How to Draw Manga

• by Phinny

• Also try: How to Draw

Introduction

• So you’d like to become a mangaka, or manga artist, or maybe you’d like to just draw a little using manga style. This How To will provide you with some fundamental information to help you get started on your manga dreams.

Background

What Is Manga?

• Originally, the word manga (漫画) translated from Japanese as simply "whimsical or impromptu pictures" (the most famous being the Hokusai Manga). The term has changed over time to include (and emphasize) Japanese comics and print cartoons. The modern usage comes from shortly after World War II but manga are deeply rooted in traditional Japanese art.

Types Of Manga

• Unlike U.S. comics, Japanese manga cover a broad range of subject matter that includes not only action, sci-fi, horror and romance but business, sports and historical drama.

• The three broad categories that manga fall into are:

1. Shojo manga, meant for girls between 10 and 18.
2. Shonen manga, for boys between 10 and 18.
3. And Seinen manga, for men between 18 and 30.

To Flip Or Not To Flip

• Japanese born manga are written from top-of-page to bottom-of-page and from right-to-left (mirroring the reading pattern of the Japanese written language). Some publishers of manga translated for the U.S. keep this format, but others flip the pages to be read from left-to-right. This, sometimes controversial practice, is known as "flipping".

What You'll Need

• When choosing basic art materials it’s important to assess one’s needs and resources. Art supplies can be very expensive. Since practice will be the key to success, it isn’t necessary to break the bank at the outset of your drawing career.

Pencils

1. #2 Pencil: The #2 or HB pencil. It's the pencil you've been using your whole life. Keep one handy.
2. 2b Pencil or softer: Soft leaded pencils, like the 2b, apply to the page darker and more easily adding strength to your line work.
   • You can use pencils with even softer leads but be careful as they tend to smear more easily.
3. Clutch Pencil: Many artists prefer clutch pencils because they find them more consistent.
   • Wood-cased pencils change dimensions as you sharpen them. Clutch pencils are essentially constant in weight and size.

Paper

1. Copy paper: At $6 per 500-sheet ream, copy/multi-purpose paper is the most cost effective paper around. Copy paper is thin and less responsive to erasing, which makes re-drawing more difficult. At about a penny per page, however, this is ideal paper to make mistakes with.
2. Drawing paper and sketchpads: come in various sizes and are priced by page-count and paper quality (typically brightness and weight). Drawing paper is thicker, more resilient and comes with varying degrees of smoothness (tooth). Fine-toothed paper makes for cleaner drawing, so look for that.

12" Ruler

• A standard ruler is indispensible when you want to draw objects with a straight edge.

Work Space

• A drawing desk is preferable but, ultimately, any well-lit, flat area will do.

Eraser

• An eraser is invaluable not only for removing mistakes but also for clearing away underdrawing.

1. An art gum eraser is great for erasing large spaces as it does not damage paper. You will need to sweep away eraser remnants after using it, however, so have a trash can near by.
2. For fine detail erasing, you'll want a kneaded eraser. It erases by absorbing graphite through a pressing rather than a rubbing motion which leaves paper unscathed. It's putty-like consistency gives it great pliability allowing it erase very small areas.

Examples

• Pick up a selection of manga from your local bookstore or through a website like Amazon. You’ll need good examples to see what works and what you like. You may start out imitating at first but will eventually develop your own creative ideas and eventually your own style.

Copic

• Copic pens, markers, paper, and ink are the gold standard in full-color and pen-and-ink manga art supplies. If you would like to move towards creating more professional quality work, it might be worth it to invest in one of their basic sets.

Patience

• And a little perseverance will help too.

Lesson 1: Basic Shapes

• Before creating your own manga world, you should familiarize yourself with the basic shapes that make up most underdrawing.

These are

1. spheres (circles)
2. cones (triangles)
3. cubes (squares and rectangles)
4. and cylinders (rounded rectangles)

• For character design you will also frequently use ovals and curved lines as well.

Light and Shadow in Three-Dimensions

• Check out this rendering of three-dimensional shapes with shading and light source included.
• Note where the light falls on the objects and where it leaves them in shadow. When creating shading bear in mind the light source.

Rules of Light

• The height and distance of your imagined light source will affect the size and depth (darkness) of your shadows.

1. A more distant light source creates lighter shadows.
2. A closer and more intense light source creates deeper, longer shadows.

Practice

• Create basic shapes and familiarize yourself with shading.

1. Start by drawing a sphere, a cube, a cone, and a cylinder.
2. Create an imagined light source.
3. Visualize the rays of light as they fall on the shapes and outline the shadowed area created by the objects.
   • The angle of the light source will affect the way in which objects throw shadow. If the light source is high above the objects, the shadows will be short. If it is low, the shadows will be longer.
4. Fill in the shadowed area making the areas closest to the dark side of the object (and most hidden from the light) the deepest shadows.
5. Visualize where the light falls on the objects as if they were three-dimensional.
6. Add shading to the objects.

Lesson 2: Applying Basic Shapes to Body Design

• Underdrawing is the foundational work you do before you finalize your drawings. Underdrawing is common not only in manga but also in most comic/cartoon work, as well as in fine art. The basic shapes from the previous section, plus ovals and curved lines, are used extensively in underdrawing and are the building blocks for your Manga characters.

• This How to draw and color a manga girl tutorial provides some good examples of underdrawing and application of basic shapes to create a lifelike body with appropriate dimensions.

Dimensions

• Character’s body dimensions are fairly consistent but can always be altered for effect. Let’s start with a basic female body using an oval and a simple stick figure similar to the one on the excellent Polykarbon website.

1. Draw an oval. This will be your Manga character’s head.
2. Attach the oval to a simple skeletal line drawing. Pose the skeleton how you like but make sure that it is upright so you can measure it properly.
3. Measure the skeleton. It should be 7 heads high in total.
   1. The legs should be 4 heads high (the fourth head should be parallel with the pelvis).
   2. The upper body should be 3 heads high.
   3. When straightened the arms should be 3 heads in length.
4. Now begin adding basic shapes to create the body: cylinders for arms and legs, spheres for shoulder muscles and joints, etc...
5. Then connect the joints and begin adding fine details, facial features and hair.
6. Finally, erase under drawing and complete fine details. Your character should be complete.

Lesson 3: Manga Eye Style

• Correctly drawn manga eyes are key to making your work recognizable as manga. Female characters, in particular, are known for having large and very expressive eyes.

• Watch artist Mark Crilley explain how to draw manga eyes 4 different ways.

Make Your Own Manga Eyes

1. Draw an upward curving line. This will be the character’s right eyelid (visually, our left), so it should arc up higher on the left.
2. Create guidelines for the lower eyelid.
   • To help you place the lower lid, lightly draw (or simply imagine) diagonal lines that come to point some distance below the eye. They should start at the edges of the upper lid (what we’ve drawn already).
3. Using the guidelines, draw the lower lid.
   • You may choose to outline the entire eye but it isn't necessary.
4. Erase the guidelines.
5. Make a circle or an elongated oval within the eye. This will be the iris. Make sure to leave part of the iris obscured by the upper eyelid.
6. Outline the highlights (spots of light) that appear in the character’s iris by making small circles or ovals.
   • In order to place the highlights, create an imagined light source like the one discussed in the earlier section.
   • Place the highlights on whichever side the light emanates from.
7. Draw a circular or oval shaped pupil underneath the highlights. The highlights are always on top; never draw the pupil on top of them.
8. Draw the eyelashes, making sure to follow the curve of the eyelid.
9. Draw the eyelid fold on the part of the eye closest to the nose (a thin, curved line originating from the upper eyelid).
10. Darken the pupil until it is black or nearly black and add lighter shading to the iris avoiding the highlights.
    • If you like you can even replicate the rod-like structure of the iris by creating a fan of dark lines radiating from the pupil.
11. Add an eyebrow.

The Other Eye

• The other eye should be a mirror image of the first. Placement is important. Human eyes are generally about an eye's width apart so make sure to create the appropriate space between the two eyes.

1. Measure the width of the first eye and use it to create simple guidelines.
2. Draw the second eye in the allotted space.

Lesson 4: Create Your Manga Character’s Face

• Manga character’s facial dimensions are fairly uniform. Using the circle and guidelines method from the previous lesson, create the head and face of your manga character.

Draw Your Own Manga Head and Face

1. Draw a circle.
2. Divide it horizontally into thirds, and split it in half with a vertical line.
   • Erase the top horizontal line and you should end up with an off-center cross (horizontally center but vertically off).
3. Draw a small lead line directly beneath the circle. This will be the chin.
   • The distance between the bottom of the circle and the lead line should be equal to the length of the lowest third of the circle.
   • If you want the character to have a long face, place the lead line more than a third lower than the circle.
   • For a more squat face, less.
4. Draw two diagonal guidelines. They should be tangent to the lowest third of the circle, and connect to the edges of the chin mark.
5. Flesh out the shape of the jaw-line on each side of the guidelines.
   • Altering the angle of the jaw-line changes the shape and quality of the face and is a good opportunity to create character (i.e. a heavy set character might have a wider and lower jaw-line.)
6. Add the eyes, nose and mouth.
   • The eyes should be directly centered on the horizontal T of the cross.
   • The nose should be placed at the bottom of the circle.
7. The mouth should be centered just beneath the nose, halfway between the chin and the bottom of the circle.
8. Erase the guidelines and complete the detail on the eyes.
9. Now you can add details appropriate to your character, i.e.: hair, demon horns, a sailor's cap, a scar on the cheek, etc.

Lesson 5: Creating Action

• When creating action sequences and action shots for your manga, you should work on your gesture drawing skills using visual references. Good visual references can come from all sorts of places: photo books, internet image searches, or a walk in the park. The idea is to find images of people in action, study them and try to translate those images to the page.

Outline an Action Shot

1. Find a photograph on the internet or in a magazine. It should be an image of a figure in an active pose.
2. Take a moment just to examine the picture and "feel" the pose.
   • You could even imitate the pose in order to get a better sense of it.
3. Using the image as a loose reference, make a dynamic guideline to suggest your character's spine. This should consist of nothing more than a simple dark curving line.
4. Make a sketchy skeletal figure to suggest the motion and placement of your character's arms, legs, feet, hands and head.
5. Add the chest and hip areas using simple ovular shapes.
   • You can also add small rings that indicate the thickness and position of the arms and legs. Again, this should be a loose and free flowing process.
6. Add detail, giving shape to the limbs, torso, etc. Use basic ovular shapes and curved lines to get the sense of movement.
7. Now you can either finish the drawing, adding fine detail and erasing underdrawing (guidelines), or you can look for other images and continue practicing.

Lesson 6: Panels and Transitions

Panels

• Artful panel arrangement is essential to creating dynamic and readable Manga.

1. A panel is an individually framed single drawing in the multiple-panel sequence of a manga or comic book.
2. A panel signifies a single moment.
3. Panels are used to control what the reader sees and to control pacing (similar to a film camera).
4. Evocative use of panels creates tone and mood.
5. Panels are typically square or rectangular in shape.
6. There are generally between 8 and 12 panels per single-sided Manga page (though this varies widely from page to page).

Transitions

• Transitions from panel to panel aren't usually something the reader thinks about, but when drawing manga, you'll need to take them into consideration.

• There are many different types of transitions to choose from, including Action-to-Action, Scene-to-Scene, Non-Sequitur, etc.

Create Your Own Panel Sequence Using Transitions

1. Think of simple action that requires 8 distinct parts and a fairly short period of time (e.g. cooking soup, assembling a table, mailing a letter).
2. Write out the 8 different steps and consider what images you can use to clearly define each step.
3. Create 8 empty panels and number them lightly. Also, decide which direction you would like the page to flow (left-to-right, or right-to-left).
4. Rough out a simple Action-to-Action or Subject-to-Subject sequence that will run through all 8 frames.
5. See if what you’ve drawn makes sense. If not, revise.

Conclusion

• Now that you’ve developed a character and worked on the basics of manga drawing, it’s time to start having fun with what you’ve learned and to continue honing your skills. This How To has only touched on the wide array of things that you’ll want to know if you intend to start developing your own manga series. As with all art there is no end to the learning process. The important thing is to enjoy yourself! So keep learning and keep having fun.

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Resources for How To Draw Manga

• Wikipedia: Manga | Mangaka | History of Manga | Shojo | Shonen | Seinen
• Polykarbon.com: Manga Tutorials
• About.com: Best Books to Learn to Draw Manga 
• Amazon.com: How To Draw Manga: Volume 1
• Wikipedia: How to Draw Manga book series
• Manga Revolution: Anatomy 
• Manga Revolution: How To Draw Heads Front View
• Manga Revolution: How To Draw Men
• Manga Revolution: Gesture Drawing
• Manga Tutorials: Expressions
• Manga Tutorials: Paneling Basics
• Manga Tutorials: Panel Transitions
• Manga University: Basic Shapes
• Manga University: Face Tutorials
• Manga University: Hair Tutorials
• YouTube: How to Draw Manga Illustration (Time: 8:58)
• YouTube: How to Draw Men's Eyes (Time: 9:33)
• YouTube: Drawing & Colouring a Manga/Anime Girl (Time: 4:39)
• YouTube: How to Draw Manga Eyes, Four Different Ways (Time: 7:05)

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