Draw Goku step by step
- Draw a head circle smaller than feels natural — his hair will extend well beyond it, so starting too large leaves no room on the page.
- Add a vertical center line and a horizontal guideline about two-thirds of the way down the circle to mark eye placement, lower than a standard face.
- Sketch narrow, angular eyes along that lower guideline, with defined eyebrows angled slightly for an alert expression.
- Build the hair starting with a small number of large, sharp spikes near the crown, angled upward and outward.
- Layer additional overlapping spikes progressively around the sides and back of the head, ending each spike in a sharp jagged point rather than a rounded tip.
- Draw broad shoulders and a compact torso below the head, keeping the proportions stocky rather than lanky.
- Add a high, stiff collar at the base of the neck and a wide belt or sash across the torso — these two details are what make the outfit read as a martial-arts gi rather than a plain shirt.
- Clean up your lines, then colour the gi orange with a blue undershirt and belt, and the hair black, per his standard base-form design.
How do you draw Goku's spiky hair?
Work from large to small: place a small number of dominant spikes near the crown first, angled upward and outward from the head, before adding any of the smaller supporting spikes. Layer additional overlapping spikes progressively around the sides and back so they build on each other rather than sitting as separate, disconnected points. Every spike should end in a sharp, jagged tip — rounding off the tips is the fastest way to make the hairstyle stop reading as Goku's.
What makes the gi look right?
Two structural details do most of the work: a high, stiff collar sitting at the base of the neck, and a wide belt or sash wrapping across the torso. Without both of these, the outfit reads as generic clothing rather than a martial-arts uniform, no matter how accurate the rest of the drawing is.
A note on proportions
Goku's proportions shift somewhat between the manga, the anime, and different official art over the franchise's history, so the steps above describe a general, widely-used construction approach rather than an exact measurement pulled from one single official source. Treat the head-circle, eye-placement, and hair-layering steps as a reliable starting structure, then adjust to match whichever specific reference image you're working from.
People also ask
Why should I draw Goku's head circle smaller than it feels like it should be?
Because his spiky hair extends well beyond the head shape itself, so a head circle drawn too large leaves no room left on the page for the full hairstyle.
Where do Goku's eyes sit on his face?
Lower than most beginners expect, roughly two-thirds of the way down the head circle rather than at the vertical midpoint.
What makes Goku's gi look different from a plain shirt?
The high, stiff collar at the base of the neck and the wide belt or sash across the torso — without both, the outfit reads as generic clothing.