Copyright © 2013 by Camilla d’Errico and Stephen W. Martin

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Watson-Guptill Publications, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.watsonguptill.com

WATSON-GUPTILL and the WG and Horse designs are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
d’Errico, Camilla
Pop manga: how to draw the coolest, cutest characters, animals, mascots, and more/Camilla d’Errico and Stephen W. Martin.
Pages   cm
1. Comic books, strips, etc. Japan—Technique. 2. Cartoon characters—Japan. 3. Figure drawing—Technique.
NC1764.5.J3 D47 2013
741.60952                                                      2012042393

eBook ISBN: 978-0-307-98551-4
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-0-307-98550-7

Illustration credits appear on this page
Cover design by Jim Massey
Cover illustrations by Camilla d’Errico

v3.1

CAMILLA’S DEDICATION

To the tallest man with a plan: Without your watchful eye I wouldn’t be the artist I am today. And to my true love, you are this girl’s best friend and dragon slayer.

STEPHEN’S DEDICATION

For Lola, my true love. Without your watchful eye, sentences would remain like this one.

INTRODUCTION

When I was a kid, I loved Saturday-morning cartoons! Every Saturday, my sister and I would wake up at the crack of dawn, grab a bowl of Lucky Charms, and bask in the wonders of eighties cartoons. Whether we were defending Eternia and the secrets of Grayskull or the streets of Manhattan with Spider-Man, we could not get enough! But that was nothing compared to when we discovered Tekkaman Blade, a Japanese anime series. It had everything—amazing action, steamy romance, cute boys, and giant robots! We were obsessed! This show sparked my love of Japanese animation, and then, in the mid-nineties, the show Sailor Moon aired; this cemented my passion forever. To this day, I still have a small crush on Tuxedo Mask. (But who doesn’t!)

When I hit my teens, I discovered manga. Don’t get me wrong—I love Peter Parker, but American comics just didn’t set off my spider-sense like manga did. The characters in the stories were just like me: They had everyday struggles with friends and parents. They laughed, loved, and even cried. It wasn’t just about fighting or saving the world (although there was some of that); it was about internal struggles and personal tragedies. Plus, the girls were prettier and the boys were way cuter! Manga stories like Sailor Moon and those from Clamp, the all-female artist group, inspired me to start drawing comics.

A handful of my paintings, drawings, and panels are sprinkled throughout this book. I included these not only because I love to share my work with others, but also because I’m hoping they might inspire you to keep creating and encourage you to find your own artistic style!

Getting Ideas

I’m often asked in interviews where I find inspiration for my art. The answer is rather simple: all around me! Sometimes I like to wander the streets armed with my iPhone so that I can snap pictures of anything that catches my eye. It could be a broken toaster in the garbage or a bent pipe on the street—you’d be surprised where some of my helmet designs come from! What I’m getting at is, don’t wait for inspiration to come knocking on your door. Get up and go find it. Finding inspiration is about being active, constantly challenging yourself, and opening your mind to new creative wonders, be they music, movies, books, art, or even random things on the street. Trust me, you never know what will spark your imagination and lead you to your next great creation.

CHOOSING YOUR “WEAPONS”

This is my studio—a.k.a. my Batcave—where I do all my drawing, painting, and plotting.

Just like a samurai has his sword, every manga artist has an arsenal of supplies. Pens, paper, and Photoshop are my tools of the trade. With these mighty weapons, I do battle every day with the evil blank page, creating characters and backgrounds. Before we get started, I’m going to tell you a little bit about some of the tools I can’t live without, starting with my favorite pens, which are, in fact, mightier than most manga swords.

The Bic Pen

My first weapon of choice is a run-of-the-mill, find-it-on-the-floor, top-probably-chewed-off classic black Bic ballpoint pen. These are cheap and amazing! Every time I go to Staples, I buy a box, and I have literally thousands of them. Why do I love these pens so much? Well, they produce a smooth line and are comfortable to hold while drawing. They have the feel of a pencil in your hands, but unlike pencils, they never smudge. Another fantastic feature of this pen is that it lets me alter my lines from thick to thin, from subtle to hard, just by adjusting my grip or by putting extra pressure on the tip. I can’t live without them.

Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens

When I want to make my lines superthick or superthin, I use the Faber-Castell Pitt Black 199. I find that the tips on these pens are very delicate but sturdy. The “B” brush tip is especially good for drawing hair because it allows me to draw a thicker or thinner line, depending on the character’s hairstyle. This is also what I use to fill in any solid black areas I want on my drawings.

Pilot Color Eno Mechanical Lead Pencil

I do all my initial, or base, drawings with a Pilot Color Eno mechanical lead pencil before moving on to my final black ink. The color I use is called “soft blue.” (It’s actually a teal, or light turquoise, shade.) The soft-blue pencil is amazing because when you scan your image in grayscale, the scanner will not pick up the blue lines. It’s like an invisible ink. All the step-by-step drawings in this book were done with this lead.

Staedtler Mars Plastic Eraser

The Staedtler Mars eraser—an eraser made of white plastic—is the only one I use. It is accurate and easy to hold, making it the perfect weapon for destroying all evidence of my mistakes. So throw those big pink erasers in the garbage and replace them with a white Staedtler Mars eraser.

I’m giving you a list of some of my favorite “weapons,” but you should feel free to experiment. Try out an assortment of tools and find the ones that work for you. Remember, the artist doesn’t choose the pen—the pen chooses the artist.

Cougar Paper

I have tried hundreds of paper types over the years, and the one that beats all the others is the 11 × 17, 100-pound Cougar Opaque White Digital Choice Super Smooth paper. This paper has a little bit of weight but almost no surface texture, which allows you to use an assortment of pens without smudging or ripping the paper. You can get it at any print or copy shop, and it’s much cheaper than buying prelined manga boards or sketch paper. I buy it in bulk and draw a border around each sheet myself.

Scanner and Photoshop

I scan everything I draw and import it into Photoshop, where I can scale it down to manga-size boards or panels. Working with a scanner and Photoshop, I can draw my images at a larger scale and then shrink them down while keeping all the detail.

BECOMING A MANGA ARTIST

Whether you got this book as a gift or picked it up yourself, I want to say I’m honored to show you everything I know to help you become a manga artist. Trust me, it’s not easy, but I know you have what it takes. Together we’re going to tackle all the techniques you’ll need to bring your characters to life, and along the way we’re going to get some help from a little creation of mine—Inku!

Sorry about Inku’s attitude! You’ll find that when you start drawing your own manga, some characters take on lives of their own.

Before we begin, I want to take a moment to explain how to use this book. First, I don’t want you to think you have to master each and every step before you continue on to the next chapter. If you find a particular step a little challenging, try tracing it—that’s what I did when I was learning—or skip it and come back to it later. And don’t worry if your drawings don’t look exactly like mine. This book’s purpose is to help you discover your own voice, so feel free to experiment. Remember, there’s just one rule when comes to learning manga: Have fun!

Now, just one last thing before we get started drawing. It’s a word of wisdom from one of my all-time favorite comic artists, John Buscema. John, who drew everything from The Avengers to Conan the Barbarian to Silver Surfer, once said, “People who draw comics don’t do it for the money. They don’t do it for the fame. If you want to be rich and famous, you’re better off being an actor. We draw and write comics for the love and passion of it, and we don’t give up if it’s something that we really love to do!” So ask yourself why you want to draw manga. If it’s for love, then you’ll be successful no matter what.

Okay, let’s draw manga!

FROM THE TOP

DRAWING THE HEAD

The face showcases a character’s emotions and creates a connection with the reader. That’s why all manga artists should begin their study with the face. In this chapter, we are going to learn how to draw the eyes, the nose, and the mouth. I’ll also give you pointers on facial expressions and tips on drawing hair. Once you’ve mastered each element, you’ll practice putting them together.

DRAWING EYES

Whenever I’m creating a new character, I always start with the eyes. You get all the emotion from the eyes; they are the gateway to the character’s soul. Eyes are the manga artist’s catchphrase or calling card. The next time you’re reading Naruto, Chobits, or even Vampire Knight—some of my personal favorites—take a look at the characters’ eyes, and notice the differences in the style and execution. Each manga artist has a signature way of drawing eyes. My eyes are “circle eyes,” and that’s the style you’re about to learn. But I want you to take the steps I teach you and run with them, altering them to match your own style and your own characters’ personalities. Remember, it’s your signature, so have fun!

GIRL EYES

Girls’ eyes are really fun to draw. They are big, round, and beautiful. Girls’ eyes are the biggest set of eyes you will draw, next to toddler eyes. Okay, let’s begin!

STEP 1 Using your blue pencil, draw an oval shape for the head and then crosshairs going from top to bottom and side to side. The crosshairs will give you the position of the eyes on the face and also determine which way the head is turned. In this case, the view is full frontal, so the lines of the crosshairs run straight down the middle of the face and horizontally across.

STEP 2 Add the eyebrow and the upper eye line. Here we are drawing a classic bright-eyed girl, so the eyebrows are arched. The upper eye lines should curve in the same direction as the eyebrows.

STEP 3 Each eye is a simple circle centered on the horizontal line halfway between the side of the face and the central line. Make sure you draw the circle touching the upper eye lines you previously drew.

STEP 4 It’s time for the highlights. For each, draw a little circle inside the larger eye circle—it should be about a quarter of the larger circle’s size. I place the highlight at the top left, which is my standard look. (Some artists put three or four of these little circles in each eye.)

Then draw the lower eye line. It’s basically a mirror of the upper line. I don’t like to draw the lower line as full as the upper. Why? Because every artist has her secrets …

STEP 5 Okay, now for the iris, which is the colored part of the eye. Draw a half-circle, starting at the bottom middle of the highlight and going around to the other side. I don’t go all the way to the top of the eye, but you certainly can, if you like. Remember, it’s all about finding your own personal style.

STEP 6 It’s time to get out your black pen and go over the drawing to add a little depth and character. Draw the pupil right in the middle of the iris, and fill it in. Then lightly shade in the area between the edge of the iris and the pupil, being careful to avoid the highlight. You can also fill in more of the upper and lower eye lines with a few black pen strokes to give things a little more depth.

GUY EYES

When you’re drawing female eyes in manga, everything is soft and round. But guys’ eyes have to look more masculine, so you don’t want to make them quite as circular as female eyes.

STEP 1 Once again, begin with a circle and crosshairs. Remember, we’re using our blue pencil here—no black ink yet.

STEP 2 Now draw the circles for the eyes and the eyebrows above them. Guys’ eyebrows are less arched and extend farther toward the outer edges of the face.

STEP 3 Now let’s do the top eye lines. For guys’ eyes, we’re not going to follow the contour of the eye circle like we did when drawing girls’ eyes. Instead, the top eye line should overlap the circle slightly, like a little hat. Next, draw the bottom eye lines, which are gentle, continuous curves.

STEP 4 Draw the highlight circles and the half-circles for the irises, just like you did for the girl eyes. Feel free to flip back for a reminder.

STEP 5 Using your black pen, go over all the lines you’ve drawn so far to give them a little more depth and strength.

STEP 6 Time to shade! I do the initial shading with a steady, straight-line motion. This gives the eyes more depth and a fuller, finished look.

STEP 7 Now intensify the darkness by adding more shading at the top. Also, here I’ve waited until the last minute to add the pupil, drawing in a small U shape and making it the very darkest part of the eye. Bang! Just like that, the eyes are complete!

TODDLER EYES

The younger the manga character, the bigger the eyes should be. In proportion to the face, toddler eyes are huge—which makes them supercute! In fact, you can use that as a general rule: The younger the character, the larger the eyes. (By contrast, grandparents’ eyes are barely visible.) Also, a toddler’s eyes are closer together than an older boy’s or girl’s eyes.

Here, we follow the same steps for drawing the girl and guy eyes, but everything is exaggerated. When it comes to eyelashes, gender is not an issue; you can add them to both male and female toddler eyes.

ADULT EYES

The main difference between adult eyes and younger manga characters’ eyes is that adult eyes are smaller. In fact, they should be half the size of teenagers’ or kids’ eyes. Everything, including the pupil and the highlight, is smaller. You can also see more of the whites of the eyes in older adult characters. Adult eye lines are longer than those of young people, and they are positioned slightly farther apart. Otherwise, the steps for drawing adult eyes are basically the same as those you’ve already learned—though there are a few differences between women’s and men’s eyes.

Women

When drawing female adult eyes, give them heavy eye lines to show that they’re wearing makeup—and add some extra eyelashes at the ends of the eye lines to indicate mascara and a single line above the eye for the eyelid. (Younger manga characters tend not to wear any makeup.)

Men

Men’s eyes are similar to those of women, except that—like young guys’ eyes—they’re less rounded. Also, I tend to draw men’s pupils a little smaller, but that’s just a style thing. (Remember what I said about finding your own signature.)

GRANDPARENT EYES

In manga, the classic way of drawing old-people eyes is to draw no eyes at all, because they appear to have their eyes closed all the time. But I thought it might be fun to draw an old grandmother’s eyes. Why? Because I love old ladies—they’re so much fun to draw. And, well, I love my grandmother!

STEP 1 Draw eye circles and thick eyebrows with your blue pencil. Lay in the eye lines so that they cut across the top and bottom of each circle—which makes it look like the old person’s eyes are half open (or half closed). Also, most grannies stop wearing mascara at a certain age!

STEP 2 Now add in the highlights and pupils, remembering that highlights are always smaller in older people. If you’ve forgotten how to do this, flip back a few pages. (Just make sure Inku doesn’t catch you!) Now, with your blue pencil, start adding in the details that make people look old—wrinkles! Draw two little strokes under the lower eye line and above the eye. Finish by adding a few little lines indicating crow’s-feet at the corner of each eye and some wrinkle lines near the eyebrows.

STEP 3 Use your black pen to go over the lines. I usually start with the eye lines, because they should cover the tops and bottoms of the eyes. Drawing them first lets you know where to draw the eye. From there, draw the eyelids, eyebrows, and wrinkles. The more wrinkles, the older the character.

STEP 4 Finally, shade the eyes. Remember to avoid the highlight as you shade the iris and pupil. The highlights in older characters’ eyes are smaller than those of any other character.

VILLAIN EYES

Now it’s time to create the all-important villain eyes. The steps are basically the same, with just a few twists. Every element should be slightly smaller than that of a regular adult eye. And you’ll want to give villains’ eyes some dramatic angles to make them look extra-evil.

STEP 1 Draw the eye circles with your blue pencil. Then draw the upper eye lines so that they point downward and inward. The upper eye lines curve downward. Add slanting eyebrows to match, showing that these characters are always angry.

STEP 2 Trace over your initial drawing with your black pen, making sure to smooth out your line work around the eyebrows.

STEP 3 Add the pupils, making them slightly smaller than you would in a normal adult eye. Also note that you are not going to draw highlights in these eyes—just the pupils. Without the highlights, the eyes take on a more devious look.

STEP 4 Now shade in the irises above the pupil. This makes the character appear sinister. You may want to give female villains extra eyelashes. Think of the Evil Queen in Snow White—the meaner a female villain is, the more makeup she wears!

DRAWING NOSES

Fresh lilacs, cotton candy, and freshly cut grass—those are my favorite smells. If I could bottle them, I would. My least favorite? Well, my French bulldog Loki’s superfarts.

You’ve probably guessed we are about to learn how to draw noses. In manga the nose is often overlooked or simplified, but I like to give my characters button noses. I guess it’s another one of my signatures.

I always start with the nostrils, then draw the line of the nose to show the direction the face is pointing. If the character is facing straight ahead, there’s no need to draw the nose line. All the noses shown here belong to younger characters, but it’s important to note that older characters’ noses are longer and pointier. Note, too, that there’s no difference between female and male noses in manga.

Here the nose line extends past the cheek because of the face’s position.

In manga, a nose can be as simple as two small points indicating the nostrils.

With noses, don’t be afraid to experiment with shading and line work. As you can see, I do!

A small button nose gives the character a cuter, younger look.

When drawing a nose line in three-quarter view, I begin the incline at the point where the crosshairs meet. Keep in mind that the nostril should be positioned about midway between the horizontal crosshair and the mouth.

This painting drove me crazy! It wasn’t working until my editor, Sean, came over and said, “You forgot her shoulder.” He was right! Sometimes we artists miss the obvious.

DRAWING MOUTHS

The way you draw the mouth gives you another opportunity to subtly put your own personal stamp on a character. One characteristic of my mouths—unique among manga artists—is that I draw lips. Traditionally, manga characters are highly simplified, which usually means no lips. But I like to add lips to my female characters because lips are sexy. I also like to give my characters teeth, which a lot of manga artists don’t do. The next time you’re reading your favorite manga, pay attention to the mouths. I started drawing my characters’ teeth when I was young—probably subconsciously, because I had braces and envied other people’s perfectly formed pearly whites.

When drawing mouths, I always start with the opening and then draw the bottom lip, followed by the top lip, and finally, the sides. It is important to start with the opening because it’s the overall shape of the mouth that defines a character’s expression. Here, I’m showing you an assortment of mouths to give you a lot of examples of how to craft some superexpressive pieholes. Before you start practicing, take the time to study these mouths and look for the tiny details that differentiate them. For example, in the Vampire Mouth—a villain’s mouth—I’ve stretched the grin to almost double the size of a normal grin.

I tend to make men’s mouths larger while keeping women’s mouths smaller and more pouty—but again, you should make whatever changes you like.

What can I say? I love a boy with fangs!

When a character is speaking—or, in this case, shouting—I like to color in the interior of the mouth. It gives more punch to the image.

Here the character is speaking softly, so we see only a hint of teeth.

When drawing sexy, pouty lips, keep the mouth opening small to accentuate the lips.

Here is your classic “Genki” girl mouth, laughing.

I call this the “Ticked-Off Girlfriend Mouth.”

You can tell by the wide opening and the lines of his smile extending up and out that this character is laughing.

This character is shouting. There is always shouting in manga, especially if there is a Yu-Gi-Oh! battle happening.

Here’s a side view of a guy speaking.

DRAWING HAIR

I think everyone wishes they had manga hair. Short or long, curly or straight, it always looks fantastic! One thing to remember is that in manga, the hair is often a literal extension of the character’s personality. Greasy, slicked-back hair usually means a gruesome greasy villain, and bountiful bouncing curls usually mean a bouncy bubbly blonde. But remember, rules can be broken, so have fun with it. Here, I’m giving you an assortment of different hairstyles for both female and male characters.

Girls’ Hairstyles

I love drawing girls’ hair and making it look soft and flowy—creating a sense of whimsy in the female characters. Honestly, it’s pretty easy to do—just never draw a straight line.

For me, a girl’s hairstyle should always have an overall direction, with most of the strands moving in that direction. When drawing a girl’s hair, I always start with the bangs and curve them up to the crown of the head. Then I draw the outer edges of the hairstyle, finishing it off with the strands of hair that are closest to the face.

MEDIUM-LENGTH HAIR

Farrah’s Flow

Bold Bangs

Cute and Tidy

The Snow White

LONG HAIR

Treasure Hunter

Sultry Smooth

Behind Wave

Sleek and Straight

Innocent Wave

Banged Beauty

SHORT HAIR

The Sixties Schoolgirl

Sleek and Sexy Bob

Long and Bouncy Bob

Puffy Princess

UPDOS

The Pull-Back

The Tie-Back

Pigtails

Ponytail

Space Buns

Boys’ Hairstyles

What’s really fun about guys’ hair in manga is that if a real-life boy wore a hairstyle like that, you’d probably tell him to get a haircut. In manga, though, the boys always look superhot! Note that the invisible-wind effect applies to manga boys as well as to manga girls. Remember, combed or gelled hair is for villains only.

The Seventies Shag

The Rebel

The Rock Star

Sleek and Serious

Messy Magnificent

The Rascal

The Beaver

The Villain

The Beatle

The Cloud

Short Spikes

Bed Head

THE FACE—PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Now it’s time to put together everything we’ve learned so far and make some faces. We’ll start with the front view and then move on to three-quarter and profile views. We’ll be alternating between girls’ and boys’ faces—but always with some tips on how to draw a character of the other sex. Always remember that girls have rounder faces, and the lines for their features are always softer and curvier, whereas those for guys are more angular. Also, in manga, details such as dimples or lines around the eyes, nose, and mouth don’t exist—at least not in young characters.

FRONT VIEW—GIRL’S FACE

The front view is the facial angle you’ll draw most often—I think I draw it about a hundred times a week. It’s also probably the easiest of the facial angles to draw. The front view is commonly used when characters are speaking, looking in the mirror, driving, or sitting in class. For this lesson, we’ll focus on drawing a girl’s face—but don’t forget to study the tips on drawing boys’ faces in the front view on this page.

STEP 1 Start with an oval and crosshairs, drawing the eyes on the horizontal line and then the eyebrows just above the eyes. Next, draw a little line to indicate the nostrils, halfway between the place where the crosshairs meet and the chin. Then add the mouth halfway between the nostrils and the chin. To complete this step, draw little vertical lines for the ears, which are on the same horizontal line as the eyes.

STEP 2 Shape the head a bit by making the sides of the face straighter and by creating the jawline, which begins at either side of the face midway between the nose and mouth. Now make little half-ovals for the ears. The ears should barely be noticeable in a front view of a manga character’s face.

STEP 3 Define the nose with just two small dots for nostrils. Define the mouth with a very small line that bumps up slightly in the middle. Also, draw the neck. A female character’s neck is slimmer than a guy’s, so curve the neck lines inward. Now is also the time to begin defining the chin. I use a point similar to the bottom of a heart shape, but feel free to use another shape for your characters.

STEP 4 Define the eyes and eyebrows further. (Flip back to the section on drawing eyes (this page) if you don’t remember all the steps.) You might also begin sketching in the hairline at this stage.

STEP 5 Begin defining the basic shape and texture of the hair. Don’t worry if you don’t get it quite right when working with your blue pencil—you’ll be able to refine it later on.

STEP 6 Now it’s time for the black ink. Start with the eyes, further defining their shape; then move on to the nose, mouth, and eyebrows. You don’t have to follow your blue lines exactly, so don’t be afraid to make adjustments.

STEP 7 Fill in the rest of the face, shading the eyes and adding details to the hair.

STEP 8 Finally, erase your blue lines, and—presto!—you have a supercute girl’s face. Easy as store-bought cake!

FRONT VIEW—GUY’S FACE

Like I mentioned earlier, the basic approach to drawing a guy’s face is the same as for a girl’s—it’s the details that make all the difference. Guys’ faces are more angular, and their necks are thicker. As you probably remember from the section on eyes, guys’ eyes are slightly smaller and less rounded than those of girls, and male eyebrows are straighter and thicker. Their mouths aren’t quite so puckered—and I like to extend the line for a guy’s mouth just a little wider than I would a girl’s. Finally, the chin is squarer and more masculine.

THREE-QUARTER VIEW—GUY’S FACE

The three-quarter view is the most common view in manga. When characters are looking at something or talking to someone, their faces are often shown in this position. The three-quarter view is a slight turn of the head, so we have to do a little foreshortening to make it look like one side of the face is slightly closer to us than the other. We’ll practice this view with a guy’s face, but don’t forget to read the tips on drawing girls’ faces in three-quarter view on this page.

STEP 1 As always, we begin with an oval for the head and a pair of crosshairs. Note that the vertical crosshair curves toward one side of the face. Whichever direction the curve goes in will be the direction in which the head is turned. In this case, it’s toward the left. For the eye on the far side of the face, it’s just the opposite: Place it slightly closer to the left edge of the oval than to the vertical crosshair. Also, the far eye should be a bit smaller than the near eye, since nearer things appear bigger and more distant things appear smaller.

The nose and mouth—here indicated by little lines—appear at the same height as in the front view, but you want to position them on the vertical crosshair. Then add in little lines for eyebrows and also indicate the ear’s position. In the three-quarter view, you see only the ear on the near side of the head.

STEP 2 Now you’re going to give the head some shape. On the far side of the face, make a slight indent, starting at about the level of the eyebrow and ending at about the same level as the nose. From there, continue the line, curving it around the bottom of the vertical crosshair. Now that you’ve established the chin, continue the line up and over to define the jawline on the near side of the face. This side of the face should be a little fuller than the lower far side. Complete this step by adding a half-oval for the ear and sketching in the neck lines.

STEP 3 Define the eyes and eyebrows a bit, remembering that guys’ eyebrows are longer and not so curved as girls’. Also, begin defining the nose, making a tiny arrow, like this: <, for the nostril on the far side of the face. Define the neck lines as well: The line defining the front of the neck extends down directly from the point of the chin; the line for the back of the neck should align with the near jawline.

STEP 4 Sketch in the hair—and don’t be afraid to make the hairstyle one of your own creation!

STEP 5 It’s time for the black ink. Begin with the eyes, defining their shape, and then move to the nose, the mouth, and finally the eyebrows. Remember, if you don’t love your blue lines, you don’t have to follow them exactly.

STEP 6 Fill in the rest of the face using the black ink, shading the eyes and adding details to the hair and ears.

STEP 7 Erase your blue lines. Isn’t he dreamy?

THREE-QUARTER VIEW—GIRL’S FACE

With the three-quarter view of the female face, you are going to notice more of the female facial characteristics. The chin is pointier, and the cheeks are fuller and rounder, making the face appear heart shaped.

EARS

Ears are my least favorite part of the human body. They are stinky, wax-filled caverns of funk. When drawing ears, along with other parts of the body that I find particularly hard or gross, I sometimes look for references. In this case it’s oysters. Seriously, next time you see an oyster on the half shell, check it out—or find a picture on the Web! The oyster’s shape resembles that of an ear, with the meaty, delicious part closely resembling the inner part of the ear. I like to start at the middle and work my way out, like a ripple in the water. Remember that females tend to have rounder, cuter ears than males. And the older a person gets, the longer and more pronounced their ears become.

CHILD’S EAR

TEENAGER’S EAR

ADULT’S EAR

OLD PERSON’S EAR

PROFILE—GIRL’S FACE

In the profile view, the head is turned completely to the side, so we’re seeing just one side of the face. I find this view the trickiest to draw. But don’t worry—we’ll rock it together.

STEP 1 Begin with your oval. Bisect it with a horizontal line. In the middle of the line, indicate the ear with a little straight line. In profile, the eye is a very narrow oval that sits near the edge of the larger oval of the head—but not on the edge, because that area will become the bridge of the nose. Just outside the oval, draw a little line to indicate where the nose will end and another little line to indicate the mouth.

STEP 2 Make an indent for the bridge of the nose. This line curves inward just above the eye and then curves outward just below the eye. For the chin, draw a small diagonal line outside the lower left-hand edge of the oval and then a longer, slightly curved diagonal line that moves back into the oval to indicate the jawline. The end of the jawline aligns with the ear, stopping at about the same level as the mouth.

STEP 3 Define the nose. From the bottom of the bridge of the nose, extend the line out in a little downward swoop. Hitting the guideline you drew for the nose in the last step, create a little button nose and add a small line for a nostril at the base. Draw the line of the mouth. Finally, add lines for the neck, which will tilt forward toward the face.

STEP 4 Beginning at the tip of the nose, draw a line that extends down to the point of the chin—with three little indents along the way: one for the space between the nose and the upper lip; one for the divot where the lips meet; and one for the space between the lower lip and the chin.

Straighten out the eye’s curves at the top and bottom, so that they meet at the outer corner of the eye. Then, where those two diagonal lines are farthest apart, draw a straight vertical line between them. This line defines the front of the eye.

STEP 5 Add a small vertical line in the center of the eye to represent the iris. At this point, you can also start to sketch in the girl’s hair.

STEP 6 For the ear, make a half-oval that’s a little taller than the eye, and draw a few little lines inside to indicate the whorls in the ear. Using the black pen, finish defining the hairstyle and the individual strands of hair.

STEP 7 Erase your blue pencil lines—and finito!

PROFILE—GUY’S FACE

As is always the case with guys’ faces, the lines are going to be less curvy and all the shapes are going to be more angular than when you’re drawing a girl’s face. In the profile especially, there’s much less definition in the lips. Guys’ noses are a little more pointed, with straighter lines.

I’ll tell you a secret: This painting is about heartbreak! I was totally heartbroken but was getting ready for a show and I had one more painting to finish. This painting is the result of, no joke, a thousand tears. I was literally crying while I was painting it. However, when I finished it, I felt better! Painting and drawing can be a way to get out all those emotions that you can’t express any other way. Well, besides burning pictures!

EXTREME HEAD TURNS

It’s time to turn up those expressions to 11 on the Richter scale. I wanted to include some extreme head turns for you to see. In manga anything goes, so feel free to experiment with some extreme angles of your own!

DRAWING EXPRESSIONS

I could draw an entire book of expressions! One of the reasons that I love manga is that the characters are just so expressive. Manga books are roughly thirty to forty pages longer than a typical American comic book, giving artists more panels to express the many subtle emotional changes a character experiences in a story. One of the things that bugs me about American comics is the really long text balloons that sometimes appear alongside an image. In one long text balloon there might be three or four different things that a character would react to, but the shorter page count limits the artist to giving the character just one expression. In manga you can hit each one of those emotional beats with a separate image, which elevates the character and the story to another level.

Here, I’m giving you a whole bunch of different examples of expressions. I’ve tried to make sure they run the gamut. I’ve also tried to make them gender neutral, so when you are drawing your characters, alter the expressions with subtle differences in the eyes and body to match each character’s gender. Remember, when it comes to eyes: rounder for girls, half-moon shaped for guys, and smaller for older people.

Grief

Slyness

Anger

Flirtatiousness

Sadness

Love

Determination

Pity

Rage

Confusion

Shock

Jealousy

Outrage

Joyous Expectation

Intimidation

THE BIRTHDAY SUIT

DRAWING THE BODY

Now that you’ve mastered the head, it’s time to place it on a body—unless your character is a floating head, but that’s another story! Drawing a body can be a little intimidating for new artists, because there are so many parts and everything should be proportional. The best advice I can give you is to love your mirror! I myself sometimes have trouble drawing various body parts, so a little trick I’ve learned is to draw in front of a mirror—or, if you aren’t too shy, you could ask your friends, siblings, cousins, or even the cute boy next door to model for you. Remember, when tackling anything, it’s important to go step by step—starting with one part of the body and then moving to the next. In this chapter, we are going to start with my favorite part: the hand.

DRAWING HANDS

I grew up in an Italian-Canadian family where everyone could speak without saying a word. We are masters of the hand gesture. Honestly, if you were to press mute while I was talking, I bet you’d still understand what I was saying! Hands dance and communicate, so remember when drawing characters that their hands are extensions of their hearts and minds. Drawing a hand can be a little tricky—in fact, a lot of artists say hands are the hardest things to draw—but I’m going to show you some classic tricks that make drawing hands as easy as pie.

Girl’s Hand—Palm Down

Before we begin, take a look at one of your hands. Turn it palm up. Really—do it! I can wait … Did you do it? Good! Now turn your hand over and look at the back. Do you know the expression “I know it like the back of my hand”? Well, I want you to actually know what the back of your hand looks like. Now that you’ve become better acquainted with your hand, we are going to break it down into basic shapes. Everything is much easier to draw once you’ve broken it down into shapes.

STEP 1 Okay, grab your blue pencil and draw a square. The square shouldn’t quite be perfect—it should be a little wider at the top. This will serve as the back of the hand—in this case, a right hand.

STEP 2 Now let’s start on the fingers. Draw four circles above your square, then add four vertical rectangles extending from the tops of those circles. Since we’re drawing the right hand as seen from the back, each of these rectangles, except for the one at the far right, will be slightly angled to the left. (If this doesn’t make sense to you, take a quick look at the back of your right hand.) Note that the two rectangles in the middle are slightly longer than the ones on the far left and right.

STEP 3 Above these rectangles, draw a second set of circles for the knuckles. They should be slightly smaller than the ones at the bases of the rectangles.

STEP 4 Draw another set of four slightly narrower vertical rectangles above the knuckles.

STEP 5 Draw one more set of slightly smaller circles, which are the final joints at the ends of the fingers, as well as the fingertips. Now take a step back and assess. Does every finger have two rectangles and three circles? Is the middle finger the longest? If not, now is the time to go back and adjust.

STEP 6 Moving on to the thumb: Draw a circle a little larger than those at the top of the square. Draw another, smaller circle about forty-five degrees slightly above and to the left of the bigger circle. The distance between these circles should be about the same as the length of the bottom rectangle in the pointer finger.

STEP 7 Between the two circles, draw a square that just touches both of them. Then add a small triangle—kind of like a little bird beak—with its base at the upper left-hand side of the small circle.

STEP 8 Now it’s time to flesh things out—literally! Grab your black pen and draw one big outline around all the shapes that you have just created, extending the lines at the base of the hand to form the wrist.

STEP 9 Erase your blue lines. To draw the fingernails, make a half-moon near the top of each finger, and then draw two straight lines down the sides to complete the nail. The thumbnail is different, since you’re not looking at it head-on.

Girl’s Hand—Palm Up

To draw the hand palm up, you follow exactly the same steps as you did to draw the hand palm down, until you get to the end. Instead of adding fingernails, draw the lifelines in your palm, and make sure you don’t forget all the indents.

DRAWING GUYS’ HANDS

There a few things to remember when drawing guys’ hands. Male fingers are drawn a little more square than female fingers. Male fingers also have bigger knuckles and are drawn with heavier lines than female fingers. Most manga artists don’t draw fingernails on guys’ hands. Some artists believe fingernails make male hands look feminine. Other artists just draw a straight line going across the finger near the fingertip to represent the base of the nail, making it appear very square. But, honestly, it’s up to you.

Guy’s Hand—Palm Down

Leave a tiny bit of space between the rectangles and circles inside the fingers.

Remember: no fingernails on guys. Just draw a straight line to indicate the base of the nail. Also draw some little lines to indicate the knuckles.

Guy’s Hand—Palm Up

It’s important to make a guy’s hands bigger than a female’s, so take this into account when outlining the form of the hand.

Don’t forget to add some small marks showing the creases on the palm and at the finger joints.

THE FIST

Okay, same as before, I want you to form a fist with your hand, palm facing up, and study it before beginning to draw. Remember, you’re looking for the basic shapes.

STEP 1 The overall shape of the fist is a big square, so go ahead and outline that in blue pencil.

STEP 2 Next come the knuckles, which are once again drawn as circles, the bottoms of which should overlap slightly with the top of the square. Note that the second circle in from the left (for the middle finger) is the biggest and the one on the far right (for the pinky finger) is the smallest. Now add circles for the joints below the knuckles. Note that in this drawing of a left hand, the two joints on the right side are lower than the ones on the left side, and they crowd in toward the middle of the palm.

STEP 3 Add rectangles connecting the joints. Then add the thumb by first drawing a circle just below and slightly to the left of the circle for the joint of the pointer finger. Left of the circle you have just drawn, make another circle, just slightly lower. All three of these circles should be touching one another. Now add a square to the right of the first circle you drew, and a funny little triangle (or bird-beak shape) to the right of the square. These shapes should form a line that slants down slightly across the palm.

STEP 4 Once again, it’s time to flesh things out. Grab your black pen and outline the shapes you’ve just drawn. Stop the outlines between the fingers just inside the top line of the square. At the outside of the pinky, make the outline a little shorter—only about a third of the length of the finger. Add parallel lines for the wrist at the base of the palm as well as a few lines to define the shape of the palm. Finally, add the thumbnail and some faint lines for the creases on the palm.

STEP 5 Erase those pencil lines, and you’re ready to go!

Hand Gestures and Positions

Here are a few examples of some common hand gestures and positions.

Grasping

Reaching Out

Holding a Phone

Touching Someone’s Face

Caressing Someone’s Face

Sleeping

Walking

Running

Hands and Age

In manga, there is a huge difference between a six-year-old hand and a sixty-year-old hand. Younger hands are rounder and simpler, while older hands are bonier and have more detail.

CHILD’S HAND

For a younger character, don’t define the knuckles as much—children’s hands are rounder, chubbier, and thicker. They’re kind of like Inku’s hands! Don’t use too many straight lines; keep the hand round-looking. Also, for kid characters, boys’ and girls’ hands look the same.

OLD LADY’S HAND

Show age in the hands by making them look frail, or even skeletal. This means you have to do the exact opposite from what you do when drawing children’s hands. Make your lines thinner, curving them inward slightly. The lines around the palm and the fingers give the appearance of frailty. To make the hands look even older, add some liver spots!

DRAWING FEET

They are stinky, sweaty, ugly, and a little bit intimidating for new artists, but once you break them down into basic shapes, feet can be a snap to draw. One reason for the misconception that feet are hard to draw may be that we don’t see our feet as often as we do our hands—they’re often wrapped up in socks or concealed by shoes. So before you read even one more word, take off your shoes and socks—if you’re wearing them—and look at your feet. I myself have lovely feet—I just have ugly toes!—but when I was first learning to draw feet, I would often stare at mine as I was drawing. I want you guys to do the same thing, and as you look at your feet, I want you to see whether you can spot the basic shapes into which they can be broken down. These shapes will change depending on the foot’s position, the angle from which it’s viewed, and whether the character is standing, walking, or running.

THE FLAT FOOT

Let’s start with a foot in the standing position, flat on the ground. We’ll begin with the left foot as seen from the side.

STEP 1 I always start with an isosceles triangle for the base; then use circles to define where the ankle is going to be, which in this view is at the top of the isosceles triangle. Then I draw an open-ended rectangle at the top of the circle for the calf.

STEP 2 Now I want you to draw the toes. These will be little ovals, which get smaller as you move from left to right. This is just your blue-line sketch, and we will define the toes further in the next step. Once you’ve drawn the toes, define the curves of the foot, giving it shape. Follow the curvature of the ankle circle with your blue pencil, connecting it to the line of the triangle to form the top of the foot. The lines here should be smooth and rounded. For the heel, follow a similar pattern, curving the corner of the triangle at the heel.

STEP 3 Define the curves and lines a little bit more, outlining the foot and smoothing the lines of the ankle. We are also defining and deepening the lines between the toes, thus giving them more shape and showing the separations more clearly.

STEP 4 Grab that black pen and start defining the toes. Draw in the toenails, and don’t forget to add some small marks for the spaces between the toes. Remember, if your toes aren’t perfect, don’t stress. In real life, no one’s are perfect—trust me, I know! Now go over the rest of your blue lines.

STEP 5 Erase your pencil lines, and off you go!

The Stepping Foot

In the stepping foot, the heel becomes more prominent. To draw the foot in the act of stepping, you’ll begin with four basic shapes: two rectangles and two circles.

STEP 1 Begin with two upright rectangles set at an angle, as shown in the drawing. The top rectangle, representing the calf, is open at the top. In the upper portion of the lower rectangle, draw a large circle that’s about halfway inside and halfway outside the rectangle. This will be the heel. Then draw a smaller circle next to it, inside the rectangle, for the ankle.

STEP 2 Add in the curves of the foot. Begin by curving the line where the calf meets the top of the foot, and then draw the toes. Note that in the stepping foot seen from this angle, the big toe is mostly hidden, but it also protrudes farthest out from the foot.

STEP 3 Add more roundness to the ankle and toes by going over the lines and smoothing them out. Also, in this position, there will be two dimples: one for the ankle and one for the heel. These are the little lines and creases where the arch of the foot meets the heel. Don’t forget to add them.

STEP 4 Time for your black line. When drawing the foot in this position, emphasize the curved points at the ankle and calf, which help show movement or action. This can be done simply by making the line a little bit thicker along the curves. Also, I don’t draw toenails on feet in this position, but that’s just a personal choice. Feel free to add some toenails if you choose.

STEP 5 Erase the blue lines, and get steppin’!

FOOT POSITIONS

Here are a few examples showing the foot in some other positions.

STEPPING FOOT—FRONT VIEW

TOP OF THE FOOT

BOTTOM OF THE FOOT

BOTTOM OF A KICKING FOOT

This drawing is a secret portrait of my sister! I have never told her this, so if you’re reading this, Ada Pia, I hope you like it!

DRAWING THE FULL BODY

Congratulations on all your hard work on drawing hands and feet. Now it’s time to bring all the parts together to create a full body. I liken this section to Power Rangers, in which each Zord, or element, comes together to form an even bigger Zord. I myself sometimes have trouble bringing it all together, but that’s why we have an eraser—or, in my case, a box of erasers!

In this section, you’ll learn some basics for drawing the body. But if you’re serious about drawing, you may also want to consider taking a life-drawing class. Seeing the many different shapes the body takes in various positions can be extremely advantageous for an artist. If you can’t take a class, I recommend taking some pictures of yourself to work from or getting friends to pose for you. (I find that cupcakes really work as bribes!)

FRONT VIEW—GIRL

We are going to begin with a female form in a very basic front-on pose. As you look at these steps, notice that I’m giving you a very natural pose—as opposed to some drawing books, which show a really rigid form. To make the girl’s stance look more natural, I’ll draw her spine with a slight curve.

STEP 1 Start by drawing a stick man—or in our case, a stick woman. I always start with the head, which is a simple circle, and then connect it to the spine. The way the spine falls and the shape it takes will define how the character is standing and where she is placing her weight.

From the spine, draw a line connecting the shoulders. Note that in manga, a girl’s shoulders are exactly the same width as her hips—but the circles you draw for the hips should be larger than the circles for the shoulders here. Then draw a set of lines to represent the arms and legs, with small circles for the hands, elbows, knees, and feet.

STEP 2 For the chest area, draw an oval connecting the shoulders. Then, following the curvature of the spine and hips, outline the shape of the bottom half of the torso or pelvic area. This should resemble a delicious lima bean. When you outline the thighs and calves, make sure the lines are curvy—give your girl some meat! In this stance, she is putting more weight on the right leg—thus the thicker line on the right leg.

STEP 3 Now sketch in her face and give her some hair. In this step, you should also emphasize her waist and her hips more. Also, make the curves of her thighs wider—slightly thicker in the middle but then curving back in toward the knees. Do the same thing with the calves, thickening them in the middle but then narrowing them at the ankles. Remember, wherever there’s a joint, the form curves in toward it.

STEP 4 Here, I’m showing you how I begin my black line, rather than just filling everything in at once. I always start at the top of the character, with her hair, and work my way down. For this girl’s hair, I decided to go with a seventies Farrah Fawcett–meets–Macross look.

STEP 5 Now, using your black pen, start drawing in the arms, torso, thighs, and feet. Again: Be sure to keep your lines curvy when working on female bodies.

STEP 6 Fill in the face and give some extra shading to the eyes.

STEP 7 Erase your blue lines, and you’re done! You have created your first full-body female character!

FRONT VIEW—GUY

Drawing guys is always fun—and painless. They are easier to draw than girls because the male body is relatively straight, unlike its curvy female counterpart. Okay, let’s get going!

STEP 1 Just like when you drew the girl character, you’re going to start with a stick figure, but here you want the shoulders to be wider than the hips. Make sure the hands fall midway down the thighs. The position we are drawing is a natural, casual pose, with our guy putting his weight on his right leg. The right foot should therefore be flatter, and the left foot should appear slightly raised.

STEP 2 Outline the basic body masses, making sure not to add too much muscle definition. When drawing the legs, take note that guys’ legs are actually quite thin. The knees should be pointing outward, and the feet should always be pointing in the same direction as the knees—unless a character is doing something strange with his feet.

STEP 3 Give the neck and collarbone some definition. For his pecs, just draw two simple lines—remember, in manga, less is always more. Next, give him a belly button, and add in his pelvic line. Give some definition to the hands and feet.

STEP 4 Sketch in the hair and facial features.

STEP 5 Now you’re ready to move to your black line. Starting at the top, define the face; then work your way down, defining the shoulders. Guys have broad shoulders, so make sure your lines move outward before curving down.

STEP 6 Define the rest of the body with your black pen.

STEP 7 Now, lose those blue lines. If only finding a good boyfriend was this easy!

THREE-QUARTER FRONT VIEW—GIRL

In manga, the three-quarter view is used in dialogue scenes. The character in this position is the one speaking, and gives the conversation a natural look. The three-quarter view is also used to show depth within an environment. Here, we’ll draw a girl in the three-quarter front view, and then I’ll give you a few tips on adapting the basic rules when drawing guys in the same position.

STEP 1 As always, start with the head, followed by a horizontal line for the shoulders. Draw a curved line for the spine, an oval for the hips, and a smaller oval for the chest. Go ahead and outline the legs and arms, again taking note that the hands fall midway down the thighs.

STEP 2 Fill in the face, belly button, and hair. Also, add some definition to the breasts by drawing small marks at the top and bottom of each breast, partly outlining their circular forms.

STEP 3 With your black pen, begin drawing the hair; then work your way down the body, making sure to curve inward at the waist and outward at the buttocks.

STEP 4 Still using your black pen, fill in the eyes and add little marks at the joints in the arms and knees. I also like to add three tiny lines to define a girl’s collarbones.

STEP 5 Erase those blue lines, and—whammo!—you’re finished.

THREE-QUARTER FRONT VIEW—GUY Before we begin drawing our three-quarter guy, here are some tips: Our character will have a bent knee and his arms should be positioned at his sides, relaxed. Finally, his feet should be pointed out … kind of like a duck’s.

THREE-QUARTER BACK VIEW—GUY

The three-quarter back view, like the three-quarter front view, is often used during heavy dialogue scenes. The character drawn from this angle is often the listener. This view also can be used in a wide shot where a character is looking at an important object or location in the background.

STEP 1 This stance looks and feels stiffer than other poses. Thus the line work is going to be mostly straight, with very slight curves at the spine and legs. The ankles should be positioned behind the shoulders. Finally, the lines for the legs are broken with circles at the knees.

STEP 2 Add some definition to the body, taking care to partly hide the left foot, the left arm, and the left hand, which aren’t fully visible in this stance. Also, because of the perspective, the right hand should be drawn a fraction larger than the left.

STEP 3 In this step, add some small curves at the shoulders, pointing them downward. Then you’re ready for your black line.

STEP 4 Grab that black pen, and start outlining and filling in from the top of the head down. You can see that at this stage of the drawing, I realized that the right hand shouldn’t be positioned at the midway point of the thigh. Because the arm is bent, the hand should be drawn slightly above that position—so I changed it. We all make mistakes, so don’t worry about messing up with your blue line. You can always fix it with the black line.

STEP 5 Continue with your black lines.

STEP 6 Erase those blue lines, and you’re all set!

THREE-QUARTER BACK VIEW—GIRL Just like the male three-quarter back view, the female three-quarter back view is often used in dialogue-heavy scenes or to give depth and perspective to your panel—not to mention giving the reader a better view of the character’s booty!

CASUAL BACK POSE—GIRL

I also want to show you an approach to drawing a character from the back that’s different from the standard, rigid, statuelike pose. Once again, this is not going to be your standard anatomy pose, because, honestly, people never stand like statues—I know I don’t. For this drawing, our girl is just about to step into the shower.

STEP 1 Start by drawing the head, and give the spine a slight upward curve for the natural look we are going for here. Then give her a nice booty. It should be roughly the same width as her shoulders, creating an hourglass figure. Then add two narrow ovals for the thighs, two ovals for the calves, and two rectangular shapes for the ankles. Take note that in this drawing one of the girl’s feet is slightly raised.

STEP 2 Define her hair and shoulders. Add in the details of the elbows and hands, and start giving the booty some shape. You want to take that big circle and crack it in half to get the right shape, bearing in mind that the lines for the cheeks should go halfway across the thighs. Finish this step by giving the ankles a little more definition.

STEP 3 Begin your black line with her hair. Where the shoulders approach the neck, indent your lines slightly. Add two very small lines for the shoulder blades, on either side of the spine. Next, draw two dimples near the tailbone and the elbows. Give the legs a slight curve in toward the knee joint and out toward the ankle. Apply this same curve to the arms.

STEP 4 Define the fingers, add dimples behind each knee, and finally, make a slight mark at her right heel to show that the foot is raised.

STEP 5 Lose those pencil lines. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

CASUAL BACK POSE—GUY When drawing a guy from the back in a similar casual pose, make sure that his butt is a lot smaller than it would be for a girl. Guys do not have big booties in manga! For the legs, keep in mind that the thighs should be the same thickness as the calves.

AGING A CHARACTER

Often in manga, especially in a long series or epic, a character will age from a boy or girl into a man or woman. Even in a shorter series, you may need to use flashbacks to show what your character looked like as a child, or flash-forwards to show the character as an elderly man or woman.

Aging Males

To age a male character, we’ll make an age chart—start with the toddler. He should be round and candy-apple–like with a large head, big hands, and huge feet. Moving to the right, we come to the kindergartner. We are going to elongate that initial shape, thus his head will appear slightly large for his body. Finally, keep the legs bow shaped, which will make him appear mischievous but adorable.

For the young teenager, keep elongating your initial design, accounting for a big growth spurt. A teenage boy stands with his legs farther apart, conveying the sense of self-awareness and awkwardness that comes with being a teenager. Moving on to the young adult, your drawing should reflect the last growth spurt in your character’s life. Here, his age and maturity can be seen in his shoulders, which should be drawn broader. His legs should be drawn closer together, with his hips tilted slightly forward, conveying casual confidence. Finally, when the character reaches his senior years, his body shrinks tremendously; he is shorter than his teenage self, with his legs just a mere fraction apart. The character becomes hunched, and his shoulders, neck, and eyes disappear.

In the black-line drawing, I’ve added clothing: The school uniform the character wears as a kid morphs into a suit as he reaches young-adult age. As an elderly gentleman, he wears a sashed cardigan. Have fun drawing your character’s clothing, and try to establish a few elements that repeat through the years.

Aging Females

Aging a female is quite similar to aging a male. The major variations arise in the teen years, when the girl’s body becomes curvier. As a teen, the manga female often stands with bent knees in a pigeon-toed position. (This pose does not reappear in her adult years.) When she reaches young adulthood, her breasts and thighs become more prominent, so the lines become even curvier. Also, the cute, flirty poses are gone, and now she is a confident, sexy young woman. Finally, as an elderly woman, the female shrinks even more than her male counterpart. She should be only a little bit taller than a female kindergartner. As with the elderly male character, she should be drawn without a neck or shoulders.

Like the male character, she wears a school uniform in her childhood and teenage years. Especially with females, the clothing should reflect the character’s personality and age. Have some fun drawing all the cool details. Notice that I gave the toddler some tiny frills on her socks and the young adult some high, sexy boots. Like they say, “The clothes make the man”—or, in this case, the woman! Finally, make sure the hairstyle remains somewhat consistent over the years. The clothes should remain similar, too, but should become more sophisticated as the character ages.

VOGUE AND STRIKE A POSE

DRAWING ACTION AND MOVEMENT

Manga characters seldom just stand around—unless they’ve been paralyzed by some poisonous rhinoceros venom! Usually, their bodies are in action. Movement brings your drawings to life, transforming them from one-dimensional illustrations or portraits into living, breathing depictions of your characters. In this chapter, we look at a few different kinds of action, but remember, let your character tell you how he or she will move. Trust me—no two characters ever move in the same way.

DRAWING CLOTHING

You’ll notice that all of the characters in this chapter have outfits. Drawing clothing is one of those fun things that we get to do when we are drawing characters. So before we jump into drawing action and movement, I want to take a second to give you a few fashion tips.

The trick when drawing clothing is that you really have to know your fabric. Depending on the type you use—the way it folds, bunches, and moves—it will look very different. For example, silk is very smooth but creases and folds easily at every bend. Jeans, on the other hand, are much more stiff, wrinkling only at the knees and crotch. The most important thing to remember is that this is manga, so have fun with your clothing, and think outside the box. Okay, designers, let’s get to work!

PANTS

Take note that the fabric bunches at the crotch, at the knees, and at the hem.

GLOVES

Drawing a glove is like drawing a hand, except that the shape is much more squared and the fingers will be bigger and blockier. Finally, the fabric in gloves will bunch at the wrist and the knuckles.

JACKET

This is like a guy’s letterman jacket. Once again, notice where the fabric will fold—the elbow, the armpit, and also the wristband. Here I’m using leather for the sleeves and wool for the body; the wool will have more texture. Finally, don’t forget to draw the collar nice and stiff.

JAPANESE SCHOOL UNIFORM SKIRT

When drawing skirts, start with the waistband at the top, and then tackle the pleats one by one. Sometimes with difficult clothing, I like to use reference material. In the case of this Japanese skirt, I used a cupcake wrapper.

CAPE

Capes are usually made of satin, which will bunch at the shoulders, creating folds that extend to the bottom. The bottom of the cape will roll and bunch on the ground.

DRESS

This dress is made of a soft material, so it bunches at the front, near the princess-cut neckline and at the waist, where the belt is cinched.

CLASSIC BOW

I love using bows instead of ties for schoolgirls. This is a satin ribbon. Notice the wrinkles where it is tied together and the lack of wrinkles where it hangs.

GIRL WALKING

Showing a character walking is very common in manga. I must draw hundreds of people walking every month. As frequently as walking action is depicted, it’s actually a bit complicated to make the character appear to be walking naturally. A girl’s walk is quite different from a guy’s: The female walk is more dainty and streamlined, while the male’s is more of a strut or swagger (as we’ll see on this page).

STEP 1 To make your characters walk naturally, pay attention to the arms. When she steps forward with the right leg, the right arm swings back. If she steps with the left leg, the left arm moves back. One leg is in front of the other and for girls the space between them is minimal. One leg bends as it brings the foot up to take a step. The free arm angles away from the body.

STEP 2 Begin outlining the female form, making sure you give your lines a lot of curve, creating that feminine figure and suggesting a sense of motion. At the calves, emphasize the feeling of movement by making your lines straighter on the inside of the legs and more curved on the outside. In addition, the left shoulder should appear more defined and farther forward than the right shoulder, because the right leg is moving forward.

STEP 3 Now we can add the clothing and facial details. When I am activating a character, I always want to show some wind, so I’ve drawn the skirt being ruffled by the wind along with some movement in the hair. Make sure the hand is in a casual, half-open position and not a fist.

STEP 4 When you move to your black line, make sure that the hair and skirt are moving/blowing in the same direction. You can also add some wrinkles in the blouse at the elbows to heighten the feeling of action.

STEP 5 As you go over the legs with your black pen, you’re going to obscure part of her right leg. We finish our lovely lady by filling in tiny details on the clothing and the body. Make sure the hand holding the purse strap is relaxed and that one finger is a little more loose, not wrapped around the strap, as this adds to the natural look we are going for.

STEP 6 Presto—a walking girl!

GUY WALKING

Guys walk with more of a strut; they appear very nonchalant and laid-back, especially if they are cool, which our guy is.

STEP 1 To animate our character, we are going to turn his head—he’s either talking to one of his friends or, even better, scoping out a hot girl. We are also going to draw him with one hand inside his pocket to give him an even more casual, Ian Somerhalder look. Notice that the arm that’s farther forward appears slightly longer; the other arm swings farther back. Also notice that his knees are farther apart than the girl’s and pointed in the same direction as his feet.

STEP 2 Outline the shape, making sure to keep the legs angular. The leg in front should appear larger than the one behind. Furthermore, you want to show that, in this position, the character’s weight is on the forward foot. To do this, the foot that has the weight should be drawn slightly thicker and flatter. Next, outline the arms, making sure that the hidden hand is in the position where the pocket will be.

STEP 3 Begin filling in the hair, but don’t give it too much movement, as that would create a more feminine look. In this drawing, you can indicate movement by drawing wrinkles on the jacket and pants. In designing his clothes, I decided to make them look futuristic, but you could give him any style you want. A manga artist is also a fashion designer, so have some fun with it.

STEP 4 Continue defining the facial features, and decide how much detail you want to work into the clothing. As you can see, I didn’t want to go overboard. When beginning with the black pen, I usually work from the top down, but here I’m kind of loving his clothing, so I’m going to jump to his hair and coat before finishing the face. Be sure to add some wrinkles to the elbows and the coat.

STEP 5 Continue defining our guy. Note that I decided to make his shirt solid black and gave him a checkered belt. Why not?

STEP 6 Erase those blue lines, and watch your guy spring to life!

While I was painting this piece, Resurrected Bone Collective, I was listening to J-pop. It’s funny, but sometimes when I work with oils, I like to shut off one part of my brain and listen to music and let the brush do all the work. What do you think? It’s crazy what the subconscious can come up with!

GUY SITTING

Manga artists love putting their characters in the classroom. I’m not sure if it’s the sexy uniforms, the teenage emotional dramas, or a subliminal message strategically placed by necktie companies! But whatever the reason, every manga artist must learn how to draw characters sitting at desks. Of course, this pose could be transferred to any number of environments in which characters are shown sitting, but because I love a cute guy in a school uniform, I thought we would learn this pose as it occurs in the classroom.

A girl usually sits with her legs crossed, but a guy usually sits with his legs open—unless he is wearing a kilt! The look is relaxed and slouched, which gives the character a cool, nonchalant vibe.

STEP 1 Start by drawing a circle for the head. Because the viewpoint is slightly above the character, the neck is not visible. Bend the spine so that it curves slightly toward the hips. This character’s arms are bent, because he has one arm on the desk and the other on the chair. Spread the legs so that the knees face away from each other; remember, the feet point in the same direction as the knees.

STEP 2 As in our other action poses, we draw the anatomy before we draw the clothing. Draw the crosshairs on the head, and position the eyes on the face. Draw the arms and the torso, letting it obscure the left elbow slightly. Next, add a little detail to the hips and the abdomen, which will be curved inward because of the way he is slouching. And finally, sketch in the hands and feet.

STEP 3 Now we are ready to give our guy a long-sleeved shirt, worn untucked, and slacks. Make sure the shirttails fan out at the bottom. (Sometimes I look at myself in the mirror to see how a shirt falls.) It’s also important to note that the creases in clothing occur at points where the body bends, so be sure to add creases at the elbows and knees. Remember that when drawing a male character you should keep the line work sharp and angular.

STEP 4 Define the guy’s expression, his hands, and his feet. Move on to his clothing, adding a necktie as well as some detail to the fabric. Start by adding a pocket, and then go over your drawing, adding little details, such as some lines indicating where the fabric is bunching, as at the crotch.

STEP 5 Pick up your black pen and start defining from the top down. As you can see, I realized here that the left shoulder was poking out too far, so I brought it in and straightened the tie for a cleaner look. Always remember that your blue line is just your base; it can easily be changed and erased.

STEP 6 Finish off your guy, using your black pen.

STEP 7 And there you have him—a cute, school-uniform-clad, sitting schoolboy.

GIRL KNEELING

Whether your girl is kneeling in a meadow, on her bed gossiping with her girlfriends, or eating Pop-Tarts with her boyfriend, this pose will—I promise you—appear more than once in every manga you draw. At first glance, the pose may appear easy, but because some body parts are hidden in the kneeling position, it can be a little tricky.

STEP 1 Begin, as usual, with a stick figure. Her legs are bent at the knee, and because we’re looking at her from the side, her legs appear to be stacked one on top of the other. As you draw her upper torso, curve the spine. Also, because this character is female, all the lines, even for the stick woman, should be curvy—never completely straight. Do not draw the right hand or foot in this pose, because they will be hidden behind the rest of the body. Draw circles where the joints are.

STEP 2 Start outlining the body, but don’t add any lines for clothing yet. You need to understand how the body is positioned before putting clothing on it. Define her chest, torso, hands, back, and face. Finally, further define the thighs by adding the single line that divides the thigh from the calf.

STEP 3 Now add details such as hair, fingers, facial expression, and, finally, clothing. When drawing fabric, you should usually keep your lines wavy and curved, except for coats and suits that are tailored and fitted. With this particular dress, however, the fabric is so soft that it dips between the legs and follows the curve of the thigh.

STEP 4 Continue adding detail to her eyes, hair, feet (by adding the toes), and clothing. Have some fun by adding filigree to the clothing.

STEP 5 Grab that black pen. Here, I realized that her left hand wasn’t positioned quite where I wanted it to be, so I adjusted it with my black line.

STEP 6 Erase the blue pencil and let your kneeling girl shine!

GIRL WITH ARMS CROSSED

This is, without a doubt, the most difficult of all the poses in this chapter. It is, however, quite versatile and can be used to express a variety of emotions. Your character could be waiting for her boyfriend, thinking about taking over the world, or just getting really angry at her robot butler for not ironing her jumpsuit. Here, we’re drawing a sexy detective who is upset about a case. First, cross your arms and look in the mirror to get an idea of how the body looks in this pose. Don’t be embarrassed—I do it all the time!

STEP 1 When you cross your arms, your body will always tilt up on one side, depending on which forearm is on top. If your character has her right forearm over her left, the right shoulder will rise up and the left shoulder will drop down. The hips are affected in the same way: In this example, the right hip is positioned higher than the left. Note that the hand of the arm on top will tuck into the crook of the arm that’s on the bottom.

STEP 2 Outline the form, making sure to keep your lines curvy. You want the detective to be voluptuous and sexy. Notice that her right shoulder is partly hidden by the chin. Note, too, that the right hand should be above the left arm, and the fingers of the left arm should be grasping her right bicep.

STEP 3 Draw the clothing, and begin sketching in the hair. I decided to give her long hair and a futuristic outfit—a trench coat and boots with a little heel. Be sure to add creases to the clothes at the joints, as well as at points of movement.

STEP 4 Now comes the detail. Feel free to add as much or as little detail as you want to the clothing. At this stage, you can also choose to style the clothing in a way different from what I have done. Finish this stage by drawing the details of her fingers and facial expression before moving on to the black line.

STEP 5 Black line time! Make sure you add in those little wrinkles and stress marks on the clothing.

STEP 6 Go over the rest of your lines, and fill in her hair, shorts, knee-highs, and cuffs.

STEP 7 Now make those blue lines vanish without a trace!

I love to paint in the morning, so I make sure I’m up around 8:00 to cook myself breakfast and watch one episode of an ’80s cartoon. Then, exactly at 9:00, I start painting!

GUY RUNNING

Before I draw a character running, I always like to decide why he is running. Is he late for the bus? Chasing down a villain? Or does he really just have to go to the bathroom? This decision will influence the character’s expression and body position. The more intensely and forcefully the character is running, the farther forward the shoulders will be. If the character is jogging casually, the shoulders will be positioned farther back. Let’s imagine that the character in our drawing is chasing a ninja purse-snatcher. He’s going to be determined in his pursuit, so his shoulders will be pretty far forward. As when a character is walking, the leg that’s stepping forward is matched, on the other side of the body, by an arm swinging forward.

STEP 1 When drawing running characters, I always begin with the head. I draw the crosshairs, which show which way the character is looking and thus in which direction he is running. As you can see, I have not drawn his hips—that’s because the torso is positioned in front of them. It’s also important to note that the shoulder that swings backward is going to be partly obscured by the head. The head will also block the view of the neck in this view of a runner seen from the front.

STEP 2 Following the curve of the spine, outline the rest of the torso. Outline the front leg using the previously drawn line for reference. Then outline the arms, making sure that the arm in front of the body is larger than the one swinging behind.

STEP 3 Begin sketching in the hair. As you do so, choose from which direction the wind is coming. The wind’s direction will be reflected in other elements of the drawing—in this case, the character’s clothing will be flattened against the left side of his body and will flare out, blown by the wind on his right side.

STEP 4 Now we move into further detail by giving our character a tie, adding the cuffs on his jacket, and drawing his shoes.

STEP 5 Black line time! I’m giving his tie a checked pattern, adding ribbing to the sleeves peeking out from his jacket, and adding wrinkles at his right ankle.

STEP 6 Finish going over all of your lines with the black pen.

STEP 7 Erase your blue lines, and there you go! Your very own running man.

GIRL STANDING PIGEON-TOED

The pigeon-toed stance is the defining pose for manga females. Every time you see a girl fixing her tie, touching her hair, or looking left, she’s standing pigeon-toed. It’s everywhere! Honestly, I could not claim that this book teaches you how to draw manga without giving instructions on drawing this position.

STEP 1 Start with your basic stick figure, but be sure to point both knees inward. This is critical to obtaining the look we’re going for. Pivot both feet out at the heels, with one resting on the ball of the foot.

STEP 2 Outline the structure of the body, giving mass to the torso, hips, and thighs. Then define the girl’s facial features, which will help define her personality—in this case, a little shy but flirty.

STEP 3 Let’s outfit our character in a schoolgirl’s uniform with a frilly skirt, knee-high socks, and Mary Jane shoes. Remember, clothing must follow the contour of the body. A little trick with skirts is to start close in at the top of the hips and then flare the line out at the sides, with a ruffled edge at the bottom caused by the skirt’s pleats.

STEP 4 Move on to your black line, starting at the top and working your way down.

STEP 5 Keep going with your black line, going over all your lines and filling in any areas that you want to be patterned or solid black.

STEP 6 And there you have her—the classic pigeon-toed manga girl.

TURN UP THE CUTENESS!

DRAWING MASCOTS AND CHIBIS

It’s time to squeal!!! Before you turn the page, you need to prepare yourself for the urge to squirm and shake with utter excitement! If you suffer from a weak bladder brought on by laughter or sudden bursts of uncontrollable smiles, you may want to skip this chapter.

I myself could draw mascots and chibis all day, every day, for the rest of my life … and never get bored. They are just that fun to draw. And here’s some more good news: They’re simple to master. Okay, if you’re ready, take a deep breath and turn the page. It’s about to get crazy-cute up in here!

DRAWING MASCOTS

Mascots are the Jiminy Crickets of the manga world. They serve as guides for our heroes and little devils for our villains. Sometimes heroes and villains can change form themselves, becoming small mascot characters. For example, in my manga Tanpopo, the villainous Kuro character transforms himself into the mascot Poodle in order to spy on Tanpopo. In one of my favorite Japanese manga, Tite Kubo’s Bleach, the soul of one character is transferred to a stuffed lion, and he is forced to continue the rest of his life as a stuffed animal. It’s fantastic! Honestly, who wouldn’t want one of her stuffed animals to come alive and hang out with her every day?

Mascots are among the simplest manga characters to draw because their construction is based on very simple shapes. So remember this mantra for drawing mascots: The simpler, the cuter! Okay, let’s create some superadorable sidekicks.

POODLE KURO

Let’s start by learning how to draw one of my favorite personal mascot creations—Poodle Kuro. The mask-wearing mascot version of Kuro from Tanpopo, Poodle Kuro is supercute and superevil. He’s the devil in disguise—kind of like my real-life dog, Loki! If you’re wondering where I got the name Kuro, it actually means “black” in Japanese, which also explains the color of this cute little demon.

STEP 1 Begin by drawing two circles, one for Poodle Kuro’s body and one for his head. Then add in two small feet at the bottom of the lower circle. Mascots are never anatomically correct. Because they are made out of a mystery material, you can place their hands, arms, and legs in any crazy position you want.

STEP 2 Add Poodle Kuro’s ears, making a big half-circle on either side of his head. They should extend wider than his body. Finally, add his eyes and mouth. Poodle Kuro’s expression is often blank because he is wearing a mask; however, there is a hint of a smile here.

STEP 3 Finally, draw his rectangular mask, which falls inside the first circle you drew, and add the string that holds on his mask. Then modify his body, reshaping the big circle into more of a teardrop shape.

STEP 4 Using your black pen, outline his shape. When going over the mask, add lines at the bottom of the mask and at the tops of the eye and mouth holes. That little bit of perspective shows that his head is tilted upward. Fill in the rest of the eyes and mouth with black.

STEP 5 Erase your blue lines and fill in the figure with black. Note that I’ve left narrow white areas between his arms and his body, to show where they begin and end.

Here’s a colorized version of Poodle Kuro so you can see what this mascot character looks like in his final form.

THE IMP OF DARKNESS

The Imp of Darkness is a literary figure who appears in Pu Songling’s supernatural story collection Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. A couple of hundred years later, I decided to include him in volume 3 of my manga Tanpopo. Like Batman, the Imp is a creature of the night, but supremely evil and nasty. In Pu Songling’s story “The Magic Sword,” he is described as having “glaring eyes and a bloody mouth.” But, of course, I turned up the cuteness in my version. I love the juxtaposition of creepy and cute that you find in evil manga mascots. For me, the Imp is the perfect hybrid.

STEP 1 Start by drawing two circles, which represent his head and his body; then add two small circles for his feet. Be aware that his body will sort of slide into the background when we draw his two large arms in the next step.

STEP 2 Draw your trusty crosshairs. Then draw two large ovals, one on either side of his body, to represent his gigantic forearms. Also add some tiny horns on top of his head and some little circles for his shoulders.

STEP 3 For the Imp’s claws, make a few indents at the bottom of each of his arms. Note that the claws on his right arm are flattened, because he is putting his weight on that arm. Add his eyes and his mouth, which is going to be huge and elongated, since he is a villain. I guess he kind of resembles the South Park version of a Canadian at this stage. (Love that show!)

STEP 4 Now we are going to further define his facial features, as well as his shoulders, horns, and claws. Add some jagged teeth to his mouth before going to your black line.

STEP 5 Using your black pen, give him some crazy-looking eyes by drawing spirals, and add some droplets of spit coming from his mouth. Little details like these add movement to a character and make him come alive.

STEP 6 And voilà! I don’t know if I want to hug our Imp or run away!

I thought you might like to see a colorized version of the Imp. Making his eyes and mouth blood red really intensifies the feeling of impish evil!

I love Hello Kitty! Love, love, love! I went to Japan by myself and I went crazy in the Hello Kitty store! Honestly, if they sold Hello Kitty toilet paper I would buy it. So you can imagine how amazed and touched I was when Sanrio bought this painting from me!

INKU

It’s about time you got here. I was getting bored waiting for you! I hope you have practiced and perfected all the drawing techniques Camilla has taught you, because you are about to embark on the awesome task of capturing the beauty, the grandeur, and the stinkaliciousness that is me, Inku! Now, before we get started, I want to give you some words of encouragement—just like Camilla does. If you mess this up, I WILL JUMP OFF THIS PAGE AND INK YOU UP! I will haunt your pets! I will steal all your left socks and possibly your favorite pens. JUST KIDDING! Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, LET’S DO THIS.

STEP 1 Start with an oval. Try to make it as hot as possible.

STEP 2 By following the contour of the oval, you are going to define the top of my beautiful, knowledge-filled noggin, which resembles a drop of ink. Then outline my little round bum and, finally, my two dandy but distinguished feet.

STEP 3 Here we are going to define my shape a little more. Starting from the back of my perfect head, make your line curve in to further define my booty. My right paw is poking out. Note that in this drawing you’re seeing me from behind—but I can turn my head nearly all the way around! So don’t forget to draw in my little eyes so that I can watch what you are doing!

STEP 4 Next, draw my two most distinctive features: my marvelous mouth and my two tiny, pointed front teeth. Hey! My butt is not THAT big! What are you doing?! Erase this right now! That’s right—I’m mad! You can tell by my swooshed eyebrows.

STEP 5 Okay, fine. I guess that’s just your interpretation of me and my bum. But just so you can finish learning to draw me really supermad, pick up your black pen, go over your lines, and draw a little diamond shape above my right eye. And because I spout ink when I’m steamed, add some little ink spots in back of me and in front of my face and paws. Now add some little puddles of ink at my feet.

STEP 6 Finally, fill in everything in black except for my mouth and eyes. And there you have it!

DRAWING CHIBIS

Chibis are a cuteness nuclear explosion! Their only purpose is to make you laugh, squeal, and hug the paper they are drawn on. I love them! The word chibi comes from the Japanese word meaning “small.” The first chibi I ever saw was Sailor Moon’s daughter, Rini (Chibiusa in Japan); she was like an ambassador for the nation of chibis—the first chibi to premiere in the West. My sisters and I went crazy when we first saw her.

There are hundreds of ways to draw chibis: Some have huge bodies and tiny heads, some have tiny bodies and huge heads. Most chibis have massive eyes that almost cover their entire faces. My chibis are kind of pear-shaped, with huge heads, medium-size bodies, and almost no legs or feet. I describe them as extremely squishy! The kind of characters you just want to pick up and squeeze until their heads explode. As always, after you learn the basic rules you can break them by drawing your own chibis any way you like.

DRAWING TANPOPO AS A CHIBI

In this next step-by-step we are going to take my character Tanpopo and turn her into a chibi. Before we begin, though, I want you guys to take a deep breath and prepare yourself for the extreme bonanza of adorableness you are about to encounter!

STEP 1 Start by drawing a large round circle and then a smaller teardrop shape under that circle. Add your crosshairs, which, again, will show in which direction the chibi is looking. Then, add two tiny swooshes, one at each side of the teardrop, which will become her arms. Finally, draw a little swoosh at the bottom, which indicates the end of her torso.

STEP 2 For her eyes, draw two circles on the horizontal crosshair. Begin defining her legs by drawing two little triangles at the bottom of the teardrop shape. For this chibi, each little triangle represents the whole leg—thigh to ankle! Define the arms by making the swooshes from the previous step into little isosceles triangles.

STEP 3 Here we add the feet and narrow the teardrop shape to make the chibi’s body a little less round. We then add the ears and define the bone structure of the face. My chibis don’t have chins, so just follow the contour of the circle for a very rounded face.

STEP 4 Chibis are all about extremes, including their hair, so the Tanpopo chibi has extremely long hair—long enough to touch the ground. Remember to avoid angles when drawing hair. Her mouth is drawn quite small—just a very tiny circle.

STEP 5 Start to define the clothing. In this case, she is wearing a tube top and shorts. Follow this by drawing in the wings.

STEP 6 What’s Tanpopo without Chibi Kuro? He has this nasty habit of resting on her head. His shape should be very circular, in keeping with the chibi style. Draw in his eyes, mouth, and legs.

Define Tanpopo’s eyes by drawing in her eyebrows and thickening the lines around her eyes.

STEP 7 Okay, take your black pen, and starting with the hair, begin tracing over your blue line.

STEP 8 Now use your pen to go over the chibi’s facial structure, including the jawline and eyebrows. Add some detail to her torso, legs, and arms, as well as to her dress and pants. I added cute little stars to her top and gave her little blush marks on her cheeks. Lastly, I outlined Kuro’s mask. Fill in the rest of the body with your black line, and don’t forget her wings.

STEP 9 Erase your blue lines, and you’re done! Nothing to it!

Here’s what the Tanpopo chibi looks like in three-quarter and profile views. To make drawings like these, all you have to do is adapt the lessons you learned when drawing full-size characters in these views to the smaller—and more exaggerated—chibi form.

CHIBI EXPRESSIONS

One thing I love about chibis is their expressiveness. For example, when chibi characters are afraid, their faces melt into fear! When they are embarrassed, their faces go red and smoke comes out of their ears. And when they’re sad, water pours out of their eyes like waterfalls. They are essentially the Looney Tunes of the manga world—Looney Tunes on Red Bull!

Sleepy

Hysterical

Worried

Charming

Confused

Pleased

Pouting

Enraged

Peeved

“Holy crap!”

“OMG! OMG!”

Evilly Determined

Embarrassed

“Listen to me!”

Happy Happy Joy

Grieving

Shocked

Cynical

“NO!!!!!!”

Pleading

Crying

Cute Laughter

Scared to Death!

The Crazy Eye

Yawning

A DIFFERENT KETTLE OF FISH

DRAWING ANIMALS

I’m known for my Helmetgirls and for their animal friends. Animals illustrate the inner feelings of my characters. A caged bird can symbolize entrapment or a longing for freedom. A snake around a girl’s head shows her devious side. In manga, characters often have an animal companion with them. The same goes for villains; being bad is always more fun if you have an animal companion along for the ride, be it an evil cat or fire-breathing dragon.

In this chapter you are going to learn to create your own animal characters. The steps for animals are similar to those for creating human characters, so this should be a snap. Okay, let’s jump into the animal kingdom!

KITTEN

When you are drawing kittens, it’s all about the squish factor. You want them to look as cute as possible, so we are going to be using lots of balloon shapes in this drawing. At the beginning stages, it might even help to think of the kitten as a balloon animal.

STEP 1 Start by drawing a giant circle for the head and an even bigger circle for the body. For the front legs, draw a pair of cylinders with squarish shapes at the bases for paws. The near front leg will extend farther down. For the near hind leg, make two egg shapes, overlapping at an angle. And since all we can see of the far hind leg is the paw, draw another, smaller egg shape right underneath the kitten’s tummy. Now make little circles for the eyes and triangles for the ears—both the eye and the ear on the far side of the head should be a little smaller. Finally, draw a skinny triangle with a slight curve to it for the tail.

STEP 2 Give the little guy a small circle for the nose at about five o’clock (if the kitten’s head were a clock). Draw a bigger circle to the left of it and then another, even bigger circle to the left that just barely touches the left eye and extends almost up to the left ear. Now add little circles for the kitten’s claws on each of his paws.

STEP 3 Now it’s time to add the fluff that makes kittens so snuggly. Using jagged, almost scribbly lines, retrace the outline of his form, making the scruff especially exaggerated on the top of his head, back, chest, and tummy. Soften the angles of the points of his tail and his ears. Now draw a little arch on the inside of his ear on the near side. I decided to make his ear on the far side bigger, so I drew another, bigger triangle. Connect the eyes to the nose with two small lines. Finally, make a little eyelid across the top of the near eye and two little vertical lines above and between the two eyes.

STEP 4 For your black line, start with the face by filling in the eyes and adding definition and shadows to the ears. Make thin, downward-sweeping lines from each cheek for the whiskers; then make a shadow below his near cheek to indicate his neck. Now go over the rest of your jagged lines for the fur around the body, and make even more little notches wherever you like—on the legs, the tail, the cheeks. There’s no such thing as too much fluff!

STEP 5 Erase your blue lines, and you’ve got a cute, slightly mischievous kitten! Now, where’s that ball of string?

STEP 6 As you can see here, I didn’t stop at erasing my pencil lines. I decided to give our kitty some dark fur by filling in large patches around his head, body, and tail. If you choose to do the same, just remember to make your pen strokes go in the same direction as the fur—slightly up and to the left for the fur on his back, straight down for his near front leg, etc.

TIGER

To quote Tigger the tiger from Winnie the Pooh, “The wonderful thing about tiggers is tiggers are wonderful things.” Whether they are hanging out with bears and eating honey or hunting jungle boys, tigers are some of the most powerful creatures in the animal kingdom, and some of the coolest to draw. Like me, you may want to use some real-life pictures of tigers for reference when drawing them.

STEP 1 Always start with a circle for the head; then draw a line that will represent the spine and the tail, as if the tail is an extension of the spine. This tiger will be lying down, so his front legs will hang down in front of him, while his hind legs will be slightly folded.

STEP 2 Connect his back hind leg to his right front leg. Define the upper hind leg by drawing a soft triangle with a skinny oval beneath it. Draw a diagonal line parallel to the upper hind leg for the lower hind leg. Make cylinders for the front legs, with ovals at their bases for paws, and make a curved line between the tops of the two legs to define the chest. At the head, draw a circle that overlaps half with the face and half with the chest for the snout. Draw in crosshairs on the face and add little circles on top of the head for ears. Finish by drawing a tiny circle at the tip of the tiger’s tail; this will later show you how thick it’s going to be.

STEP 3 Begin by filling in the tail; it will be thicker at the base than at the tip. Draw in the eyes and the nose, using the crosshairs as your guide. Make a line down the center of the chest, and define his legs, paws, and overall muscular shape. Then, draw in the stripes and show the edges of the fur by making the lines around the body more coarse. When you are drawing anything with fur, stay away from using straight lines; ripple the edges of your line work, especially at the jowls and the chest area, where you are going to want to make the fur longer and more fluffy.

STEP 4 Continue drawing in the tiger’s stripes. Fill in the eyes, remembering that tigers’ eyes are just pupils—no highlights. Further define the tiger’s wide-set eyes by adding what I like to think of as Goth makeup around them.

STEP 5 Moving to your black pen, go over your pencil lines and make sure to fill in the stripes nice and dark to make them pop dramatically on the tiger’s fur.

STEP 6 Lose those pencil lines, and admire your enchanting tiger king … Or is it a tiger queen?

I don’t usually like to explain the meanings behind my paintings, but I’m going to let you in on one of them. This painting, Utta, is about the sexiest part of a woman’s body: her brain! And that’s why the snake, the sexiest creature in nature, is resting on her head.

BABY HIPPO

In manga, you can be photorealistic with your animals, or you can go the opposite direction and make them teddy-bearish, soft and huggable. This baby hippo is the latter—he’s about as roly-poly as you can get!

STEP 1 Start by drawing a circle for the head, a horizontal oval on top of it for the snout, and a rounded, triangular shape for the body (which is not directly below the head because he is leaning to his right). Place two little cylinders in the middle of his body for his front legs. For the back legs, make egg shapes on either side of the base of the body. Finally, don’t forget to make little circles on top of the head for the ears.

STEP 2 Give your baby hippo some eyes right on top of his snout. Draw two circles, touching each other, just inside the oval for the snout. Give him small circles for hands. Layer little egg shapes for the lower parts of his legs and feet.

STEP 3 Square off the top of the head. Add little half-circles inside the ears. At the top of the connected circles and beneath the eyes, add two tiny, filled-in ovals for nostrils. Draw in the front legs and paws. Define his front and back legs, making little lines for rolls of chub and making toelike shapes at their bases. Finally, go back to the face and add freckles and whiskers.

STEP 4 Black line time! Go over all of your pencil lines, and add some details, like small shadows in the ears, lines for creases at the neck, teeny tiny toenails, and a belly button! A trick to making our baby hippo even cuter is to fill in the eyes almost completely, leaving one small dot of white.

STEP 5 Erase your pencil lines. Be honest—have you ever seen anything cuter than this little munchkin?!

LOVEBIRD

Call me a romantic, but I love lovebirds. They often appear in my Helmet Girl drawings, and if I could, I would love to make them appear in my apartment; however, I don’t think my dog, Loki, would love them. Remember our kitty we drew back on this page? Well, even though this lovebird has feathers, not fur, it’s similarly round and fluffy, so we’re going to make many of our initial shapes balloonlike here, too.

STEP 1 Draw a circle for the head, an upside-down teardrop shape for the beak, and one oval on each side of the beak. At about eight o’clock (if the bird’s head were a clock), place a small circle for the eye. (Only one eye is going to be visible, since the head is turned and nestled into the body.) For the body, draw a much bigger, horizontal oval on a slight angle. For the wing, make a smaller horizontal, angled oval with a triangle extending from it. Make another triangle beneath it, pointing down, for the tail. At the base of the body, place a very small circle for the beginning of the foot.

STEP 2 Connect all the shapes with rounded lines. Define the chest by curving the line in and down toward the foot. Give the foot one sharp claw. For the wing on the far side of the bird’s body, which we can barely see, add part of a small triangle behind the near wing. Add some notches to the near wing and tail, and start scribbling in some jagged lines for fluffy feathers.

STEP 3 With feathers, choose your battles; don’t define every single feather. Focus on the fluffiest parts of the bird, which, here, are the chest, back, tail, and wing. You’re going to want to add in some individual wing definition, especially at the tips of the wing and the tail.

STEP 4 With your black line, go over the outline of the bird, and then move into the detail work on the eye, wings, tail, and many layers of feathers. Give him a bit of shadow underneath the chin, and blacken the claw. I chose to fill in the tips of the wings, but you certainly don’t have to. Birds come in a variety of colors and patterns, so just have fun!

STEP 5 Erase your pencil lines. Now that we’ve freed our lovebird from the pencil lines, do you think he’ll sing us a love song?

OCTOPUS

Out of all the creatures under the sea, the octopus, I believe, is the most spectacular. It’s graceful and deadly at the same time. Trust me, the octopus may look intimidating to draw, with all its tentacles, but I’ll walk you through it.

STEP 1 Start with three overlapping shapes: a football-shaped mass, a cylinder-shaped mass with an oval at the end, and an irregular trapezoid.

STEP 2 From the trapezoid, draw six curvy lines going in different directions—just don’t make them straight! We draw six lines instead of eight because as the octopus moves, some of the tentacles are not visible. Plus, it’s a nice little shortcut that makes less work for us artists!

STEP 3 Fill out the tentacles by drawing lines parallel to each of the original six lines you drew in the last step. At the end of each tentacle, the two lines taper to meet each other—like a lock of hair. Inside the circle that’s part of the cylinder that you drew in the first step, draw a smaller circle for the eye.

STEP 4 Now come the dreaded suction cups. Depending on how the tentacle is positioned, the number of suction cups needed will vary. I make suction cups by drawing little donuts on the tentacles. For the final touch at this stage in the drawing, draw a very small little slit in the circle for the eye.

STEP 5 Once again, begin your black line at the top layer of your octopus, and work your way down to the tips of the tentacles.

STEP 6 Erase those blue lines, and check out your curly, swirly sea creature!

THE UNUSUAL SUSPECTS

CREATING CHARACTERS

You’ve made it to my favorite chapter! Here, I am going to give you guys a peek into my own creative process and tell the story behind some of my characters’ creations. I’m also going to give you some tips on the tricks I use when developing a character.

Now, this chapter is not for the faint of heart; the drawings aren’t really step-by-steps, so try not to get overwhelmed by the details. Remember, as manga artists we get to play the mad Dr. Frankenstein again and again, digging up body parts from the graveyards of our minds and connecting them to different gadgets and gizmos. If at first the creature doesn’t fully come to life, that’s okay! It’s part of the process. So just keep digging and creating!

TANPOPO

My Tanpopo character—her name is the Japanese word for “dandelion”—is my passion project. The idea for the story and character came to me after I watched Faust, an opera based on a play by Goethe. In the story, Faust makes a pact with the devil. In my graphic novel Tanpopo, a girl without emotion trades her soul for the ability to experience feelings. I love this character and the journey she takes. As you guys know, I’m really passionate about expressing a range of different emotions with my characters. With Tanpopo, I get to illustrate what it would be like to experience these emotions for the first time.

The illustration we’re drawing here is of Tanpopo right before she breaks free of the machine that has imprisoned her. She is just sitting, blank and emotionless. But not to fear, she livens up later in the story!

Notice how Tanpopo’s head is looking downward, so her neck will be hidden. Also, in this seated position, her shoulders are positioned high up, next to the head. The bottom circle is going to represent the width of her thighs, so I don’t make the circle too small.

I begin by outlining the chest, shoulders, and arms, as well as her eyes and her left ear. Then, following the contour of the lower circle, I define her legs, starting with the one closest to us and curving the thigh in toward the calves and feet. Finally, I place shapes for Poodle Kuro behind Tanpopo’s arm and begin to shape her signature wings.

Jumping ahead to the black lines, notice how I define Tanpopo’s clothing by draping the end of her long tank top across her hips and by giving her a pair of shorts underneath. I start my black line at her hair, then work down to her wings, and then to the rest of her body. I tend to leave the feet for last because, honestly, for me they are the hardest part.

Before erasing the blue lines, I color in little Poodle Kuro, leaving his mask white, and also fill in the tips of Tanpopo’s wings, her shorts, and the stars on her shirt.

This is the first time that I have colored Tanpopo in a realistic color palette; usually she appears in a more abstract way. In this colorization, we can actually see that she has white hair and yellow eyes. This is in reference to her Japanese name, Tanpopo, which means “dandelion.”

RED RIDING HOOD

When I was young, “Little Red Riding Hood” was one of my favorite bedtime stories. It had everything I wanted in a story: adventure, horror, and great fashion! A couple of years ago my friend Bryan Talbot was doing a comic called Fractured Fables. He asked me to do the art for the Little Red Riding Hood story. Of course, I jumped at the chance to redesign my favorite bedtime story. In Bryan’s story, Red Riding Hood was going to be a kung fu master, and the Big Bad Wolf, well, we’ll be getting to him next.

I wanted to keep her look classic; her being a kick-butt kung fu master was already very unexpected. So I presented her as a supercute little girl, with a straw basket, cute shorts, and knee-high socks.

I begin with a stick figure and then I outline the body. Next I give Red some big peepers. Note that I draw the left arm cutting across the middle of the spine. Notice that the basket curves, following the contour of the left hip.

I sketch in the clothing little by little, starting with the hood and moving down to the shoes. I add a bow at the neck, letting the ribbons fall down over and under her left arm. I go into crazy detail here!

As always, when adding my black line, I begin at the top, tracing the hood and Red’s hair. I give the basket some texture by using a crisscross pattern.

And just like that, Little Red is ready to kick some butt!

Here I’m keeping it classic with our colors: red cloak and blond hair.

BIG BAD WOLF

Bryan’s description of the Big Bad Wolf was outstanding. He wanted him to be a down-on-his-luck drifter, with a belly that was distended from lack of food, and he wanted him dressed in a three-piece suit that was too small for him! I wanted to emphasize his animal characteristics by elongating his paws and giving him huge eyes. I also added some scruff and fluff to him, as well as some tears and rips to his suit, in order to rustle up some sympathy from the reader. You almost want this poor, poor wolf to gobble up Red and finally catch a break.

I start with an oval instead of a circle for the head. I draw the arms slightly longer than normal human arms so that even when they are bent, the hands rest below the waist. Note that I give him “dog-legged” hind legs to create the humanoid look I’m going for. When drawing this character, I find it helpful to look at pictures of wolves for reference.

I give our character some long ears and a long snout, which starts at the intersection of the crosshairs and curves around to end at the neck. I define the rest of the body, making sure to elongate his paws and exaggerate the size of his feet. Oh, and, of course, I add a little potbelly!

For the clothing, I start with the top layer and add the clothes piece by piece. The wolf suit is a little elaborate, but it’s really just the sum of its parts, so break it down. I add a touch of class by giving him some pinstripes, and I add a couple of patches and rips to make him look downtrodden.

As I do my black lines, I fill in a little patch in the Wolf’s left ear, giving it some depth. I also color in the inside portion of the jacket that is visible above his right hand.

In the Big Bad Wolf’s coloring, I decided to use grays instead of whites to really emphasize his poor, pathetic look.

People often ask, “Camilla, why don’t you paint guys?” Well, honestly, I love painting guys, but every time I start, my hand seems to take over and he ends up looking a lot like a girl. It’s like my hand has a mind of its own!

HEADPHONE GIRL

I grew up during the days of the mixtape. I probably crafted more than a hundred of them during lazy Thursday afternoons, all in preparation for the weekend. This next character, the headphone girl, is not listening to a sweet mixtape on her yellow Sony Walkman. Instead, she is embracing the future and chilling in her room, listening to some J-pop on her iPhone. Also, this girl will not be wearing a schoolgirl’s outfit; headphones are usually worn by the punk rock girls of manga. Remember, no tie, just attitude.

Because she is sitting, I drew this girl with bent knees, being careful not to squeeze the legs too close together; note the thickness of the shin, calf, and thigh.

After getting her framework down, I added the headphones. I wanted to keep them larger than normal: the bigger, the more fun.

The cord to her phone moves from the bottom of the headphones to the floor, and back up to the iPhone.

I started adding black line at the face. Moving on to the headphones, I drew in some extra details and shading. Her socks were a little tricky. Because they wrap around her legs, their pattern changes slightly, due to perspective.

Headphone girl, complete!

BURN

I love my microwave, but I don’t trust it. I’m sure that given the chance, it would microwave me for making it pop all those bags of popcorn. My comic Burn is about exactly that—how the machines we humans create could turn on us. Machines revolt against us in an all-out war. Burn was a human boy until a metallic angel of death named Shoftiel fused onto him. Now Burn must fight this machine for control of his own mind and body, while the battle rages on around him.

When I designed this character, I wanted to get away from what was currently being done with robots in Japanese manga. The Gundam and Robotech series are the Star Wars of the manga world, and their characters and mecha are drawn with very clean, straight lines and hard edges. I did the complete opposite with Burn, making everything curved and jagged, so that the mecha would feel almost organic and reflect the humanity that still existed in Burn. When you are creating your own characters, try to design each one in a way that presents his or her internal conflict or conveys whatever it is that sets your character apart.

Notice that this character’s robotic arm is longer than his human arm. I make sure I draw the circle representing his robotic hand larger than the circle for the other, normal hand. I continue by drawing the middle joints and the metal plating on the shoulder. To create depth in his shoulder piece, I draw a circle and then a smaller circle inside of it.

I draw in the detail work, which includes the metallic arm as well as the cyborg part of his face. I use the curve of the cheek to define the metal aspect of his face; this helps connect his human and robot sides seamlessly.

With cyborgs it is extremely important to start the black line at the top layer, with the parts that are perceived as closest to us on the page. This helps ensure that all the pieces are connected.

And here you have him—Burn. Easy as ice cream! Wait, who am I kidding? I don’t even know how to make ice cream. Burn is a challenge for anyone, including myself. If you want to take a crack at creating your own Burn, I recommend you try drawing the metal parts on a separate piece of paper and then, when you’re ready, fuse the metal to flesh.

Burn is having a bad day! He is very beat-up in this pose, so I use muted colors to reflect his battle damage.

HELMETGIRL

Helmetgirls are among my signature creations. They stem from my love of steampunk and of anything industrial or mechanical. When I was just a fledgling artist, I used to practice drawing steampunk girls, and I would always give each girl a pair of goggles. Slowly, the goggles became more detailed and larger in size, until finally the goggles changed into full machines sitting on top of my characters’ heads. That juxtaposition of having an innocent-looking girl with a huge industrial machine resting on her head was something I fell in love with. In the beginning, the Helmetgirls were rough, dirty, and hard, like the machines they wore. But as I grew as an artist, the girls changed into cleaner, daintier characters. To this day, Helmetgirls are my favorite characters to draw—well, aside from maybe some chibi dragons!

I start with your basic female form. The wind pushes our girl forward, almost picking her up off her feet. For the helmet, I draw two circles on each side of her face to define the helmet’s size.

After drawing her outfit—keeping the lines curved and flowing naturally—I add some detail on the clothing and helmet. When drawing helmets, it’s best to start with the front, working your way up and around to the sides. I draw in some cracks to give a bit of texture.

With my black line, I start with the face and work my way up. I add some filigree to her dress and some shadows to the helmet’s nuts and bolts.

And we’re done! One of my favorite things about drawing Helmetgirls is that the helmets are always different. Try creating your own helmet design—anything goes!

Any time I color a character, I like to build a cohesive palette around a main color. In this case, it’s blue.

BILLY BOOM BOOM

Parrots, peg legs, and eye patches; who doesn’t love pirates, especially the Sky Pirates of Neo Terra? This adventure comic is a five-issue series about a young glidewing pilot, Billy Boom Boom, and his adventures to save Neo Terra from the clutches of the Witch Queen and her minions. Billy is a young rogue and a very skilled pilot in a postapocalyptic world from the future. A good point to remember when you’re designing your character is to always take heed of the story’s setting and let it influence your design. Also, when you are designing your characters, make sure you have specific features that are unique to that character. Billy, for example, is covered in bandages, showing that he is always hurting himself and getting into trouble; thus his name—Billy Boom Boom.

Billy is very rambunctious, so I wanted his expression to be spirited and filled with energy. Thus, I kept the mouth open and slightly curved the eyebrows.

I started going over the lines in his face, hair, and chest in black pen. He also wears goggles and a cast on his leg. These elements illustrate his vulnerability, as well as accentuate his courage and drive.

Billy is ready for more explosive adventures!

TINKERBELL

Tinkerbell is my all-time favorite Disney character! She has spunk, pep, and a really great pout. Now it’s time I show you how I’ve adapted a really recognizable character like Tink. Before I begin an adaptation of any character, I first make a list of all the features that make her unique—such as her slippers, her dress, and her shape—and a list of the elements of my own style I can give the character without losing that recognizability. For example, I wanted to modernize Tinkerbell’s classic hairstyle and give her my signature sexy lips.

I make her a little bit flirty by slightly tilting her head toward her raised shoulder, and I put her hands together at her knees, which will be slightly bent. Notice that her proportions are slightly different from those of other characters I draw. Tinkerbell has a big booty and a little top, so her hips are going to be wider than her shoulders. I fill in her form, beginning with her hair, followed by her elfish ears, which are pointed. I make her arms quite small and dainty, and her thighs thicker than her calves.

I add in the details, starting with her face and then moving to her wings. Don’t forget to add those little pom-poms to her shoes.

Skipping to my black lines, I bring in my signature style with Tinkerbell’s hair. I am known for my complex hairstyles, so I decided to give her a “Camilla updo” and then some “Camilla eyelashes.” So, as you can see, the design is very “classic Disney” but with just a touch of me.

WHAT’S YOUR STORY?

CREATING PANELS, LAYOUTS, AND COVERS

Manga artists in Japan are a hardworking bunch. Not only do they draw their comics, but they also write them. Here in the West, artists usually work with writers when crafting the American comics we know and love. I myself work with a lot of different writers, bringing their stories to life. In this chapter, we’ll look at the steps involved in paneling a manga script, from initial layout to final black line. Then it will be your turn to create a story from your own characters!

The manga we will be working on is based on the childhood of Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. It was written by Stephen W. Martin, one of my colleagues in the comic world—and my coauthor for this book! Stephen’s script will be the basis for our work. Just remember, Stephen and I need that final black line on my desk by eight A.M. tomorrow! Don’t you love deadlines?

READING THE SCRIPT

A manga script is broken down into individual panels, and the writer describes what is happening on each panel of each page. Usually, a page is broken down into four to six panels, but in some cases, a panel can fill a whole page—we call this a splash page. I always print out a copy of the script rather than reading it on my computer screen because I like to quickly sketch my ideas in the pages’ margins. After reading the written description of a panel, I draw the very first thing I see in my head. I believe it is extremely important to get these initial ideas down. You may have a flash of genius when you first read something, so make sure you draw it quickly before it vanishes into thin air.

DOING THUMBNAILS

The thumbnail is essentially a rough draft: It’s what you’ll show the writer and the editor so they can see your plan for bringing each page of script to life. The thumbnail drawings are rough sketches meant to convey what is going on in the panels, without any dialogue or narration. In this case, the page of the script that I am working on is broken down into five panels. To do my thumbnail sketches, I take the very rough doodles I made in the margins of the script and redraw them in the panels. Each panel should have a focal point, or center of interest, that grabs the reader’s eye. I try not to make my pages too busy, which can distract the reader’s attention away from what is important.

MAKING A STYLE SHEET

A style sheet is a collection of drawings of your characters wearing various styles of clothing. After I’ve read the script and done some quick sketches, the research for the style sheet begins. I search the Internet to find examples of period clothing that is relevant to the story, which, in this case, is set in Renaissance Italy. Once I have sufficient inspiration, I start my style sheet. I may draw four or five different versions of my character, in various styles of clothing, until I find one that really hits. In general, I like to give clothing a more modern look by mixing old pieces, like a rope belt, with modern ones, like short pants.

Once you have decided on your character’s clothing, make sure you draw the character from a bunch of different angles so that nothing catches you by surprise as you begin to draw the story. It is a good idea to draw your characters with a few different expressions, too; that will also help as you move forward. Finally, before moving on to the next step, it is important to give your main characters some distinguishing features to separate them from your supporting cast. In this case, I decided to give our female lead, Marinella, some braids across the top of her head, and to give our protagonist, Leo, little tufts of hair moving in every direction—my take on a Renaissance-style shaggy look.

BREAKING INTO THE BIZ

Breaking into the comic industry is not easy. I started out on my own journey in 1998, when I attended my first comic book convention. Before traveling to the convention, I had taken the time to create a portfolio of drawings of various manga and American comic characters, but drawn in my own style. At that comic con, when I first sat down with an editor, I was extremely nervous and shy, but it was a tremendously valuable experience. Even though I did not get a job from that meeting, I learned a lot about what editors are looking for and about the kinds of mistakes I was making in my designs and characters. I promised myself that I would continue to improve my drawings and go back every year for more feedback, and never give up—no matter how long it was going to take.

Whether you have aspirations to be a published comic book artist or you just like to draw, think about starting to build your own portfolio and, if you have the opportunity, about attending a comic con in your area. I think you’ll find it an amazing experience.

FINISHING PANELS

After everyone—the writer, the editor, and you, the artist—agrees on the layouts created in the thumbnail stage, it’s time to move to the final version of the panels. At this point, I blue-line my 11 × 17–inch sheet of paper, using my thumbnails as a reference. It’s important to remember to leave enough room for the dialogue balloons in the panels. I have learned that the hard way!

I always try to keep my characters active, doing something in each panel. This approach keeps up the pace and makes the art lively. Notice here that I have Leo holding on to the tree in the first panel, but in the second he has let go and is falling forward. This slight movement keeps the scene from becoming stagnant. Movement can even be achieved with background elements—birds flying in the air or little specks of dust or dirt moving beneath a character’s feet. Keep in mind that when you are drawing action, be it a car chase or a space battle, you always want the action to follow the left-to-right Z-pattern eye movement that Inku described on this page. That helps the reader’s eye follow the action and move smoothly across the page.

Here are a few blank panels I’ve created as examples. When doing your own manga stories, start from scratch, designing your own style sheet and then sketching out your thumbnails. Then take out that blue pencil and try drawing panels for one of your story ideas.

This is a panel I created for a story that appeared in Womanthology.

This is a splash page from my graphic novel Tanpopo.

DRAWING A MANGA COVER

I equate creating a manga cover image to going all-in at the poker table. This is where a manga artist showcases everything she’s got in her drawing arsenal. When doing covers, I go for broke and hold nothing back. Just as a movie poster’s job is to get people excited about seeing the movie, a manga cover’s purpose is to get people to want to read the comic.

Before I start drawing a cover, I decide on the setting. I like to play with the themes of the book, placing my main characters in an environment similar to what they encounter in the story—but more elaborate, more dangerous, and more glamorous. Cover art is a special art form, and there is one illustrator, James Jean, who has taken the art to an incredible level, winning all sorts of awards and accolades for his work. If you’re not familiar with Jean’s work, I recommend you check out his cover work on Fables. I’m always amazed at the way his covers sum up the essence of each comic with just a single powerful image.

Now I’d like to invite you along with me as I design the cover image for the fifth issue of Tanpopo, for which I took inspiration from the HBO show Game of Thrones. I wanted the cover to be my take on the classic image of the iron throne in the show. Also, in the comic I use passages from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death,” a creepy short story that features a prince who’s trying to escape a deadly plague and hosts a masquerade ball. I’m going to give the cover a masquerade theme, with Tanpopo at the center, sitting on a throne, looking spicy-cute and surrounded by a mess of masks and multiple variations of the mascot Kuro—including Poodle Kuro, Fox Kuro, a giant Buddha Kuro, and a variation I call Bubba Kuro.

First I outline Tanpopo positioned on the throne. If I’m having trouble, I look at myself in the same pose in a mirror to understand the position of the body. In this pose, the hips are covered by the legs. Her left hand will clutch a piece of fabric to her chest and her right hand will rest on what will become the giant Buddha Kuro. Finally, I sketch in the throne.

Because this cover will have a lot of detail, I want to first establish Tanpopo, the focal point, before moving on to the smaller details. I draw her hair and then the rest of her body, before moving on to defining the fabric in her hand and the way it falls.

I now add more details to the throne, giving it texture and filigree. I draw the Poodle Kuro at the top of the throne, then the Fox Kuro at the bottom, along with our little friend Inku. Next, I add some detail to the masks that surround our characters and throne, as well as some feathers at the base of the throne. I keep adding detail to the throne, as well as to the toys and masks beneath it.

Using my black pen, I start drawing Tanpopo’s hair and then move on to the fabric cascading from her hand. This fabric will cover part of the chair and some of Tanpopo herself. I continue drawing the rest of the characters with my black line, coloring in Fox Kuro, Inku, and Bubba Kuro’s mask.

Now I fill in the enormous Buddha Kuro with black ink. Note that placing a large single character on the right balances the assortment of small characters on the left and keeps the image from feeling too crowded. It is important to allow the eye to rest. Finally, I continue to add detail to the throne—as you can see, I go a little crazy with the detail here!

And there you have it, the finished drawing for the cover of Tanpopo number 5! On the following page, the drawing is in color.

TWO PENS ARE BETTER THAN ONE

COLLABORATION TIME!

I love team-ups in comics. What’s better than Batman fighting bad guys? Batman and Superman fighting bad guys! In that spirit, we are going to work together to complete two original pieces of manga art. First, I’m going to draw the Helmetgirl, and I want you to draw her helmet and mascot companion. Then, I’ll draw the helmet, and you’ll draw the girl. Use the skills you have obtained from other chapters in this book to create something truly yours. The sky’s the limit, so use your imagination!

And once you have finished either or both of these beautiful pieces, I would love to see them! Scan them and send them to info@camilladerrico.com. I’ll be refreshing my inbox every hour on the hour, so don’t forget or I’ll send Inku after you!

Draw the Helmet and Animal

It’s time to get in touch with your wild side. Before starting to draw this girl’s helmet and animal, take a moment to study the young lady. What do you think she’s feeling? And what emotions do you feel when you look into her eyes? What kind of design will represent this character’s emotion? I often use octopi to show that a character is trying to hide or bury her emotions. Lovebirds reflect a flirty playfulness, and deer often convey a tone of sadness or innocence. If drawn with a lot of hard-edged lines, the helmet can show anger or remorse. A softer style, with some playful gadgets, can be flirty or whimsical in tone. A sleek design might give the girl an even sexier look. Of course, you could always throw all that metaphor stuff out the window and just draw something kick-butt! Please go to http://rhlink.com/pop001 to print out this page.

Draw the Girl

You’re right on time! I just put the final touches on this helmet. Now it’s up to you to finish the image by drawing the character. But before you get started, again take a moment to think about the emotion of your character and how you can show or reflect that emotion in her body language. Don’t worry if you need to take a few quick looks back at some of the step-by-steps—I won’t tell Inku! Just have fun and experiment. Please go to http://rhlink.com/pop002 to print out this page.

AFTERWORD

You did it! Congratulations on making it to the end. I’m so proud and honored to have taken this journey with you. It’s not easy being an artist, and some of those chapters were quite challenging, but you stuck with it and rocked it out! Now you’re probably asking yourself, “Where do I go from here?” The answer is right in front of you. Flip back to your favorite chapters and do some of the drawings again! This time, try out a different style or an idea that you had, or try developing a single character through each stage of the book. The bottom line is that you should keep drawing and creating every day! For me, drawing is a lot like kung fu: By practicing every day, I slowly develop and increase my skill. After enough time, your hand will become a deadly manga-drawing weapon!

Finishing this book is just the beginning. Try taking a class at a local community college or art school. Attend a comic con and sign up for some seminars or panel discussions on drawing manga or comic book art. Start a manga club at your school, or even spend some time each day with a pencil and sketchbook, sitting on a park bench or in a coffee shop. Sketch people that you see. Then sketch them again in chibi form! Never stop learning, and never stop drawing!

Finally, I’m glad to have met another person who shares my love for the manga art form. So if you ever see me walking down the street or sitting at my table at a comic convention, stop by and say hello, give me a high five, and show me your art! I can’t wait to see it!

ILLUSTRATION CREDITS

ded.1: Pirate King from Sky Pirates of Neo Terra, © Fathom Interactive

col3.1: “A Red Dawn” © Kuonichi Ventures

c01.41: “Peaks of Paradise,” Rena of Sky Pirates of Neo Terra, © Fathom Interactive

1.134: Image © LinePro Agency

2.88: “The Depths” © Crystal Dynamics

4.15: Hello My Kitty Land © Sanrio and Camilla d’Errico

4.63: Elephantmen cover, Issue #29, December 2010, © Richard Starkings, Image Comics

5.31: “Glass Butterflies,” cover image of Exploded View comics anthology, Cloudscape Comics, 2009

6.34: Billy Boom Boom of Sky Pirates of Neo Terra, © Fathom Interactive

6.38: Tinkerbell © Disney

6.42: Panel from Sky Pirates of Neo Terra, Issue #1, page 4, November 2010, Fathom Interactive

7.9: Panel from Womanthology: Heroic, d’Errico, DeLiz, and Doyle, Idea & Design Works, March 2012

7.10: Splash page from Tanpopo graphic novel: d’Errico Studios, Ltd., December 2009

CAMILLA D’ERRICO has gained wide acclaim for her work with Dark Horse Comics, Image Comics, Tokyopop, Hasbro, Disney, Sanrio, and Neil Gaiman; for her own cult-sensation properties Tanpopo and Helmetgirls; and for her oil paintings, which have made her a leader in the international pop surrealism movement. She has been nominated for the Joe Shuster Award and the Will Eisner Award. Camilla lives in Vancouver. Visit her at camilladerrico.com.

STEPHEN W. MARTIN is a screenwriter, story editor, and filmmaker who has worked on shows such as the CW’s Supernatural and USA Network’s Psych. His short film Dead Friends was the winner of the WorldKids International Film Festival. He lives in Vancouver.

INDEX

A

Action

about: overview of drawing

arms crossed girl

kneeling girl

running guy

sitting guy

standing (pigeon-toed girl)

walking girl

walking guy

Age

aging characters

eyes and, 1.1, 1.2

hands and

Animal characters

about: overview of drawing

baby hippo

kitten

lovebird

octopus

tiger

Arms crossed, girl

B

Baby hippo

Big Bad Wolf

Billy Boom Boom

Body

about: overview of drawing

aging characters

casual back pose

feet

females, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3

front view

males, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3

three-quarter front view

Book overview

Boys. See Males

Burn (character)

C

Cape

Characters, See also Animal characters; Chibis; Mascots

about: overview of drawing

Big Bad Wolf

Billy Boom Boom

Burn

Headphone Girl

Helmetgirl, 6.1, 8.1

Red Riding Hood

Tanpopo

Tinkerbell

Chibis

about: overview of drawing, 4.1; word origin, 4.2

expressions

Tanpopo as chibi

Children

hands

toddler eyes

Clothing

action with. See Action

drawing

Collaboration exercise

Cougar paper

Cover, creating

D

Dress

E

Ears

Emotions

expressions of

painting and

Erasers

Expressions

chibi facial

facial

Eyes

adults

females, 1.1, 1.2

grandparents

males, 1.1, 1.2

toddlers

villains

F

Face

ears and

expressions

females, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3

front view

males, 1.1, 1.2

profile

three-quarter view

Feet

flat foot

positions

stepping foot

top, bottom, kicking

Females

action positions. See Action

aging

body. See Females, body

ears

eyes, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4

face, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3

feet

hairstyles

hands

mouths

noses

Females, body

casual back pose

front view

three-quarter back view

three-quarter front view

Fist

G

Gestures, hand

Gloves

Grandparent eyes

Guys. See Males

H

Hair

Hands

age and

children

females, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3

fist

gestures and positions

males

old lady

palm down, 2.1, 2.2

palm up, 2.1, 2.2

Head, See also Eyes; Face

about: overview of drawing

ears

extreme turns of

hair

mouths

noses

Headphone Girl

Hello Kitty

Helmetgirl, 6.1, 8.1

Hippo, baby

I

Imp of Darkness

Inku

Inspiration

J

Jackets

Japanese school uniform

K

Kitten

Kneeling girl

L

Lovebird

M

Males

action positions. See Action

aging

body. See Males, body

ears

eyes, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4

face, 1.1, 1.2

feet

hairstyles

hands and fist

mouths

noses

Males, body

casual back pose

front view

three-quarter back view

three-quarter front view

Mascots, See also Chibis

about: overview of drawing

Imp of Darkness

Inku

Poodle Kuro

Men. See Males

Mouths

N

Noses

O

Octopus

P

Panels. See Story, creating

Pants, See also Action

Paper

Pencils

Pens

Photoshop

Pigeon-toed, girl standing

Poodle Kuro

Profile

R

Red Riding Hood

Running guy

S

Scanner

Script

Sitting guy

Skirt, Japanese school uniform

Standing pigeon-toed, girl

Story, creating

about: overview of

finishing panels

manga cover and

panels overview

script and

style sheets and

thumbnails and

Style sheets

Supplies (“weapons”)

T

Tanpopo, 4.1, 6.1

Thumbnails

Tiger

Tinkerbell

Toddler eyes

V

Villain, eyes of

W

Walking girl/guy

Wolf, Big Bad

Women. See Females