How to Draw Manga Furries: The Complete Guide to Anthropomorphic Fantasy Characters (750 illustrations)

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I'm a Polish artist with a great passion for creating new things—whether by drawing, digital painting, or photo manipulation.

The feet, for example, are used for walking, not for looking cute. The paw pads are not random—they're cushions for the bones in the foot. If your character is bipedal, do paws instead of hands make sense, if it doesn't really use these "feet" for walking? You need to think about all these things if you want to finish the design in a convincing way.

With the help of the expert authors, you'll learn to draw:Anatomically correct furry manga bodies, skulls, faces, appendages and tails with human proportionsCharacters based on cats, dogs, wolves, foxes, goats, birds, whales, sharks, crocodiles, dragons--and more!Furries seen from their most powerful perspective--from muzzle to rump to flipper tipIllustrations shown from many various angles with different poses, positions and movementsAnd so much more!

You can learn the proportions of the bones by analyzing the skeletons of both humans and the animal that you want to use. The Internet is full of great references for this, especially if the animal is one of the common ones. To analyze the proportions, gather a set of various references (the more different views, the better), and sketch the skeletons in a simple way, trying to find a recipe you can memorize.For furries, anthros are like people of different species, sort of non-human-looking humans. When asked about the appeal of such a design, they usually mention the boring look of human characters (limited by their humanity). Anthro animals introduce a simpler, purer way of communication, without the complexity of "normal" human interaction. And their look can express their character clearly, which is not so simple in humans. Art by iguancheg But what exactly are anthropomorphic characters, and how can you create them? What Is Anthropomorphism? Yagiyama is a freelance illustrator who designs and draws characters--mostly men and monsters--for play-by-web and social games. Furries usually have a vast imagination, and many of them express it through their artistic skills. Creating art is the easiest way to make a furry character real and visible to other people. Drawing your fursona and using it as an avatar on social media can let you become that character and be seen as one by others. Role-playing is also easier when you have a "photo" of your character to show other players.

changed, the overall look alters significantly. Choose the eye shape you think best fits the worldview of your drawing.Lips are also important for talking—notice how you pronounce 'm', 'p', 'b', 'f', 'w', 'v' (talking birds can have problems with those). If your character is a bird, you may have to use a compromise—you either keep it realistic and never use any expression around the "lips", or treat the opening of the beak as normal, human lips. Finally, when your character has a full, roughly sketched body, you can start adding details to it. Does it have hands or paws? What do its feet look like? What does it wear, what clothes, what jewelry? This is the most fun part about designing a character, but there still should be nothing random about it. Even the details should be functional! This means you need to simplify the face to make room for more human-like features. The eyebrows are a must, and they have to be mobile—we can read a lot from them. Many animals seem to carry a single facial expression all the time because of fixed facial features that we recognize as eyebrows (for example, many birds of prey look angry or proud, regardless of what they feel). They don't need to have the shape of human eyebrows, but they should be capable of affecting the shape of the eye. Many mammals have a tuft of whiskers above the eye—you can transform this part into pseudo-eyebrows.

For furries that live on land, it’s possible to imagine them living cultured, contemporary lives. If they’re living in cities and leading lifestyles similar to humans, the trappings of urban existence Simplification can let you drag the attention to what really matters in your design. Make the feet flat, exaggerate the muscles, make the eyes huge and expressive as in manga characters—and you'll make it clear that it's not realistic because it's not supposed to be, not because you didn't know how to do it. Among anthropomorphic characters, animals are the most popular. Humans are animals, after all, so we are all pretty similar, especially among mammals. It almost comes naturally to us to assign human characteristics to animals, for example to call a dog mean for destroying our shoes, or to feel sorry for a male bird rejected by a female. Making the animal stand on its hind legs and do typically human things doesn't seem too far-fetched to us because of this. Art by Ilya Royz Humans have a lot of tiny muscles in their faces used specifically for creating various facial expressions. We can also recognize the smallest change in them to interpret the mood of the other person. Animals, though they have a repertoire of facial expressions suitable for their species, are not nearly as expressive as us, and the whole body matters more in their communication than in ours.Because of this, simply attaching an animal head to your anthro's body will make it quite hard to treat the creature as a person. We need moving eyebrows, flexible lips, visible whites of the eyes, to convey the messages written in the language of human facial expressions. Moving the ears or changing the shape of the pupils can be just an addition—they're enough for an animal, but not for an intelligent, talking person. You can also simply attach an animal head to a human body. However, you lose many opportunities for an interesting design this way, because while it technically can be called an anthro, it doesn't look plausible, which kills the immersion (the "sewn" parts drag your attention away from the personality of the character). Is it a rabbit? Is it a woman? Your brain has a hard time interpreting such a hybrid as one creature. We can also identify to an extent with certain animals. We can think of ourselves, "I'm like a wolf, quiet and withdrawn among strangers, but very loyal to my friends," or "I'm like a lioness, I'll do everything to keep my children safe." If you're creative enough, you can imagine a detailed vision of your "animal self", taking it outside of your mindset and into actual physicality. Wouldn't it feel cool to have a tail to wag when you're happy, and express your emotions more clearly with your ears? If you like this vision, you may be a furry.