How to Shade an Anime Face in Different Lighting

Shade an Anime Face – This tutorial explains how to hide the face of anime or manga style to show different light conditions.

Anime and manga generally use a method known as “Cel” shading that creates blurring without gradients. Cel shading is usually much quicker and easier to apply to painting than real shading, making it ideal for quickly shading multiple animation frames or multiple manga panels.

General Lighting Anime Face Shading

This shading option is usually suitable for the most common lighting conditions with no single solid directional light source.

In this type of general lighting, the shadows will usually be drawn as follows:

Forehead – shadows made of hair
Eyelids – small shadows as these areas are tied to the head
Nose – a small shade on one side
Neck – a large shadow placed on the head

Side / Top Lit Anime Face Shading

When light shines on the top and one side of the character, the shadows will be cast at an angle. One side of the face will usually be light, and the other will be dark. There will usually be a bright spot around the cheekbone on the dark side, as that area will capture light. There will be a slight shadow around the eyelid on the light side.

The shadow on the neck will be angle instead of the light source.

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Side Lit Anime Face Shading

If the light comes directly to one side, you will have light evenly distributed (down the middle) and the dark side of the face.

Low Light Anime Blurred Face

If the light comes on very well, the whole face will be illuminated, and the shadows are spread as follows:

Beard – a small shaded area on the top of the chin as the chin tends to protrude outwards, and that bump will create a slight shadow.
Upper Lip – the upper lip will cast a very small shadow as it penetrates the outside and blocks other light.
Nose – the upper bouts featured two cutaways for easier access to the higher frets.
Cheeks – as cheekbones also tend to stick slightly will create some shadows.
The forehead will be very dark as it turns from the light source below.

Top Anime Face Shading

High light will be the opposite of the low light described above. Most faces will be hidden, and the simple areas are listed as follows:

Forehead – it will glow completely as it turns towards the light source above
Nose – the upper side as it faces light
Cheeks – an upper area of cheekbones
Upper Lip – as it comes out slightly and will capture some light
Chin – the upper part of the chin as the chin bends slightly out of the face

Back Anime Face Shading

Backlighting will greatly create a “frame” of light next to the character. Most of the light will be on the cheeks and sides of the neck.

There will also be some light on each side of the nose on the real face, but you can make one spot of light at the end on the nose of an anime.

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Conclusion

While Cel shading is easy to use as long as you have a general understanding of where the shadows should be placed, we hope this tutorial has helped you better understand how to hide anime or manga-style faces in a different light.