The hardest part of this face portrait is nailing L’s under-eye shadows without overdoing them, and the flat digital coloring keeps the margin for error tight. This step-by-step guide to how to draw L Lawliet’s face sits alongside the rest of the Death Note tutorial collection on the site.
A Close-Up Portrait With More Detail Than It Looks
The tutorial runs through 10 steps and ends on a fully colored result using flat digital shading. Because this is a bust-level close-up rather than a full-body sketch, the detail work concentrates on the face, which means proportion and placement matter more than usual. The slouched forward angle adds a slight tilt to the shoulders that takes a little extra attention to get right.
L Lawliet’s Key Visual Features
- Messy black spiky hair, medium length
- Large dark eyes, heavy shadows underneath
- Pale skin, minimal facial detail
- Loose white long-sleeve shirt
- Soft shading on face and shirt
If you want to practice other characters from the same series before or after this one, Touta Matsuda and Naomi Misora are good options to work through. For something with a completely different design challenge, Ryuk is also covered in the Death Note guides.
Understanding the Color Coding in the Steps
Each step image uses a three-color system to show what is new and what came before:
- Red Color: lines added in the current step.
- Black Color: lines completed earlier.
- Gray Color: base sketch for structure.
How to Draw L Lawliet’s Face: Step-by-Step Tutorial
Finished Your Sketch? Share It
Drop your finished drawing in the comments below. Seeing how different people handle the under-eye shading and the hair spikes is always worth looking at. New tutorials go up on Facebook and Telegram as soon as they are published, a new YouTube video based on existing guides posts every single day, and Pinterest stays updated regularly. For more Death Note practice, Misa Amane and Light Yagami are both worth adding to your list. If you want to help keep new tutorials coming, the Patreon page is where unique hand-drawn coloring pages are available for supporters.