Tutorial - Manga Drawing

How to make Manga? How to be a mangaka? How to draw manga? The most asked questions and the most awaited post of all time, it took me time to make this because I am working my drawing skills as well. So without wasting any time lets get to it ^_^

01. Copy : "Hey rak you want us to start our career by copying?". That's right people you have to start by copying other mangaka that's the 1st step. Every one does it even great mangaka like Kishimoto sensei, Oda sensei, obata sensei, kubo sensei every one started by copying their favorite mangaka. I started by copying Kishimoto sensei. You do the same start by copying your favorite mangaka.

02. Head : Start by practicing head and I mean the whole head - different jaw shapes, hairs, eyes, nose, mouth, ears and don't just draw the front view try drawing it from different angles like 3/4 view, side view, top view, bottom view, back view. Get familiar with these angles.

03. Expression : Your head means nothing if you cant express fleeing through it. Learn every possible expression. Buy a small desk mirror or have a webcam act it yourself that's the best thing.

 (not my work)

04. Human Anatomy : Yeah I know its tough but you are not in medical school you don't have to learn them by name like sternum, scapula, pectoral, deltoids etc just learn to draw them. This is very important you need very good skills of human anatomy because if you understand a normal person's anatomy you can enhance it to make a super hero, beasts or take it down a notch to make a fat guy or a skinny boy you can do as you wish once you have mastered human anatomy. Practice male and female, young and old there are differences in every body types study them carefully.

05. Dynamic Actions & poses : Once you have anatomy skills this wont give a lot of trouble just kidding it will :P not very hard though creating cool poses in perspective takes time. Be sure to be able to create any pose its important.

 Pose

 Dynamic Action

06. Perspective : There are three kinds of perspective 1-point, 2-point, 3-point this part is easy its just needs a little time to sink in as you will have to draw your characters and other stuff in perspective.

 1 point perspective

 2 point perspective

 3 point perspective

Try to sketch as light as possible as u will need to erase it after inking.
Now as the sketching part is clear lets move to inking part

I am no good at this part yet, but still I'll tell u things that I do to get better.

I don't know what to you use to ink your work some use traditionl ink dip pens with g-nib, maru nib, kaburu nib and school nib ad some use micron pens. (more on tools, equipments and papers in a later post)

01. Straight line : Its as easy as it sounds, might take a little time getting used to as your fear of messing things might come in between, it happens to me all the time.

02. Curves :  Practice both long curves like on face, hair and small curves like in eyes and nose.

03. Flicking : I don't know how to explain this but when you ink hairs rather than following its path precisely try flicking on it to create that broad to thin pattern.

Search for Sycra, Koizu, Sophie Chan and Mark Crilley on youtube for the tutorials they will help you understand it better. I refer to their videos too.

Happy new year. ^^

Day 6 - Language & Culture

Well most of you reading this post will be a がいこくじん (ga-i-go-ku-jin : foreigner) in Japan so definitely there will be language and cultural differences. For some the cultural differences will be more and for some it will be less. For me as an Indian (South Asian) there aren't many cultural difference there are but not a lot but for some one from a western country the cultural difference will be more which is awesome because its fun to learn something new and we will be excused if we make any mistakes.

You would want to be a mangaka in Japan so you definitely need very high language skills to communicate with your editor, assistant and obviously to write manga.

I am not the best person to learn Japanese Language and culture from :P but I can tell you the best places to learn them.

To work or study in Japan you at least need to clear JLPT N2, without it forget about getting a decent pay job or enrolling into a college. JLPT conducts exams from N5 to N1 5 levels N5 being the lowest and easiest. It is to test your reading, writing and listening skills so that the people know that you can work and study with them efficiently.

Official Website of JLPT - http://www.jlpt.jp/e/

I have cleared JLPT N4, but I plan to study from N5 again in Japan (more on that in my upcoming blog "My plans for Japan")

Best places to learn Japanese languages are :


01. Japanesepod101 - They have many videos about basic Japanese, greetings, holidays and many more interesting stuff. Now they have a started a really creative way of teaching by animation, I personally likes it it's cool watch it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6lXlpf-n6k

02. Givemeaflakeman - This guy is funny you wont get bored watching his videos, he also does video on language, greetings, holidays with tomoko-san but he makes other type of videos too like interviews, current events in japan, videos with gopro, debates and a ton of more stuff, I have learned a lot about japan from him and am still learning.

For culture I would suggest watching j-drama, j-movies, anime or read manga and I suppose almost everyone reading this post is doing that already. But check this out

01. Culture Japan - A site run by Danny Choo I wont ruin it for you, there is a lot of stuff on his sites, its very helpful.

Then there are site like Japan guide,  Gaijinpot. You can find many more sites for it, good luck

がんばろう

Practice Post : 03

Practice Post : 03 
After : 6 days

Whats better for a mangaka than replicating their favorite character. As this year is close to its end I give my tribute to Hajime Isayama sensei - creator of one of my favorite manga series "Shingeki no Kyojin"

  

Hajime Isayama sensei - Thank you for such a great series and a happy new year ^_^

Practice Post : 02

Practice Post : 02
After : 5 days

Now I am at least 10% as good in drawing as I used to be a year ago(If you dont understand what I am talking about read Day 1 – The Beginning). But I still cant draw both eyes in symmetry, I can either draw right or left. What to do?

I'll keep practicing and getting better and will keep posting my progress.

Update : After spending 5-10 min more on the drawing and this is the closest I can get to symmetry.

Day 5 - Why Manga?

The 1st question that people ask me after asking "What is manga?" is "Why manga?" and it is perfectly normal to say "fuffffu~...." (it means nothing)

My reason to make manga is pretty simple :

"I make manga to make mangaka"

The first time I read manga like One Piece, Naruto, Death Note, Bleach etc...  I wanted to be a part of that world, the time I spent thinking if I was a part of that world what powers would I have, how will I look, my weapon choice, the girl I would like so many feelings rushed into my mind at the same time just by reading a manga and to me that was the turning point.

 

 Its not just about what I would do if I was in that story, as the story grows and I get more familiar with the characters I start rooting for them, if they get hurt I cry (not literally but I get sad), when they are having fun I get happy for them. For me the Manga that made me want to be a mangaka is "One Piece" by Eiichiro Oda Sensei, I have literally cried on some scenes in this manga, laughed with them - don't stop reading you babies I wont give any spoilers.

I know most of you reading this blog who are seriously trying to be a mangaka have had the above mentioned feelings too for the manga you like the most.

A story that can make you smile and cry, happy and sad, creating a story like that for others is the best thing you can do.

This is why I want to be a mangaka because I write good stories and hopefully I'll draw better too someday but most importantly I want to inspire other people.

The answer to "Why Manga?" will definitely differ from person to person but the main goal of a manga is to make others (readers) happy and that should be the goal of a mangaka too.