If you’re interested in drawing Monkey D. Luffy yourself, check out this step-by-step guide on how to draw Monkey D Luffy from One Piece!
Monkey D. Luffy, the main character of the wildly popular manga series One Piece, is one of the most iconic characters in Japanese anime and manga.
His signature straw hat, rubber powers, and giant scar are instantly recognizable to even non-manga fans.
With just a few simple lines and some color, you can create your version of this swashbuckling pirate who dreams of becoming the Pirate King!
How to Draw Monkey D. Luffy in Easy Steps
Contents
Start with a Circle
First, draw a circle for Monkey D. Luffy’s head using a compass or by tracing around a circular object of equal size.
This should be slightly bigger than you want your finished product to be.
The circle shouldn’t have an outline—it should just be one filled-in shape, but keep in mind that it will get smaller as you move forward with your drawing, so don’t make it too big!
Some people may find it easier to trace around something before filling in and enlarging their circles.
To draw Monkey D. Luffy’s body, begin by drawing a large circle.
This is where his head will be.
Next, draw an even smaller circle inside of it; these will be guidelines for his eyes.
Then, add two large ovals to represent his upper body and shoulder area.
Draw small lines on either side of each oval to indicate where he will later have arms and hands.
On either side of his face, add three lines that slope down at almost a right angle. These are meant to show that he has ears sticking out from behind his hair—long and elf-like!
Add details in the body
Draw outline for hands
Use a straight edge and pencil to outline each of his hands.
To get an idea of how they should look, look at our reference drawing image given below.
The outlines should be close enough that only minimal details need to be filled in later on, but far enough apart that his hand can fit inside them.
Try to use freehanded guidelines rather than ruler lines so that your drawing has a more natural, fluid feel.
Draw outline for arms
Like any drawing, you’ll start with an outline of your subject.
To make sure that both arms are anatomically correct, draw them out at an angle from your initial body line.
Be careful not to add in details yet; just get it close enough so that when you fill in your drawing, everything will be in proportion.
For example, if you know that a person’s right hand is times larger than their left hand and they’re holding something—like a sword or a cell phone—in their right hand then make sure to account for those details before continuing.
If not, then they might end up looking wonky once you start filling things in.
Draw outline for legs
Place a ruler in between your thumb and index finger on each hand and hold it vertically.
Place your pencil on top of your fingers so that it is pointing down at an angle.
Begin drawing a small line at one end of your vertical line, working up and down until you have a thick black outline for each leg.
Remember to make them as wide as possible, as short legs are one of Ichigo’s traits.
This process should create two identical, but slightly smaller rectangles.
When you are finished, erase any excess black lines with an eraser so that they do not show up when you begin coloring in the legs.
Repeat these steps for both legs on Monbody.
Draw outline for feets
Use your pencil and get a blank sheet of paper.
First, draw out his foot by following along with step 1.
His feet look like regular feet so it is pretty easy to draw them.
After you have drawn one foot, move on to step 2 and draw another one that looks exactly like the first one.
This will make it easier for you if you want to trace it with your pencil later on.
The chin and ears are a bit tricky.
Using your ruler, measure a half-inch from each corner of his mouth and draw a line back.
Then, using that as your guide, add in his eyebrows and chin.
Don’t worry about getting it perfect—just focus on proportion for now.
Once you have that figured out, connect those points with another guideline to make sure everything is proportionate.
Draw eyes and hairs outline
Eyes are a core element of facial recognition, so it’s important that they’re proportional and correctly placed on Monkey D. Luffy’s face.
This makes drawing them one of your top priorities when you draw Monkey D. Luffy, especially if you’re planning on placing him in a detailed background.
With just two eyes and a hair outline.
With light color, draw some hair outlines on Luffy’s head.
Since you’re making Monkey D. Luffy, make sure to add plenty of poofy hair around his head and body parts as shown below!
Draw Arms outline
His arms should be out a bit at an angle, so he looks like he’s just raising his hands.
Most of Monkey D. Luffy’s physical strength comes from his arms and chest, so it makes sense that they’re big and bulky (they are, after all, trained for strength).
His forearms have pads on them as well; make sure you draw those since they’re a key part of his character design!
Our drawing starts with a few simple guidelines for drawing Monkey D. Luffy’s shirt.
To start, draw a series of horizontal lines that are parallel to each other and one-half an inch apart on your page.
Next, outline Luffy’s shirt using a series of U shapes that follow those horizontal guidelines.
Make sure your U shapes are even in width and height and are centered along their respective guideline line.
The bottom half of Monkey D. Luffy’s shirt is going to be where you spend most of your time in step two.
This is also where you’ll be using a lot of straight lines, especially for his belt (which, thankfully, should match up pretty well with his pants).
His belt buckles in a line that dips into a circle and then comes out again at another point right next to it—if that makes sense; if not, just draw it as we did and move on—and they are connected by four horizontal lines that go all across his midsection.
Draw a short trouser outline
The next step in drawing Monkey D. Luffy is to draw a basic outline of his trousers and legs, paying particular attention to detail with his heels and toes.
Note that it may help if your first sketch on an old pair of pants before transferring your initial pencil drawings onto paper.
Outline in short strokes; don’t press down too hard with your pencil, but be sure that you’re still able to see each arethe stroke on your paper—this will make it easier when you go in for shading later on!
Monkey D Luffy feet’s Drawing
To draw Monkey D. Luffy’s feet right, start with an oblong shape and break it down into three sections: top (covering his toes), bottom (covering most of his foot), and then finally a section in between for all of those other little parts that add up to make up a character’s foot—toenails, etc.
Monkey D Luffy hands Drawing
First, let’s start with the Monkey D Luffy hands drawing.
A basic principle of manga drawing is that characters have their palms facing up and have flat hands with five fingers.
In addition, you want your palms and fingers to be positioned at about chest level for most characters, but for Monkey D. Luffy we’re going to make them bigger since he has a longer torso than most people; his arms are comparatively the same compared to other characters in many series as well so there you go—the character is larger overall so his hands will be bigger too and don’t forget to add some details in the body like six-packs.
Monkey D Luffy TradeMark Hat Drawing
Monkey D. Luffy’s trademark hat, which he can change into many different shapes and sizes, is one of his most unique and defining features.
Since Monkey D. Luffy is such a dashing pirate, he must wear a hat that also makes him look dashing—but not too dashing!
Make sure your hat isn’t so large that it distracts from Luffy’s face or body, but you can make it as elaborate as you want!
Just make sure you know where all your lines are going before you get started; misplacing them will take away some of Monkey D. Luffy’s authenticity in your drawing and make it look sloppy.
Add Some extra details
Start by drawing a wavy, curved line for Luffy’s hair.
This will help you determine where to place his facial features later on.
Next, draw four long rectangles as guides for his gloves and shirt.
Don’t worry about getting these perfect—they’re just guides!
You can clean them up later if you want, but it’s unnecessary at this point in time.
From there, outline his basic facial features like so: two dots for eyes, a tiny square for a nose, and a bigger rectangle for his mouth (it should be relatively big since he has a wide smile).
You can also add some guidelines for his hair if you’d like–the long tail that sticks out can be especially useful in adding detail.
Trace Outlines
Next, you need to add bold outlines so that you can see your drawing more clearly.
You don’t have to trace your drawing.
Instead, just use a pencil to connect all of your desired lines.
It should look something like what is shown below.
Try not to press too hard when doing this as it will create darker areas on your paper, which you don’t want.
If you go slowly enough and light enough, there shouldn’t be any dark marks left behind at all. Remember: if you go back in and make modifications later on, those lines will stay!
Conclusion to Monkey D Luffy Drawing
A lot of people want to draw Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece, but drawing a character can be difficult for someone with no background in art.
If you’re looking for instructions on how to draw Monkey D. Luffy, hopefully, our guide will help you out!
Make sure to do some more research into how things like perspective and anatomy work before you pick up a pencil, though!
Art is a skill that takes years of practice and experimentation, so don’t expect everything to come together instantly just because we told you how it works.
