This tutorial shows how to draw a ponytail in the anime style. It consists of step by step illustrated examples and easy to follow instructions.
A ponytail is a very common hairstyle in anime and manga, it’s also one that is quite simple to draw. You can see the key stages for this particular guide in the preview image above. There are also additional examples in some of the steps.
Unless drawing digitally start the tutorial in pencil and make light that are easy to erase as you will need to do so in some of the steps. You can trace over your drawing with darker lines later on (before shading).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52qPQJtYo_Y
Above is the video version of this guide where the ponytail drawing is shown line by line. You can watch it and read the more detailed instructions below.
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Step 1 – Make an Outline Drawing of the Head & Shoulders
Before drawing the hair make a simple outline drawing of the head, neck and shoulders.
For a detailed explanation on drawing these see the following:
How to Draw an Anime Face (Structure & Proportions)
Step 2 – Draw the Hairline & the Pulled Back Hair
As with other similar tutorials here on AnimeOutline the ponytail drawing will be split up into three sections. Each section is shown in a different color (green, blue and red) to make it easier to distinguish between them (you can draw everything in regular pencil).
For more on this approach see:
How to Draw Anime and Manga Hair – Female
Begin by drawing the hairline and the part of the hair that is begin pulled back. At first draw as though the area shown in green is transparent. This way you can see just how much volume you are giving the hair. In this case it should be fairly close to the head.
Once you have the pulled back part outlined you can erase the part of the head that it covers.
Step 3 – Draw the Pigtails
Generally ponytails will be direction behind the head, however, to make the drawing look more interesting position it slightly to the side. This will allow you to better show off the most defining part of the hairstyle. Otherwise it would just look like a bump on top of the head.
Give the ponytail a few splits on it’s end drawn in a few pointy clumps (as is characteristic of the anime/manga style). Also, make these of slightly different sizes and/or curving in different directions to make the hair look more natural.
Step 4 – Draw the Hair Along the Forehead
For the last section of the hair draw the pat along the forehead. In this case you can start by drawing a curved line along the lower end of the forehead that will indicate the area where the hair has been trimmed.
Alternatively you could also draw this section with a more natural look like in the following example:
How to Draw Anime Pigtails Hair
One good aspect about the “sectioned” drawing approach is that you can easily mix and match parts of different hairstyles to create new ones.
After you have the “trim line” in place outline the sides of this part of the hair and draw in some splits of varying sizes as shown in the example.
Once done adding the splits you can erase the hidden part of the hairline as well as the little bits of the line between them.
When you have all part of the hair in place, check your drawing to make sure everything looks good. Make any corrections if required and then trace over it with darker lines.
Step 5 – Outline the Hair Highlights
For this (optional) step outline a series of little highlights running across the hair. These will help show light reflecting from it’s smooth surface and give it a shiny look.
Be sure to keep the outlines very light so that they eventually blend into the shading. Alternatively you can skip this step and simply create the highlights as you shade.
For more on drawing hair highlights in the anime/manga style see:
Different Ways to Draw Anime Hair Highlights
Step 6 – Add Shading to Finish the Ponytail Drawing
To shade the drawing either fill the hair with light grey or use a color if you prefer (leaving the highlights white). You can then add the shadows as described below by simply darkening certain areas with a regular pencil.
Generally how you draw the shadows will depend on the type of lighting setup you wish to show. In this example the shadows are placed in a fairly generic way that can be good for most scenes of anime/manga. The hair will be shaded as though the character is in a well lit environment with the main light source somewhere above them.
Similar to the line drawing you can shade the hair one section at a time. In this case start with the shadows along it’s forehead. Place these around the hair splits as shown in the example.
Next, add a shadow on the lower part of each of the sides.
Finally, add a shadow along the lower parts of the ponytail. In this case it will cast a shadow on itself from the wider upper area. For this reason try start the shading around part where the ponytail starts to curve inwards.
Outline the shadow’s upper end with a series of zigzags to help show the unevenness of the hair.
Once all of the shadows are in place you should have a finished drawing of the ponytail.
Conclusion
A ponytail is generally a fairly easy hairstyle to draw as it does not have that much detail due to most of the hair being pulled back. This is especially so for anime and manga hair which is often simplified.
If you enjoy these kinds of easy to follow step by step tutorials also be sure to look at the following:
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