Contents Introduction Getting Started A Note on Proportions How Characters Will Be Drawn How to Use Japanese Dip Pens and White Color How to Paint Black Hair Using Brushes How to Stick Screentones to a Picture Characters Shojo Kendo Player Gothic Groom Bride Businessman Nekojin Shonen Hero Gag Manga Seme Uke Yokai Soldier Victorian Man Heian Man Female Warrior Tengu Introduction Manga has become a worldwide phenomenon. Fans of Japanese comics and animation can be found around the globe, and many of them want to express their love for these art forms by drawing in the same style. This book is the sequel to Manga Art for Beginners. Manga Art for Beginners was a more basic book on showing newcomers how they could have fun drawing their favorite manga character types, and it made the point of using more steps than average how-to-draw-manga-character books, enabling readers to better see the creative steps. Manga Art for Intermediates continues where that left off, but also has more to offer. In this book, you’ll find many beloved and popular manga character types, drawn in special detail and enlarged, so you can really see what’s happening. Manga Art for Intermediates assumes that, whether or not you have read Manga Art for Beginners, you have some basic knowledge of drawing. By learning how to draw various characters, the experiences can be your “data base” of character design and it will be helpful when you create your own characters. So it also teaches drawing on a more professional level and talks about how manga is drawn in Japan. The art was completed by professional artist Rena Saiya from Japan; she has a background in both professional artwork for top Japanese publishers and in teaching students how to draw in the manga style. With the knowledge of what works well, what Japanese publishers look for, and what real professional artists in Japan do, Manga Art for Intermediates invites you to pick up your pen (or your computer or tablet) and experience the beautiful world of manga character drawing. Getting Started Tools Needed for Making Manga You have different options for making manga—from software to pen on paper. Software will typically give you what you need for the different aspects of making manga, like helping you with screentones and colors. If drawing on paper, you can use pencil, and finish it up by inking it with art pens, easy-to-find ballpoint pens, or special pens used by professional mangaka (manga creators) in Japan, depending on what you want and what your budget is. This section will talk about some of those options. Beginning with a Sketch All manga drawings start with a sketch. Any sort of paper would work. Plenty of high school students draw manga characters on printer paper or notebook paper, but professionals use thicker paper for their work. These can be found in sketchbooks sold in art stores and sometimes in retail stores in their office supply section. In Japan, the type of paper suitable for drawing monochrome manga (meaning manga using one color, like black) is called “kent paper” and packed kent papers are sold as “manga manuscript paper” at art shops. And, like so many other things these days, they can also be bought online. In Japan, artists sometimes use mechanical pencils with blue lead for the preliminary drawing where they put down the basic outline of the character. A mechanical pencil with regular gray lead works as well. In this book, you’ll see blue for the preliminary drawings, then a gray pencil for more detailed penciling, followed by inking. This is one of the typical methods of manga character drawing used in Japan, and it’s suitable for learners at beginner or intermediate levels. Mechanical pencils aren’t used as much in America, but in Japan, they’re prized for their clean, straight lines and their affordable prices. In manga, you often see characters using mechanical pencils, and there’s a reason for that! If you don’t have blue or gray lead for a mechanical pencil, a regular wooden pencil can also work, but you have to make sure it’s properly sharpened for the kind of lines you want to make. A ruler is also useful when drawing straight lines, like background buildings. It can also help you measure distance.