How to Draw Manga on MS Paint

Last Updated: December 26, 2021

It's true that MS paint can be hard to draw on because of it's lack of "sophisticated" tools, but that doesn't mean you can't make great art! This will help you get an idea of how to draw basic anime/manga on Windows's default paint program.

Steps

1
Draw the guide lines. These lines are what will give you a basic idea of what the shape of the face is. The color should either be in red or blue, or whatever color you won't be using as your lineart (which is usually black.)
2
Draw the lineart. This is a basic black/dark color outline of your drawings face.

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3
Clean up the base lines. To erase the base lines, take the color you made them with, (in this case, red) click on the eraser tool, then right click and hold and drag over the red lines to erase. This will not erase the lineart. Your image will then look like this.
4
Do the eye. Use the zoom tool and zoom in on the eye (or eyes.) Use the pencil tool to create the kind of eye you want, then use the fill icon to fill in the blank space. Then make a highlight in the eye.
5
Select your colors. Go to the right hand corner of the screen and click edit colors if you don't want to use the colors already available.
6
Color the image. Once you get the colors you want (skin tone, hair color, eye color, etc.), click the fill icon and fill in the image.
7
Make the white of the eye white, instead of your skin tone.
8
Add shading. To do this, click your skin tone, go to edit colors, and make a color that is slightly darker than your original skin tone. Pencil the outline of the shadows, then fill them in using the same color.
9
Repeat shading for the hair.
10
Create highlights. Click your skin tone again, go to edit colors, and make a much lighter version of your skin tone, almost white. Pencil the outline of the highlights, on hair and skin, and fill them in.
11
Add finishing touches! You can either fill in the background with a solid color, or you can make a scene behind your character. You can also put some clothes on her/him/it as well, if inspiration strikes!
- You can even further manipulate the image for different looks and effects. Have a little fun with it!

Community Q&A

Question

How do you color clothes?

Community Answer

For coloring clothing, get the bucket tool (a.k.a. fill) and pick your color of choice. Fill in the clothing you have drawn; for extra effect, you could do some shading.
Question

How can I learn where shadows and highlights should go?

Community Answer

Imagine the light source coming from an angle, like the upper right. If you need to, you can look at a mirror and shine a light on objects or yourself to see how lighting affects shadows and highlights. You can also read through wikiHow's article on shading drawings for some advice.
Question

It's still hard to make the shapes I want without it looking wonky. Any suggestions?

A Human Being Nothing Important

Community Answer

You should start drawing the body parts one by one. Start by practicing on drawing the eyes first, once you get better you can continue with the rest, also search on YouTube or Google for tutorials.