How to Draw Super Manga

Building your own muscles can lead to a better understanding of how to draw them.

Creating a super manga requires a bit more knowledge of human anatomy and movement, with emphasis on exaggerated muscles and action. American comics are dominated by superhuman characters, while manga predominantly features normal human characters that are involved in everyday situations. Being able to draw super manga makes artists more versatile and gives them a wider appeal to an international audience.

Things You'll Need

• Manga reference
• Anatomy books
• Pencil
• Eraser
• Action pose reference

Instructions

1. Find photo references of action poses that you will be working from to draw the panels in your manga. Use these as a guide when drawing whatever heroic actions your character is performing. Heroic actions could include things such as jumping, flying, running or punching. Sports photos often feature such actions and are a good first choice when looking for references.

2. Draw rough stick figures to represent your character(s), referring to the action photos to get an idea of the way the motion looks. Draw a center line of action through the characters to capture the action's direction of movement. Once satisfied with the pose, start fleshing out the figures by adding cylinders for the limbs and spheres for the head, torso and pelvis.

3. Refer to your anatomy book to find out where to place muscles on your figures. Draw the muscles in the appropriate areas on top of the cylinders and spheres.

4. Simplify the figures in the manga style, but don't hesitate to keep the musculature complex since this is a super manga. Add a spandex costume by drawing it directly over the muscled figure, if you are drawing a superhero.

References

• How to Draw Manga; Society for the Study of Manga Techniques; 1996
• Manga Tutorials: Anatomy: How to Draw the Male Torso
• You Tube: How to Draw Muscle Body, Male Torso, Front View for Character

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish