How to Draw Toes & Toenails on a Foot in 4 Steps

This tutorial shows an easy way to draw toes and toenails on a foot in 3/4 view. It provides examples and detailed explanations for each major stage of the drawing.

Foot with toenails drawing step by step
Foot with toenails drawing step by step

You can see a preview of the main steps of the tutorial above, but there is a also another detailed breakdown included in step two (for drawing the toes).

When it comes to toes and toenails for anime or manga characters there really is not that much variety. Toenails are often shown on close ups of the foot/feet and are not particularly stylized (just somewhat simplified). When the view of the feet is from far away toenails are often not drawn at all.

The tutorial also shows a basic example of the overall shape of the foot, but the main focus is on the toes and nails. There is also an example of drawing painted toenails at the very end.

If you are going to be following along using pencil and paper you should start with very light lines, This will make it easier to correct mistakes and to clean up the construction lines as you go from one stage of the drawing to another.

For drawing fingernails see the following tutorial:

How to Draw Fingernails 6 Different Ways

Step 1 – Draw the Outline of the Foot’s Shape

Foot outline drawing
Foot outline drawing

First make a simplified outline of the entire foot (looking as though it has a tight shoe on). Don’t worry about the individual toes or any of the smaller bends or curves. The goal of this step is to establish it’s overall shape and proportions.

Step 2 – Draw the Toes

Toes drawing step by step
Toes drawing step by step

You can see a preview of the different stages of drawing the toes in the example above.

Foot toenails spacing drawing
Foot toenails spacing drawing

First add some divider lines (construction lines) near the tip of the foot to make a rough estimate of the size and placement of each toe. You will notice that the space for the small toe may appear a bit wider than it should, but there will be a curve added to it’s side that will make it narrower.

Foot toes placement drawing
Foot toes placement drawing

After you have the spacing lines in place you can draw the tips of each of the toes. Use the spacers and the curve of the outline from the step one as guides.

Once that’s done you can erase the parts shown in red.

Foot toe tips drawing
Foot toe tips drawing

When your drawing is cleaned up you should have something similar to the above example.

Foot drawing
Foot drawing

Finally you can outline the remaining details of the toes. Add a bend to each one roughly near it’s middle. The anatomy does not need to be absolutely precise as long as you have generally believable looking foot. You can also add a few wrinkles like those around the big toe. Show these as little splits near the base of the toes.

Once done with the above details you can clean up any remaining construction lines.

Step 3 – Draw the Details of the Toes

Foot toes details drawing
Foot toes details drawing

Add some curves to help emphasize the areas where the toes bend as well as a hint of the bone near to heel of the foot.

Step 4 – Draw the Toenails

Toenails drawing
Toenails drawing

Finally once you have all of the other details and parts of the foot outlined you can add the toenails. Each toenail should pretty much be sized according to the size of the toe. The one on the big toe should by far be the biggest. Make their shapes narrower at the base and wider towards the tips. Also be sure to leave some space between the bottom of the toe and each of the nails.

Bonus Step – Paint the Toenails

Painted toenails drawing
Painted toenails drawing

You wish to draw painted toenails you can do it as shown above. To help emphasize that the polish is shiny leave a little white area inside each one. This will help show that the nails are reflecting light with their smooth surface.

Conclusion

Anime and manga feet, toes and toenails are not particularly stylized. Generally they are drawn with the same shapes as in traditional art and are just slightly simplified (have fewer details). For this reason if you ever need more reference on drawing feet for an anime character you can usually look at those of real people.

For more similar tutorials also see the following: