Christopher Hart - Young Artists Draw Manga

Copyright 2011 by Art Studio 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 WATSON-GUPTILL is a registered trademark and the WG and Horse designs are trademarks or Random House, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hart, Christopher.
Young artists draw manga / Christopher Hart.1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-8230-8231-5
1. Comic books, strips, etc.JapanTechniqueJuvenile literature. 2. 3. 3.

Comic strip charactersJapanJuvenile literature. I. Title.
NC1764.5.J3H379 2009 741.51dc22
2010038311 Cover design by Jess Morphew
Front cover art by Christopher Hart v3.1

Manga is the cartoon style from Japan that has swept the country. It is super-popular with teens and kids and is seen in graphic novels, video games, and animation, where it is known as anime (pronounced ah-nah-may). With just a little help from this book, you can draw all the coolest styles of manga: the big-eyed, pretty girls of shoujo; the heartthrob guys of bishounen; the adventurous heroes of shounen; plus adorable chibis, fantasy creatures, Goth characters, and more. Well start by learning some basic art principles and how they relate to drawing manga faces and bodies.

The rest of the book is pure drawing fun. With less text, theres more room for the drawings. And weve stuffed this book to the brim with helpful, instructive step-by-step illustrations. In fact, there are over 125 original characters within these pages, each different and ready to inspire. So pick up a pencil, and lets get started!

The tone wheel shows all of the pencil tones youll see in this book. You can get all of these shades from an ordinary pencil.

It adds extra zing to a drawing when you vary the shading. For example, the boy in this picture has a different tone on his tie than he does on his pants, his hair is two-toned for added punch, and his pants are shaded a light gray. Thats more interesting than if all his shading were the same tone of gray.

We use sketch lines, one vertical (up and down) and one horizontal (left to right), drawn lightly on the head, to help us place the features where they should go. That way, it wont be hit or miss every time we try to draw a face. This is called the center line, and it divides the face into two equal parts.

The nose is drawn near or on the center line. The eyes are both the same distance from the center line, in order to look balanced. This is called the eye line. The eyes rest on top of this line. In manga characters, this line is placed low on the head.The ears are also drawn low on the head, especially on kids and teen characters.Because we have set the eye line so low, the forehead ends up large. Cover the forehead with lots of manga-style hair.The low eye line also means that the mouth area and chin will be small, even petite.

Boys and girls heads are generally the same shape, which makes them easy to draw, but boys have a slightly wider jaw and thicker neck, which makes them look a bit more masculine. The eyes are the big difference between male and female manga characters.

The females are drawn with glamorous eyelashes, while the males are given heavier eyebrows. And the eyes themselves are not quite as fancy on boys as they are on girls. Another good reason to sketch the eye line before you draw the eyes: It keeps the eyes perfectly even, so they dont look lopsided, with one higher than the other.Unless your character is making an off-center expression with his mouth, the mouth is usually centered on the center line.Spiky hair is typical of male manga characters.The hair flops over the forehead, another classic look for male manga characters.

There are many ways to draw manga eyes, but most manga eyes have two large shines in them. Lets start with the standard, classic types. From these, you can create a lot of different varieties. But its a good idea to get the standard, reliable ones down first.

Try practicing these.

Draw thicker eyelashes and eyelids on top.Bottom eyelid and eyelashes should be thin.Bottom eyelids dont attachthey float!Eyebrows should be curved, not straight.Include two eye shines per pupil.Manga boys have no eyelashes.The eyelids are closer to the eye than those of female characters.The eyebrows should be thick and can be curved or straight.Eye is shaded in three tones (white, gray, and, black). Drawing the body can be complicated, so artists make it easier by breaking the body into simple shapes and then joining them together. Since anyone can draw these simple shapessuch as circles, ovals, curved, and straight linesit makes sketching the body simpler.