How to draw Sanji from One Piece.

Brought to you by popular request, today's tutorial is Sanji from One Piece manga -_^! Yes, Sanji the coolest and most dangerous chain smoking pirate chef alive, not to mention his infamous eyebrows ^_^. If you're interested in other One Piece manga tutorials just click on the One Piece tag in the tag cloud on the right side of the page. Get your pencil and eraser ready as we begin today's Sanji tutorial.

Step 1: It's always a good idea to begin at the beginning and our beginning is always with the head circle. The circle should be a little higher and to the left of center on your paper as we need to leave room at the bottom and on the right for his body and neck. Notice that the lines are in blue as these are construction lines and we'll be erasing them in later steps so don't press too hard with your pencil. 

Step 2: Here, we'll continue with our construction lines by drawing the center and eye line. The center line will begin at the top of the circle and follow the circle for a short time before curving down and crossing the head circle at the bottom to the left of the center. Because of the way he's facing and the tilt of his head, the center line isn't in the center of the head circle but slightly to the left. The eye line curves upward slightly from the left and starts about 2/3 of the way down on the left and ends about a 1/3 of the way down on the right. Think of the way the earth is tilted and you'll get it.

Step 3: Great job. We'll move on to draw a jaw line on the left. It will touch the circle on the left below the eye. A nice, short and easy step ^_^

Step 4: This time in step four we're going to finish the right side of the jaw. We’ll start on the left with a short straight line for his chin. From there we’ll add a second line that curves upward  and finishes on the head circle about 1/3 of the way up on the right side.

Step 5: Another fairly straightforward step here. We've just got to add a curving line on the right for Sanji's ear. Let’s start at the top where the jaw line and head circle meet and his ear should finish where the jaw begins to curve.

Step 6: Nothing to worry about here for our mangaka's! Just draw two lines for Sanji's neck. The one on the right is shorter. The line on the left starts from the chin just to the left of the center line and curves outward.

Step 7: Just another construction line here. We've got to draw a curving hair line from the top of the head at the center line to just below the top of the neck line on the right.

Step 8: Just like the last step, we're doing another hair construction shape here. We should draw a half-circle shape from the top of the head at the center line directly down. The bottom should be a little bit tapered.

 Step 9: Now that we have most of our main head construction lines, time to move in and do some details on Sanji's face, including that now unmistakable eyebrow. Since Sanji is turning his head, everything on the right side of the face should be longer than on the left (our size 3D principle). This will give him the 3d appearance we're going after.

I'd start with the eye, and then add his iris which should rest just on the eye line. A small mark above the eye on the right for his eyelid and then the slashing line that ends in an up-turned spiral for his eyebrow. We'll have to add a pointed line for his nose starting just to the left of where the hair and center/eye lines all meet. And lastly, we'll draw his mouth. You can start with a small rectangle that is much longer on the right and then add a curving line on top for his upper lip. Have you got it? Great, let's move on.

Step 10: A few more details here, Sanji's signature cigarette and some collar work for his shirt. Let's start by adding a curved line in the ear. Next, we'll add a small rectangle for the cigarette between his teeth. Then, moving down, draw straight diagonal line for his collar on the left. And on the right, I'd start with the top of the collar of his shirt first as it touches the bottom of the neck line, and then add the lower part of his collar.

Step 11: Hair, hair, hair!!! If you've done the Kakashi tutorial or one of the other One Piece tutorials you know that manga hair is one of the most important, if not the most difficult part to draw. But we'll take it in steps. Remember, you can always erase and lighten things up so be patient and try again if you're not satisfied. At the back of Sanji's head we need 4 spikes, a spike at the top at the back of the head, some lines to suggest feathering of the hair and a long line from the center that touches the top of Sanji's trademark eyebrow. On the left we've got about 6 spikes total with one in the middle of the forehead.

 Step 12: Great job. Now that we've drawn most of Sanji's hair, let's go back to the face and draw his goatee. Start with a line under the lip that's longer on the right side. Then you draw his goatee straight from there. Notice there are three little spikes to his goatee on the right but only two on the left. Not quite finished yet … add the three marks around his eye.

Step 13: Just a couple more hair details and we'll be done with all of our construction lines. We need to draw in three upper and 2 lower hair spikes that will cover most of Sanji's ear. We should be able to see just the bottom half of his ear in the end.  

Step 14: Super work so far everyone. We're done with construction lines, so take your kneedable eraser and lighten them up until they are just barely visible. Then we'll take our black pen and begin tracing our permanent lines. We didn't need to do it before but now that we're using black we should add the dots above the mouth in black to give him his moustache stubble and a dot for his nostril.

Step 15: Not too much to do here. But we'll go ahead and shade in Sanji's goatee, the pupil of his eye and the very tip of his cigarette. All finished?

Step 16: Great job, everyone!! Go ahead and erase any remaining construction lines you see completely. Take a look at the meanest chef pirate on the high seas, Sanji! -_^. If your goal is to become a great mangaka make sure to draw Sanji again from memory. Then compare the final drawing with the original and correct any mistakes. Try once again from the 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