Comic Genesis Forums

ok so long story short i have to learn to use some manga programs for my job. the software is amazingly fun, but i don't really like manga and i have never tried to draw it before.

if you want the whole story, read my other thread HERE

i have been playing around with the software for 3 days now and i started trying to do manga stuff this morning after buying a 'how to draw manga' book last night.

please tell me what you think of the art work because i am not sure if what i think looks good is really good or not, and i know we have some great artist on here that are really into this style.

here goes. here are the three that i did today.







thoughts?

-halo

I think it depends a lot on what you're trying to do. If it's just work out samples of what the program can do, then you can work through the features and experiment with them.

If it's actually drawing Manga, I'd look to DeviantArt for tutorials, and work on developing a personal style.

I find myself very torn on the subject of manga. Professional well-done manga, can be very beautiful and very aesthetically pleasing. On the other hand, there's a LOT of stuff out there which is produced by people who read manga, and decide "o haha, I can do thats!" and seek out the manga formula (big eyes small mouth) and produce very generic looking, fairly boring images.

This is all just my personal artistic perspective...

First of all, since most manga is B&W, unless you've been specifically instructed to do things in color, I'd concentrate on your skills in B&W.


The biggest thing which jumps out at me about this picture is that she looks like someone chopped off the top of her head and then stuck a wig on her severed skull. Fairly simple to fix, though. See the line which makes the right side of her face (her right, not ours.) It goes up her cheek, out and around her cheekbone, in at the eye, and then up at an angle to her forehead. What you want instead is to have it go out to her eyebrows (and she should have eyebrows,) and then angle back in slightly as it goes up her forehead, because our skulls taper inwards toward the top.

It looks to me like you drew her 'face' and then drew her 'hair' and put them together. Instead, I recommend drawing her entire head and then drawing her face and hair onto it.

Other details: Her neck is a little too far forward--remember, your neck connects in the middle of your skull, not the front or the back.

Her eyes are... oddly shaped. Manga eyes come in many shapes, but triangles isn't generally one of them. Ovals is a good place to start, with large pupils/irises. (She's got really tiny pupils.) In general, in order for the eye to look 'natural', you want the iris/pupil to overlap the top or bottom (or both) of the eye. If it's just floating there in the middle, it'll look weird. <a href="http://nakedelf.comicgenesis.com/images ... ng">Here's a reference</a>. My comic isn't manga, but the character designs are manga-style derived.

She needs eyebrows. Typically in manga/anime, characters are also given a small fold in their eyelids between the eye and the eyebrow. This is to show that the character is to white. (obviously an Asian character shouldn't have this.) However, I think whether you do that or not should depend on the shape of the eye.

Her ears look droopy. Anatomically, your ears generally line up with the center of your eye and the bottom of your nose. Her ear is going down to the bottom of her mouth.

I would position her nose lower, so that it's not even with her eyes.





This looks basically fine, though I'd recommend changing the angle. Try looking at the situation from directly behind the human's head, say, with the lizard lunging straight at him. It's a nice panel as is to set the scene, but I wouldn't want to just see that--I'd want more closeups and views from different perspectives.


I assume you're trying to play with the screentones/black and whites on this one? As far as that goes it's fine, though it does look like you just want everyone to focus on the boobs and that's a little awkward. Anatomically speaking it's got a few problems.

For starters, breasts just don't look like that if you're wearing clothes over them. You can't get that level of cleavage detail. Also, they're uneven.

Her torso is too short--that or she's wearing her skirt/pants around her ribs. Her ribs are sloping in at an awkward angle for ribs to slope, and she has no hips. (Remember, women with no hips die hideous deaths in childbirth and so get bred out of the species.)

If you extend her torso, then her arms will look proportional--right now, they're too long. Elbows should be about even with the bottom of your ribs, and hands with the middle of the thigh

The left side of her skull (her left) could use some more hair.

Hope that helps, and good luck!

Your pix aren't bad, but they don't exactly scream 'anime'. There are certain conventions that crop up over and over which define anime and make so many of their characters look SO very similar. I suggest looking at some tutorial sites (there are COUNTLESS many on the web) and seeing what pops up over and over.

Look for things like: Shape of the face, size of the eyes, body proportions, how hair is defined. I wouldn't get into complex action shots until you have more of a sense of the basic essentials of anime people first. Then you can expand and study the different movement tricks, standard poses, etc.

Here's one site which covers EVERY aspect fairly well - I suggest starting near the top and just working down. Helpful pages like THISwill give you ample material to practice and emulate.

thanks guys.

do you mind if i keep putting pics on this thread as i continue to work on this?

thanks again, i have learned alot of stuff already.

-halo

I would suggest studying the human form a little better by drawing or even tracing soft core porn photography. This will teach you something of the female figure.

as opposed to studying porn, i'd rather you found a good book on anatomy for basic structure and looked for a few manga books that had styles you liked.

i have to learn to use some manga programs for my job.

nice job. what exactly do you do?

But tracing porn is more fun :P (Personally, I've used both. It just depends on what sort of anatomy and poses you're trying to learn.)

And feel free to post more pics, Halo, I don't see why anyone would mind. ^_^

Okay, I think I get it. You've been designated manga coach and given a manga creation program and told to go with it.

First the bad news: You're screwed. Bad manga is bad art and great manga is great art. It's pretty much the same as any other art with just a veneer of a particular technique put over it. The noticable drawing "techniques" that you see in manga art may be a sort of abbreviation or shorthand, but just like a court stenographer, you still need to know the underlying language to use the form to it's best effect.

Now the good news: If you're having as much fun as you say you are with it and you're serious about challenging yourself with this, you may not be be Osamu Tekuza within a year, but you can probably get yourself some pretty tight development by summer camp next year.

What I would recommend is that you concentrate first and foremost on the basic drawing like everyone says. But while you're getting your drawing chops down, if you are really interested in drawing manga save a bit of that money you wanna spend on "HTDM" books and go out there and buy some of the actual manga books for about ten bucks a pop. Seeing how the art is crafted is one thing but there is no replacement for actually seeing how the art flows in action. I would suggest "Love Hina" or "School Rumble".

<a href="http://www.mangatutorials.com/" target="_blank">http://www.mangatutorials.com/</a>
This website is my lesbian lover. *_*

From your shortened story, it sounds like you could possibly benefit from just drawing pictures manga-style, rather than trying to develop an entire manga story. You might just want to make up random characters in scenes, without bothering with a story.

If you do want to go through with an actual manga... The first thing I would take care of is a plot. Any good comic artist will tell you that the story is the most important part. I would just think of something simple that you can get a grasp on. It might not even be the whole story. My original plot for my manga, Shinseki, ended up being only one of many story arcs.

Then, develop characters. And really get to know your characters. What kind of person are they, what do they like, what do they look like, what makes them tick? You can create limitless amounts of characters. However, I would say that about 5-12 main characters would be best. Maybe 3-6 main characters, in smaller stories.

Next, develop the story. You already have a basic plot figured out. Now you have to determine the route that plot will take. What I, personally, do is write a bunch of events down on individual slips of paper (you could use index cards, if you don't feel like cutting up a bunch of slips of paper.) Then, I place them in the order they would work best in the story. If I feel I need to, I add more events, and place them where they work best. Then, I write in more detail. What exactly happens, how people get to where they are, etc. I tend to write them in bullet points, myself, but whatever works for you. After that, I write a detailed script of what everyone says and does. This includes dialogue, blocking, possibly writing individual notes to yourself, or doing a few rough sketches.

Next is the actual drawing. Be sure that you have everything worked out the way you want it, before you start drawing. You don't want to get worked into a corner. For example, I was originally going to have my manga, Shinseki, start in the Spring. Then I decided that I wanted it to start in the Fall. By the time I figured that out, I had already drawn everyone in their Spring uniforms. That kind of left me with more work to do. Now I have to write in that there was a heat wave (which I don't believe they would tend to get in Nagano Prefecture at the end of October) and that it's ended, making a virtually useless story fragment.

Anyway, what I do is draw a test page first. Not very fancy or detailed. This it just to make sure that I have everything down the way I want it. Blocking, paneling, word bubbles, effects, etc. I have had a few pages in this process that I've rewritten a few times, and that's why I think it's important. You want everything to be perfect.

The next part is up to you. If you can draw better on computer, do that. If you can draw better with a pencil, do that. If you go with pencil, there are a few options for paneling. You can do what I do, which is to draw the panels by hand. This can look a little sloppy, but it insures that the lines will hit exactly where you want them. Some people will draw pictures in the general area where they want the characters, then draw the panels around them in the computer. However, I believe this is generally a technique of tablet-users. Unless you have a tablet, I wouldn't really recommend it.

The rest is basically up to your creative expression. Color, tone, do whatever, however you do it best. Hope this helps! :)

And don't forget.. You can create your own style based off manga/anime and still be halfway decent.. but I tend to agree with Hellbenders.. Either it's good art, or it's not. And a program can't give you the ability to make good art.
Your initial drawings are pretty good, but blatantly you have not practiced this. I keep telling my 10 year old daughter "you'll only get this if you draw it.. over and over and over and over." She finally understands that. And once you've drawn over and over and over.. you get to where it comes much more naturally. Same thing with using a computer program.

I recommend some very basic manga books (look through the children's section.. that's where I started) and go purchase some pencils, a circle guide and a couple of reams of paper. Go nuts. Draw yourself, just draw faces, try to copy what you see in the books, carry a little sketch pad with you and sketch while at lunch or waiting for the bus. Once you see an improvement in what you're doing with your hands, go back to the computer program and see how it goes there.