Draw Manga

For beginners up, everything you need to know. Includes 28 teaching videos to view online.

This combined book and video-guide to drawing manga will allow artists of ANY ability to master this hugely popular drawing style. The 256 page book is packed with step-by-step tutorials on every aspect of manga drawing, basing the instructions around traditional sketching and colouring techniques, and including digital tools for rendering and finishing artwork.

The author is highly accomplished professional artist Sonia Leong, who has also created 28 two-minute video demonstrations designed to link specifically to the content of this book. These video clips are hosted online, and accessed from the book’s pages using QR codes (or URLs), making this one of the most user-friendly manga tutor books on the market.

Readers will learn how to build up characters from basic shapes and measurements, get the anatomy and poses absolutely right, add crucial design elements to enhance drawings and stories, render artwork in different styles and mediums (including digital), and even start to create comic pages and sequences— for publication in print or online.

Book Contents

Introduction
Origins, history, and development
Current meaning, styles, and global reach
About this book

CHAPTER ONE - DRAWING FIGURES

Head and facial structure - Front, Side, Other angles, other shapes, gender, age
Facial features - Eyes, brows, Noses, Mouths, Ears, fantasy ears, Expressions
Hair - Basic principles, Textures, Lengths, Complex styling, Tying it all together
Bodies - Summary of differences in style, head-to-body proportions, Body and limb distribution, real life lengths/measurements, Flesh and muscle focus, Weighting and action lines, Interaction and multiple figures, Perspective and foreshortening, Depicting differences in age, gender, build, body types, Hands, Feet, Chibi proportion focus, RPG/semi-Chibi focus, Action/Shounen hero focus

Chapter TWO - CREATING CHARACTERS

Costumes - Body coverage and layering, Folds, draping, and movement, Fastenings and embellishments, Footwear, Accessories
Extraordinary elements - Anthropomorphism, Sci-fi/fantasy features, Mecha robots
Props and accompanying items - Close combat weaponry, Projectile weaponry, Other props, Vehicles, Mounts/pets

CHAPTER THREE - SETTINGS

Environments - Choosing and researching
Perspective - Theory, Putting into practice
Placing characters in environments - Interiors, Exteriors, Natural world

CHAPTER FOUR - RENDERING TECHNIQUES & PROCESSES

Pencils - Rough drawing to prepare for inks, Finishing as pencil piece
Inks - Inking over pencils to prepare for colours/shading, Finishing as inked piece
Colours and shading - Choosing colours and palette, Basic shading principles, Intermediate techniques, Advanced techniques
Traditional media - Colour pencils, Watercolours, Markers, Screen tone, Mixed media combinations
Digital media - Tools/software required, Core skills for digital manga, Preparation for digital colouring, Vector style line art and fills, Cel-art shading, Airbrush shading, Digital painting, Screen tone, Mixed media combinations

CHAPTER FIVE - CHARACTER LIBRARY

Contemporary characters - Primary school, Secondary school, Young footballer boy, Young equestrian girl, Punk musician teenage male, Gothic/rockabilly teenage girl, Casual adult male, Casual adult female, Formal adult male, Formal adult female, Pensioner couple
Historical characters - Medieval knight, Medieval princess, Renaissance artist, Tudor noblewoman, Elizabethan pirate, Georgian lady-in-waiting, Regency gentleman, Victorian lady
Japanese-specific characters - School kids in Japanese uniform, Elegant Gothic Lolita, Elegant Gothic Aristocrat, Decora girl, Visual Kei guy, Ninja, Geisha, Samurai, Kimono
Sci-fi and fantasy characters - Mecha pilot, Space marine, Steampunk explorer, Bionic agent, Vampire lord, Elven archer, Catgirl dancer, Beastmaster, Cleric, Sorceress

CHAPTER SIX - MAKING MANGA

Preparation - Recommended tools, materials, and practices, Page setup and guidelines, Writing/directing scenes for Manga
Drawing comic pages - Reading direction and page flow, Intuitive panel order, Speech bubbles focus, Sound effects and other devices, Panel shapes to influence pacing/understanding, Example layouts and uses, 4-panel gag strips focus
Publishing comic pages - Traditional and digital considerations, Sizing and quality, Screen tone focus, Cover and logo design, Web publishing, How to market your Manga

Resources
Glossary
Index and Credits