Flores Irene - Shojo Fashion Manga Art School, Year 2: Draw modern looks

All you really need for drawing is a pen and paper, so dont get overwhelmed by the huge market of available art supplies. Here are a few tools I prefer to draw with. Experiment and see what you prefer, or what you can afford.

blue lead

Mechanical pencils are great because you dont have to bother with sharpening them. I always keep one of my pencils filled with blue lead. This makes it easier to go over sketches with darker graphite or ink. Also, blue lead tends to disappear when scanned, leaving the darker pencil or ink lines without having to erase all of the preliminary sketching.

Sketch a drawing with blue pencil or ink, then lay in your preliminary inks. When you scan the image using the black-and-white setting, the blue sketch lines disappear.

My preferred pen is a brush pen, which gives me varying line weight without having to go over the same spot numerous times.

Use gel pens and felt-tip pens for straight lines and to fill in large areas. Trying to make lines with a brush pen and ruler can be messy and difficult.

I like using Deleter Plain B comic book paper because my brush pens dont bleed as much and ink dries very fast. The dimensions vary slightly from standard U.S.-sized paper, but it still fits my scanner.

Other surfaces such as printer paper, bristol or posterboard will also work as long as they hold lead and ink. Use what you like and what works best with your drawing tools.

When drawing a plaid in monotone, convey the idea of different colors by varying the types of lines used. (In this case, two narrow lines, one thick line, one thin line and one thin dotted line.)

Ready-made patterns (usually black and white) can save you time drawing patterns and textures for clothing, buildings and backgrounds. However, its difficult to make the patterns move with the natural folds of a garment when applied to clothing. Thats something to think about when deciding whether or not to create your own patterns.