Denji, the teenage hero of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man, is easy to recognise even in human form: uneven spikes of light hair that stick up and fall around his head, tired eyes with bags underneath, and a grin packed with sharp, angular teeth. In this guide you will learn how to draw denji face in 7 clear steps, building from a cranial circle to clean line art of his head, messy hair and open collar.
In each picture the new strokes are black and the lines from earlier steps fade to grey, so you can see what changed. Keep the circle and guides light enough to erase before you ink. This lesson covers human-form Denji, not the hybrid head with a chainsaw blade.
Materials Needed
- Paper or a drawing tablet
- A light pencil (HB or 2H) for the circle and guidelines
- A darker pencil (2B) or a fine liner pen for the final lines
- An eraser
- Optional: colored pencils or markers for light blond hair and yellow-brown eyes
Step-by-Step Denji Face Drawing Guide
Step 1: Sketch the Cranial Circle and Guidelines
Draw a circle in the upper-center of the page for the cranium. Leave empty space above it for hair spikes and empty space below it for the jaw, neck and collar. Add a vertical center line through the middle of the circle and let it continue a short way underneath, about half the circle’s height, to mark where the neck will sit. Then draw a horizontal eye line across the circle a little below its midpoint. These three marks keep the face even, so draw them lightly.
Step 2: Shape the Jaw, Chin and Neck
From the left and right sides of the circle, just below the eye line, draw a line that slopes down and inward. The two sides should meet in a slightly pointed chin about one-third of the circle’s height below the bottom of the circle. The jaw is narrower than the skull, so the chin sits inside the width of the circle rather than outside it. From each corner of the jaw, drop a short, nearly straight neck line. Leave the collar for a later step.
Step 3: Sketch the Messy Outlined Hair
Around the circle, draw uneven spikes of hair as outlines, not as solid black shapes. Two longer spikes rise from the crown, and shorter spikes flare out to the left and right, breaking the round silhouette of the skull. Across the forehead, add hanging strands of different lengths that end near the eye line; some may cross it. Along each side of the jaw, add a few smaller pointed locks. Vary the length of the spikes so the hair looks scruffy instead of combed.
Step 4: Add the Ears and Open Shirt Collar
On each side of the head, draw a C-shaped ear that sits on the eye line, tucked into the hair. The top of each ear lines up with the horizontal guide and the bottom sits about halfway down toward the jaw. Add a simple inner-fold curve inside each ear. Below the neck, draw an open shirt collar: two folded collar points that angle outward and down, then shoulder lines that slope toward the sides of the page. The opening between the collar points is a loose V about as wide as the neck.
Step 5: Draw the Tired Eyes, Bags and Brows
On the eye line, draw two half-lidded eyes, one on each side of the center line, with about one eye-width of space between them. Each eye is a flattened oval whose upper lid sits a little lower than a wide-awake eye, which gives Denji his tired look. Inside each eye, draw a round iris and a small dark pupil, leaving a tiny unshaded highlight. Under each eye, add a clear curved bag line that follows the lower lid. Above each eye, draw a thin, slightly arched brow.
Step 6: Add the Nose and Sharp-Toothed Grin
On the center line, about halfway from the eye line down to the chin, draw a short, simple nose: a small angled mark or a tiny V. Below the nose, draw a wide, slightly open grin that stretches across the lower third of the face. Along the upper edge of the mouth, add a row of pointed, triangular teeth; the teeth should look angular and sharp rather than rounded. A matching row of smaller points can sit along the lower lip. This grin is one of the features that makes the face read as Denji.
Step 7: Ink the Final Line Art
Trace over your best lines with a darker pencil or a fine liner. Make the hair outline, the jaw, the open mouth and the collar the boldest lines, and keep the inner hair strands, the under-eye bags and the individual teeth thinner. Erase the cranial circle and the two guide lines once the ink is dry. This step only cleans up what you already drew, so do not introduce new shapes. When the extra marks are gone, the drawing is finished.
Key Pro Tips for Drawing Denji’s Face
- Outline the hair instead of filling it in. Denji’s hair is light and blond, so the spikes should stay as open outlines. Filling them solid black makes the head read like a dark-haired character.
- Keep the teeth pointed. Rounded, evenly spaced “friendly” teeth lose the sharp, angular look that sources describe. A row of small triangles along the upper lip does more work than a smooth smile.
- Do not skip the bags under the eyes. A curved line under each lower lid sells the tired, dazed expression. Wide, bright eyes without those bags look too alert.
- Vary the spike lengths. Hair that is the same length all the way around looks styled. Mix longer crown spikes with shorter side tufts and uneven bangs.
- Stay with the human face. A blade rising from the forehead or a mechanical jaw belongs to the hybrid Chainsaw Man form, which is a different drawing. This tutorial stops at the human head and an open collar.
FAQ
Is this human Denji or the Chainsaw Man hybrid?
This lesson is the human face: messy light hair, tired eyes and a sharp-toothed grin. The hybrid form replaces the head with a chainsaw blade and handle, so it needs its own set of shapes.
Why are Denji’s teeth drawn so sharp?
Official character notes describe him as sharp-toothed, with noticeably angular teeth even in human form. Drawing them as small pointed triangles, rather than flat rectangles, is what makes the grin recognisable.