Starting Out
Typically, I am an artist that jumps at realism so before finding my book, Manga Crash Course by Mina Petrovic, I had no real experience in this Japanese cartoon styled art. After flipping through a couple of pages of the cute, colorful, yet sophisticated characters, I decided to splurge and buy the book. That same day I sat down and read through multiple sections of the book, completely enveloped in this new realm of art with open eyes, a fresh mind, and sketchbook full of blank canvases.
Now you might be asking, what is manga?
Well, manga is the Japanese name for comic books that originate in Japan, the style of art can be divided into smaller categories that are made for different groups and ages.There is kodomo for small children, shojo for young girls, shonen for young boys, seinen for older boys, and josei for older girls. (Petrovic)
My favorite subcategory would be josei as it tends to capture both maturity and innocence, in a very beautiful way. I would like to create my art to lean towards this category, as it is the most like my usual style of art, however starting out I think it would be best to focus on shojo, the sweet and innocent art.
While reading the materials section, I realized I already had all the materials you need! These items include, pencils, drafting pencils, erasers, and inking pens. So let's get into the real art.
The Female Manga Face
The first page of the drawing sections writes, "Female faces in manga mostly look like the face of a doll, with a round face, huge eyes, and a small pouty mouth" (Petrovic 33) Contrary to my usual drawings, I knew I had to make these girls soft, dainty, and innocent, forcing me to go about my drawing in a softer way. Choosing to focus on the roundness and extenuated features really helped me to capture this doll type look.
A side by side comparison of my usual harsh realism drawings and newly learned manga style.
Why do you think manga portrays girls as innocent and dainty?
Which do you like more, my realism or the newly learned anime?
Hey Kaitlyn! Both styles are so different and have different end results, but both look very good! I personally love the realist style better, because it shows more detail and you can bring the art to life. I think that they make manga art soft because its a type of cartoon style. What type of pencil lead and size do you use when you draw?
ReplyDeleteHi Yana,
DeleteThank you for taking the time to both read and comment on my blog! To answer your question, for drawing manga I use 0.7 lead in my favorite KuruToga mechanical pencil. Typically artists are enforced to use different art pencils with different hardness and softness's to obtain more depth in their illustration. I tend to use those over a mechanical pencil in my realism drawings but when it comes to manga, like you said, it is more cartoon styled, meaning depth is not a huge focus and a very loved mechanical pencil will do just fine. Happy drawing!
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ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeletePersonally, I find your more realistic style more appealing, but that’s probably because you have much more practice with it!
One tip I could give you about your anime style is to not let it stop you from drawing dark things. While the focus on anime art for you may be drawing in a cuter style, don’t let that stop you from experimenting! Even with the focus on anime art on large eyes, small mouths, and round heads, you can still work with variations of these traits to create characters while still having an anime style.
And you can still create dark elements even with an anime style - Tokyo Ghoul is a good example, as it follows a pretty dark storyline, and is drawn in an anime style.
Here’s hoping that you’ll enjoy working with your art, and find techniques and an art style that suits you!
Thank you Hanna!
DeleteI agree, I do find my realistic style much more appealing. You're right I do feel much more comfortable with it especially considering I've spent so much time developing it. I will try to darken things up. I know a lot of people who watch some dark and frightening animes so I've been watching some of the episodes to inspire me for darker images.
Thanks again for the tip!