Another Type of Kawaii and Scenes

Moe (moe-aye) is another kind of kawaii, "both emphasize charming, cute, sweet characters, but they approach them from two totally different angles." (Hart 149) Moe is more a manga style, and it is a lot more difficult than the small characters people think of when they hear "kawaii". In this branch of kawaii, the characters are normal-sized, look older, and have a lot more detail in them. The charatcers don't really differ in moe though, but humans are the main characters.

Moe characters have an athletic shape, long legs, a soft look to them, and more femininity to them. They're very symmetrical characters and there is a lot of line work that goes in to them.

Scenes are when all your knowledge about kawaii come together. They consist of either moe or the small, cute type of kawaii, but not both. They take anywhere from week to several weeks to make. You can include anything you want, multiple characters, animals, foods. A lot more detail goes into these scenes than into a single character. There is usually one center of focus and then smaller, lighter backgrounds in a scene.

Based on what you've seen from this post and my previous posts, which is your favorite style of kawaii? Why?

Animals and Food

These two chapters were my favorite to read about and draw. They were definitely the easiest chapters too. There was no new learning, just a continuation of the basics. I just had to include kawaii style elements in each drawing. "You can't simply draw a small, cute version of an animal and expect it to look "kawaii"." (Hart 116)

For the deer, I had to make sure it had a large head and eyes. I also made the antlers an abnormal color, which I think added to the cuteness and kawaii-ness.

There were also many versions of foods to draw. The main idea behind making food kawaii is, as the author puts it, to make it look like a baby that will get upset if it's away from it's mother too long. In all honesty, I would just put it as you need to add big eyes and a small mouth, just like with everything else in kawaii.

Q: Why do you think this drawing style is so simplistic?

Scary Kawaii?

Due to an injury I sustained on my drawing hand, I haven’t been able to draw for the past 5 weeks. I was worried that it would be difficult to start drawing again, but it was actually quite easy. I really enjoy this drawing style, as it’s fun and simple to do.

A major part of kawaii drawings are dark and gothic characters. They're not usually thought of in a cute way, but kawaii versions are seen as humorous. Dark animals, devils, witches and skeletons are all popular evil character types. For these characters, the author states that although they have many unique features, "sometimes, only one or two elements... are enough." (Hart 92)

Only the horns, tail, and colors are needed to identify this character as a devil.

Skeletons, or dead characters in general seem like a hard thing to make cute. With this art style, it actually isn't hard at all. For example, I drew a skeleton puppy. The big, hollow eyes immediately gave the dog an adorable appearance. Once I added the big cheeks, to give the impression that his mouth was full, there was no way of making this scary looking.

Why do you think these kind of dark characters are popular among kawaii fans?

Drawing Different Types of Characters

After teaching the basics of kawaii drawing, the author decided that readers should learn and draw about the essential types of kawaii characters. There is a wide variety of them, and they all have variations within their type.

Essential kawaii character types:

• Girls
• Anthros
• Animals
• Fantasy creatures
• Pets
• Food
• Gothic characters

I decided to draw the food example the book gave, as I found it to look like the most detailed thing. It really wasn’t though, and the details were really easy to draw. The further I get into the book, the more I realize that the author wasn’t lying when he said this was a simple style of drawing.

 Anthros are humans in animal costumes. “Sometimes the costume is minimal; but oftentimes, it’s a full-body animal suit. The focus of most Kawai anthro costumes is the oversized, cute hood, which is drawn in the shape of an animal head.” (Hart, 49) They are one of the most common kawaii characters that people draw, and they’re really fun. You can use any animal, as long as you can make a person dress like it. The book had hamsters, tigers, wolves, pandas, rabbits, bats, cats, and deer, which is what I chose to draw.

If you were to draw an anthro character, what animal would you use?

Basics of Kawaii Drawing

I’ve always had an interest in drawing. I’m pretty good at it if I work on a piece for a while, but for the things I was drawing, it was too long of a time. That’s why I decided that for this project, I wanted to work on my art skills.

I chose my book, Manga for the Beginner Kawaii: How to Draw the Supercute Characters of Japanese Comics by Christopher Hart, based on two things. The style was similar to what I draw in my free time, and it’s for someone with little to no skills, like me. It’s really easy to understand, and it gives fool proof steps to drawing cute characters. “You’ll learn the specific techniques that will enable you to take an ordinary character and, with a few strokes of the pencil, totally transform it into a supercute character.” (Hart, 9)

It started off with talking about the basics of Kawaii figures, like how they’re made of really simple shapes, or how the colors are typically brighter and more unnatural. I learned that to be considered a “supercute character”, the figure has to have the right proportions, which are a large head, and short body. After learning this, it was time to start drawing.

First, I had to learn how to draw a head. To start off, the author recommended you draw a circle for the head, which was easy enough. The eyes had to be low and far apart, the mouth was small, and there was no nose. Then, you add the details, like the anthro-hat (animal hat), and hair. It wasn’t hard, but I didn’t expect it to be at first.

First head drawing

The book then went on to talk about the different variations of faces for Kawaii characters, like their eyes or their facial expressions. The main point of this style is that everything is simple and clean, so none of the variations are too over dramatic.

I decided that I just wanted to focus on the basics right now, so the last thing I did was read about and draw a full figure. I had to be able to put a lot of detail into a small sized character while still keeping things simple, which I thought might be pretty difficult. I was wrong. The steps the book took me through made it really easy. It was the exact same process as with the head, except there was just one extra part.

First full figure drawing

I’m really excited to continue learning about this style of drawing. I think it’ll be fun and not-at-all hard for me to do, especially with how much reassuring the author gave that anything too complex would take away from the overall final product.

Do you think this seems like a good entry style to drawing characters for anyone? Let me know what you think!