towards the end of this tutorial. We’ll begin with our head circle.

As it can be hard to draw a circle free hand it might be a good idea to go around very lightly a few times with your pencil to get a circle outline and then draw your head circle on top. Next, we’ll draw our center line which divides the head nicely and extends slightly above and farther below the head circle. The center line and the eye line are at slight angles, so they’re not exactly flat but titled ever so slightly. The center line is titled to the left slightly and the eye line is tipped upward from left to right ever so slightly. Lastly, then, let’s add our eye line, which is a plain horizontal (at a slight angle) about a quarter of the way up the head circle.

Step 2

Step 02: Let’s continue. We’ll start with the half circles on the eye line for both eyes. Notice that the half circle for the eye on the right crosses over the eye line slightly on the right. Next, we’ll draw the jaw line. Starting on the left where the eye line meets the head circle, we’ll draw a line at an angle that curves right slightly and touches the bottom of the center line. Then from the center line the line curves back up to touch the head where the eye line and the head meet on the right. The chin should be quite pointy ^_^. Next, we’ll draw Mashiro’s ears. For the ear on the left we’ve just got to draw a thin “C” like shape starting on the head just above the eye line and stopping on the jaw. The ear on the right has more of an “S” shape with a larger upper lobe than the ear on the left. It also starts just above the eye line and finishes on the jaw line. Once you’ve got all that, we’ll move on.

Step 3

Step 03: We’ll work on Mashiro’s face in this step. Let’s begin with the eyes. Inside each of the half circles we drew for the eyes, we need to draw a vertical ellipse (higher than wide). The bottom of this ellipse will just cross the eye line. Below the egg shaped pupils let’s add the short lines for his lower eye lids. We’ll draw the slightly dented line just to the left of the center line at the bottom of the head circle for his nose. Then about half way between the head circle and the chin, we’ll draw the line for his mouth curving down from left to right, and add the small dimple line just beneath the mouth. Before moving on, we have to draw the two slightly curving vertical lines starting on either side of the jaw for the neck.

Step 4

Step 04: Time to begin Mashiro’s hair and we’ll also do the collar of his coat. We’ll begin with the outer “halo” like shape. It begins on the head circle on the left. First, we have to draw the hair spike that overlaps the top of the ear on the left. That hair spike then continues all the way around the head like a “halo” and then touches the head circle on the right above the ear. Next, we should pick a point just to the right of the center line in the top portion of the head, this will be for the apex of the “^” shape that makes up his bangs. We’ll draw the “^” starting on the left where the bottom of the ear touches the jaw line. Draw the line up to the point we picked and then back down to touch the jaw line on the right at about the middle of the ear. To draw the collar of his shirt, start with the outer lines and then add the lines that touch the base of the neck lines we drew in the previous step. Got it? Great. Let’s move on.

Step 5

Step 05: The next few steps are the tricky one’s I was talking about in the intro. I’ll do my best to explain the different parts to draw but be sure to use the image’s above as a guide to your own drawing. We’ve got to work on Mashiro’s hair in this step by adding hair spikes. Let’s start on the left. There’s one large, forked hair spike to draw on the left that overlaps most of the ear on the left and the left cheek. I’ve also added one hair spike on the left on the “halo”. Then, below the ear and near the neck on the left there are two more small hair spikes. On the top of Mashiro’s hair we need to draw the large, curving hair spike that’s actually Mashiro’s signature calic. Then, in the forehead area for his bangs, I’ve drawn one large and long hair spike whose point is just to the left of the center line. And then two more smaller hair spikes to the right, following the “^” shape we drew in the previous step. Finally, on the right I’ve drawn a small hair spike that overlaps the cheek on the right. Then, above and overlapping the top of the head I’ve drawn the three short upturned hair spikes. There are also two small ones just below the ear on the right and a last small spike near the neck.

Step 6

Step 06: No time for a breather, mangakas, gotta keep going! We’ll zoom in on Mashiro’s face and do some eye and ear detailing in this step. Around the top of each eye I’ve drawn three lines to make the soft half circle shape more boxy, this will help us with line quality in a later step. Also, you can add the two small dash lines next to the eyes. Above that we can draw the eyebrows, on the left we only see the eyebrow between the hair spikes while on the right it overlaps the hair spikes. Inside the eyes we need to draw a smaller vertical ellipse (higher than wide). Then on the right side of that ellipse we’ll connect it with a short line to the larger vertical ellipse. On the left, between the larger and smaller ellipse, we’ll draw a small “U” shape. After that, take a look at the ear. We should draw the two small “C” shapes and the short line curving upwards.

Step 7

Step 07: In this step, we should draw the highly irregular shapes in the hair that are reflection spots and won’t be filled in in a later step. They are really impossible to describe, so use the image above as a guide to get your shapes. There should be five major reflection spots when you’re all finished. And as a general guide, I’ve mostly used the straight lines of each of the major hair spikes as one side of my crazy shapes. There’s no 100% right way to do this, so feel free to make yours a little different from mine.

Step 8

Step 08: That’s it for our construction lines, mangakas. Take out your eraser and lighten all of the lines we’ve made so far and then get out your pen and trace your final lines. A couple of things to keep in mind as you’re tracing. First, we want to trace all of the reflection spots in his hair, including the one on his calic that I forgot to mention in the previous step ^_^. Also, most of the ear on the left is hidden behind Mashiro’s hair so we won’t need to trace much of it. Lastly, pay special attention to the eyes and what is traced there, as well don’t completely trace the mouth and nose lines — there should be small breaks in those lines.

Step 9

Step 09: Let’s zoom in on the eyes for a moment and do some line quality work and filling. As you can tell, I’ve thickened all of the lines that make up the eye, the upper and lower lids as well as the outline of the pupil. Then I’ve filled in the pupil, being sure to leave the “U” shaped reflection spot unfilled. I’ve also thickened the eyebrows slightly.

Step 10

Step 10: Sticking with your finishing pen, we should fill in all of Mashiro’s hair in black except for the irregularly shaped reflection spots in his hair.

Step 11

Step 11: Once your ink dries, just take out your eraser and completely erase any remaining construction lines that you can see. Take a look, you’ve drawn Mashiro from Bakuman! If your goal is to become a great mangaka make sure to draw Mashiro again from memory. Then compare the final drawing with the original and correct any mistakes you might have made. Try once again from memory. This is the best way to build a huge library of shapes that you can use in the future for your own manga characters.

Draw with passion! -_^

Hiroshi