Zenless Zone Zero: Improving Hoshimi Miyabi Drawing

Contrary to a popular belief, clean line art is more than having smooth outlines. In this Artwod Community example, @asashi asked for help improving the line art and general quality of Hoshimi Miyabi drawing. The feedback focuses on introducing perspective, separating front and back forms, adding clothing folds and shadows, and varying line weight to make the character feel more three-dimensional.

The artist, @asashi, wrote:

“I would like some help with the line art, I would also like any feedback for what I can improve on”

The artwork is a front-facing drawing of Miyabi with long hair, fox-like ears, a collared top, tie, belt, and shorts. The head and hair are already clearly defined, while the body and clothing use simpler shapes. 

Community feedback from @fosco suggested drawing the character in a three-quarter view to introduce perspective rather than avoiding it with a completely head-on pose. 

A front-facing character can be useful for practicing symmetry, but it can also hide some of the three-dimensional structure of the body.

A three-quarter view forces you to consider:

• Which side of the body is closer

• How the torso turns

• Which arm sits in front

• How the legs overlap

• How the clothing wraps around the body

The paintover changes Miyabi into a three-quarter view, making these relationships easier to see. Additionally, I think it adds more visual interest. Changing the camera angle can help with making a pose far more interesting. A front facing angle can make the character look 2D or flat; the lack of depth can make the art not very believable. Not only that, but I find front-facing angles to be the most challenging to draw, especially for beginner artists.

You do not need to redraw every character from an extreme angle. Even a subtle turn can give you more opportunities to practice perspective.

One of the most useful pieces of feedback is to imagine each limb and major body part as being on its own layer. This will help you understand, where to place the overlaps. 

Think:

front → middle → back

For this drawing, that means identifying which parts of the hair, sleeves, arms, torso, and legs sit in front of or behind others. This mental separation helps with more than perspective. 

It also makes it easier to understand:

• Where shadows should appear

• Where clothing folds should occur

• Which contour should be visible

• Where one form should disappear behind another

Instead of drawing a collection of outlines, you begin drawing objects that occupy space.

I would suggest doing this with lineweight, the closest to the foreground the thicker the lineart. For a colored piece, you could also utilize saturation to establish the foreground, midground, and background elements.

Most beginner artists focus all their attention on the head and facial features and forget to give the same amount of love to the body. The feedback specifically notes that the head and hair already have clear shapes, while the body could benefit from the same level of definition.

You do not necessarily need more detail. You need stronger structural information. For the body, establish:

1. Ribcage

2. Pelvis

3. Shoulders

4. Arms

5. Legs

Then build the clothing around those forms. The paintover demonstrates this by giving the torso and limbs more visible structure while keeping the overall character design intact.

This paintover of a man standing with a gem in his hand, shows how you can take this advice and apply it to your piece. The body here is off-balance and lacks perspective applied to the form. The lower legs also lack the structure needed to give the impression they can support the body, adding defined upper and lower legs helps fix this, The way to fix this would be to ensure the body has gesture, correct weight distribution, and the clothes fall over the form.

Folds are a big part of any character. They add flow, design and (if needed) some drama. The original drawing contains large areas of clothing that read more like flat shapes. The feedback suggests adding clothing folds and shadows to make these forms feel more three-dimensional.  

A correct approach is to ask what is underneath each piece of fabric. Remember the clothes drape overtop the anatomy, not float on top of it. For example, sleeves wrap around the arm, and shorts wrap around the shape of the torso. This approach prevents folds from becoming random decorative lines. Also keep in mind the type of fabric your character is wearing, as this will change how it drapes. I try to think about how this would affect the wrinkles for the fabric, for example, a thicker fabric will bunch up far less than thin fabric. In this artwork, the sleeves are thin, and drape low, so there would be heavy wrinkles near the elbows that lead out to the sleeve ends. 

If you want to get help on how to draw fabric from professionals, you can start the Artwod Drapery course for more information.

This drawing of Monkey D. Luffy hoping into action has a good example for how to make clothes look three-dimensional. The sleeves are a similar material to the long flowy sleeves shown on Miyabi. Notice the ruffles pattern and clear tension points around the elbow and shoulder.

Line width can make a major difference to anime line art.

A simple system is:

Outer silhouette → thicker

Major overlaps → medium

Interior folds and hair strands → thinner

The feedback specifically recommends using thin lines for interior details such as folds and hair strands while giving the overall figure a thicker outline. 

This creates visual hierarchy.

The viewer can understand the character's overall shape first, then notice the smaller information inside it.

There is an important nuance in the community discussion.

Another commenter pointed out that putting a thick outline around all of Miyabi could flatten the body again, particularly around the back leg.   

Use line thickness selectively.

A back leg can have a lighter or thinner contour where you want it to visually recede, while a foreground form can receive stronger emphasis.

This lets line weight contribute to depth.

Overlap is one of the easiest ways to communicate which form is in front. For example:

• A front arm can cover part of the torso.

• A front leg can overlap the rear leg.

• Side bangs can sit over the face.

• Back hair can disappear behind the shoulders.

• A sleeve can overlap the arm beneath it.

When you deliberately establish these relationships, the character becomes easier to read as a three-dimensional figure. The paintover uses this principle extensively by distinguishing forms that sit toward the front from those positioned behind them.

Try rebuilding the character with this process.

Turn the head slightly rather than drawing it perfectly front-on.

Use a ribcage and pelvis instead of immediately drawing the shirt.

Decide which arm, leg, hair sections, and clothing forms are closer to the viewer.

Wrap the shirt, sleeves, belt, and shorts around the underlying forms.

Place folds where fabric compresses, stretches, or changes direction around the body.

Use stronger lines around the main silhouette and thinner lines for interior information.

Where a form should recede, consider using a lighter or thinner contour rather than outlining everything equally.

Start with strong construction, then use varied line weight to distinguish the silhouette, overlaps, and interior details.

Three-quarter views force you to think about perspective, overlap, and the three-dimensional relationship between different body parts. Understanding how to draw the head in multiple angels betters your understanding of the head as a 3D object.

Build the clothing around the underlying body and add folds and shadows that respond to the body's forms. Remember to keep in mind the fabric type as well, as this will change how it reacts over the forms. Check our our Drapery course to improve your clothing skills!

No. Thick outlines can emphasize the main silhouette, while thinner edges can help interior and background forms recede. Learn more about line weight from our Intro to Drawing course.

Stronger lines can emphasize foreground or major contours, while thinner lines can reduce emphasis on interior and receding forms.