Female · Front · Crying

About This Reference

Female anime face reference in Front view with a Crying expression — brows scrunched inward and upward and pooled glossy teardrops with highlight. Includes construction steps, expression breakdown, and a timed practice plan.

Frontal view of a female anime face crying with streaming tears.

1. Construct the Front View

A straight-on anime face is built from a circle and a few crossing guidelines. Start with a clean circle for the cranium and drop a vertical centerline down the middle for symmetry. Add a horizontal eye-line across the exact vertical center of the circle; this is where both eyes sit. Halfway between the eye-line and the bottom of the circle, mark the nose line, and halfway between that and the chin, mark the mouth line. Dividing the lower half into thirds keeps every feature balanced.

• The distance between the two eyes should equal roughly one eye-width.
• The nose tip sits halfway between the eye-line and the chin base.
• The mouth line rests halfway between the nose line and the chin.
• Keep the jaw tapers symmetrical on both sides of the centerline.

2. Anatomy Notes for a Female Face

Female anime faces read through softness and larger features. The jaw tapers to a gentler, rounded chin, the cheeks are softer, and the eyes are larger and sit slightly lower on the face for a youthful look. The nose is small and subtle, the lips are fuller, and the upper lashes are drawn with a thicker, cleaner line.

For this crying expression the key anatomical drivers are scrunched corrugator + frontalis and orbicularis oculi squeeze — understanding that tension explains why brows scrunched inward and upward.

3. Breaking Down the Crying Expression (intense, ★★★★☆)

Crying pushes sadness into overflow. The brows scrunch inward and upward, the eyes squeeze closed or well up with tears, and the mouth opens into a wobbly downward shape. Add glossy tear tracks from the inner corners of the eyes, a reddened nose tip, and occasional tear blobs. The key is contrast: scrunched brows against a very open, wet mouth.

Scrunch the inner brows upward and let the tears pool at the inner corners as glossy shapes with a highlight.

• Brows: deeply scrunched inward and upward.
• Eyes: squeezed shut or full of pooled tears.
• Mouth: wide and wobbly with the corners down.
• Tears: glossy tracks running from the inner corners.

4. What to Watch in This Exact Reference

For ref-05 specifically, study these three focal points in order:

1. Symmetry of the eyes and the width of the mouth on the centerline — and where tear tracks pool in perspective.

2. How the brows scrunched inward and upward pairs with the wide wobbly downturned mouth.

3. The crying mouth shape relative to the nose and chin construction lines.

Crying references show the face at its most compressed. Study how the brows scrunch together at the inner corners, creating horizontal crease lines across the forehead. The tears are not just lines — they are glossy, rounded shapes that catch light. The nose reddens because of increased blood flow, which is a detail many artists miss.

5. Common Mistakes for Crying at Front View

Beginners often draw the eyes at different heights or make the mouth too wide. The mouth should span less than the distance between the eyes in most anime styles.

Drawing tears as simple diagonal lines. Tears in anime are glossy teardrop shapes with a small highlight on the upper curve. They also tend to pool at the inner corner of the eye before falling.

Tip for this reference: Scrunch the inner brows upward and let the tears pool at the inner corners as glossy shapes with a highlight.