Alex Heizer

A lot of people these days want to draw manga. TV shows like Bleach, Naruto, DragonBallZ and others have brought more awareness of Japanese comics to the US. The videos, known as “anime” often start out as comics, which are known as “manga”. Manga has many styles depending on the target audience, but all styles look different than their Western counterparts. There is an incredibly wide variety of artistic styles for manga, including realism, abstract, woodblock, chibi and even a rough “gag” manga style, which is little more than a pen doodle with word balloons. I strongly encourage you to check out all of the different styles and see which fits you the best. Don’t limit yourself, manga art doesn’t limit itself!

Here’s a short tutorial for drawing a figure in a more shonen/shojo style, intended for the teen market. This style differs from other styles mostly in the physical proportions of the head, eyes, various body parts, etc. It also differs from the typical Western style of comic drawing in that it’s a simpler, less-realistic style, but has an impressionistic way of conveying a meaning, attitude or concept with open, straightforward, often minimalist linework.

1. The basis of any solid drawing is the gesture pose. This was true for Michelangelo and DaVinci and is still true today. Instead of an egg shape for the head, use a circle. Divide it horizontally and vertically as usual. The body proportions are often 6 heads tall, compared with Western comics’ 7-9 (or even 11) head heights.
   
2. Place the facial features, draw the overall hair gesture, and sketch in the frame. Because of the cultural history, your character should have a small frame. This doesn’t mean ultra-skinny, since even small-framed people can be overweight. For this example, my character will be a bit curvy. Note the proportions of the facial features. For a female character and a child the eyes lie below the horizontal dividing line. For male characters the eyes would sit above the line.
   
3. Continue to define your features, working from rough to finished lines across the entire piece. This will help ensure consistency from top to bottom. The eyes are usually square or oversquare in dimension, meaning “as tall as they are wide” or even taller, depending on your personal style. Compare the styles of Johji Manabe and Shirow Masamune for example. For girls, the pupil is larger than the opening between the lids, which gives a more “cutesy” look to the character. For a male, the pupils are drawn much smaller.
   
4. At this stage, begin roughing in the clothes and accessories and, if you are going to have one, the background scene. Some clothes alter the outline of the figure considerably, so you don’t need to completely finish the figure. As long as your frame drawing is correct the clothing will look and fit correctly.
    
5. Once you have decided on the clothes you can continue on with finishing the details. As you complete the different elements, erase your working lines. Even if you plan on inking your artwork and erasing all the working lines afterwards, keeping the drawing clean and uncluttered helps you spot any trouble areas or details you may have overlooked. It also keeps your work looking more professional.
   
6. Little details like buttons, lace, different fabric types, etc., make the drawing look more complete and add a little something which your subconscious picks up as “realistic”. It’s the little details which separate a lazy artist from a good one.
   

All-in-all, drawing a manga figure uses the same techniques as any other style. The difference is just the unique way manga looks compared to other styles.