How to Arrange Manga Panels

Manga comics have find their foundations in the traditional Japanese performing arts as well as in modern Western comics. These influences give the manga panels their distinctive look. A panel in a comic strip is the box in which the characters are drawn. The box includes not only graphic information, but also dialogue. You can draw upon these and other influences to guide you as you learn to arrange your own manga comic panels.

Things You'll Need

• Manga comics
• Paper
• Pencils

Instructions

Preliminary Preparations

1. Copy the panels from your favorite manga comics. Look for patterns to develop. Notice how the artist tells the story through the use of pictures and the arrangement of the panels. Draw these panels. Many art schools teach the techniques of art by having their students copy a master work of art. This exercise follows in that tradition and will help you as you learn to arrange your own manga panels.

2. Write a script for the manga comic. A script helps your drawing efforts, because often people cannot think of stories in purely visual forms. A script is useful for working out the details of the story, which you'll draw in later.

3. Create character sketches. Include elements that manga is known for, such as long, lanky bodies for characters drawn in the shouji style, or characters with thick eyebrows, reminiscent of the Kabuki theatrical style on which they're based. Create characters that possess manga characteristics, such as big eyes and highly stylized costumes. Don't skip this step -- you don't want to be working out what the manga characters look like as you draw your comic panels.

Drawing Manga Comics

1. Sketch out rough manga panels based on your script. These force you to draw out the information that you've written. Additionally, this gives you an opportunity to experiment a bit with traditional manga page layout, which is read right-to-left instead of left-to-write. While it isn't a requirement to draw it this way, many manga traditionalists expect it.

2. Break down the script as you draw the sketches so that each panel contains only one exchange. For example, if one manga character asks a question and another answers it, this exchange should fully occupy a single frame. Make sure that the panels tell the story in sequence -- your script will help with this. Just as a movie storyboard shows a frame-by-frame of the most important shots in a film, the manga comic panel shows the most important pictures that move the manga story forward.

3. Remember that emotions are often portrayed in shouji manga by graphic elements, such as sparkles of light or flowers drawn in the background. Include these elements in your sketches in places where you want to convey heightened emotions.

4. Draw the final panels. Emphasize important scenes in your manga comic by making those panels larger or more prominent in some way. For example, draw three panels on the page. Make two small ones on the top of the page and a larger one that equals the size of both of the two smaller panels.

References

• "Digital Manga Techniques; Hayden Scott-Baron; 2005
• "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way"; Stan Lee and John Buscema; 1978
• "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Drawing Manga"; John Layman and David Hutchison; 2008
• Ohio State University: Storyboards
• Media Ed: Storyboarding
• ElfWood: Drawing Manga - Page Layout; Jean Tsai

Resources

• Manga Fox
• Manga Tutorials: Paneling Basics
• Japan Zone: Comics