How To Draw Manga

Well this is the first part of my drawing series. This tutorial assumes that you already have some knowledge on drawing anime or manga. The beginners can still learn from this, but the drawing parts wont be in depth, just some tips and techniques on drawing to optimize the picture, that I use during the sketching process.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Since this is a drawing tutorial, images are vital for the teaching of some techniques. That is why I have so many. However, ezinearticles.com doesn’t allow the use of image tags in articles, so I have to make do with the limited links I can use. If you want to see the whole article which all the images, you can go to my website or the article,
How to Draw Manga, Keen Style CG - Part 1: Sketching
Initial Sketch
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Firstly, before any CG (which stands for Computer Graphics by the way), I start with a nice sketch. Here is the end result. (Click on the picture for a larger size). In this tutorial I’ll show the process of making this picture.

There’s a whole lot of symbolical detail in this picture, but I’ll elaborate on that later on in the tutorial =)

The program I use is called OpenCanvas, at this point in CGing, where you have to do sketching, it doesn’t really matter. It is a basic sketch after all so you can use paint if you wanted (though the fact that it only has 3 undos’ was really off-putting for me =D ).

This picture took 3 hours to draw. Yep 3 hours =D. Why did it take so long you say? Because it didn’t turn out the way I like it =D. Sometimes I take 20 minutes to sketch something up, up to the massive 3 hour mark, especially if I’m drawing on the computer. Drawing on the computer has its benefits, as you can fix up errors that you see, while for drawing, sometimes you just can’t be bothered to fix those errors you see =D. And the computer has the blessed undo-key. Ahh, what would we do without that? =)
Contest And Description
I decided to enter a contest of a good friend of mine on DeviantArt, over at AkitoMaru.deviantart.com.
This contest was in celebration of her 6,000th hit (yes I am well aware that that figure is more than double my current page views of my own deviantart account (http://keenfoong.deviantart.com/ ) at the time of this writing -_-). Well anyway, for this contest, I had to draw one of her three original characters. I chose Vampire Mello, you can see her picture and description here.

Now that I’ve chosen, I read her description of that character, Mello:

“This little vampire doesn’t drain people of their blood, rather drains their souls in hopes to recover her other wing… o_o the bunny on her shoulder is BonBon and does most of her talking for her… her location are usually around graveyards or abandoned churches. “

Good, now that I’ve got this description, I have this great picture in mind. This is greatly important. Having a clear, sharp picture in mind is vital for a breath-taking picture, even if your skills aren’t too great, this can still help make a nice picture (not that I’m claiming that mine are extremely good =P). Also, make sure you have a description of the character that you’re drawing in mind, it adds to the feel of the character.

For this picture I had a couple things in mind:

• I wanted to emphasise the fact that she did only have one wing (as it was a surprise for me seeing only one wing when I first saw her picture).
• I also wanted to show her sadness for only having one wing (I’m not sure if this is true to that character or not, but I got this impression).
• The abandoned churches and around graveyards said to me that she would be lonely (also further emphasised by her lack of speech, BonBon (the little rabbit thingo), would do the talking).

Err… that’s it I guess, =) I’m sure I had more in mind while I was drawing it, but I’ve forgotten it. =P Anyway, it’s good to have the description in mind, so you can actually draw the features on to the picture, and thus adding to the overall feel to the art work.
Sketching
With that out of the way, lets start drawing!

Sometimes I draw on paper, sometimes I draw on computer. This time I drew on the computer because I was lazy to draw on paper. So lets start with the basic sketching.

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You might notice that this picture is pretty different to the end product. Yep, I didn’t really have a clear enough image in mind, (even if I did have a clear-ish image in mind at the time). So make sure you image is very clear before you start.

By the way, don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Just let your mind flow, since you’ve already had the clear image in mind, your mind should automatically go towards that image.

Oh yeah, btw, the brush I used was Sharp Pencil, Radius 0.5 for OpenCanvas, not that it’s necessary.

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Added more detail (legs and other arm), twisted it a bit.
Perspective Change
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Sometimes I flip it over to change the perspective a bit. You know that tip where you ask peoples opinions of your picture? then you ask them they can immediately spot errors you didn’t see before, right?

Wouldn’t it be nice if you would always see the errors, without the pain of getting people (and sometimes the harsh crit), which might put you off drawing that pic altogether? Well flipping is the technique for you!! Well sorta =D.

Flipping the picture gets you to see the picture in a different perspective instead of your locked view, which disallowed to see even the most obvious of errors. This is the same as going away from you picture for a while (5 minutes to a few days), then coming back, and seeing all those nasty errors pop-up! Same thing, except for the huge time lag =).

By the way, I sometimes flip it vertically also (though not often) since you also get used to seeing the second, flipped view. When I first started drawing, I never used it. I learned this technique from some place and decided to try it out on my pictures that I drew. I flipped it, and voila! So many errors were there that I nearly kicked myself seeing all of them! That is because this is how other people see it, with your approximate skill level in drawing. I had a fun time fixing those errors.

Now, when I flip the image, the errors don’t come out so much anymore. Might be because I was a little better when I first started (I’d better be, other wise I’d go ballistic because I’ve wasted a couple of years =)), or maybe I’ve gotten used to seeing the other view, and get locked with it too.

I try to avoid this locked view, by looking at this picture as a whole, taking in the whole picture, all four corners (sometimes by zooming out or taking a step back to have a look at the picture if you’re drawing on paper).
Problem!
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(Added some additional details)

BAH! Problem Encountered!

At this point, I realized that the wing was going to be a problem. I wanted to show that she had a lack of wing, but with the wing on this side, the lack of wing is going to be on the other side.
What’s wrong with that you say? Take a look! =P

With the wing on this side, some viewers may assume that there is actually a wing on the other side, but he’s actually blocking it. AAAH! Why didn’t I think of that before! At this point I was torn to whether to leave it be, or get rid of all the arms (and those hard to do hands )= ), switching the wing to the other side, and having her hold her wingless side, since that was my original intention, (symbolical blah blahs).

In the end I decided to do it. That this, in itself says, how important it is to have a clear picture in mind! =)
Hands and Other Little Details

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Added little BonBon, and her wing.

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Just to say, I had a WHOLE lot of trouble doing this hand. I must of tried 5 different techniques, redrawing the hands many times more than I care to remember! In the end I just gave up and let my mind do what it felt like it by scribbling anything, not caring if the end result came up right or not.

It turned out alright =D Well better than some of the other hands I had, I just need to do some tweaking now.
Background
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Added a basic sketch of a window, and some cloth behind her, made to kinda look like her missing wing (more symbolical blah blahs).

In case you’re wondering, the reason why are some areas of the pictures are bold is because those are the areas I drew over many times =P So I had a little trouble drawing those bits =D.

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Added a bit of shading to set the mood.
Clothing
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Some tweaking, and added some clothes.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention earlier. I tend to draw the naked body underneath first. =P Not because I’m perverted =), but because the clothing fits better around it, that way you can’t have clothing looking like it is the body, like you see in some amateurish drawings =D.

Oh, and also, I didn’t draw breasts for this girlie this time, I usually do, but from the looks of the original picture, she was kinda flat =P So I omitted it this time =)

Also, it helps for practicing anatomy.
Finish
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Then the end result. Did more tweaking and finished the wing. Still not entirely happy with the hand, and her left arm doesn’t look relaxed enough.

But yeah, never mind. Sometimes you see errors after you’ve done too much. If this happens, make sure you make note of this, to make sure you don’t make the same mistake ever again.

Conclusion
Well there you have it! My 3 hours of sketching! =P Most of the time was spent just fixing the arms and the hands, and getting her body right. At the time of this writing, I still had trouble getting the arms and hands to0evoke the feeling I wanted. Getting the whole picture to evoke ghat you want to feel is pretty difficult, especially for learners like me. Making it not awkward, and making each part of the body (i.e body language), work fob the feeling of the picture is key.
Symbolical Stuff
Well time for me to explain some of the symbolical stuff in here. People are welcome to skip this part, if you wish, but for those people who are just curious, I’ll put it down here.

Well firstly, lets get the description down here:

This little vampire doesn’t drain people of their blood, rather drains their souls in hopes to recover her other wing… o_o the bunny on her shoulder is BonBon and does most of her talking for her… her location are usually around graveyards or abandoned churches.

Other than the obvious cuteness elements and possible sexy elements, the arms and hands, and legs, were put there for a purpose. Her left arm is holding her wingless shoulder/back. This represents her sadness for her lost wing.

The cloth behind her is there to represent her attempts in regaining this wing (though it does look kinda bad/comical, so I might remove it, but then again, I might not too =D). I wanted her right hand to grip her shirt, but it didn’t really happen, but this was going to represent her pain and suffering, and loneliness. Her eyes would show that too, since in anime, this is the most easiest place to see their expression and feeling.

Her wing is opened out just to show her one and only wing. Legs, and the surrounding cloth on the floor, are there to show her chaos and suffering.

Woo, now that’s done, you now can laugh at my description. Laugh at me if you will, but this little description helps me draw a whole lot better in my opinion, that way I can get a nice feel from the picture.

Manga is a type of graphic novel, written in Japanese and translated to English, that has been making a huge splash in America, and it is easy to see why! When you first thumb through one of these chunky little volumes, you might be a little overwhelmed by how different it is from standard American comics, but you’ll soon see that there’s a good reason why these books have become so popular.

In America, comics are typically perceived as being for children, though with the advent of such talented writers as Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore and Craig Thompson, this is slowly changing. In Japan, however, manga is read by people of all ages, from very young children to professional adults. When you start taking a look at manga, it is important to see how very varied it is. Saying that you are interested in manga is like saying that you are interested in movies, with no hint at all as to whether you like comedies, dramas or action flicks.

Manga has existed in America for quite a long time, but it was only in the last fifteen or twenty years that it began achieving the popularity that it enjoys today. Though you might be familiar with the first popular manga wave that consisted of classics like Mai the Psychic Girl, The Legend of Kamui, and a little bit later, Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon, the very first manga brought to America was drawn by a Japanese art student named Yoshitaka Kiyama, who drew a now-famous manga about his life as an immigrant, called Four Immigrants.

When reading manga, you’ll find that it is read in the opposite direction to American books. To an American, the books open at the back and are read in reverse, moving from the right of the page to the left. While this might seem confusing at first, you’ll find that it is surprisingly easy to get the hang of. When manga first appeared in America, the pages were all reversed and mirrored to provide a reading experience closer to what Americans were used to, but this created real problems with the art. You’ll also find that unlike American comics, Japanese manga titles are typically written and drawn by one person. This offers a great deal more story and art coherency,

When you start looking at individual manga, you’ll find that there is a truly wide variety of topics covered. You’ll find adventure stories of teens encountering forces of evil, historical manga that gives you a peek at historical eras, relationship stories, stories dealing with parenting, and that’s just for a start! Manga is a great way to find out about how stories are told in another country, and after you’ve read a few, you’ll find that even if the art differs and the pages are turned backwards, that the stories are still amazing.

There are plenty of ways for an American to check out manga, so take a look and find a series that you can really get into. This has been a brief look at a huge topic, and when you start learning about manga, you won’t want to stop!