How to make a cute and Kawaii drawing?
Kawaii or かわいい or 可愛い in Japanese is basically the culture of cuteness in Japan. You know how those super cute anime characters like Happy from Fairytail, Hello Kitty, or Chibi Nezuko from Kimetsu no Yaiba make you want to go "aww." Well, that's because they are Kawaii. It is more than just the word "cute"; kawaii characters have adorable, lovable, and harmless personalities that just make you want to hug them.
The Japanese style of art, fashion, and lifestyle are becoming more mainstream, with many people adopting the kawaii dressing style. Humans and non-humans can be kawaii; in fact, creatures like elves can be kawaii. In this article, you will learn how to make simple, cute kawaii drawings.
Kawaii Culture in Japan today
As far back as the 1970s, the target for kawaii culture was school girls who wanted to look as cute as possible. Then in 1974, hello kitty became the face of kawaii in japan because of the cuteness of the characters in the popular cartoon show. Today, both young and old people, male and female, practice the kawaii culture by cosplaying kawaii characters, using makeup to make themselves appear cuter, or wearing kawaii clothes on their regular day. Even the entertainment industry has many pop stars displaying cute characteristics. Lastly, food is also served in kawaii variations to gain the love and loyalty of customers.
What colors are considered Kawaii?
Before you get to making awesome Kawaii drawings, you have to get a great color palette ready. Typically, pink is the optimal kawaii color, but other bright pastel colors work too!
3 easy ways to make a cute and Kawaii drawing
Kawaii drawings do not always have to be fully designed characters. Most simple characters end up looking adorable. You can start kawaii drawing by turning a bunch of objects around your home, like cups, spoons, calculators, and even the fridge, into kawaii versions, just like Adventure times' BMO, which was a kawaii version of a simple gaming device.
Use rounded corners
In kawaii drawings, think of straight lines as an enemy that must be vanquished. Let's be honest; things look more huggable when it's round and cuddly. Even though children would hug their favorite toys, whether it's a transformer figurine or a teddy bear, the one that would be called cute will always be the rounded teddy bear. So when drawing kawaii objects, make the straight lines slightly curved and sharp corners rounded. This way, even a knife drawn in kawaii art would look friendly and harmless.
When in doubt, add a face
You can completely transform your character when you add a face. In kawaii drawings, everything has a face; cakes, laptops, and even stars. If you want to make your boring office stencils kawaii, you can add faces to stickers or memos, and you'll love how cute they now look. The expressions are very easy to draw; even beginners can master them. With just a few lines, characters can now squint, wink, blush or even be angry, which makes them cuter. To add a face, you have to individually sort out the features, especially the eyes. You can use dots or lines to represent eyes when you want them to be opened or closed. Most people skip noses in kawaii drawings. However, the eyes have to match the mouth. You can't have sad eyes with a bright smile.
Use a large head with a small body
Why does everyone think babies are cute? Well, that's because they have round squishy bodies, large heads, and eyes. One quick trick to make your drawings adorable is to make the body small and the head large. We're not talking a little bigger than usual; in fact, enormous heads work best if you really want the characters to be cute. Chibi figurines of anime characters became popular because of their cuteness. That goes to show that a large head can transform even the meanest characters into the cutest.
Easy Kawaii drawing tutorial
Now that you know the basic rules to make your kawaii drawings truly cute, you can start practicing. One of the easiest kawaii drawings to start with is animals. Obviously, you won't be expected to draw the proportionate life version, but it should have a likeness to the animal you are drawing. For instance, cats can have pointy ears as well as whiskers, lions should have a mane, and an elephant should have a trunk.
How to draw a kawaii cat in 4 simple steps
- First, draw an oval shape with a line in the middle. (this line helps you to make both sides symmetrical).
- Next, add the pointy ears, 2 "U," at the bottom of the oval to indicate the front paws and a tail on either the right or left side of the oval.
- Draw a small circle starting from the bottom of the oval. The circle should end at the center line of the oval.
- Finally, add details like eyes, whiskers, and mouth. Remember, you can try out expressions like happiness, sadness, anger, or even a pout.
If you are ready for a more complicated cat, you can try the tutorial below!
If you want to get the most kawaii stationery and get started with your drawings, you can check out our ZenPop stationery box. You can also check out our stationery pack to get the best pens and paper to start drawing your kawaii art.
This article was originally written by our freelance writer Umm-Kulthum Abdulkareem, and edited by us.
