How to draw manga the only tutorial that you need! by Christi Leal Espino

Materials

Here's my list of art materials as requested. I'll do my best to explain what I use and why as well as where to get them. Lots of Manga specific art materials available HERE.

Work Space: How to set it up

Pencils: What Kinds do you need?

Erasers: They aren't only pink and square

Pens: What kind of inker are you?

Templates: Need a fast circle?

Curves and Edges: How to keep it all clean

Paper: How to choose.

Accesories: Not required..but nice to have

Digital Art: Is your system ready?

What you see: A) A nice, large,clean, flat,sturdy, well lit table. B) A storage system for paper, reference materials, tools and other art related objects. C) A tool rack within easy reach. D) a comfortable chair.

The #1 important thing to consider when setting up your workspace is "comfort". Remember , you will be sitting here for hours at a time. Make sure your area is well lit and as clutter free as humanly possible. I like to keep inspirational objects and reference material around my work area so I can stay juiced about what I'm doing. (Notice the DangerGirl action figure set over the desk). I also like to keep all my tools with reaching distance so I don't have to break my train of thought to grab a tool while working. I hang them on the wall to keep my desk space clean and clear. I keep a large collection of Video Game mags and manga on hand to use as layout or reference material. If you drink or eat at your desk make sure your food/drink items are secured. I've accidentally spilled more coffee on artwork than I care to mention so now I keep that stuff on a side stool away from my workspace. Comfortable, Clean & Bright!

Pencils com in a wide array of options. You can pick up a box of designer pencils like the ones you see to the left. Or you can just individually pick out 2 or 3 that will work for you. I'll try to explain what factors should influence your decision.

The chart to the right shows what the different "Grades" of pencil are. You've seen the infamous yellow #2 or 2B pencil all your life at school. Now looking at this chart you can see what that means. H = Hard lead. Hard lead makes a lighter line and is used mostly for drafting. 9H is as hard as it gets. On the opposite side of the spectrum are the B grade pencils. B has a soft lead so it makes a darker line. 9B is like mascara.

I choose the middle ground. an HB or F pencil has a nice versatile grade.

I use about 5 different pencils over the course of a drawing. I rough in with a photoblue. Clean up line art with a lead-holder pencil and then detail with a .03 mechanical.

I've used Millions of erasers over the course of my art career but I've finally whittled my choices down to 2 kinds. A) Kneaded Eraser: This eraser usually comes as a plain Grey or Blue square. Once you open it from it's wrapping you start working it like silly putty. Squeezing it into a Ball...pulling it into a ribbon..folding it, squishing it..Kneading it, really. What's the purpose? Well, you can squeeze it down into a fine point and erase lines in hard to reach places without disturbing the pencil lines around it. Another handy feature is that it doesn't completly erase lines...If you just dab the eraser over the lines you can lighten them up for inking. B) White Nylon Eraser: This style is the best eraser I have ever used for completly removing pencil lines without destroying your inks or gouging your paper. It also has a low "debris" factor. Debris is that rubb off you get from your eraser.

Pens are a difficult thing to reccomend since so much of what you chppse is based on how you ink. I'm going to list the pens I personally choose to get the job done. They may or may not work for you...experiment as needed. Sakura Pigma Micron: My personal favorite inking pen. They have all the clean qualities of a techpen yet they also have a semi-flexible tip. SO the harder you press the wider your line will be. Variable line weight is very important for inking. Otherwise your drawings come out flat like a coloring book. They come in .005 (very fine) to .08 (very thick) These pens usually run about $12.00 for the whole set at your local art store.

The Sanford Sharpie: I use these pens to fill in large black areas. These pens are great but only useful for a short period of time. When they are new they have an excellent point and a very uniform Black. I only use these for coloring large areas of black...never for line work or detailing. They tend to "bleed" quite a bit on regular paper so leave a space between your blackline and fill area. You can fill in the gap between with a .08 Sakura micron Sharpies are available almost everywhere.

The Tombo Brush Pen: This pen takes a little getting used too. It acts like a brush but without all the hassle of cleaning a brush. It's not very good for inking mechanical things like Robots, ships or cars. But it's great for inking Hair, fur, trees..ect. Organic natural objects. This pens a little harder to find but should be at most your major art stores.

Templates come in a variety of shapes and sizes and are save you a great deal of time in precise drawing . Gun Muzzles, Car wheels..just about anything. It also saves you from using a traditional compass and punching holes in your paper. One problem though..They are flat so ink can run underneath them and smear your drawing. Tape pennies under the edges of the template to raise it from the surface and avoid the ink smear.

A little searching can turn up some very useful templates like this one I picked up in Tokyo. I suck at drawing word balloons and before I purchased Adobe Illustrator this was the only way I could draw them with looking like an amatuer.

You can't really do a good job without these tools unless your some kind of machine. Let's see what they do for us. French Curves: These tools come in several different sizes and shapes. I use at least 4 on any given drawing. You rotate them around on your drawing till you find an egde that closely matches the curve you're trying to ink. You can also purchase a "Flexible Curve" which looks like a peice of rubber railroad track. It's no good for tight curves but works nice on long curves.

Triangles: A must have for Comic book paneling and perspective work. The triangle rest on your TSquare. Use the T-square to draw Horizontal lines and the Triangle to draw Vertical lines. The 45 degee angles com in andy for drawing perspective lines back to the "Vanishing point". I'll cover perspective in another tutorial.

Ruler with Inking Edge: Really, all your tools should have an inking edge. Notice the diagram on the left depicting the way an inking edge works with a Pen. The Ruler edge is raised from the drawing surface allowing the ink to apply cleanly. If that edge was flat on the paper the ink would bleed between the edge on the paper making an ugly mess.

I assume most of you are interested in comic style art so I'm showcasing the comic type paper. If you're into Watercolors or Charcoal you'll want a different type of paper than what's show below.

Bristol Board Smooth: Bristol board is a heavy, bright white paper. It comes in several sizes and surfaces. For comic book art you want a fairly large size (11x14) and a smooth surface. Bristol takes ink very well but because of it's smoothness it takes the ink a bit longer to dry. Be very carefull when inking not to drag your hand across the page or you'll end up with smudges and smears. Also give the ink a while to dry before attempting to erase your pencil marks. Acid Free board will stay whiter longer.( Age can yellow the paper). Vellum coating is ultra smooth and ideal for inking.

This paper can be expensive so don't use it for sketching. It's for final peices....course, if you buy it you can do whatever you want with it...see if I care.

Drawing Aids and Stuff

the Dummy: This can be an excellent tool for helping you keep anatomy proportions correct. The only thing that kinda sucks about the dummy is that he's not really all that poseable. I've found that I get more out of Highly detailed action figures (like Todd McFarlanes). Still, Everyone should have a dummy.

the Brush: How many times have you gone to swipe off the eraser debris with you hand an smear the inks on your picture with your big sweaty mits. The brush is the elegant answer to debris removal. It protects your art and removes a lot more crap than your hand does. Most drafting supply stores carry the brush.

So you've drawn what you came to draw...how do you digitize it? Top 10 System Recommendations: A great system (for PC) consist of 1) Faster the better (600mhz minimum) 2) 256 MB of Ram (more is better) 3) 32mb Video Card 4) 13-25 Gig hard drive 5) A Wacom Tablet (shown at Right) 6) A 5 button Mouse 7) a 19-22 inch monitor 8) Adobe Photoshop 5.5 - 6.0 9) A digital Camera 10) A Scanner I'm not going to get into what brands I think are the best because I don't want to start any arguments. Just find what works for you.As time rolls on the above figures will look very dated. Just get as fast and as much of Everything as you can.

What Scanner should I buy?: I bought a cheap scanner at Costco (a MAG Innoscan DTS-3060) for about $100.00. It works fine for web and lineart..if you're looking to do hirez print work for magazines you may want something a little more high end. My Mag is working very well for me though proving you don't have to drop $3000.00 for something decent. You'll get faster performance from a USB or SCSI interface scanner than from a parallel port scaner. What Size should I scan my line art at? Scan your blacklines as 150 to 300 dpi greyscale images. I know that Black and White is an option but Greyscale gives you a smoother line. Adjust the contrast using "curves" in photoshop. Make sure to reduce your resolution to 72dpi before saving it for Web use. Photoshop 5.5 will do this for you automatically. How does a Wacom Tablet work with Photoshop? Photoshop takes adavantage of the Pressure sensitive capabilities of your Wacom Tablet. You can now contraol the opacity, strokewidth and color of the paint tools sinmple by pressing harder or softer on the tablet. You can tweak which pressure options it uses by going to the tool options palette and checking/unchecking boxes in the "Stylus" section on the lower half of the pallette. That way you can set your airrush to be effected by stroke size but not opacity or opacity and not stroke size. You can also set the index finger button on the stylus to perform Photoshop keyboard shortcuts. I keep mine set to "Alt"(Alt in Photoshop will bring up the eyedropper tool if you have a paint tool currently selected) so when I'm painting I can just press it and grab the color I need from the art I'm working on.

1. Those of you who are veterans to the wonderful world drawing faces will recognize this set up right away. It's pretty much your standard layout for a face with some minor tweaking based on anime rules. 2. Here we start cleaning up and detailing. now that we know where everything is supposed to go we can make it look like it's supposed to look. 3. Getting finalized and deciding which lines are going to be heavy and which lines are going to be light so you knw what your doing when you finally get to the inking stage.

OK..Here we are at the beginning. The human head is pretty much an "egg" shape. the set up for this is to draw a circle representing the top of the head and an inverted cone for the chin. Anime chins are much sharper than standard chins. Don't go making an arrowhead out of the chin but think more along the lines of the bottom half of a heart. (the cartoon kind of heart..not the biologically correct heart) The placement of the nose should be located on a horzontal line between the eyeline and the chin line

The Head itself should be 4 big eyes wide: Half an eye on the left, eye, eye, eye, half on the right.

On a normal human face, the width of the mouth would be determined by the center point of the pupils of the eye. Anime mouths are somewhat smaller so I use the inside corners of the eye as a guide. Experiment with whatevers best for you.

The Ears should be located on horizontal lines drawn out from the eyebrows and the nose.

Starting to shape up a bit, eh? Here's where it starts getting into "Style". Lot's of clueless folks say "all that japanese stuff looks alike" ..I beg to differ. I believe the eyes set the styles apart from each other. It's like a fingerprint. you can tell who did what just by looking at the construction of the eyes. But I will admit ..All Japanese anime eyes share similar traits across the board. 1. They must be big and have the ability to water up at any moment 2. The shape is more "catlike" than just oval. 3. for females...the upperlash line is heavy, The lower lashline is also heavy and defines the curve of the eye. s I draw mouths different than most Anime designers. I always liked the presence of lips. If your shooting for a more traditional anime style..I'd study some manga. There's not much to mouths.

4. The upper edge of the cheeks gets dashed with lines to define the edge of the eye socket.

Tada!...well, almost. A little more pushing, shoving, erasing and cleaning brings us to stage 3. The big deal to this stage is defining the hair and a relevant light source so you know which lines to make heavy and wear to put shadows n' stuff. Hair is tricky business. Do what you want but just make sure you sweep some of it into the eyes. It should have "highlight squiggles" (for lack of an actual term) that makes it look like hair from a pantene pro V commercial. Anime hair comes in all sorts of colors so go nuts.

Here is the first in a series of HAND tutorials. This first step is important to understanding how the hand is constructed and were the pivot points are. Once you are comfortable with the proportions of the hand it will be easier to draw it in different positions. For now let's concentrate on the basic "Spread Fingered" hand. Follow along and study your own hand as you go. Hands : Step 1- the oval Draw an oval. Much like the one you see to the left. Designate a point on the lower center line of the oval. This is the anchor point we'll use for our fingers.

Hands : Step 2- radials

Draw 5 lines radiating out from the anchor point. The longest line will be the middle finger...make it just slightly shorter than 2 oval lenghts.

Hands : Knuckle placement The remaining finger lengths fall on an arc from the height of the middle finger. The knuckle closest to the tip of the finger is slightly less than 1/3 the way down from the finger tip. The next knuckle splits the difference between the remaining length to the top of the palm oval. The thumb has 3 knuckles as well but the anchoring is hidden inside the palm.

Hands : Fleshing in Flesh in the fingers as shown here. The fingers start narrow at the base..widen at the first knuckle then taper down again toward the tip. Believability is added by drawing creases in the places the hand bends the most...at the knuckles and along the palms. Look at your own hand for reference. Everybody's hand is slightly different. This hand is definately mine. (Notice I am Right handed and that's why my hand model is a Left hand)

Hands : The opposable Thumb The thumb kinda has it's own thing going on. It rotates around on its own axis. The thumb swings inward on its Anchor Knuckle and bends down at its second knuckle to point at the base of the Ring finger. The thumbs arc peaks at the middle knuckle of the index finger.

Hands : Finger lengths The Index finger and the Ring finger are nearly the same height..about the halfway point of the middle finger "tip". The Ring finger is just slightly longer. The Pinky finger comes up to the last knuckle line of the Ring finger. Notice how the hand is not Square but Wedge shaped.

Hands are a nightmare for most artist...myself included. It's hard to contruct it in basic shapes so I don't really try. Instead I break it up into major forms and really pay attention to where it folds and bends. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE READ THE FIRST HAND TUTORIAL! This one doesn't deal with proportions like the other did. This is more the form of the hand.

The hand is kinda like a shovel...that's what we use it for somtimes. You're palm gives you the lines you need to see were it bends. Above the top blue line is the first row of knuckles.

Don't make the hand a flat wedge. It curves and follows the contours of the lines on the palm. Notice how the thumb side of the palm pivots from the center.

even when drawing the hand from the back..pay attention to the fold lines in the palm. It will help you draw more natural positions for the thumb and fingers.

Below is a series of hand studies I drew based on the above diagrams. I kept some of my stucture lines in tact so you could see what I was thinking when I drew them

The Foot: Know your basic forms! Like everything else you draw, the foor also consist of basic forms. I break it down into 3 parts. 1) a cylinder for the shin 2) a half a peanut for the front 3) A roundish shape for the heel

Side view Here you can kinda see those basic shapes beneath the foot. The shin comes into the ankejoint which then branches back for the heel and forward to the toes. Notice the foot does not sit FLAT on the ground plane..there's an arch between the toe pads and the heel pad.

If the shoe fits... A shoe is basically just a wrap for the basic foot shapes. Looking at pictures of shoes will give you ideas for styles. Here I chose a modified US Army Jungleboot. Make sure you make the Sole of the shoe go below where the bottom of the foot would be. There's about a 1/4 of an inch to 4" of rubber between the bottom of the foot and the bottom of the sole.

If your stuck... Draw the foot first. That will give you a better idea on how to wrap the shoe around the foot form.

the Wedge Notice how the foot is shaped like a rounded wedge the bend IN towards the body's center. The toes are also arced like the fingers of the hand...the middle toe is usually the longest.

The Instep Okay, this foots a bit wide but you see the important structures. Everyone's seen foorptints in the sand. The heel and Ball of the foot are linked by the outside edge of the foot. The arch of the foot doesn't come into contact with the ground.

Mastering forms in perspective Once you understand how a foot is put together you can start getting creative with action poses. Take a good look at those basic shapes I drew in step one and see if you can find them in this drawing to the left. Practice Practice Practice!

HAIR: First you may want to download and print out the template I made just for class so you can follow along. It includes a bald female and male head. Use it to develop your own hairstyles.

Step 1: Define the Hairline The hairline is located on a line that extends from ear to ear at a 45 degree angle up from the eyeline. Or..bisects the forehead horizontally between the eyes and the crown of the head. This characters har parts down the middle so I add another guidline to represent the partition from front to back.

Step 2: Define the strands Hair grows up and out of the head like spikes on a sea-urchin. (uni anyone? hah, sushi joke). Except hair isn't rigid like a spike. It's soft so it falls back downward because of gravity. Draw the hair in smooth sweeps from the hairline and part. Remember..hair is individual strands.. It's not a helmet made of playdoe. Obviously you aren't going to draw a million strands but do draw enough the give body and depth to the hair.

Step 2: Define the body After you have your strands figured out. Define the outline of the hair. Trim away stray lines you aren't using and add shading where the hair is farther away from the viewer or deeper toward the scalp. Notice the darker shade of purple I used and how it rounds out the hair? (granted this is a very simplified piece).

Step 4: Create the highlites Highlites give hair that healthy Anime Pantene glow. The anime highlite is usually like a halo sitting on the upper 1/3 if the hair. This all depends on the available light you're using and whether or not this person would have Shiny hair. Look in fashion magazines and comics for more style ideas!

Hair in Action: Hair can be a very useful visual cue for describing motion and adding a dynamic element to your art. The trick is to show how the hair follows the direction of the head. If the character is falling..the flow of the hair is the opposite direction. if the character is blown backward, the hair shoots forward...see?

(p.s. forgive the high quality cocktail napkin art over here..I just wanted to use this to make a point)

HAIR: First you may want to download and print out the template I made just for class so you can follow along. It includes a bald female and male head. Use it to develop your own hairstyles.

Step 1: Define the Hairline The hairline is located on a line that extends from ear to ear at a 45 degree angle up from the eyeline. Or..bisects the forehead horizontally between the eyes and the crown of the head. This characters hair doesn't really part down the middle but I use the center line to help me keep things even.

Step 2: Define the strands Male hair is typically shorter....at least in MY world. Longer hair would be drawn similar the the female style on the other page. I still make sure the hair strands grow OUT from the scalp and flow along in a natural direction. Here I chose a Ceasar cut style. Magazines are your best reference material. get a collection of style and study the hairgrowth pattern.

Step 2: Define the body See how it kinda works like connect the dots? I work the body of the hair into the flow lines I created in the last step. I make hair closer to the viewer lighter to add that sense of depth.

Step 4: Create the highlites Guys hair isn't usually shiny like girls hair. A ceasar cut is a bit rough and spikey so I don't use the halo highlite. I will, instead, add a highlight to the cowlick area to help define space and depth.

Here is the long awaited expression tutorial.This tutorial is very similar to the tutorial available in the "How to draw Manga" book...since it's so hard to find I thought I'd convert the lesson using my own art and post it up here for you. Click on the face to the left to download a blank template you can use to follow along. What follows below is a guide...My methods vary a little but I want to put across a generic average for you to build your own styles on. Angry (okatta)

Really Mad: The eyebrows come Miffed: Mouth goes up in an upside down. the pupils shrink and you Kinda mad: Pupils back to normal get a little x on your forehead. size but the eye brows are still down. down lopsided "u". Eyebrows are Fanged teeth help convey the No popping veins or fanged teeth. still down but not as far. emotion.

Sad (kanashii)

Super sad: WaaAAAAAHHH! Upset: Eyebrows up, mouth not as distraught: Eyebrows up...eyes all Eyes squeezed shut. Mouth wide wide open..eyes have more sparkles a-sparkle with tears. Mouth in open..tears of shame and grief in them to convey "wet". Tears still upside down "U" mode. streak the face. Eyebrows up. visible in corners of the eye

Happy (ureshii)

Joyous: Eyes shut from smiling. Rays of blushy joy on cheek. Mouth in sideways "D" mode. Eyebrows up.

Gleeful: Eyebrows up. A thin line goes follows the upper curve of the Content: Same as gleeful but the eye to convey a relaxed state. The eyes are a bit wider open. Mouth is lower eyelid covers the bottom of the a small bow curve. pupil to mak it "squinty happy". Mouth is a sideways "D" but a bit smaller.

Others (sono uchi)

Thoughtful: My personal favorite.. one eyebrow down, one Suprised: Eyebrows UP..eyes wide up. Mouth is an upside down "V". but pupils small. Mouth in a Eye's usually looking up and to lopsided"O". the side.

sick or disgusted: Features are drawn in a minimalist way to convey humor. Mouth is a squiggle low on the face. eyelids and eyebrows are a flat line. maybe add a sweat drop.

A tip on Foreshortening: Foreshortening is never really easy and it's something you will have to get comfortable with over time with practice...but here's a tip. If you're really stuck, try drawing your character from the side then use a ruler to draw lines from key parts off the the side like I did below. Use these lines as a guide to draw your character from the front

A big part of developing a character is knowing what kind of body language they use. A big mistake beginners make when drawing pin-ups of their characters is ignoring the personality of the character they are doodling. I often see pics posted by others that have a character standing with a weapon like they are sitting in a Sears studio for family photos...NO! Try and avoid a using the normal stance. Think about your character..think about what it is your character does..what effect would that have on the way they carried themselves. Are they graceful? Are they clumsy? Do they laugh, skip, play or mope, drag and cry. Picture this in your head before you put the pencil to paper. Check these examples to help you along your way. Normal Stance

Not much to it. you have no idea whether or not this person is good, bad, happy, sad. Completely neutural stance.

Adventurous/ Courageous

Here a little personality shows through. Stance is wide and Posture is open giving the impression of confidence.

Slinky/Sexy

Figure is "S" shaped... S is for "Sexy". Hips and shoulders are suggestive of a seductive nature.

As you can see. you can say a lot with just a stick figure. Get your stick figure exactly right before you flesh in your character. A good foundation is important if you want your piece to have the right impact.

A good amount of people watching will help you discover new poses and postures. Grab you sketchbook and head out to the park, airport, mall...wherever. Look around..sketch quick. Secretive

Stance is closed. Arms are crossed. Back is almost turned from the viewer.

Combative

This figure cries "Come and get some!". Fist are raised in challenge. Stance is wide to assert dominance

Lovestruck

Hands clasped together as whistful and goofy with love.

Hopefully, this wet your appetite and now you have some food for thought...but now you want to put some details on it..."how can I use anime/manga features to convey the personality of my Character?" you ask...

Eyes and shape of the face goes a long way to portray the personality of your character...you may recognize some of the cast of "Cowboy Bebop" below...I'll use my quick sketches of them to illustrate my point. Evil

Heroic

Eyes are thin and dark. the pupil is smaller the more evil the character is till there's no pupil at all. Face has sharp, angular features.

Innocent

Strong jawline, Eyes are bigger and rounder. Features are less sharp.

Eyes are huge. Eyebrows hardly ever down. Face is softer and rounder

Kinda get the idea? These rules aren't set in stone..I just want to give you the idea of what to shoot for when you are making characters. You have to really close your eyes and imagine your character in action. How there face needs to look when saying the lines you will give them. "I'll cut you face off" rolls much easier off of the left characters tongue than the character on the right whereas, "Gee, what's that?" works better for the character on the right than on the left. "I've had enough of both of you..I'm going home" works just fine for the center character.

Fighting: A Show of Force Punching

GOOD PUNCH: BAD PUNCH: It's not horrible, it just lacks a certain force. Even though the form is good on both characters there's something that needs to be done to show this punch packed a wallop.

This is MUCH better. The force of the punch is shown in the shape of an arrow. The horizontal line coming from the attacker and the lines of the targets body bending at the point of impact. Making the fist a "blur" of lines helps give a sense of speed and power to the punch.

Kicking

GOOD KICK: BAD KICK: Same deal here. with the target being stick as a board it tells us this kick was nothing special. the attacker appears to be merely raising her foot at the target

Now THAT had to hurt! Again..the horizontal line of force crumples the targets body around the point of impact. He probably won't be getting up for a while. Also the attacker's body is much more a part of this kick. all the balance is thrown into it giving the impression of a mighty delivery.

Adding Details: When you get to the stage of cleaning up your work and adding in details be sure and incorporate lines that translate the action taking place. The edges of her fist and arms are quick strokes following the direction her arm is travelling. his head is knocked back from the point of impact. His hair and spit show the continuance of the force of the punch. I put curved lines on his check to show an indentation where her fist connected.

Fighting: Choosing an Angle Bad Angle

It's not that her position isn't dynamic. It just doesn't do justice to the action being shown. Too flat and lifeless. the bare minimum for translating this throw.

Better

This is much better in the sense that you can really tell the target has been thrown. The composition is more pleasing and leaves room for backgrounds, sound effects or speech balloons....but still it could be better. I'd use this angle if the target was going to hit something important or was going to get out of the damage by landing on his feet. To show this move took him out of commision, we need some closure.

Best

Booooom! Choosing an angle that shows the moment of impact really pulls this action together..in one frame you can see that the target was thrown...travelled a long distance..and landed hard. Arms and legs akimbo! Again..curved motion lines along the trajectory of the throw parlay the action.

Front View : Step 1- the oval Draw a circle. The circle is the foundation of the head for any veiwpoint. It doesn't need to be a perfect circle like this. A basic ovoid shape will do nicely.

Front View : Step 2- the chin Add the chin. Manga faces, espescially femal ones, are heartshaped. Imagine cutting off the top round parts of a valentine heart shape and attaching the lower part to a sphere...That's how we got what you see to the left.

Front View : Step 3-Facial Divisions Split the face shape in half vertically and horizontally. These axis lines are the Nose line (vertical) and the eyeline (horizontal). Divide the lower portion in half again horizontally. This line is the bottom of the ear and nose line. I draw an additional oval shape inside to help me keep the facial features centered on the front plane of the head. The inner oval goes from hairline to chin.

Front View : Step 4- Feature Placement Divide the lowest portion into 3rds. 1/3 down from the horizontal noseline is the mouthline. The ears should be placed on the same line that the bottom of the nose is on. Ears span from the lower noseline to just above the eyeline. The Mouth should be as wide as the space between the inside corners of the eyes.

Front View : Step 5- the eyes Eye proportions depend on the "Cute" level of the character you're drawing. I do more serious stuff so my eyes aren't as large as some other styles of Manga. I've noticed cute or comical story characters have larger eyes. I place the corners of the eyes on the horizontal eyeline. The eyes should be apporxmately 1 "eye" length apart from each other and half an eye length in from the edge of the face.

Profiles are a bit easier than frontview and way easier than 3/4 view. Set up still starts with a ball and a cone.

well...we put on what I call the "gas mask". I start the slope outward from just below the eyeline and run it back down to the chin. This Gasmask shape will get tweaked into the nose and mouth on the next page. The other thing to note is that the head gets bisected vertically. this is for EAR placement. The ear is still located on the horizontal axises provided by the eye and the mouth. Once you have this you're ready for some detailing.

Ok..You got yer ball for the head. you got your cone for the chin. You know the eyes get located on the middle horizontal bisecting line....so what's new?

In detailing this image..thing to note are: The upper lip is smaller and darker than the lower lip. The eye is located on a gentle upward curve from the edge of the mouth. The forehead is smooth and rounded. The nose is slightly upturned.

Whoa! That's a bad gif. I'll have to rescan it. Sorry for the mess....but you still get to see the basic underlying structure used to get here.

Profile : Step 1- the oval Draw a circle. The circle is the foundation of the head for any veiwpoint. It doesn't need to be a perfect circle like this. A basic ovoid shape will do nicely.

Profile : Step 2- the chin Add the chin. The chin will come down from the center point of the outside edge of the circle to about half that length below the bottom edge of the circle. The Jawline should come back towards the center of the bottom edge of the circle as shown here.

Profile : Step 3-Facial Divisions Split the face shape in half vertically and horizontally. These axis lines are the ear line (vertical) and the eyeline (horizontal).

Profile: Step 4- More Divisions Divide the space between the eyeline and the chin in half. This is the "Bottom of the Ear and Nose" line. Divide the space below the noseline into 3rds. the upper 3rd is the Mouth line. Notice the ear sits in the verticle axis toward the back of the head and rest between the nose line and the brow line.

Profile : Step 2- the eye Divide the space between the front of the head and the vertical earline axis. This is where we place the eye on the eyeline. The outside corner of the eye should hit this new division line and the inside corner should be just inside of the outer edge of the mouth.

Profile: Step 3-Hair Line The Hairline is located by drawing a 45 degree angle from the intersection of the horizontal eye line and the vertical ear line.

Female head: 3/4 view Stage1 Okay...here we have the basic set up for the head. As with most other setup's, this one also starts with a egg/sphere set up. The difference is where you bi-sect it. Here I chose a basic 3/4 bisect. The middle horizontal line for the eyes and the verticle line tell us which ways she's a lookin'. If I chose to put the eye-line higher than center I could make her "look up"..the opposite is true for "looking down.

Female head: 3/4 view Stage1- Detail Start with the blue circle. It's a good idea to decide wich way she'll be looking at this point since you can't put the chin on till ya know. Bisect the sphere vertically in half along the directional axis. I use 1 vertical line to decide the eye/nose mouth plane and 1 to decide the ear plane (not airplane..EARplane...wa ha ha) The mouth line is halfway between the chin and eyeline. Normal proportions say that line is for the nose..but this is anime and the face is smaller. The nose line is a little less than halfway between the mouth and eyeline..closer to the mouth.

Here you will have to figure on what is halfway between the ear plane and nose plane to decide eye placement. Draw a line from the mouthline to the newly appointed eye placement point on the horizontal eyeline. make a triangle to figure where the other eye should go. This triangle also serves as a nice guide to keep the features all snug and secure in the head. Ready to move on to stage 2?

Female head: 3/4 view Stage2 Startiing to get the idea? All that framework we did before is so this part would be easy. There's many different styles and variations in Anime. I'm trying to be a generic as possible here. Eyes go on the points of the triangle we established in the detail section. The "Speculars" or glinty things in the eye should be used to give some sense or direction for wich way the eyes are looking. If you don't get them exactly even (Like what I did here for illustrative purposes) you get the impression that she's cross-eyed. Keep those speculars even!! She still doesn't quite look like a hotty yet so we need to imbelish on the established lines a bit. Make the upper eyelash line thicker. Add more detail to the eyes and ears. Drop on some wild Anime hair do!!

Female head: 3/4 view Stage3 Whoa!! What a difference a few lines make, eh? At this point you kinda know what she's gonna look like but to keep your drawing from looking as flat and unappealing as a pokemon coloring book we need to add "weight" to some lines and fade up on others. The Eyes and Cheek/chin give the character mass and depth so they should be heavier and detailed. To keep her dainty we need to keep the lines of the nose and mouth thinner. Hair is also kinda "whispy" so be careful with the line weight there. Shadows go well under the nose, lowe lip and under the chin.

3/4 View : Step 1- the oval Draw a circle. The circle is the foundation of the head for any veiwpoint. It doesn't need to be a perfect circle like this. A basic ovoid shape will do nicely.

3/4 View : Step 2- the chin Add the chin. Manga faces, espescially femal ones, are heartshaped. A little gues work is involved here as far as were to bow the cheek curve in at the eyeline and how sharp an angle to do the Jawline. Little adjustments will have to be made over the course of the drawing. For now just make something like you see here.

3/4 View : Step 3-Facial Divisions Split the face shape in half vertically and horizontally. These axis lines are the Nose line (vertical) and the eyeline (horizontal). The Noseline should extend in a curved line from the top of the head to the point of the chin. Notice how the jawline meets up with the vertical earline

3/4 View : Step 4- Feature Placement Divide the lower portion of the face in half horizontaly to provide the bottom of the nose line. Follow the curve of the face toward the back to see that the bottom of the ear sits on this same line. 1/3 down from that is the mouth line. The top of the ear should extend just above the Eyeline. The top of the ear indicates the "Brow" line. A 45 degree angle between the eyeline and the vertical earline is where we place the hairline.

3/4 View : Step 5- the eyes Eyes are to be placed on the eyeline (imagine that). I set the corners of the eye on that line. Notice that the eye father away from the viewer is shorter in length. This is to simulate the curvature of the head. It takes a little bit of practice to make this look right but if you laid out all your proportion lines correctly it will make the task of feature placement much easier. After lots of practice you won't need to draw as many setup lines.

The Female Body

Here we are at stage 1: Nothing fancy. Just a fast loose stick figure that will serve as our foundation piece. Note that the form is 7 heads high. Shoulders are a Head and a half from the top. Shoulders and hips are 2 heads wide. Hips are 3 heads down. Knees are 5 heads down. Keep it loose at this stage but be wary of your proportions. NEXT

The Female Body

stick figure stage 2: Notice that you can draw a line straight up and down from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet. Body mass is distibuted equally on both sides of this axis for balance. ARMS 2 and a half heads down is where we locate the belly button. This is also where the elbow goes if the arm is hanging naturally at her sides. The arm starts at the shoulder and ends with the hands around mid-thigh. LEGS In ANIME, the legs are slightly longer than the upper half of the body. The Knees are located halfway between the top of the hip and the bottom of the foot. TORSO The female torso can be defined in casual, sexy stance by slatning the shoulders and hips in different directions.

The Female Body

Sketch figure stage 1: Now we start to flesh her out a bit. You have to be good at drawing cylinders and ovals to do this right. Study muscle groups to get an idea of how the shoulders, arms and legs are formed. The Breast are located at the halfway point of the upper torso. Try to use only curved lines. Nothing on a human being is ruler-edge straight but that goes double for a female. Curvy, Curvy, Curvy! A good study model is Shirow's M-66 unit from Black Magic. It has the female form all broken down into it's basic shapes and was a powerful influence for me as far as getting my sketches to this stage. Now's where you start tightening up your art. Grab a kneaded eraser and start blotting away the fine sketchy lines and keep only the lines you wish to use for your final piece. The cleaner you get at the end of this stage makes the next stage that much easier. NEXT

The Female Body

Sketch figure stage 2: I gradually start to build her by outlining my fleshed out sketch from the last stage and smoothing over all the "Ball and Cone" joints I used to build her with. The Kneaded eraser is my best friend at this point as I blot over her, removing my stray lines and getting a nice, clean, usable piece of art. I go over and start correcting mistakes I made in the building process and get the art really tight for inking. There's nothing worse than inking sloppy pencils so BE CLEAN!! NEXT

The Female Body

Final Figure: ...and here she is. Not my best ink job but it gets the point across. All traces of pencil are removed at this point and I take the final inked sketch to the scanner and get her all colored up. (I just so happen to have a tutorial explaining how to do that ;P) This tutorial is to serve as a reference guide to give you an idea of how to construct a body. It shouldn't be used as an A to B to C tutorial because that just shows you how to copy stuff. Try to use the rules here to make different poses and characters. Hope this helps somewhat. I will have another tutorial on the female in action and even a "How to draw males" class. As always...let me know if I can explain anything further to you and I'll do my best to assist. Back to Tutorials!

The eyes are the big deal. If you ask anyone about the style of anime/manga they always comment on the eyes. I put this tutorial together as a primer. There are literally thousands of styles of "Manga Eyes" so there is no set rules for drawing them..just a few consistant traits. Below is an approach to a broadly used generic style. Adapt it to suit your own needs. (eye side view tutorial to follow) Step 1: Ball As with most things..the eye also starts as a circle. This represents the orb of the eye and helps with the general placement of the eye in the skull.

Step 2: Lids Here's where most budding artist go wrong. The Lids wrap around the contour of the orb. Imagine streching a sheet of rubber over a cue ball. The Eyelid hugs the curvature of the eye.

Step 3: the Pupil The eye in a relaxed state hides some of the pupil and iris behind the lids. Notice how the iris takes up most of the surface area of the orb. This occurs only in Anime/Manga and a few black velvet posters from the 60's.

Step 4: Long, Lush Lashes Up until now the eye was kinda "Blah". Flesh out the eyelids with some heavy duty, fluttering lashes. This adds weight to the eye so it's not ust floating around on the face. It also draws the viewers attention. The thickness of the lashes will depend on a character. Obviously Male characters won't have this trait and younger females should also have a thinner line. This eye is more for the sexy adult female

Stroke Order: I didn't really have this part down until I started studying "Kanji". Japanese Kanji is produced by a series of strokes in a specific order and pattern. I find this order also works well for eyes. 1) start light and press harder as you move to the outside. 2) Start harder and lighten pressure as you move down 3) Start medium and lighten pressure as you move down 4) Start light and increase pressure as you move to the outside.

Step 5: Spectacuar Speculars A "Specular" is the reflection of light on a reflective surface. In this case, the eye. The placement of the specular on the eye should be indicative of the light source..If the light is coming from the upper left..the specular should be on the upper left of the iris. in this case, The light enters the eye from the upper left and exits through the lower right. In Manga, Speculars are also used to add emotion to the character. It adds sparkling life to happy eyes and quivering tears to sad eyes..

Understand the Shape The mouth has a "Bow" shape to it. The upper lip is like those seagulls you used to draw when you were a kid. The lower lip is more like a Bow from a bow and arrow set.

Open and shut case These shape principles remain the whether the moust is open or shut. However, The wider open the mouth..the more streched the lip therefore you should draw it thinner if it is WIDE open.

Step 1: The setup Now that you now the difference between the top and bottom lip we can begin to apply that to our traditiona anime mouth. Here's a low detail anime mouth. If there was an upper row of teeth visible and maybe a small shadow to define the lower lip we would be done...but we are going to expand on this. Step 2: bow in the top lip a bit Start to work in that Seagull shape to the top lip. Begin to visualize this as a 3D object. I have made a few centerlines here to help me define the correct angle of the lips for the next step.

Detailing Work in the lips as shown here and in the first 2 pics. Add some teeth and darken the interior of the mouth (if visible) to give it some depth. If you are coloring the piece..it's best define the lips through color shading. Upper lip should be darker than the lower lip. Keeping it "Anime" Traditionally, if a person is looking straight ahead you could draw a dotted line from the middle of their eye down their face and find the corners of the mouth. That's how you would normally determine width. BUT, since this is anime, Mouths are only as wide as the inside corner of the eyes (for women). I intentionally drew this pic in "Ultra-Shirow" mode since Shirow is one of the few manga artist that actually draw lips. Check out Adam Warren's stuff too. He tends to draw lips on his characters as well ..a little too big sometimes but it still looks good.

Chibi Art (a.k.a Super Deformed): "Chibi" is a Japanese term for "small". Chibi art is used a lot to convey humour or cuteness (kawaii mono). It's a deceptively simple process I'll take you through now.

Step1: Two heads are better than 1 Chibi characters are only 2 heads high. Start your drawing by stacking 2 same sized ovals on top of each other.

Step 2: Big head, Little body Now that you know how little space you have to make the body sketch in some cute little pose. Use similar techniques to construct this body as you do a regular sized body. Build a mannequin out of basic shapes. The arms and legs taper to a rounded point.

Step 3a: Hands - do's and dont's DO: make a small, well formed hand like a baby's hand. Chubby forearms tapering into dainty little fingers. DON'T: Make a Mickey Mouse styled cartoon hand

Step 3b: Feet - do's and dont's DO: Taper the leg down to a tiny nub. You don't really need to define the knees. Make a small line to separate the foot from the leg. Like a tiny balerina foot. awwwwww.. dats so cute. DON'T: Make a Disney-esque little Lu Lu foot. The leg should come straight down into the foot. Don't actually define the typical wedgey foot.

Step 4: Define the key features. From here it's pretty easy. Slap on some clothes and start adding details. The mouth is like the letter "D" turned on it's side. The nose is not defined as a strong line. It's best to leave it out all together or define iy with shading if you decide to color it in.

Step 5: Cleaning up: Use a kneaded eraser (see Materials) and blot away your lighter support lines while darkening in the lines you wish to keep. Voila

And there we have it. A nice little Chibi friend to call your own..ain't she sweet?! Maybe I'll make a keychain out of her.

The Male Body

Here we are at stage 1: Nothing fancy. Just a fast loose stick figure that will serve as our foundation piece. Note that the form is 7 heads high. Shoulders are a Head and a half from the top. Shoulders are 2 or more heads wide. (more for heroic types..less for dweebies) Hips are about a head and a half wide. Hips should be narrower than the shoulders. Hips are 3 heads down. Knees are 5 heads down. Keep it loose at this stage but be wary of your proportions.

The Male Body

stick figure stage 2: Notice that you can draw a line straight up and down from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet. Body mass is distibuted equally on both sides of this axis for balance. ARMS 2 and a half heads down is where we locate the belly button.(mouse over the image to see the guides)This is also where the elbow goes if the arm is hanging naturally at his sides. The arm starts at the shoulder and ends with the hands around mid-thigh. LEGS In ANIME, the legs are slightly longer than the upper half of the body. The Knees are located halfway between the top of the hip and the bottom of the foot.

The Male Body

Sketch figure stage 1:

Study muscle groups to get an idea of how the shoulders, arms and legs are formed. Here's a little help for the chest.

The Male figure carries itself different than the female. Emphasis is placed on the shoulders rather than the hips. Now's where you start tightening up your art. Grab a kneaded eraser and start blotting away the fine sketchy lines and keep only the lines you wish to use for your final piece. The cleaner you get at the end of this stage makes the next stage that much easier.

The Male Body

Sketch figure stage 2: I gradually start to build him by outlining my fleshed out sketch from the last stage and smoothing over all the "Ball and Cone" joints I used to build him with. The Kneaded eraser is my best friend at this point as I blot over her, removing my stray lines and getting a nice, clean, usable piece of art. I go over and start correcting mistakes I made in the building process and get the art really tight for inking. There's nothing worse than inking sloppy pencils so BE CLEAN!!

The Male Body

Final Figure:

This tutorial is to serve as a reference guide to give you an idea of how to construct a body. It shouldn't be used as an A to B to C tutorial because that just shows you how to copy stuff. Try to use the rules here to make different poses and characters.

As always...let me know if I can explain anything further to you and I'll do my best to assist.

I was looking at some books and going through some basic animation reviews when I saw an old trick on doing cartoon character bodies using the "Flour Sack" method. I modified it a bit to fit in with a more realistic look. I call it the "Bean" method...there may already be a bean method but I'm unaware of it. Here's my take: Draw a bean You sit down to draw and you think "hmm..male torso...complicated"..but if you think.."hmm..kidney bean"..That's Easy! Draw a bean shape and divide it vertically down the center. Pay attention to it's contours. Divide it horizontally abot 2/3rds of the way down. We'll call that the waist line.

Balloon animals OK..so it's not really a bean..just vaguely bean shaped. Imagine now that it's inflated and you can twist it like a balloon animal. Note that the centerline twist with it. This will help you make actions poses in later steps. That center line is ESSENTIAL to keeping your bodies from looking lopsided.

A new view Imagine now that it's your old school G.I.Joe doll with the head,legs and arms popped off. See how we'll attach the limbs? (note: you should make the bean over an existing stick figure. Dont start your drawing with the bean.)

A finished work The fact that I used a bean shape to make this torso would be all but unoticable if I hadn't greyed it in. It was quick, easy and I didn't spend an hour working on the upper torso and waist as seperate entities. The work has a more fluid feel to it. Try this method out if your finished art is looking too blocky. (Does it look like Ryo Hazuki to anyone else?)

A bean at any angle: Practice drawing the bean shape from different angles and imagining how the limbs would attach to it in that position. Be creative. Double check your proportions. The Torso in it's entirety is about 3 heads high (from collar to groin) The upper torse being 2 heads and the waist being 1 head tall.

3/4 View : Step 1- the oval Draw a circle. The circle is the foundation of the head for any veiwpoint. It doesn't need to be a perfect circle like this. A basic ovoid shape will do nicely. Measure out the face by figuring the top of the head..the bottom of the chin and the eyeline about halfway between.

3/4 View : Step 2- the chin Add the chin and Jawline. Male faces aren't as round and heart-shaped as female faces. It seems there are more variations available for the male face than the female face. I'll stick with a standard type here. Make the angles sharper and the chin square..don't come to a point. For now just make something like you see here.

3/4 View : Step 3-Facial Divisions Here I decide the facial planes. It helps me keep the features together and tight. Notice how the jawline meets up with the vertical earline

3/4 View : Step 4- Rough it in Here I lightly figure where the feeatures go using the same rules you learned in my other head tutorials. Eyes approximately 1 eye-width apart. the bottom of the nose sits on a line halfway between the eyeline and the chin. The mouth about 1/3 the way down from that. The ear is placed vertically between the browline and the noseline.

3/4 View : Step 4- That Male Face The Cheekbones and Jawline is what really helps differentiate your character from other male characters you will create. It also helps define your character as distictly male if your having problems with you males looking to "feminine" (Or maybe you draw bishoujo style..in which case, nevermind).

3/4 View : Step 4- Clearing it up Now you can start to erase your support lines and concentrate on detailing the features. Male eyes aren't as large and sparkly as female eyes. They are more rectangular than almond shaped and the lash lines arent as heavy. Make the eyebrows strong and dark. The nose should not be tipped up like on female faces. Make them more "Wedge" shaped.

3/4 View : Now you got it Here's what I came up with for a final version (granted a messy one). I made the halftone in photoshop to give it that "manga" feel

Action: ok, so you've mastered the typical standing figure and now you want them to actualy fight and move. The key here is the stick figure and the line of motion. Lot's of artist (myself included once) got all caught up in the clothes and muscles and details waaaaay to early in the drawing. The key to a good action pose is a strong foundation and the stick figure will help us with that.

Pre-Step: Stick Figure Hero! This is as complicated as you should get when making a stick figure...stay fast and loose. Make little circles to show where the joints and head are. Don't worry about fingers and toes. Just make a solid stick man.

Step 1: Stick figure set-up Here I got a JohnWoo set-up. The character is crouched down behind a bar ready to jump out and fight Gunz-a-blazin'. I just concentrate on making the gesture believable and dynamic.

Step 2: How do I make it Dynamic? The first thing I draw (and I shoulda shown this first) is the Line of motion. This line is a smooth curve that goes from the top of the characters head, through the body via the spine and out . I build the stick figure on this line.

Step 3: Fleshing it out In my 2 prior tutorials I show you how to draw body parts using balls, cones and cylinders. I just posted another tutorial on Foreshortening..check those out for help on this step. Keep the integrity of the stickfigure and lightly work in the body shapes.Keep fast and loose..don't press to hard with the pencil here.

Step 4: Finishing up: Use a kneaded eraser (see Materials) and blot away your lighter support lines while darkening in the lines you wish to keep. Voila

Step 1: Stick figure set-up Here I got a superhere type set-up. The character is ready to throw a punch and defend justice. I just concentrate on making the gesture believable and dynamic.

Step 4: Finishing up: Use a kneaded eraser (see Materials) and blot away your lighter support lines while darkening in the lines you wish to keep. Voila

Step 1: Stick figure set-up Here I got a spy type set-up. The character is sneaking into the headquarters of GloboChem to steal the plans for the experimental biotoxin. I just concentrate on making the gesture believable and dynamic.

Step 4: Finishing up: Use a kneaded eraser (see Materials) and blot away your lighter support lines while darkening in the lines you wish to keep. Voila

Final Note: Nothing helps with out action drawing like good reference material. Get your friends to pose for you or clip pictures from action movie magazines. Anytime you see a pose you like GRAB IT! You never know when you might need it. After a while you'll be able to draw right out of your own head.

Ok..so here's my first tutorial I'm doing under protest. I'm not really a great mecha artist so I feel a bit uncomfortable showing others how to draw one. I'll try to explain some of my philosophy on designing one which may spark an idea or two for you. Hopefully this will be worth the effort. Mecha : Step 1-the structure Like everything. I start with a stick figure. With Mechs you can be more creative with the proportions. You don't even have to make them humanoid. I'm sticking to the basics here so I'm going to draw a humanoid mech. I make sure I leave the shoulders wide and the legs set apart for balance.

Mecha : Step 2- roughing in Now here's where I do mechs different than humans. I dont really do the Ball & Cone setup. If I do I always end up with a Transformer type mech and those are too blocky and old school. Instead I think bulky and powerful. Large bulges that house machinery, Armored joints, sensor arrays...ect. I try and make sure the joints, though armored, can move freely. What good is a mech if it can't make it's hands meet in front of it. Think about the function of the mech...is it for urban use? Space? Does it doe heavy lifting? Does it need to be fast? Does it need to withstand harsh environments?

Mech : Step 3-detailing After I get to a shape I'm happy with I start erasing unecessary lines and and darkening the ones I want to keep. I add seam lines and tiny access panels all over the meI made the chest cavity large cuz because that's where the engine would have to be. This mechs about 9 ft tall and unmanned

Mech : Step 4- inking I've added a few more details and got the the inking stage. I use a realatively thin line for the details. Machines look better with a heavy outline and fine lines on interior details.

I was asked to put together a tutorial on clothing. I figured my goal shouldn't be to show you how to draw clothes. There's too many styles. So I thought it would be more useful to show you how clothes behave on the body. That way you can at least get the physics right and design whatever you want. Step 1: Draw a basic figure When you first draw your character don't worry about putting clothes on yet. Instead, make sure you have them fleshed out correctly (see the body tutorial if you need help with proportions). Here Ive included lines to help me place the waistline, boots and sleeves but no details yet. Print this picture out and grab a pencil to follow along

Step 2: track the motion. Clothes flow over the body like water. The folds on clothes are determined by kinetic force and gravity. Poly is twisting at the waistline and the part of her shirt thats tucked in is pinned in place but her chest and shoulders have rotated to the left (our left) and pulled the fabric along with them. What results are sweeping lines from the shoulders to the tuck point. Her right leg is forward which pulls the fabric tight over her upper leg and creates a fabric flow in the direction of motion. Let's see how this works.

Step 3: Go with the flow I now start to fill in the clothing based on the lines I discoverd on the last page. Notice the clothing is smooth and taught over areas that are bent or push against the fabric (her left knee, her left elbow, her chest, her right thigh). Fold lines radiate out and away from the bends. Other areas of clothes in a more relaxed state, succumb to gravity and fall in downwards. Imagine small hoola hoops around your arms, waist, neck and legs. If you raise your arm, how does the hoola hoop hang? Which part of your arm is touching the hoola hoop? The part that touches would be were the clothing would outline your arm and the folds would radiate out and away from there. (cont..).

Step 4: Clean up If you lept to the right wearing the hoola hoop. You would notice the hoop would touch our waist on the right side and hang towards the area you lept from to the left. When you landed the hoop would carry the force back to the right trying to continue in the direction you leapt towards. Clothes can be drawn in the same manner. They bunch up and hang in the opposite direction of the motion. It'll take some practice to get it to look right. Burne Hogarth has an exceptional book on this subject called "Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery" Need help with Buckles and laces?

You would think the buckle is simple but most people represent it as a square box on a thick line. A little attention to detail will make your pics looks sharper. Draw the buckle as shown here with the strap overlapping the back end of the buckle and ticking into the loop.

Here's a Quick Release buckle..used for military type characters. The strap is made of webbing instead of leather. The buckle is undone by pressing the tabs toward each other and pulling the ends apart.

Zippers are usually represented as a zig-zag if you are distanced from your character. but for close ups, try and make it like you see here. Each "tooth" is a small square with a circle on top of it..they interlock as shown here. It takes a little extra time but people notice the effort.

Snaps are pretty straight forward and you don't really get to see the 2 halves together unless the jacket is open. Again, good for detail in a close up. Show the one docking end smaller and rounded on the lip. Sorry for the messy ovals..I can't find my template.

Laces are often represented as criss cross lines. It looks better if you draw the laces as 3D objects rather than a quick line. Show them overlapping each other and passing through the eyelets. Also, since the laces are pullig toward each other there will be buckling in the material around the stress points. Notice how I curved the material around the eyelets to show that. The tongue of the shoe/boot should push through the criss cross a little bit to give the impression that the laces are cinched down on the shoe.

DISCLAIMER: Guns and Youths are a controversial topic today and I realize many of my readers are young adults. My intent is only to show you how to draw guns for comic book purposes. If you are under 18, please check with your parents before visiting the handgun websites or continuing with this tutorial. Please, Help keep Rosie O'Donnell off my back. The Basic Pistol The best way to draw a gun is to look at pictures of guns. These aer available on most major gun brand websites: http://www.glock.com/ http://www.sigarms.com/ http://www.ruger-firearms.com/ http://www.hecklerkoch-usa.com/ Beats getting the suspicious looks when buying a gun magazine. Here we have a Glock 26 or "Baby Glock" 9x19 Basic Shapes Break the gun down into basic shapes. The more you know about the mechanics of guns the better if your a detail freak. I like to just get by. The major parts of a pistol is the Slide, the Frame and the Grip (handle).

The Guts My father's a gun aficionado so he'll laugh his head off when he sees my lame cross-section and explanation...but it's more detail than a comic book artist usually needs :) The handle should be wide and long enough to accomodate the clip. Pulling back on the slide pulls the first bullet out of the clip and into the chamber. When the trigger is squeezed, the firing pin (not shown) smacks the back of the bullet and sends the lead part flying down the barrel..the brass casing ejects out the top of the gun. The force of the bullet leaving slams the slide back and loads the next bullet into the chamber. The esthetics Now that we now the basic shap and what components are needed to make a gun it's time to pretty it up a little with some sleek lines. The Grey area is the basic shape we already had..the red sillouette is more or less the actual shape of a Glock26. Only reference material will help you here...after you get more comfortable with styles of pistols you can start getting creative with the lines...just look at Shirow's Seburo sidearms! A little Detail Notice I've added a bevel to the slide and put the verticle grips on the rear of the slide. I've contoured the grip and made the trigger well a bit more comfortable. Again, reference material helps a lot. Build up a scrapbook of guns to whip out whenever your stuck.

Wanna see more?

The Basic Shapes The Revolvers has a few different parts than the Pistol. The most important difference is a Cylinder( shown in red) instead of a clip. The trigger ratchets the cylinder around to bring the next full chamber up to the barrel. Pulling back on the trigger also releases the (green) hammer.. depending on single or double action...don't worry about it...and smacks the butt of the bullet and sends the lead flying down the barrel.Make sure the top of the barrel lines up with the top of the cylinder so the bullet can exit the gun safely...fo you. Reloading There's a few styles of revolver. Some have the cylinder flip out to the side. Some, like this one, pivot foward for quick loading (ala TRIGUN). You could take off the whole empty cylinder and slap another loaded one in there.

Detailing: Have fun with it. I gave this one a laser sight under the barrel and a nice ergonomic grip so it doesn't look like an old cowboy gun. There's some really sweet "New Style" revolvers. Check out the gun manufacturer links on the previous page.

PolyKarbon StoryBoards Page1

Storyboards are essential for laying out action and deciding camera angles. I start by just having a grid of 6 squares. Working from the script I draw each important action in its own square. Only 1 action per square! For example: Script says "Character pulls a coin from pocket and examines it" There are 2 important actions there. 1) Character pulls coin from pocket 2) Character examines it (The journey of the coin from the pocket to being in front of the face is not important) So I would have 1 panel being the character rummaging for the coin and the next panel being the coin held up in front of the character...See? After I'm happy with the roughs I can start concentrating on how they would "panel out" on a page..which panels should be big...which panels should be small..ect...make sure my perspective is correct..yadda yadda I lay the new roughs on a light table and repencil them in a SUPER clean fashion. .

PolyKarbon StoryBoards Page2 Storyboards are essential for laying out action and deciding camera angles. I start by just having a grid of 6 squares. Working from the script I draw each important action in its own square. Only 1 action per square! For example: Script says "Character pulls a coin from pocket and examines it" There are 2 important actions there. 1) Character pulls coin from pocket 2) Character examines it (The journey of the coin from the pocket to being in front of the face is not important) So I would have 1 panel being the character rummaging for the coin and the next panel being the coin held up in front of the character...See? After I'm happy with the roughs I can start concentrating on how they would "panel out" on a page..which panels should be big...which panels should be small..ect...make sure my perspective is correct..yadda yadda I lay the new roughs on a light table and repencil them in a SUPER clean fashion. .

PolyKarbon Date:07-00 I've had several requests to post some more of my "technical" work stuff. This here is a Turnaround or Model Sheet. I use t to make sure I'm drawing her the same way everytime. I also use it to help me figure out her proportions to other characters and objects. After I draw the initial views..Front, Back and Side..I lay the original on a light table and trace the form out so I can save time when drawing another set to describe another outfit.s .

PolyKarbon: Karmon Stroud Character sheet 10-2000 Stroud is, for all intents and purposes, Poly's personal assistant. He hacks systems for her, supplies weapons and ammo, reminds her of critical jobs..ect. Only he kinda sucks at his job. She'd get rid of him but he's a relative of her employers and has no choice but to put up with his ineptitude. He's cocky, sleezy and basically untrustworthy. He does have skills...he just too lazy to bother with details sometimes.

PolyKarbon: Hohner Character sheet 10-2000 Hohner was born with Down's Syndrome. A wetware prosthetic compensates for his condition..however, Hohner sometimes has trouble dealing with the stark contrast in the way he used to view the world versus the way he sees it now through the "SmartJack". He works as Poly's extra muscle, confidant and moral center. He spends most of his time trying to keep Poly honest and restraining himself from killing Stroud.

PolyKarbon: The Manga 09-2000 Here's the first page in extremely rough form. I usually just toss it out onto the paper so I can get it out of my head and start tweaking it to look better. From these roughs I'll relay everything out nice and clean and maybe shift things around so I can fit dialog in better. You can kinda see where I drew text boxes in.

PolyKarbon: The Manga 09-2000 Here's the second page in extremely rough form. Notice, even though it's rough Itry to get a feel for the camera angles and balances between light and shadow.

BackGround Date:010-00 I made this for the purpose of adding action over the top of it like in animation. Mostly it was an exercise in perspective and colors.