Drawing Manga

[Rain]

Do many people on these boards draw manga? What do you find is the toughest part when drawing manga/anime characters? I can never get the folds in the clothes right. Clothes look crap without any folds in them, but they look worse when I try to put folds in them;). What does everyone else find is the hardest part of drawing manga?

BTW: I'm not sure whether this goes here or in the Art & Design forum so I don't mind if it's moved.

[Utena_Tenjou]

I hate drawing hands, I always sucked at it ._.

I usually make eyes cruqued to...

[Genkai]

oy, hands stink...but worse is folds in clothes...

when ever i try, the clothes look really wet or soggy... i dunno

but im overcoming that, i just stare at pictures with lots of folds and have gone to countless websites to teach me....u.u

anyway, my manga is about e.. for whole pages so far..inconsistent characters, etc...yay!

[amibasuki]

I do pretty good up until I get past the head.....most of the pictures I make are busts of characters....

[Kent]

I would say the hardest part of drawing manga and anything else for that matter is making charactors that are original.

I also think hands, equally sized and placed eyes are both not exactly easy to draw.

But really my thing is trying to come up with my own stuff rather than drawing other peoples charactors.

[Imsirion]

Originally posted by amibasuki
I do pretty good up until I get past the head.....most of the pictures I make are busts of characters....

Same here, I cant draw a decent body worth crap. Hands suck too
:o

[Juuthena]

The head and body are easy... but the arms, legs, hands, and feet are hella hard for me...
I also suck at drawing backgrounds... :p

[Lunox]

There's a manga contest for Tokyopop, a company that translates and makes some mangas. If you win first place, your 2500 dollars.

[Semjaza]

Judging from some of the stuff I've seen online by various people that draw manga, I can tell I'd have no chance in hell with that contest lol. I'm not even gonna bother with that one :).

I wouldn't say any one sectino is hard... For me making everything proportionate is the hardest thing.

[Rain]

Hands can be hard to draw too, but the good thing is that sometimes you can get away with drawing hands with not much detail. I'm slowly learning to draw folds in clothes. I go to www.howtodrawmanga.com and read those tutorials

[Queen Asuka]

You're not supposed to link to other websites via the Otakuboards. But anywho...

I don't draw manga necessarily as in the whole storyline/comic thing, but I do draw anime characters and such and I read manga. :D Okay, that was stupid. The hardest part for me is hands. It used to be clothes, but after practicing, I've gotten folds pretty good. Just look at a picture of a REAL person and copy what you see. That helped me out alot. I love to draw and watercolor though and you can look up some of my artwork at my website, the link of which is in my signiture.

[Bunni_Chan]

I draw manga, in fact I'm working right now on an Elven Slayers manga, for those of you who know of the ES, with Mike's permission of course. I do my manga on keenspace, whose heard of it? it's a really cool and easy to use webmanga site. I think the hardest part about doing characters is trying to get the eyes to match perfectly. IIt's like one is always taller than the other or longer or has a bigger pupil and I always have to do it over like a thousand times before I'm happy with it. Expressions in general are pretty tough but I think clothes are easy.

[mystikal]

I can't seem to draw the feet right (if it is bare feet) and hands too. I always draw them small becuz it looks right and personally, I have small hands myself. I can't draw landscapes too...I would love to learn how to draw trees, stone, earth, etc... I love to design different characters and creatures even though there is no use (as in making up a story to fit them) lol.

[Genkai]

Hey Hey Hey, i have officially started a web-comic-that-won't-be-on-the-web manga!!!!! it's sort of the sarcastic-ishness of megatokyo, about me, like piro and seraphim and ed and dom all do. oh, and largo.

it's called diary of an otaku.

here's the hardest thing for me, i've realized: character consistency. I can't draw the same character twice. well, i try, and you can tell they're the same, but the head weill look different or the hair will be screwqed up. PLUS that's why i can't do fan art.

the manga-ka who win the contests also get some sort of deal with tokyopop. its on the website, but i never go there anymore.

[youta moteuchi]

I draw manga and I have about three amin ideas that I'm trying to develop.

I also have a problem with doing the same caracter twice, altough I get it sometimes... And I'm better with tights, hehe, drawing them, I mean.

I ust dont know how to exibit art work in the net... I guess it's becuz I dont know anything about creating a home page...hehe

[Flash]

Originally posted by Queen Asuka
You're not supposed to link to other websites via the Otakuboards. But anywho...


Advertise, no, but linking to another site is fine. In this case, I heavily support it. The How to draw Manga (http://www.howtodrawmanga.com) website is a favourite of mine, and it really helped me learn how to draw manga style a whole lot better.

Polykarbon (http://www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/index.html) is another great site. ^_^

[Kent]

has anyone else noticed or felt that a downward stroke was easier to make than a side ways or upward stroke.

Ive gotten back some creative energy lately and have been drawing like crazy since.

thats how the thought came to mind.

even more, has anyone noticed it seems easier to make a stroke to a point where you can see the ending spot rather than say, having your hand covering the path.

what about you guys?

[GundamGohan]

eh... yea... clothing's kinda tough... but still the hardest part is getting the hair to look natural instead of just a blotch with a bunch of lines going down it... tha's my problem... as for faces, those are the best im at... but i guess tha's all i did in high school... doodle my fave character's in my notebooks, and i usually start with a head... unless something else is going to be in the foreground... then i do that... but yea... im rambling... so... uh... i guess im done... ^-^

[youta moteuchi]

Hello,

I'd like to know if anyone over here would like to start a little manga just for fun. I really need a partner, otherwise I wont get the hang of it. It's really hard already to draw, It's more to keep yourself up when things arnet that much of good.

Well, drawing is my dream and I will fight for it, I just want someone to join me, so we can suppprot each other throughout the creative process.

I did put some of my drawings here... I have to confess that I have some trouble with backgrounds, but nothing that I can solve.

If this thing works out I would like to try to publish it,

So, what do you think?

Even if you dont like of the Idea of joining me, please, tell me your opinion about my drawings...

See ya,

Youta.

[Rain]

Wow...you...you drew that? That's very good! Tons better than mine! *Slinks away, to improve drawing skills...*

[Lunox]

You know...I think THE hardest thing about drawing mangas is just actually getting an original and axciting storyline. Whenever I try to think of storylines, Evangelion always pops into my head for some reason.*Starts drooling over Kaworu* Youta, that drawing is REALLY good, especially the detail, but I think the neck is a wee bit...um....small...lets scratch out the 'wee' part, shall we?

[youta moteuchi]

Thank, you. I guess that I wasnt the only one that noticed that, hehe. I was a mistake, Its like the hair is penetrating, digging into her back... :( Sorry, I keep doing those kind of things, hehe Here goes another one, and, as ou can see I dont know how to use water color...)

I also love EVA. ^^, (a lot!!!)

Arnaldo
;)

[Lunox]

That picture is excellent! I can't find anything to say bad about it.

[Narius]

Yep, limbs annoy me. I used to have problems with firearms and mech type stuff as well, then I went to a couple sites and stole their styles =P. ANd Piro of Megatokyo is really good at guns Oo.


anyways I'll prbably upload a scetch or two sometime and show it here. I'm just lazy right now....and tired......and lazy.

[sandramaxwell06]

youta moteuchi's drawings are creppily perfect! i mean are you sure you aren't a professionaly manga artist? i USED to consider myself a somewhat good artist...forget that! did you do that pic made up or of an actual character!

i say the hardest part of drawing manga is the body, the face is kind of easy but the body is really hard.

[Kent]

You are all good at this.

But my problem is that you are all making me jealous.

I dont have the ability to put my drawings up on the boards, none the less, get them on my computer.

But on a side note, the other night while I was sitting in class I did a pic of faye and then right after it I did one of spike and although they are other peoples charactors and Im not really one too brag, I wish I could show you guys.

They were awesome, especially since I didnt cheat and look at anything. I mean, I know Im not the best, but these pics really do catch the feeling of each charactor.

considering I was in class and doing it all from the head, on top of the fact it was just random sketching on plain notebook paper; I felt awesome about the result.

damn I wish I could show you guys. arrgghhh!!!!!
Its driving me crazy because I will never get to validate what Ive said.

Im just gonna try to get some help with my prob. but unfortunatly, I dont have any friends to help me. oh well.

[youta moteuchi]

Thank you all, but I think that I still have LOOOOOTS to improve.

The girl is a caracter of mine, if you go to the section 'Poetry Fan fiction' on the boards I did put the first chapters of my story over there ( the name of the tread is 'Its forbidden to fall in love'), but as my english is very bad, I thing that it was confusing - specially because I was narrating a dream.....

Gotenks, If by any chance you live in Boston area, MA, I would probably have how to arrange a friend to scan the drawings for you... Although I also have the same problem hehe. Those drawings are from last year....

Here goes another one hehe, just to do not get out of the ordinary.

[sandramaxwell06]

actually, looking at the picture isn't cheating. if i want to draw a character perfect, i need to see the pic. and it think its a good thing that youta wants to improve his pics. there's always room for self improvement. i have some pics in the art&design area, the thread is drawings. (very uncreative name) i have some more pics there!

[Yami Mae]

I draw manga too. First I found quite dificult to draw eyes, but now I find them quite easy. Now I find very, very dificult drawing hands and folds in clothes. Hands because I always forget to draw them big . Folds ´cos sometimes I don´t know where to draw them. I need practise.

[Syk3]

Originally posted by sandramaxwell06
actually, looking at the picture isn't cheating. if i want to draw a character perfect, i need to see the pic. and it think its a good thing that youta wants to improve his pics. there's always room for self improvement. i have some pics in the art&design area, the thread is drawings. (very uncreative name) i have some more pics there!
I totally agree that looking at a pic isn't cheating. When people are watching me draw Dragonball Z pictures mirrored off a picture I printed out, they say that I'm tracing, but there is a HUGE difference. By tracing, you basically copy someone elses work. You need no skill, and you try to get credit for it. By looking at another picture, on the other hand, you can practice drawing detail and forming your own techniques. It takes a lot of skill and pacients even then, because you need to know exactly how to curve that certain line without tracing it.

Of course, your own work would be a lot more creative, but looking at a picture is the first step. You must get used to drawing anime before you go off and try to draw your own. I'm starting to draw on my own, but I had to start with years of practice and looking at other pictures. Lots of people forget that, and then when they try to draw on their own, they totally mess up.

[AnimeGurl]

I can't really draw manga but i'm trying too. lol. to anime gurls...lol. :)

[Angelus_Necare]

I find angles and difficult to pull off positions hard. hands used to be a problem for me before I started keeping a sketchbook full of hands and practiced hard. the hardest thing about drawing a comic thouh is placement, this would most likely be easy for someone who has great organization skills but not me! Guess I'll have to start and angles/position/comic practice book now...

[Iman]

I tottaly agree with Syk, i have drawn DBZ a long time too, now look at my own original work "Kagemusha" thx to DBZ i am developing my own style now, and just works out finely.

BTW Youta has an excellent style, luv it!:D

[youta moteuchi]

well, well,

so much has happened. I wanna know what you guys think about the cover of the book I was selling at the animeboston this year...

If you guys like I'll send you more pic later, hehe


just let me know what do you think

see ya

[MangaFreak]

i try to, i suck at hands! i mean how do people do it? i just try to find away to naturually hide them in some manner or fashion... but i rock at eyes! i've always been good at eyes, though i dont know why. i guess i just am. the other hardest part of drawing mangas for me is expressing there emotion in just the right way. i mean i think i need alot more practice. i have to say i do do a pretty good job but i want to be alot better. theres always room for improvement. i think im average at clothes and the folds and things but i could prabaly do ALOT better if i try. i think im too focused on getting the faces "just" right

[fangirlitis]

Do many people on these boards draw manga? What do you find is the toughest part when drawing manga/anime characters? I can never get the folds in the clothes right. Clothes look crap without any folds in them, but they look worse when I try to put folds in them;). What does everyone else find is the hardest part of drawing manga?

BTW: I'm not sure whether this goes here or in the Art & Design forum so I don't mind if it's moved.


I'm fairly okay at drawing, but...I too, have the problem with clothes...But I've recently gotten better at hands and bodies with the help of a great artsist! I'm not giving away who, 'cause then you'll all pleague the dear child with questions and all sorts of junk...yeah, but one method I find that works is taking lots of pictures of things you have trouble drawing then drawing those pictures a few times a day until you feel they're good enough! I also just have someone just sit still so I can draw their hands or ears or even just their smiles...It helps quite a bit!

PS--YAY for you! GO JOHNEN VASQUEZ SUPPORTER! WOOT FOR YOU!!!

[Falkon]

hmmm... I find the hardest part of drawing manga characters is creating original ones, like other people have mentioned. I can look at a picture and draw it freehand pretty well, but when it comes to making my own characters, it looks like a thrid graders drawing XD. i can do hands and everything fine if i have something to look at.

As for the hardest body part to draw... I would have to say legs. If you draw characters with pants, skirts,or dresses on its not that hard, but bare legs (and dont take that the wrong way) are hard to draw. theyre either too short, too long, too fat, too skinny etc.

[SilverCyclone]

My problem usually is consistancy. I can draw a fantastic picture, but I will never be able to draw it again. I have many different weak points. Mostly hands and folds. Plus, I have really shaky hands (my own), so my lines tend to look wierd, and makes inking a freaking pain in the ***. But mostly hands and folds. Im teaching myself to overcome that problem though, and have gotten better at the hands. As for folds... :nope:

[Vahn Grave]

The hardest thing for me is to draw folds in clothes, giving characters an evil look more than once and not thinking of how to proportion, but, I'm gonna make a manga with my friend called cowboys from hell. :D

[youta moteuchi]

what do you guys think of my little baby....

she is the first character I could draw a story with....

[BL00p d3 L00p]

It's a well done picture. I can never draw something like that. I'm bad with angles and positions and the proportions too (a little bit). And i'm also working on the hands. -.-';
But i'm okay at drawing.

[HitokiriBanzai]

Work on the perspective, hidden parts, far, near and stuff like that, also light effects, and "kamera" position

[badjesus]

I thouroughly enjoy drawing mana characters and drawing things in general but all my characters have a major problem they lack personality I mean when you ook and a great peice of art real or surreal you can pick out what their personalities are like just by looking at them mine all look like mass murderers.

[youta moteuchi]

here is another drawing:

Hope you guys liked it.

It's a character for a story I'm developing, wich is gonna be medieval and at the same time, futuristic.The first character is the princess of the story around whom the story will occur, and the second one is an archerand I can't tell anything else about him otherwise I would spoil the story.

[naota]

I am good at drawing faces,but no that good at hands.Also the problem with me I can't draw poses from my head that good.I would have to look off a picture.I am only good at drawing my character in different angles.I am going to have to keep drawing poses and hands for a while untill I perfect it.Also sometimes I have trouble posting 2 eyes perfectly aligned :confused: .Also Youta that is a great drawing! ;)

[ScirosDarkblade]

here is another drawing:
Hope you guys liked it.
It's a character for a story I'm developing, wich is gonna be medieval and at the same time, futuristic.The first character is the princess of the story around whom the story will occur, and the second one is an archerand I can't tell anything else about him otherwise I would spoil the story.

If I could offer a suggestion, I think that it's not a good design decision to not draw characters' noses altogether. While the anime style sometimes doesn't have them, it's usually for very baby-ish faces and when there's an overall lack of detail (e.g. when characters are in the distance). It looks really strange and inhuman for a character to lack a nose when you see him/her from the front in a close-up shot. At least put in something like Fujishima's "triangle" noses, lol.

[Ares]

I sometimes draw manga, and I hate drawing hands, but I'm good at faces and muscles and arms. Manga is fun to draw, but it takes much practice. I still need more practice, *goes off to practice manga*

-Ares:)

[golfcart_pirate]

I absolutley hate to draw hands and feet. I can draw hair shirts and all that other crap just fine but hands, feet and eyes are evil!!! :devil:

[badjesus]

I reallly hate inking them in they always look like twisted shoujo characters.
I really hate drawing male charcters my scetch pad is full of beautiful women and very ugly men.

[sakura18]

I think the hardest thing to draw would be would be shoes and feet. Sometimes when i used to draw shoes...it would ALWAYZ look like they're standing on their toes..lol. Kinda like how Akira Toriyama draws his feet in DBZ it annoys me when they look like they're standing on their toes. I would say the part of drawing manga i'm the best at would be from the head....down to the ankles. I absoulutely LOVE drawing hair and expressions. Hands are pretty easy..once you practice a couple hundred times.. ^-^' Other than that, ..... I'm satisfied with my drawings!

[naota]

I never drawn bare feet before so that would probably be the hardest for me.But here is a list of what I need to improve on:

1.Different angles
2.Different Poses
3.Detail in Characters
4.Hands
5.Feet

Those things are the hardest for me.I have quite alot fore me to improve on!

For me I am not that bad on the body.I can make a good body but when it comes to folds on the clothes I go bad.Also since I don't draw girls and women that much I am pretty bad at drawing them too.

Do not double post. This is the last warning of any kind you will see from me. -Lady Katana

[Korey]

Hands can be hard to draw too, but the good thing is that sometimes you can get away with drawing hands with not much detail. I'm slowly learning to draw folds in clothes. I go to www.howtodrawmanga.com and read those tutorials

there ya go! the best way to become better is listen to other people's ideas! :flaming: :flaming: no!!!!!! don't do that. jk dude, you can do that if it helps. the best thing for an artist in question is to have a lot of reference materials, such as magazines, graphic novels, etc. It helps to have paper dolls and stuff like that if you can buy them ( from hobby lobby or something like that.). hands and faces are the hardest thing to draw in any style of art, because they express so much. i've seen drawings go from good to mediocre, just from the head or hands alone. the key thing for an artist is to practice and have tons of reference materials. analyze different artist's styles and then develop your own.

[sakura18]

Oh Man!!!! >.< For me, drawing girls and women is SUPER easy!!!! >-< It's the boys that are hard! With boys you hafta to not make them too skinny...but not too muscular. Not ugly but not too hot either. GOSH!!! Sooooo many things to keep track of!!! >.< But boys are STILL fun to draw. It makes me happy when my friends swoon over the guys that i create. ^-^

[Mana]

I draw much manga, in a sense. I draw it in american style form, but I draw the anime style, you know? It's fun, because I draw it on notebook paper, and I draw small little blocks, so the story isn't as many comics long. I still need to do a new story in this fashion, and I may do Hellgun in this style.

[Kei]

I have been lenient with this thread. So very, very lenient.

That ends now.

If I see any of the following from now on:

A) Double-posting
B) Not trying in the least to use proper spelling/grammar
C) Going off-topic in any capacity

I will not hesitate to close this thread with a resounding slam. You have all been warned.

[foreverinfinity]

I find making some types of hair very difficult. I just cannot seem to figure out how to give someone a ponytail from the front view without it looking demented. eyes can also be kind of hard to draw. it can be complicated to place them in the perfect spot and keep one eye the same size as the other eye.
Although those aspects of manga are hard, the thing I find most difficult is making the arms and legs. You will very rarely see any of my pictures without long, baggy sleeves and long, baggy pants. making the porportion and shape just right is almost impossible for me. Even when I get it okay, I am very picky and find something I don't like about the arms or legs.
If anyone has some tips on this area of drawing manga, please PM me.

[Aura123]

Its all pretty easy to me. I guess the hardest things are fingers. And clothes design. I can't come up with fantasy kind of clothes. I guess its cause i'm a guy. Maybe i should ask some girls for some ideas for clothes oh well.

[Sinthae]

i guess most of its easy for me. i can draw clothes (if i'm in a drawing mood) quite well. the hardest part for me is drawing the hands and eyes evenly. i'm still practicing it and my friend gave me a tip on how to do it. shes a real good drawer.

[naota]

I definently gotten better at drawing last time I checked.The first Kagome picture I drew was perfect and so was Inuyasha (except for the nose and mouth position).But I am still alittle edgey with the hands.But I have gotten better at the hands.

[roxybudgy]

I like to draw anime and manga characters. What I find most difficult is hands and drawing two character or more together, I can never get the size right.

Actually, in my opinion, the only thing I'm okay at is drawing faces in 3 quarter view.

[inuyasha-sakura]

I love drawing anime characters especially inuyasha...
im actually have a hard time in the shape of a characters face.
Im not really good at it, but im trying to improve everytime... :blush:

[naota]

I have improved alot,but I just remembered that I would rather make manga because with anime you have to draw over 2,000 pictures! I used to think it wasn't that complicated.But I guess I will try to stick with manga for a while. I have a question....is there anyone on the forums who has ever made manga and sold it. I just wanna know what it is like lol.

[Korey]

I have improved alot,but I just remembered that I would rather make manga because with anime you have to draw over 2,000 pictures! I used to think it wasn't that complicated.But I guess I will try to stick with manga for a while. I have a question....is there anyone on the forums who has ever made manga and sold it. I just wanna know what it is like lol.


well i have never sold it. but i have put some projects that i worked online before! i tend to draw with manga and dc comic-esque influences. the key to selling something anywhere is often decided on the amount of dedication the artist puts in. i can tell you that you need to submit your work to a major art company, like viz or tokyopop. you need to have a presentation readibly available and a resume if you are going for a job. otherwise, if you want to start your own company, i suggest getting a couple of books for starting buisnesses. it rrrreallly will help you down the road. oh and on your anime comments i say to you this. a lot of the frames you see in anime are just reproduced images from many manga titles. then all the animators have to do is add all the stuff for tv.(eg. animation, sound...etc) also, there are more people working on an anime to help produce it.

I'm really bad at drawing backgrounds. Like Mountains, or a room or somethings like that.

well it's not too hard. try looking at the place you're at right now. take a good look at the features of the place (i.e. curves and twists and stuff like that. like i've said before, it all depends on reference materials. i have one question for you though. do you have mountains in your hometown? it's kinda hard to draw somethin you dont have. (plenty of mountains here though :D ). also you could look at how the walls curve inside a building and draw them in your own perspective. also if you look at most anime, the artists tend to draw only parts of the walls and not the whole room. well the walls also depend if your drawing still life or just comic strip style. just take a look at the world around you.

[Angel_Kiss]

tyo me the hardest part when drawing manga and anime is the hands,folds in clothes, and the facial expressions.Sometimes i get so frustrated i just through the pencil and quit for like 5 min to chill. Then ill do better or ill find a picture to copy the hands from. But i love drawing mangas and anime...... its fun! :)

[xYakux]

I have trouble drawing men, i find it extremely difficult, i'm a bit of a perfectionist so it'll take me about 2 days to draw my own man character right, i usually have to draw him many times because i think they always turn out too girly looking.

[Korey]

I have trouble drawing men, i find it extremely difficult, i'm a bit of a perfectionist so it'll take me about 2 days to draw my own man character right, i usually have to draw him many times because i think they always turn out too girly looking.

hmmm good for you! i tend to draw some guys with a little too girly lookin as well, but i started to look at amercian styles of comics and it really helped me look at manga and go hey that makes sense! the problem with drawin guys (even though i am one) is that they have different contours than women do. guys have little curves and makin sure that the amount of (how should i say this) manlyness is never really expressed in most pictures that some artists draw. you should really stick to drawin something that you can produce so well that it is no problem for you. look at your magazines and other things that you own (posters and other stuff). i say this everytime i post and it really helps most artists. look at the world around you! that is what it is partly there for.