Boy, weekends are killer. I’m trying to ramp up my training a bit more and dive into other things besides the Chris Hart Manga book. I’ve got a ton of books to get through but I also want to get cozy with drawing in Illustrator CS5–so I’m going through everything I can find on that. Plus, since I have a Graphic Novel story in progress, I’ve been trying to spend some time reformatting what I have currently in novel format into Antony Johnston’s standard comic book script format using Scrivener (awesome app)–and, of course, finishing the complete draft of the whole damn story. Ah, good times. It actually is really fun to start thinking about the story in terms of comic panels–it brings a whole new feel to it, more cinematic.

Well, anyway, with all that going on I probably won’t be posting a drawing every day but eventually, you should see some sketches relating to my graphic novel, which I won’t name publicly just yet.

Up View:

3/4 View:

I wanted to take what I’ve learned so far and compile it into 1 sheet that I could use for creating future character sheets. This shows a bunch of different face poses of a generic female manga character in basic structural mode:

I left the guide markers that I used to sketch these so that I can refer to this sheet in the future. I’m going to make character sheet templates once I start learning other parts of the body :)

OK, looks like I missed this last angle of the face position. The Downward Look:

Ok, this is the last angle that the book (Manga for the Beginner) shows as essential views:

I also had time during my lunch break to make a super quick sketch version, which I find helpful for digesting the practice:

Another view of the girl. This time from a 3/4 view, which is supposedly the most attractive view:

Continuing with yesterday’s drawing of a Manga Girl. Today is the profile view. After today, I’m not going to keep posting the full breakdown of steps I take since I don’t want to undermine the greatness of Christopher Hart’s “Manga for the Beginner”–even though I’m posting more broken down steps than the book does ^_^

Even still, I wanted to present a few details that are left out of the book and that I feel are really important (but I won’t republish all the great hints and tips that are throughout the book :). Again, reverse order:

Manga Girl Profile – Step 6 – Final Ink:
At this stage, I went over my 0.1 Sakura Micron pen with a 0.2–just to darken up a few places.

Manga Girl Profile – Step 5 – Time to Erase:
Unlike the examples in the book, I’ve left most of my original pencil in place up to this point (even the ruler guidelines and temporary structural marks). The inking here is done with a 0.1 Sakura Pigma Micron pen.

Manga Girl Profile – Step 4 – Starting Ink:
I just wanted to point out where I begin inking–the flower is the frontmost object, so I figured that was a good place to start. Then the Eye and the rest of the face, followed by working into the hair.

Manga Girl Profile – Step 3 – Final Pencil (HB):
Here I switch to an HB grade pencil for a little bit darker touch.

Manga Girl Profile – Step 2 – Hair

Manga Girl Profile – Step 1 – Form (2H):
I like to start my drawings these days with a 2H. It’s light and a little hard (but not nearly as hard as the 6H that I used to start with). I’ve been working my way up as I become more confident in the lines I’m creating–but everyone likes to start with a different grade–some even like to start with heavier grades.

I’ll probably continue to take pictures of the steps as I draw them and I might upload them to my flickr account here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/atomantic/

I picked up a copy of Christopher Hart’s “Manga for the Beginner”, which has a ton of great info and step by step guides for drawing manga. I’m just starting it–so here’s my take on the first lesson. I took pictures of it along the way, breaking it into a few more steps than the book had. I’ve arranged it in reverse so you can see the final product first :)

Step 7 – Ink:

Step 6 – Final Pencil:

Step 5 – Detail:

Step 4 – Hair:

Step 3 – Eye Detail + Nose, Mouth:

Step 2 – Eye Position and Relation:

Step 1 – Basic Form:

I found this strange seed tonight at the playground. Ilya was digging up the sand, filling up a pail to make a cake and she uncovered this thing. So I took it home and sketched it a bit–and then played with it a bit too :)

Well, it’s been one of those weekends. Yesterday, I had a totally short lunch (yes I work on Saturdays–but I get Monday’s off)–so I just drew a few random sketches. Today, I did a quick Tezuka character–though I don’t know the characters name: