Christopher Hart - Manga for the Beginner Kawaii: How to Draw the Supercute Characters of Japanese Comics

Copyright 2012 by Cartoon Craft LLC

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Watson-Guptill Publications, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.watsonguptill.com

WATSON-GUPTILL is a registered trademark, and the WG and Horse designs are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hart, Christopher, 1957

Manga for the beginner kawaii : everything you need to draw the supercute characters of Japanese comics / Christopher Hart. 1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Comic books, strips, etc.JapanTechnique. 2. Comic strip charactersJapan. 3. Figure drawingTechnique.
I. Title. II. Title: Everything you need to draw the supercute characters of Japanese comics.
NC1764.5.J3H3692875 2012
741.51dc23
2011038160

eISBN: 978-0-8230-0663-2

Cover design by Jess Morphew
Cover art by Novi Huans, Michele Liza Pelayre, Tesha Beaudry Okolowsky

v3.1

Contributing Artists

Akemi Kobayashi
Novi Huang
Rayteda Adetyar
PH
Tabby Kink
Morgan Long
Michele Liza Pelayre
Tesha Beaudry
Carol and Coutrney Regli and Bored, Inc.
Aurora Tejado
Additional material by Christopher Hart

The four basic necessities are
shelter, food, water, and manga.
How can anyone not get that?

Christopher Hart,
pondering the meaning of life,
high atop Mount Everest

in Japanese. But to manga fans, it means much more than that. Its a pop-art style thats so hypercharming, so excruciatingly adorable that it has swept Japan, Europe, and is now exploding all across the United States. And look! It has landed in your hands, right here, in this profusely illustrated book that teaches the secrets to drawing this massively appealing art form.

Kawaii became an instant hit in the United States with the megafranchise Hello Kitty. Other supercute characters soon grew in popularity, including San-X, Pucca, and Domo. Kawaii characters show up everywhere, from manga to anime, and on all kinds of licensed products, such as clothing, bags, watches, and even wallpaper. You name it, Kawaii is on it.

In this book, youll find a wide variety of character tutorials and clear, step-by-step illustrations. The book begins with an overview of the Kawaii style and its essential techniques, followed by chapters on Kawaii-based cat girls and anthros, evil cuties, adorable animals, fantasy creatures, cheerful foodies, and more. Youll learn the specific techniques that will enable you to take an ordinary character and, with a few short strokes of the pencil, totally transform it into a supercute character.

In addition, the book covers a very popular subgenre of Kawaii. Some would even call it a genre in itself, because its virtually everywhere in Japan. That style is called moe (pronounced MOE-aye). In Japan, Kawaii not only refers to supercute characters but also to a genre of beautiful, elegantly drawn older teen girls. Moe characters are drawn at a superheightened level of femininity. They will dazzle you with their delicate prettiness and grace. They also feature perhaps the most amazing, and largest, eyes in all of mangaand thats saying something!

Finally, there is a section on creating Kawaii-style scenes and backgrounds, as well as how to draw your own irresistibly cute Kawaii greeting cards. Many professional manga artists got their start by drawing Kawaii characters for private commissions. This book features a valuable and exclusive interview with a two-artist team who started selling their Kawaii artwork modestly. Then step by step, they built their passion into a full-time business, which now licenses its many creations to major, name-brand retailers. Theyll show you how they did it and how you can, too! You wont want to miss this.

If youre a manga artist, or want to be, then the Kawaii style is a great place to get started. Its easy to draw and vastly appealing. Getting good at drawing has never been this much fun.

Kawaii characters are in cute overdrive.Some are cheerful and agonizingly adorable. Others may be dark but with an adorable evil quality. Still others, including fantasy animals and anthros, are quirky and weird but just as mind-numbingly cute. But whatever form Kawaii takes, people always find it irresistible.

Most manga fans are familiar with chibisthe popular minipeople of Japanese graphic novels. You may think that Kawaii characters are the same as chibis. Thats a common misconception. Kawaii-style chibis have a distinct, younger, and more stylized looka look all their own.

* Head is more complex than a single shape, like a circle.

* Eyes feature shines as an important part of their characteristics.

* Individual strands of hair are articulated.

* Thin ink line is used.

* Costume contains details, such as folds and lapels.

* Hands are drawn with individual fingers.

* Colors are generally realistic.