How to Draw Anime & Manga Blush in Different Ways

This simple tutorial explains how to draw anime and manga style blush and shows several different examples of it’s most common types.

Anime faces with blush drawing examples
Anime faces with blush drawing examples

In anime and manga a blush can indicate emotion like love or embarrassment or simply be a part of a characters appearance.

Different types of anime blush
Different types of anime blush

There are mainly four types of blush styles that are commonly used:

  • Striped – shown with a set of small strokes
  • Solid – usually shaped like an oval around the cheeks
  • Gradient – a more natural looking blurred blush
  • Combined – A combination of stripes and gradient or solid blush

For instruction on drawing a face similar to the on in this tutorial see:

How to Draw an Anime Girl’s Head and Face

Drawing Anime Blush With Strokes

Anime blush small striped
Anime blush small striped

A “striped” anime blush is made with just a few line strokes and is fairly easy to draw. Simply make two sets of angled lines around the cheek areas. For a nicer looking blush make the outer stripes a bit shorter and the inner stripes a bit longer. Aim for a combined shape that can fit inside a stretched oval. Alternatively you can also make all of the stripes pretty much the same length.

Anime girl with small striped blush
Anime girl with small striped blush

Above you can see the example of the “striped” blush drawn with all of the facial features.

Anime blush large striped
Anime blush large striped

For a bigger “striped” blush you can draw it as one set of strokes going all the way across the nose area. You can again make the strokes longer in the middle and shorter at the outer edges.

Anime girl with large striped blush
Anime girl with large striped blush

As you can see above this type of blush may be more appropriate for a more emotional (in this case embarrassed) face.

Drawing a Solid Anime Blush

Anime blush small solid
Anime blush small solid

The simplest blush to draw. You can indicate this blush with just a set of two ovals on the cheeks. You can also make these “bean like” shapes instead.

Generally this type of blush is used on more stylized or “Chibi” anime characters but more serious looking characters can have it as well.

For an example of drawing a chibi character you can check:

Search How to Draw Chibi Anime Character Step by Step

Anime girl with small solid blush
Anime girl with small solid blush

Above you can see how the “solid” blush will look on a more standard anime character.

Anime blush large solid
Anime blush large solid

You can also draw a larger version of the “solid” blush with just one shape going across the nose and onto the cheeks. It may be a good idea to slightly curve this shape so it does not go over the bottom of the nose area.

Anime girl with large solid blush
Anime girl with large solid blush

Again in the above example you can see how this type of blush will look with all of the facial features.

Drawing a Gradient Anime Blush

Anime blush small gradient
Anime blush small gradient

The gradient or “blurred” brush is slightly more realistic looking. To draw this blush you can simply blend it outwards from a point below each cheek.

Anime girl with small gradient blush
Anime girl with small gradient blush

You can see how the “blurred/gradient” blush looks with the facial features in the example above.

Anime blush large gradient
Anime blush large gradient

For the larger version of this blush you can again make one shape that curves slightly above the bottom area of the nose.

Anime girl with large gradient blush
Anime girl with large gradient blush

Again in the above example you can see the large “gradient” blush with the facial features.

Drawing a Combined Anime Blush

Anime blush small combined
Anime blush small combined

In some styles of anime and manga blush is shown with a combination of stripes and either a gradient or solid shape (usually gradient). To draw this type of blush first draw the gradient and then add the stripes over top (especially if drawing using pencil so that you don’t smudge the strokes).

Anime girl with small combined blush
Anime girl with small combined blush

Once again you can see how the blush will look like on a fully drawn out face in the example above.

Anime blush large combined
Anime blush large combined

For a larger version of the combined blush you can yet again simply draw it as one big “blur” going over the nose area and add a single set of lines over top.

Anime girl with large combined blush
Anime girl with large combined blush

In this final example you can again see what this blush can look like with the facial features.

Conclusion

Blush is very common in anime and manga. It’s very easy to draw and a good way to emphasize certain anime character emotions or personalities.

For more on drawing anime characters with different personalities see:

How to Draw Anime Characters Tutorial

For other similar tutorial see: