How to Draw Manga Comics of People
Manga is a form of sequential (or comic) art. Its roots include traditional Japanese art many centuries old as well as Western art, especially late 19th century American political cartoons. Key features of Manga characters include large eyes and athletic bodies. The stories involving such characters span a wide range of literary styles, but the most popular Manga strips tend toward melodramatic conflicts and gestures, from which the reader can clearly discern the good guys from the bad. Getting started making Manga comics with people is not hard, though mastering Manga takes some practice.
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Anatomically ideal dolls (for figure drawing)
- Paper
- Pencil
- Colored markers or pencils
Instructions
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1
Write a short script for a comic: Keep your first script short and easy to manage by writing no more than one page. As you sift through the many stories to turn into a comic, choose one whose theme, message, characters and conflict have meaning for you. A ready source of such stories is your own life. Write about the last thing that upset you, but write about the event from the point of view of another person.
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2
Create the format for your comic: Draw a series of rectangular panels on two separate pages of typing paper. Make a total of 16 to 20 panels, and vary the size and shape of each one. Leave some white space around each panel.
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3
Make a duplicate of each page of panels. You'll use this duplicate to trace your scene's backgrounds and form the completed comic strip.
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4
Convert your script into scenes. Make the number of scenes equal the number of panels you drew. Also, rewrite as much of the script as possible as dialog. Keep the narration to a minimum. This task will simplify the drawing of each frame.
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5
Create the backgrounds for each panel. Choose backgrounds based on the setting of each scene of your story. You can draw the backgrounds yourself, or trace images from digital photos, magazine illustrations, web graphics or other sources. (Be sure to get permission from the image's original author, if you plan to publish your comic.)
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6
Practice drawing people on paper that's separate from your comic strip's rectangles. Sketch dolls with ideal anatomical proportions, such as Barbie (and Ken) or superhero dolls.
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7
Detail the character's Manga eyes: In place of the doll's eyes, draw ovals whose size is about a quarter the size of the head. Add two concentric (one inside the other) ovals inside the outer oval, for the iris and pupil. Darken the smallest circle (the pupil) completely. Add highlights, or reflections, by using a small eraser to clear out a pupil-sized area near the pupil.
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8
Draw eyebrows as two upside down "V"s over the eyes.
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9
Make the nose as a small backward "L" below and between the eyes.
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10
Form the mouth as a small "M" midway in the space between the nose tip and the chin.
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11
Begin experimenting with exaggerated facial expressions to communicate emotions: Redraw the mouth so it's closer to one side of the face. Then, draw the iris and pupils to look up, and toward the same side of the face you re-drew the mouth to. This expresses someone trying to decide something.
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12
Redraw the mouth so that half of it stays in its original position, but the other half turns up. This is a smirk, which you can use to communicate a person who is up to mischief.
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13
Redraw the eyebrows higher and make the outer eye ovals larger, to make your character express surprise. See the Resources section for more facial expressions.
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14
Draw your characters onto a page of blank rectangles you made in Step 2. Consult your script to determine the poses of each character.
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15
Create dialog balloons for each scene, then copy the dialog from your script into the balloons.
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16
Complete your comic strip by tracing the background images from the other set of rectangles into the rectangles containing your characters.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit manga styled samurai girl image by Anastasia Serdyukova from Fotolia.com
