by Jane Sandwood
Japan’s manga and comic industry achieved record profits last year, with the market size for Japanese comics up by 23%. The popularity of this industry can be attributed to the arrival of digital comics, which have enabled fans to access titles they may not otherwise have been able to. If you are a manga fan and you’d like to start creating a few titles of your own, make sure to hone basic techniques, adding more sophisticated elements to your work as you progress.
Choosing Your Characters
Whether you are drawing just one manga character or a series of vignettes, you first need to work out the universe, style, and spirit of your characters. Think of them as real people, working out their job/lifestyle, fashion sense, and personality traits before putting pen to paper. Figure out what they enjoy spending their time on and the quirky aspects that make them unique.
Creating a Vision Board
Draw a vision board on a large piece of paper or card to work out the different scenes your characters will find themselves in. This will help you envision their body position, facial expressions, clothing, and the like. Find the inspiration for the positioning of characters, their gestures, and actions in anime films, iconic comics, or even standard action films. Doing so will enable you to work out how many vignettes you need, how large they need to be depending on the action taking place, and the like.
Drawing Faces
Hone the basics of drawing manga faces. Start out by drawing a circle then draw a jawline downwards from the left side of the circle then upwards toward the right side. Draw a line across your circle around one-third of the way up. This will serve as a guide for the positioning of facial features. Draw one ear at the side of the head close to this line, which will serve as a facilitator for the symmetrical drawing of the other ear. Draw a line across the circle at the height of the top of the ear. This line will serve as the high point for the brows, which you can draw next. Beneath the brows, draw the eyes. Draw a line that starts at the height of the earlobe and goes more or less to the top of the jawline to represent the nose, drawing a short, diagonal line beneath to represent the nostril area. Draw the mouth at the level of the natural bend of the jaw. Fill in details such as the eyes, eyelashes, brow hairs and the like. As you master basic faces, start working on expressions such as sad, happy, angry, and surprised and practice different positions (looking up, to the side, bending the neck to one side, and the like).
Adding Fantasy Elements
If you wish to sketch fantastical creatures like dragons, you should also start with a circle for the head. Beneath this circle, draw a large oval shape (to represent the body). Draw a line between the two shapes to represent the neck then two circles beneath the egg (and two half-circle shapes beneath these smaller circles) to represent the feet. Fill in details like the beak and arms, fleshing out simple curved lines and adding details like eyes, a tail, scales, and the like. There are many classic manga animals to inspire you, ranging from naif teddy bears to sophisticated monsters from imaginary worlds.
Exercise Your Hand
In addition to drawing specific subjects, increase your hand steadiness and strength by doing general exercises such as drawing straight lines (horizontal or straight lines, as well as crossing lines). Draw curved lines as well. Finally, draw various spheres, squares, and triangles, aiming for symmetry and perfection as you progress.
Manga is a hugely popular art form that is inspiring artists across the globe. To hone your drawing skills, start with the basics and progress to more sophisticated details involving perspective, lighting, and expression. Be vigilant with animal characters as well as people and strengthen your hand by completing exercises when you are not working on characters.
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