Give your art projects a boost of creativity by blending historical designs with modern visions.
Follow this sketching video to draw a girl from an Asian tribe and see the results!

How to Create Girl Tribal Character Design Sketches

  1. Find a cozy cafe
  2. Look for inspiration in historical fashion
  3. Find a comfortable seat
  4. Learn from the past to create something new
  5. Interprete by drawing with your own style
  6. Start with a vertical axis
  7. Draw the body following the axis
  8. Draw the arm visualizing the bones
  9. Draw the outfit
  10. Draw the body first
  11. Draw hatching for shadows and color blocking
  12. Think in 3 dimensions
  13. Tip to draw a hand easily
  14. Create additional fashion poses
  15. Check your gravity line

How to draw a female character

To draw an attractive character design (male or female) with clothes, the outfit is essential.
However, to succeed:

  • You have to start by drawing the (nude) body first.
  • Then only, draw the fashion clothing style.

Step 1. Find a cozy cafe

Let’s go to chill in a cafe to sketch!

This is the “Ngot cafe” in Ho Chi Minh City.
I find good concentration in such places.
And you, where do you like drawing the most?

cafe ngot - ho chi minh city
Cafe Ngot – Ho Chi Minh City

Step 2. Look for inspiration in historical fashion

I found a very interesting poster displaying tribes’ outfits all over the world.
And one attracts my attention.

Taking inspiration from the asian woman on the history wall poster
Pointing the inspiration of the day on the wall poster

I was thinking:
How about drawing something new from this woman from the Asian tribe?

  • If you look at video games, animation, and movies, the designers behind them often take inspiration from history books.
  • Then, they twist the originals as their wish to make them innovative and even more interesting.

Step 3. Find a comfortable seat

My seat is at the corner where I find peace.

The seat and the table height give me a proper posture for drawing. (Some cafes have a too low or too high chair that handicap the drawing practice)

sketching seat
Sitting in a cafe to draw

I will draw from here looking at the poster.
Luckily I have a good vision.

* I used to have a nerdy look with big glasses. But I went to LASIK a few years ago to operate my eyes and regenerate my full sight


Step 4. Learn from the past to create something new

If your ego is telling you: don’t copy.
Then, you will hardly get a high designer level.

History is a tremendous treasure that your imagination has now unlimited access to it!

Use reference pictures to draw your character design
Use reference pictures

Imagine if mankind was reinventing the wheel every time a new human was born. It wouldn’t make sense. (I’m curious to see what the world would look like though)

Learn how to copy and absorb information to mix them, and cook them in your brain to innovate! That is how brainstorming creative method is so efficient.


Step 5. Interprete with your own style

The original drawing has its own gravure old style.
However, I want to absorb the data to redraw them my own way.

Think of your mind as an idea shaker to generate new ideas!
That’s the magic power designers and artists learn to master every day by sketching daily.

Draw you own style of character design
Draw your own style

Step 6. Start with a vertical axis

This simple line has its importance.
You will use it as the main guide for your drawing.

how to draw a body - character design sketching - vertical axis
Vertical axis

Step 7. Draw the body following the axis

The pose is static.
So you need to follow the body parts all along this axis.

how to draw a body - character design sketching Follow the axis
Follow the axis

Step 8. Draw the arm visualizing the bones

To draw the pose, it is much easier to start drawing the skeleton.
To simplify, we draw the arms drawing sticks representing the bones.

how to draw a body - character design sketching - Identify the bones
Identify the bones

Step 9. Draw the outfit

Only when you have a good picture of the body, you can start drawing the outfit.

Even if in this drawing, the hat attracted me first, I didn’t start sketching it.
But the body and the head.

how to draw a body - character design sketching Don't start by the hat
Don’t start by the hat

Step 10. Draw the body first

It is the same process as learning how to draw a body for fashion design or concept art, or animation…

Drawing clothes has a similar process to drawing a shoe.

  • To draw clothes, you need to draw the body first.
  • To draw a shoe, you need to draw a standard foot first (called Shoe last)
how to draw a body - character design sketching - shoe last
To draw a shoe, sketch the shoe last first.

Draw the base drawing first.
And your mind will be relieved of the proportion and posing information.

how to draw a feminine body - character design sketching - full focus of creativity
Full focus on creativity

Preparing your sketches thinking of the human anatomy
is the only way you can draw clothing designs with your full creativity.


Step 11. I draw hatching for shadows and color blocking

When you feel pretty satisfied with your accomplishment, add shadows, prints, and color/material blocking.

I use hatching to make it fast and easy.

how to draw a body - character design sketching - hatching for values
Hatching for values

Step 12. Think in 3 dimensions

Many fashion illustrations are flat.
I recommend you learn how to draw like animators, comics, and manga artists.
They can build up the body model in 3d in any position drawing from imagination!

Think 3d when you draw
Think 3 dimensions

Step 13. Tip to draw a hand easily

Hands are crazy difficult to draw for a beginner.

To simplify the hand, group the 3 last fingers.
It’s now so much faster to draw hands with success!

You don’t have to leave the hand space blank or hide them in the pocket or in the back.
I know this trick too, I did it when I was younger.

how to draw a body - character design sketching - group hand 3 fingers
To draw a hand easily, group these 3 fingers

Step 14. Create additional fashion poses

When you know how to draw body anatomy in 3 dimensions, with the bones as sticks, you can create your own fashion poses. It elevates the fun and freedom of creativity!

I am now drawing the side view with more fluidity and body curves.

how to draw a body - character design sketching - create poses
Create poses

A body is organic and full of curves.
The bones use sticks while the muscles use curves.
(I draw with what I call the S-curves)

I want to draw as if the body were like in “dancing movement“.

how to draw a body - character design sketching - sketching s-curves
Sketching s-curves

Step 15. Check your gravity line

A beginner’s mistake is to draw an unstable body posture.

The gravity line is very useful to check your body balance.
It starts from the bottom of the throat, then goes down to the ground vertically.
Then check your body position if it feels balanced.

how to draw a body - character design sketching - gravity line
Gravity line

Step 16. Tada!! Well done!

Starting a blank page is not easy.

It’s a pleasure to draw from reference pictures as you outsource a part of your inspiration.
It is so much fun!

I recommend you create your own library of inspiration pictures as a database.
If you want to make it seriously, create folders by type.

For example Mechanical, Machines, Transport, Nature, Human, Science….

Whenever you need a boost of inspiration you can pick up something there.
The pictures don’t have to come from Google’s image but most interesting, from your phone camera.

Take inspiration from real life!

how to draw a female body - character design sketching - result
I don’t know what to call here.
Let’s write this: Woman Neo Asian Tribe

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