Lisa Santrau - Manga Watercolor: Step-by-Step Manga Art Techniques from Pencil to Paint

Painting with watercolors essentially means forgetting about formal painting techniques. Dont worry if you can't quite paint the apple in front of you, or if the rooster doesn't look like it does in the photo watercolor isnt meant to accurately reflect reality. You're more likely to be trying to capture a feeling or create a certain atmosphere. Its about representing and abstracting the basics, yet manga is also often characterized by a love of detail. The two are by no means mutually exclusive, because the ability to create a soft atmosphere through color, for example, is exactly what constitutes a manga illustration. Using watercolors neednt be expensive, although you can invest in more costly materials. To begin with cheaper paints are fine, and theyre usually already highly pigmented, meaning you don't need to use much and they last a long time. The beauty of painting by hand is that you can keep trying new materials. Just go to an art or craft shop to find different brands and materials. Some of us are addicted to drawing materials and trying out as many types of watercolor paper as possible, while others enjoy testing out paint pans, tubes and liquid paints.

Watercolor is supposed to be fun, so don't worry about everything being perfect or expensive. Set your priorities and try out whatever you like. If I can give you one tip, its to invest in good-quality paper. Just a small paint box is enough to start with, as you can easily mix different shades yourself. A box of 12 colors is enough to get you going!

If you feel like quickly trying out the paint techniques as you learn them, you can find templates of some of the illustrations in this book via the link below. Make your own copies, try them out and get acquainted with watercolor. Its best to print out the templates and copy them onto watercolor paper using an LED light box or your window. If you have a laser printer, you can scan the templates and print them onto watercolor paper, just make sure it's not too thick for your machine.

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Different types of watercolor paints.

Paints in pans consist of pigments, binders and various additives. They come in half or whole pans. You can buy the pans individually or in watercolor boxes, which usually contain 12, 24 or 48 colors. When theyre finished, you can simply replace them by repurchasing them individually, or you can fill the empty pans with watercolor paint from tubes. This way, you can mix individual colors yourself and create your own, very individual paint box. You can even buy empty pans, along with empty watercolor boxes, so that you can design your own box from scratch. You might want to create one with pastel shades as well as your normal box, for example.

Watercolor pencils can be used like normal pencils but theyre water soluble too.