Step-By-Step Guide to Drawing Totoro from My Neighbor Totoro

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If you’re a fan of My Neighbor Totoro, then you’ll love learning Totoro Drawing! With a few simple steps, you can learn how to draw Totoro. Just follow along with this tutorial and you’ll be drawing Totoro in no time!

I know we are getting excited now to see the character for today’s article. Seat back and grab your pencil drawing.

Totoro is a legendary creature from Japanese folklore. He looks like a cat and has a big bushy tail. He’s got big fluffy ears, round eyes, and a wide mouth, always smiling.

Totoros are known to be both benevolent and dangerous.

They are often associated with the natural world, fertility, and motherhood.

Totoro is a very popular character in Japan and its movies. Do you know you can draw Totoro with just your basic knowledge of drawing? Try these steps below and have fun while I show you the secret to drawing.

Outline the Head of Totoro

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We’d be starting with the outline of the head again today, so that other parts of the body can be fixed with ease, draw an oval shape for the head so that it looks like a flat circle in the form of an egg.

Draw a horizontally curved line on the circle of the head so it serves as the first approach to draw the eyes and add a vertical line inside the oval shape of the head which will help in the alignment of the facial features.

Make a little horizontal line crossing the vertical line of the head under the horizontally curved line of the eyes, so it serves as the basis of the mouth.

Outline Totoro’s Body

Now let’s get to the interesting part of the drawing, Totoro’s body. Draw a perfect circle under the oval shape of the head such that there is no space between the head and the circle of the body, ensure the circle of the body is very big so that other features of the body can be fixed on time.

Naturally, Totoro’s body is the biggest of all the body parts, so don’t worry just draw` a nice big circle for the body.

Outline Totoro’s Hands and Legs

The next step for this amazing drawing is to outline his hands and legs.

For Totoro’s hands, you should draw the arms first before the hands; make a curve at the sides (top) of the big circle of the body and extend the curves down with a straight line till it gets to the sides of the body.

Here’s an interesting fact; do you know that Totoro’s arms are longer than their legs?

Draw the basic shape of the hands attached to the ends of the long line of the arms so that it is touching the sides of the body; you can quickly draw the shape of the hands by making a horizontal line at the end of the line you drew for the arm, add a curved line at the outer end of the horizontal line and a vertical line at the inner end of the horizontal so that they form an edge pointing downward.

For Totoro’s legs, draw vertically curved lines at the lower part of the circle of the body so that these lines are not close together. Draw a rectangular shape under the lines of the legs so that it serves as the basic shape of Totoro’s feet.

Totoro Eyes, Nose, Ear, & Mouth Drawing

Are you ready for this?

It’s time to draw the facial features, which we’ll be starting with the eyes, so draw a circle for Totoro’s eyes; you can use a thick line to draw this shape of the eyes and ensure it is aligned to the horizontally curved line you drew for the basis of the eyes.

For the pupils of the eyes, add another circle inside the shape of the eyes. This time, the circle is smaller than the eyes’ shape, and you can also make a smaller circle inside the pupils to make it more realistic.

For Totoro’s nose, draw a little horizontal line at the top of the horizontally curved line of the eyes so that it crosses the vertical line of the head, and add a little slant line at the ends of the horizontal line touching the basis of the eyes and finish up the nose by drawing lines from the end of these slant lines so that it forms an edge in alignment to the vertical line of the head.

For Totoro’s ears, make two concave curves at the top of the oval shape of the head and join the inner side of the concave curves with a horizontally curved line so it looks like that of the rabbit’s ear.

For Totoro’s mouth, have you wondered why the shape of the mouth is very crucial in any anime drawing? It is because the mouth shows the character’s main expression at the moment of drawing.

Therefore, draw a horizontally curved line under the shape of the nose and make a convex curve joining to the ends of the horizontally curved line so that the little line you drew for the basis of the mouth appears inside the shape of the mouth.

Now add five different vertical lines inside the shape of the mouth so that two vertical lines are on the right side and two on the left side of the mouth, while the 5th vertical line is at the center of the mouth in alignment with the vertical line of head; these lines serve as Totoro’s teeth.

Totoro Arms & Fingers Drawing

Let’s draw Totoro’s Arms and fingers.

For the arms, make a curved line from the sides of the oval shape of the head to the basic of the hand, and make a vertical line at the sides of the circle of the body joining to the end of the curved line of the arms, so it forms the natural shape of the arms.

For the fingers, draw two little convex curves that look like the letter “U” so that these curves form Totoro’s fingers.

Draw Totoro’s Legs and Toes

A few more steps to go!

Since Totoro has two short legs, draw a curved line from the side of the circle of the body so that it is connected to the body and the basic shape you drew for the feet. Join the ends of these curved lines of the legs together with a horizontal line aligned to the bottom part of the circle of the body.

To draw the toes, you don’t need to worry about that because you will easily replicate the toes with just a few lines. Draw a few curved lines inside the rectangular shape you draw for the basis of the feet, and with these approaches, you’re done with Totoro’s legs and toes.

Totoro Belly Drawing

I know you are excited about your current result, but that is not all; you need to add some body parts so that you won’t miss out on anything that will make your drawing look natural.

Let’s draw Totoro’s belly by making a circle inside the circle of the body.

The belly circle should be a bit smaller than that of the body so that the sides of the circle are aligned to the side of the body with a horizontal line joining the top of the circle. The belly circle shouldn’t get to the bottom of the body in length.

Add Details to the Totoro Drawing

Adding details to your drawing is very important as a professional artist or a beginner learning how to draw anime characters; adding details is the last chance you have to add or remove anything from your drawing.

Adding details will also help you point out the missing parts of the drawing.

Back to business, draw Totoro’s whisker by adding three different horizontal lines to the sides of the head so that the whiskers are beside the shape of the mouth and extend out of the body.

Draw the marks on the belly, make two curved lines that one is the top and the other is under the first one; the ends of these curved lines are connected and form the markings on his body so that it looks like the shape of beans.

You can make the marking seven in numbers so that three shapes are evenly arranged at the top and the other four shapes under the first three shapes.

Add some random little lines on the nose’s shape to make it look better and erase all unnecessary lines and dots on the drawing.

Shade the pupils of the eyes while minding the little circle inside it. Use thick lines to outline all the body’s borders and facial features.

Add Color to the Totoro Drawing

This is technically the end of the drawing, and it is the most interesting part of this drawing which permits you to have unending fun and deep thought.

Adding colors to the drawing requires your ability to blend different colors to have what you want. The whole body is green in color, while the belly seems to be a shade of white. The teeth remain white while the nose is black, and the marks on the belly are also green.

Conclusion to Totoro Drawing

You have successfully created a pretty little Totoro drawing you can show off to your friends.

I hope this will inspire you to draw anime characters using the simplest approach and broaden your horizons regarding anime art.

I recommend you read my next post on the same topic so that you can learn how to draw other anime characters.

I wish you a happy drawing!

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