In my ongoing quest to expand my artistic tool box, I’ve started exploring the world of chibi characters. Chibi is a Japanese word meaning “small” or “short”. For context, think Hello Kitty.

Chibi and kawaii (Japanese: endearing/cute) styles dominate the adult coloring industry right now, and I want to try to put my own spin on that. 

There are a few different proportions chibi characters can have. I used this delightful video to get the basics.

https://youtu.be/ygWBopE8Z-U?si=UjMeW5icsQNxKMkc

I chose the Two-Head-Height proportions, and got to work. 

I use Procreate for all my digital art. First, I stacked two circles as a guide. After this, all my layers use the symmetry guide. 

And, naturally, I started creating a mini-me. This is technically my second chibi attempt, so I had a better idea of how I wanted the body shape.

Since I live (LIVE) in my strawberry blanket hoodie, she was the obvious choice of attire. 

After I got the form more or less the way I wanted, I added another layer and traced in a contrasting color. This allowed me to firm up my lines while making a guide for my finished drawing. 

On this layer, I switched from the 6B sketch brush to the monoline calligraphy brush. 

Then I popped in some color. When I drop color onto my images, I like to duplicate the drawing layer and then put the color on the bottom of the two. I like to have to confidence that I’m not going to screw up my image and it has the added benefit of keeping my outlines crisp on the final image.

After checking a photo of me in my Strawberry Hoodie Era, i decided to update the neckline, and it looks much better/less weird. If I were to add anything to this character, it would be trying some shading techniques, but I’m very pleased with this early version. I will probably use her to learn the basics of poses and facial expressions. 

If you’re dying to shop this look, and of course you are, I don’t have the link to the actual one I got a few years back, but the image below leads to some adorable variations.