If you want to learn how to draw manga, then it is a good thing that you have passed by this page. Check this out so that you can be more familiar with manga, and more importantly, learning how to draw them.
To begin with, Manga means Japanese comic books. Many of the most popular manga has been adapted and animated into an Anime which means Japanese cartoons. Manga are made for all ages. There are different types of manga stories that can relate to young readers to elder readers with different types of personalities. That is why it has become so popular nowadays. Manga also has a unique style of characters made by different manga illustrators.
Here are some of the most important features and tips for learning how to draw manga:
Head – To start drawing a manga character, begin drawing the manga head. It may be a bit difficult to draw the manga head, at first, because you need to emphasize what angle of the head you want to show in your drawing. But it will also serve as your basis for drawing the entire face, as well as the cylindrical neck, and the manga hair.
• The manga head shows the eyes, the brows, the nose, the mouth and the ears. It appears like an oval shape.
• To show the angles, you can do shadings and check out some art books for the outlines that can be used in drawing a manga head with different angles.
Face – In drawing a manga face, you only need five lines as an outline: one vertical line at the middle of the face and two horizontal lines for each of the upper and lower part of the face. If you draw these outlines, it would not be hard for you to draw the manga face.
• The vertical line serves as the outline for the nose and the horizontal lines are the outlines for the eyebrows, the eyes, the nose, and the mouth.
• To show the differences in drawing a female manga face from a male manga face, just make the male manga face’s eyebrows thicker, and make their eyes more narrowed than the female manga eyes. The male manga mouths are also drawn wider than the female manga mouths.
Eyes – Drawing the manga eyes is the most important part of drawing a manga character. It is because the eyes give life to a manga character.
• Just like our normal eyes, manga eyes have the upper eyelid, the eyelashes, the iris, the pupil, the white of the eye and the lower eyelid, the only differences is that they are drawn larger than our normal eyes.
• To make it look livelier, you can put highlights and shades on it. That way it will appear moist and alive. Eyelashes for female manga eyes are sometimes drawn exaggeratedly, but it would depend on the style of the manga artist.
Hair – Use the head as the basis of the manga hairstyle. You don’t need to draw an exact hairstyle like the human hair, but you can just draw the outlines of the shapes needed to show a manga hairstyle.
• The color of the hair must be shaded heavier for black hair than the shades for brown and blonde hair.
• Manga hair also has highlights and shadows on it to make it realistic and to add volume to the hair.
Body – When drawing the manga body, the first thing that comes into my mind is human anatomy. That’s because I base drawing the manga body on human anatomy.
• I draw ovals and circles that correspond to each bone and then use them as basis of drawing the outline of the manga body.
• You also have to take into consideration that the manga body has to have proportions depending on the character that you are trying to make.
Movement – You might think that creating a movement in drawing a manga could be difficult for those who are starting to learn how to draw manga. Relax, there are many ways for you to create movements in manga.
• Use the wind that blows the hair or the clothes, or some accessories worn by the character. These are the easiest ways to create movements in a manga character.
• Lines can also be used. One example is the two lightly drawn but short curved lines right by the side of wiggling knees of a character.
• You can also use captions. There are captions and sound effects written or drawn in a manga like bang!, thud, thump, woooosh! that can be used as movements in a manga.
It might sound hard to learn how to draw manga, but there are only four ways for you to learn and improve your manga drawing skills. Those are: having an enormous imagination, appreciating your efforts, solid practice and extreme interest in learning it. Just enjoy and have fun with practicing, and eventually you will do it perfectly.
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