How to draw Anime and Manga, from the basics. Lesson 1.I've had a lot of folks (two or three) ask me how I got so good (passably mediocre) at drawing Japanese comic-style characters. So, I'm going to pass my knowledge on to you and whether you want to read it or not is up to you. Most of you won't like it, but oh well. The rest of you who can draw the stuff better than I can, read along and chuckle to yourselves. First off, do you have any of these publications?
You don't? Good. You do? Even better. You'll have the pleasure of throwing them away. These publications aren't worth a shit, not even the ones made and printed in Japan. This may sound really haughty on my part, I know, but there's a simple truth backing up what I'm saying: In order to draw a distortion of the human face and figure, you have to know how to draw the human figure first. I havn't seen any one of these books that even scratch the surface on the art of drawing the human figure aside from a few worthless pointers, they tend to stick more to drawing the big googly eyes and the pointy hair. If you love Japanese comics and cartoons that damn much, you probably already have a collection already in your bookshelf or on your computer. There's no reason to waste money on half-assed manuals that try to show you how to draw the style when you already have a perfectly good collection of well-drawn stuff to work from.
This isn't to say that there aren't how-to drawing books to reference - I personally recommend these two publications to start with.
You'll find a hundred different publications on how to draw the human figure and they're all good, but I'm personally biased for Hamm. The guy, bar none, is a master with the human figure. This book will get you started on an easy learning curve with the absolute basics and then manages to cram in every meticulous detail you'll need later on to draw a homo sapien like a pro.
After trashing all those manga manuals above, you might be confused why I'm recommending a comic how-to book, and an old one by Marvel no less. Here's why - this book only gives the absolute basics on the human figure and it's completely biased to the old Kirby/Ditka style. That's not why you're buying it. You're buying this book because it spends most of its pages showing you how to not only draw comics, but to layout and compose them in a highly readable, "loose", exciting manner. These lessons can apply to any genre you want, and not limited to American-style superhero work. Just trust me on this.
Other reading materials: Any books on perspective. Unless you want your pink-haired bunny girl to look like it belongs on the wall of an Egyptian tomb, you need to learn and understand perspective. Even the human body conforms to perspective, and even having a little practical knowledge of it will help you in a big way.
Materials: Pencil and paper, a mirror, all them retarded volumes of manga you own, those two books I recommended (or whatever else you choose) and a lot of time. Recommended: A digital camera/camera phone (that can upload to your computer) Homework: Get the basics of stick figure/figure drawing down first. A lot of people struggle with hands and feet, that's what the camera is for - take pictures of your extremity and use that as reference if you need to. If you're struggling with a pose, take a picture of yourself or a family member striking the pose you need. Protip: Your harshest critic needs to be yourself. Resist the temptation to join DeviantArt and ask for critiques because 99% of the people there can't draw in the first place and it's a 100% circlejerk that will tell you that any peice of crap you draw is OMG KAWAII RATED 5. On the other hand, don't get arrogant and think you're going to impress the folks at ConceptArt, they'll just laugh at you. Remember, you're trying to evolve your skill from this:
and aim to draw something like this: HELL YEAH JUN FTW
Coming Soon: Lesson 2, Stuff you need to consider
|
