J. C. Amberlyn - Drawing Manga Animals, Chibis, and Other Adorable Creatures

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO MY MOM AND TO DEN. THANK YOU FOR ALWAYS SUPPORTING MY ART AND FOR PROVIDING ME WITH THE ARTISTIC WINGS TO FLY.

I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO THANK ALL THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE ENJOYED MY ARTWORK OR ENCOURAGED ME ALONG THE ARTISTIC JOURNEY. YOU HAVE HELPED MAKE THINGS POSSIBLE.

What is it about manga-style artwork that makes it so appealing? Manga (Japanese comics) and anime (Japanese animation)style characters are becoming popular and mainstream in many countries outside of Japan. Indeed, manga expressions and art techniques are now frequently adopted by non-Japanese artists. So what is it that has captured so many peoples interest? There are a variety of factors, just as there are a variety of manga art styles. Many people are familiar with the super-cute, big-eyed characters found in anime series such as Pokmon, and that charming and appealing look is definitely a part of manga and animes worldwide fame.

However, once a non-Japanese person begins to dig a little deeper into Japans comic art, she will find an astonishing variety of art, stories, characters, and lore to appeal to people of all ages and inclinations. Manga includes adorable, wide-eyed characters dashing from one whimsical adventure to the next. However, it also includes stories and characters with a tough sophistication reminiscent of James Bond or John Wayne (though the characters are as likely to be samurais as they are to be spies or cowboysperhaps a combination of both). The hard-edged, stylized artwork of these adventures reflects their gritty and unsentimental nature. In addition, manga may include action-packed fantasy or sci-fi, romantic love stories complete with lots of sparkly eyes and flowers, or gothic tales of horror and suspense. Manga-style art seems to have something for everyone. In addition, anime and manga series often feature stories and characters that have much more depthshades of gray, if you willthan many viewers are used to seeing in a cartoon.

Lastly, dont forget the factor of fun! A lot of anime and manga artwork seems to be brimming over with fun, innocence, and whimsy, which is appealing to many viewers. Experimenting, stylizing, and enjoying yourself and your characters is encouraged. Also, going back to those big eyes manga and anime artists often use the expressiveness of their characters eyes and faces to create an emotional bond with viewers of their work.

The animals in these stories reflect the world they live in. Japanese manga often celebrates cuteness, so the cuter, zanier, and more sugar-hyped it is, the better! Many series feature a mostly human cast, but there is often one simplified animal mascot character that gives advice or companionship to the main character. More serious manga and anime feature more realistic and often dangerous-looking animals. They may be friend or foe, but are usually stylized and drawn with numerous details and layers of shadow, in contrast to the simple designs of merely cute characters. Other animal characters fall somewhere in between the twoit just depends on the needs of the artist and the world he/she wants to create.

As an American, I find it interesting how intertwined American and Japanese animation and comics have been and still are today. Some of the stereotypical manga look, consisting of big eyes and really cute characters, has a partial origin in American cartoons. Osamu Tezuka, who became a great Japanese cartoonist (and is sometimes called the father of anime), was heavily influenced by American cartoons such as Walt Disneys 1942 animated movie Bambi . Tezuka was the first to establish the big-eyed, cute look in Japana look based on the American cartoons he loved. Many of his creations were eventually animated as television shows, and some of those shows were then broadcast on American TV Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion are some of his creations most familiar to American audiences.

However, some say that manga itself originated much earlier than the twentieth century. In fact, the argument can be made that manga is nearly one thousand years old! The Japanese have a long history of telling stories with pictures. In twelfth-century Japan, an artist and priest named Bishop Toba created the Animal Scrolls, several narrative picture scrolls depicting anthropomorphic animals wearing clothes and behaving much like human beings. Also about that time, other artists illustrated the famous Japanese novel The Tale of Genji . Later, in the 1700s and into the 1800s, wood-block illustrations called ukiyo-e became very popular in Japan. They depicted the pop culture of the day: famous Kabuki theater actors, the latest fashions, and pictures that illustrated traditional stories. There were even illustrated, humorous cartoon books made in the early 1700s that may have been the worlds first comic books. The trend of telling stories and having fun with pictures continued into the twentieth century, when modern manga really took off thanks to artists such as Tezuka.