AAM 101 F D A M: Course Manual

AAM 101 FUNDAMENTALS OF DRAWING ANIME AND MANGA
Course Manual
Copyright Kikabink. All rights reserved. This document may not be reproduced or distributed without the express permission of Kikabink. The information herein is believed to be correct but Kikabink does not guarantee its accuracy, completeness or reliability and is not responsible for any errors or omissions, or the results of using this information.
TABLE
OF
CONTENTS
4 4 5 5 5 6 8 9 9 9 10 14 19 25 28 30 31 31 32 32 33 35 40 42 42 45 48 49 56 57 60 63 63 64 66 76 77
Introduction Welcome Course Description Course Objectives Course Tools Course Outline How to Get Beer Faster Lesson 1 - Sharpen Your Drawing Skills The Value of Sharpening What You See is What You Get Can You Draw a Straight Line? Drawing in 3D Eye Level, Vanishing Points and Perspective Your Building Blocks Shadows, Light and Shading Assignment Lesson 2 - Draw Heads and Faces The Standard Head Dierent Poses Anime and Manga Heads Eyes Hair Assignment Lesson 3 - Draw the Body Height and Proportions Anime and Manga Bodies How to Draw the Body Hands and Feet Foreshortening and Perspective Clothing Assignment Lesson 4 - Draw Emotions Facial Expressions Bodily Posture Anime and Manga Characters Assignment Lesson 5 - Draw Action
AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Table of Contents
General Approach Routine Actions Fighting Perspective and Foreshortening in Action Assignment Lesson 6 - Compose Your Drawing Drawing Backgrounds and Props What to Do Before You Draw Anything Variables of Composition Achieving Unity Composing Your Drawing Assignment
77 78 81 87 87 88 88 91 94 101 103 107
INTRODUCTION
Welcome
Imagine being a professional anime or manga artist. You get paid to do what you love draw all day long. You get to create your own original characters and to illustrate entire comic books or cartoons. You work in a team of like-minded artists. You and your characters - have fans worldwide. And you create stunning drawings that blow people away. And the best part? Drawing fantastic anime and manga comes easy to you. Yes, thats right easy. Guess what? This can really happen. You can be like your favorite anime and manga artists. Even if you dont want to draw for a living, you can develop the skills to draw like a professional. Dont let me deceive you. You have to work to make it happen. You have to develop your drawing skills and practice, practice, practice, every day. You also need to learn how to break into the industry and persist until you make it to the position you desire. But if you love drawing the work is going to be lots of fun. And the good news is that you already have what it takes to get there. Youve enrolled in this course so I know that you have the desire and commitment. Now all you need is the knowledge and skills. And geing these starts right here with this course. In fact, theres probably no more important course than Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga. Why? Because no maer what you later choose to specialize in anime, manga, and any style or genre within those categories its essential that you know how to draw well. To draw well, you need to master the fundamentals. And, as the name of this course suggests, thats what Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga is all about. So are you ready to catapult your knowledge and skills to a new level?
AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Introduction
Lets go!
Course Description
In this course youll learn how to draw in the style of Japanese animation and comics known respectively as anime and manga. Now, this style is actually quite broad (some might say there is no one style) since each anime and manga artist has his or her own way of drawing things. But there are certain characteristics common to most (if not all) anime and manga, and well cover those in this course. Well be focusing on how to draw not on how to color, use special tools (like manga pens and paper or computer programs), or how to animate, which are covered in other courses.
Course Objectives
By the end of this course you should know how to draw the following in the anime and manga style: Bodies (including hands, feet and clothes) Heads and faces Emotions (through facial expressions and bodily posture) Action Backgrounds
Course Tools
All you need to do this course are: Computer with broadband Internet access Drawing paper ideally a sketchpad for the quick, informal exercises and some good quality paper for all your assignments. By completing each assignment, youll have a portfolio of illustrations that you can use to demonstrate your drawing ability. Some so lead pencils (HB B).
Eraser (for your assignments) Ruler (for your assignments) Access to a printer so you can print out the Course Manual (optional). Instructor-led students: access to a scanner so you can scan and submit your assignments. Alternatively, you can take photos of your drawings with a digital camera and send the les to us.
Course Outline
There are six (6) lessons, which you can do at your own pace (e.g. one lesson per week):
Lesson 1 Sharpen Your Drawing Skills

In this lesson youll learn the fundamental and extremely powerful skills and techniques that will take your anime and manga drawings to a brand new level. Youll learn how to see and draw properly from seeing and sketching simple lines and shapes to drawing three-dimensional objects. Youll learn the dierent kinds of perspective, and how to use perspective to make your drawings look more accurate and in proportion. Youll discover the powerful building blocks that you can use to quickly and accurately draw anything and anyone. And youll learn how to use shadows, light and shading to create interesting eects and to give your drawings more realism.
Lesson 2 Draw the Head and Face

In Lesson 2, youll discover the principles of drawing anime and manga heads and faces. Well show you how to draw hair, eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, ears every single facial feature in the right place, size and shape. Youll learn how to draw dierent types of anime and manga faces from the more realistic to the more comical. And youll see how to draw them in dierent poses, and from dierent angles even the most dicult poses and angles! Whats more, youll begin the rst step towards drawing your very own, unique anime or manga character by drawing his or her head and face.
Lesson 3 Draw the Body

In this lesson, youll learn the principles of drawing the human body. Well reveal how to draw a range of dierent kinds of anime and manga characters.
Youll discover the key dierences to focus on when drawing males and females. Youll learn an easy-to-follow, step-by-step method for drawing hands and feet (never fear drawing hands and feet again!). Youll learn how to use perspective and foreshortening to make your characters much more compelling and interesting. And well teach you how to choose the right clothes - and how to actually draw clothing - to bring out your characters personalities and predicaments. Then, for your assignment, youll draw your own anime or manga character in full youll draw his or her body.
Lesson 4 Draw Emotions

Bring your characters to life! In this lesson youll learn how to express your characters personalities and emotions by drawing dierent facial expressions and bodily postures. Youll practice drawing the key emotions for a variety of classic anime and manga characters not only how their face looks, but what their bodies do. And youll get to draw a range of emotions for your own original anime or manga character.
Lesson 5 Draw Action

Lesson 5 is about drawing action. Its time to get your characters moving! Youll learn how to draw dierent types of anime and manga characters in a range of routine actions. Then well show you how to draw them ghting essential to know if you want to draw action manga comics or anime cartoons. And youll discover how to use perspective and foreshortening to make your action scenes even more dramatic and thrilling. Finally, youll get to practice drawing your own character in various action poses, and then select one to perfect.
Lesson 6 Compose Your Drawing

Whats the dierence between any old sketch and an illustration that looks complete and perfect? Its composition! So, in this, your nal lesson, youll learn how to turn your drawing into a masterpiece. First, youll learn how to draw backgrounds and props. And well explain what you must consider before choosing or drawing any background or prop. Then well explain how to properly lay out each element of your drawing your characters, your background, your props - for maximum drama and impact. And nally, youll get to complete your own composition, starring the character youve been working throughout the course!
How to Get Better Faster

You can learn and get beer - faster by completing the exercises and assignments included in each lesson. There are four exercises and one assignment per lesson. The exercises just involve quick sketches you dont have to worry about making them perfect. Theyre designed to enable you to practice a specic skill or learn a particular principle. The assignments require a lile more thought and eort. If youre doing the instructor-led program, youll need to submit these for grading. Even if youre not, the assignments are a great opportunity for you to practice and perfect your drawing skills. Plus, you can add them to your portfolio a collection of drawings that demonstrates your drawing abilities and even submit them to our online gallery.
Before and Aer Drawings

Want to see how much youve improved by taking Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga? The best way is to compare a drawing you did before completing the course, and one drawn aerward. For your before drawing, do the following: draw your own original character in an action pose set against an interesting background. If you have access to a scanner, scan the drawing into a GIF, JPEG or PDF le format and email it to us at artwork@drawanimestyle.com. Put Introduction Before Drawing in the subject line. Alternatively, you can mail it to our snail-mail address (visit hp://www.kikabink.com/contact.htm). Be sure to include a note with Introduction Before Drawing and your name on it. When you come to the last Assignment (in Lesson 6) well ask you to draw a similar illustration so you can see the dierence.
LESSON 1 - SHARPEN YOUR DRAWING SKILLS

The Value of Sharpening
You can have the nest quality steel in the world, but if your sword isnt sharp it just isnt going to cut very well. Likewise, you may have the talent to be a ne manga or anime illustrator (or animator), but if you dont sharpen your drawing skills you just wont draw as well as you could. Sharpening your skills is about doing specic exercises that train your eye, brain and hand to draw beer. They may seem kind of basic and you may be tempted to skip them but please dont. Youll learn a lot oen at a subconscious level by doing them. And, by doing them, youll be primed to produce much beer manga and anime drawings. Which is something to keep in mind throughout this course. You wont learn much by reading, listening to me speak or even looking at the examples. Youll learn by doing the exercises and assignments!
What You See is What You Get

If you want to draw well whether youre drawing a manga character or a vase - you need to see well. Aer all, drawing is really just translating what you see (or if youre drawing from imagination or memory, what your mind sees) onto paper. So, at its core, drawing involves two key skills: 1. Seeing 2. Guiding your pencil / pen / brush across the paper. So, the rst thing you need to do to improve your ability to draw is to improve your ability to see. Seeing isnt the same as looking. Seeing is about analyzing and understanding what you see. If you understand what an object does, and why its structured the way it is, your eye, brain and hand will work together to help you draw it more accurately. Consider the shapes. Everything you see is made up of various dierent shapes oen squares, rectangles, triangles and other shapes called polygons (a polygon is any kind of at shape with three or more edges). When you start looking at things in terms of shapes, youll nd drawing them much easier.
AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1
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So look around you. Think about why an object is the way it is. Then look at what shapes its made up of.
Can You Draw a Straight Line?

The second general skill you need to draw well is to be able to recreate what you see on paper. It boils down to being able to draw a (roughly) straight line. When you really think about it, whatever you draw, youre really just drawing a series of lines (okay, sometimes just dots). Yes, I know, you need to know where to put those lines! But if you cant control the pen or pencil in your hand well enough to draw a line in the rst placeyour drawing isnt going to look too good! Now, being able to draw a straight line doesnt mean you have to draw a line as long or as perfectly straight as you would if you used a ruler. None of the straight lines in the examples in this lesson are perfectly straight. And I dont expect you to be able to draw a perfect circle either. The test is can you draw a square that looks like a square (as opposed to anything else), can you draw a circle that looks like a circle, and so on? When youre drawing a portfolio piece or a drawing you want published (like a manga comic), you probably wont want to draw your circles and squares freehand. Just remember - the closer you get to drawing basic lines and shapes with straight lines the beer your drawing ability will be. The good news is - its easy to practice. Why dont we get started right now?
Exercise 1
This is an exercise that you can do anytime. Its also a nice warm-up exercise that you can do before you take on any serious drawing. 1. Lines a. Draw a 1-inch or 2.5 cm line (an inch is 2.54 cm but whos counting?). b. Draw a line thats 2 inches (5 cm). c. Now draw a line thats 3 inches (7.5 cm).
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d. Repeat, until you have three prey straight lines. See Figure 1.
Figure 1
2. Triangles a. Draw a triangle thats about 1-inch or 2.5 cm each side. b. Draw a triangle thats double the size of the rst. c. Draw a triangle thats double the size of the second. d. Repeat, until you have three prey good looking triangles. See Figure 2. 3. Squares a. Draw a square thats about 1-inch or 2.5 cm each side. b. Draw a square thats double the size of the rst. c. Draw a square thats double the size of the second. d. You guessed it, repeat, until you have three prey good-looking squares. See Figure 3.
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Figure 2
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Figure 3
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4. Circles a. Draw a circle thats about 1-inch or 2.5 cm in diameter. b. Draw a circle thats double the size of the rst. c. Draw a circle thats double the size of the second. d. Repeat, until you have three round looking circles. See Figure 4.
Tip
Try not to use your eraser or ruler when youre sketching. (Notice that all the examples in this lesson have been drawn freehand?) When you draw without these as your safety net, youll concentrate and learn more. Even when you make mistakes, dont rub them out. Just redraw the line a lile heavier. Mistakes are great feedback about what doesnt work leave them there and learn from them.
Drawing in 3D
The world isnt at! And most anime and manga isnt either. So you need to draw from a three dimensional (3D) perspective. That means giving the objects and subjects (living things like people and animals) you draw depth. There are three things to focus on when drawing any 3D object:
1. Angles
Lets draw a cube. To make it look like a cube, we need to get the angles of each line correctly aligned. If theyre out of whack then our cube wont look like a cube! See Figure 5.
2. Convergence
Now, we also need to choose the degree to which the edges converge (get
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close to each other). In reality, you only see convergence in big objects. Compare the large and small boxes in Figure 6. The edges of the box stay parallel, while the (long) edges of the the larger box converge slightly. Figure 4
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Look around you, and youll see that this is true the edges of large objects converge, while the edges of small objects remain parallel. What causes convergence? Its due to your perspective how you see the object. More on this in a moment. Even where its not realistic, its sometimes appropriate to draw convergent edges on small objects - to distort or exaggerate the object in order to create drama or impact.
Figure 5
3. Lengths
You also need to get the lengths of the edges of your object right. For example, if you get them wrong in a cube your cube wont be a cube, it will be a rectangular box. See Figure 7. Another problem is that you may end up with objects that overlap. This oen happens when you focus on the fronts of objects and not the sides.
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See Figure 8.
Figure 6
As you draw, think about angles, convergence and lengths. Over time, you wont consciously think about them; youll instinctively factor them into your drawings. And heres a way to practice.
Exercise 2
Master drawing cubes and youll be well on your way to master drawing anything and everything in 3D. All you need to do is to draw nine (9) lines that are correctly related to each
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other, in terms of angle, convergence and length. 1. Draw a box a. Find a small square or rectangular box or object and draw it. Concentrate on geing the angles, convergence and length right. b. Find a much larger square or rectangle object and draw it. Notice the dierences in angles, convergence and length between this and the rst bpx. See Figure 9 here the small box sits on top of a large box.
Figure 7
Figure 8
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Figure 9
2. Draw a group of boxes a. Assemble a group of boxes one in front of two others and study them. Now turn away and draw them from memory. b. Turn back to the boxes and draw them. Compare your two drawings and note the dierences. Did your objects overlap when you drew from memory? If so, you need to focus on making sure your lengths are correct.
Eye Level, Vanishing Points and Perspective

Whatever you draw, the rst thing to do is to decide on the perspective determined by your (and therefore your audiences) eye level and the vanishing points. Once you know that, youll know exactly what angles to use to give your objects and subjects depth and everything will look just right! This is something youll end up doing instinctively. But, for now lets consider
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what perspective, eye level and vanishing points are. Firstly, eye level is the distance from your (and therefore the observers or audiences) eyes to the ground. Your eye level determines the horizon level the plane on which all objects recede or disappear. A vanishing point is a point at which all parallel (including imaginary) lines extending from the observer converge and vanish. As for perspective, there are four kinds
One Point Perspective

One point perspective is where theres only one vanishing point on the horizon. Horizontal lines and shapes are parallel to the eye level and to the top and boom of the paper youre drawing on. See Figure 10.
Figure 10
Two Point Perspective

Two point perspective is where the surface planes converge to two vanishing
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points on the horizon. Vertical lines and edges are parallel. All shapes that are at right angles and parallel to each other use the same vanishing points. See Figure 11.
Figure 11
Three Point Perspective

Three point perspective is the combination of two point perspective and the third perspective of looking above or below the subject. Here, there is a third vanishing point that is above or below you. There are no parallel edges because all vertical lines converge to the third vanishing point. See Figure 12.
Four Point Perspective

Four point perspective is three point perspective plus a vanishing point above or below the third. You rarely see four point perspective, but examples are where you have large, overlapping objects or where an object is shown with its reection. See Figure 13.
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Figure 12
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Figure 13
Two and three point perspective are commonly used in anime and manga. Three point perspective oen adds emphasis and drama. One point perspective is rather simplistic so it isnt used all that much. Four point perspective is usually only used when large objects overlap the horizon or to show reections. The magic of choosing your perspective is that once you determine your eye
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level and vanishing points, you can draw ne lines from each vanishing point across the page to guide you in drawing all your objects. Oh, keep in mind that unless youre drawing a panorama e.g. a wide angle drawing of something in the distance your vanishing points will not exist on the page. But wait theres something else you should know.
Multiple Vanishing Points

Not all objects or subjects will face the same way. Youll typically have dierent objects facing in dierent directions. Consequently, although youll have one horizon with a le vanishing point and a right vanishing point, each object will have its own vanishing point. This is the point at which the lines that delineate that object or subject converge or vanish on the horizon. Heres what I mean See Figure 14. Notice that the rectangular boxes are not facing the same way?
Figure 14
Okay, enough talk. Now its time to get on top of this perspective stu!
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Exercise 3
1. One point perspective Arrange some cubes on a plane using one point perspective. Have each cube face the same way and use the same vanishing point. 2. Two point perspective a. Arrange some cubes on a plane using two point perspective. Again, have them face the same way using the same vanishing points. b. Now add some more cubes and rectangular boxes and have them face dierent directions. They will each have their own vanishing points. 3. Three point perspective a. Arrange some cubes and rectangular boxes (facing dierent directions) on a plane using three point perspective, so that youre looking at them from below. b. Arrange some cubes and boxes (facing dierent directions) on a plane using three point perspective, this time as though youre looking at them from above. 4. Four point perspective Draw a cube and its reection (as if its siing on a mirror) to demonstrate four point perspective.
Your Building Blocks

As you start seeing the world around you, youll see that most, if not all, objects are made up of one or more of the three building blocks: the cube, the sphere and the cylinder. Even people, as well see in Lesson 2. And guess what, youll nd that drawing things becomes much, much easier when you see them as simply a combination of these building blocks. Heres an example of a cordless telephone.
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See Figure 15.
Figure 15
Tip
Heres how you show division in something thats on an angle for example, the palings on a fence, or two doors in a doorway, or the spokes of a wheel To divide in two, you draw diagonal lines from each of the upper corners to the opposite boom corners. Where the diagonal lines meet is the center and you can divide from there. See Figure 16.
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Figure 16
If you want to show more divisions, you draw the horizontal lines (converging if relevant) and then one diagonal line from corner to corner. Where the diagonal line hits each horizontal line is where you draw each vertical line. So next time you start drawing anything (whether youre drawing something in front of you or something from memory) stop! Look at the object or subject as a combination of cubes, spheres and cylinders and draw those rst. This is how professional artists draw.
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Shadows, Light and Shading

You can emphasize the 3D nature of things by using shadows and highlights. These help your drawings pop out and look life-like. Drawing shadows and light is as easy as using darker shading for shadows and lighter shading for highlights. Alternatively, if you shade your entire drawing, you can leave white spaces for highlights. The trick to drawing realistic shadows is to be consistent. Determine where the light is coming from and how it is falling on your object or subject, and then shade accordingly. Youll usually represent one or more of the following types of light in your drawings: Spotlights - powerful beams of light that illuminate only small areas. Omni lights - omni directional (multidirectional) lights that originate from a specic light source, like the sun or a light. Ambient light - the general environmental light that surrounds the object or subject but doesnt appear to emanate directly from a specic light source (like an omni light).
See Figure 17. Want some practice?
Exercise 4
Were going to experiment with dierent lighting. If you can, get hold of a torch or lamp that you can use as a spotlight. 1. Get an interesting shaped bole and place it before you. Instead of drawing lines, use your pencils to shade in the shape. Use a harder pencil like an HB for the lighter areas and a soer pencil e.g. a 4B (or 2B if youre heavy handed) to shade in the darker areas. Use your eraser (yes, this is allowed!) to rub out some of the shading in order to show the highlights. 2. Shine the light from your torch or lamp on the object in an interesting way and redraw the bole. Notice the dierent eects produced by using the spotlight?
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Figure 17
Youve done some exercises. Now its time for some serious drawing!
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Assignment
In this exercise youre going to draw a room or city street. There are no people or animals just objects youd typically nd in a room (furniture) or street (buildings, cars, etc). But this isnt just any room or street. There may not be any people, but danger lurks within that room or that street. What exactly this danger is, is up to you. But I want you to hint at the danger in your drawing. So arrange the room and street in such a way that indicates the danger. And choose a dramatic perspective e.g. a three point perspective - that gives your drawing a sense of foreboding. Instructor-led students: please submit your assignment to your instructor for grading.
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LESSON 2 - DRAW HEADS
AND
FACES
Youve sharpened your drawing skills, now its time to apply them to draw the fun stu! Well start with what is perhaps the dening features of anime and manga characters their heads and faces.
The Standard Head

Lets begin by considering the proportions of the standard adult head. Why? Because once you know the rules of drawing a realistic head youll know how to break them to draw the head and face of an anime or manga character. Here are the rules: 1. The width of the whole head is about two-thirds the length of the head. 2. A line drawn across the face halfway across the head touches the top of the eyes. 3. The eyes are spaced one eye apart, which is also the width of the nose across the nostrils. 4. The whole face is ve eyes wide. 5. The length from the brow to the base of the nose is the same as the length from the base of the nose to the chin. 6. The jawbone is in line with the corner of the mouth. 7. The distance from the base of the nose to the chin can be divided into thirds, where the upper third is the distance from the nose to the upper lip, the second third is the distance from the upper lip to the protrusion of the chin, and the boom third the distance from the chin protrusion to the base of the chin. 8. A line drawn from the pupils straight down lines up with the corners of the mouth. 9. The ears are as high as a line from the top of the brow to the base of the nose. 10. The base of the cheek and the base of the skull are in line with the
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boom of the nose and ears. See Figures 18 and 19.
Different Poses
Before we consider how to the head and face in the anime and manga style, its also important to know how to draw the head in dierent poses and from dierent angles. When you can do this, drawing just about everything else will be a breeze! The rst thing to do when drawing a head is to draw guidelines a vertical line and a horizontal line that cross the head indicating where the nose, eyes and ears will sit. No maer what pose, or what angle, if you get these guidelines right, everything else will fall into place. So lets look at some dierent head poses, with the guidelines, eyes, nose and ears. See Figure 20.
Exercise 1
Now its your turn. Copy the continuum of heads above. First draw the heads and guidelines, then draw over the guidelines with eyes, nose and ears.
Anime and Manga Heads

Okay, so you know how to draw a real head and face, and how to draw dierent head poses. But what about the faces and heads of anime and manga characters? Well, rstly, watch a few dierent anime cartoons and read a few dierent manga books. Notice that there are many variations? Yet there are certain features common to most (if not all) anime or manga characters: Upside-down egg shaped head with wide cheeks and pointy chin. Big eyes. Well look at drawing eyes in detail below. But suce to say that the eyes of anime and manga characters tend to be larger than usual (still in line with the ears but extending lower down the face)
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with large pupils, distinct irises, and one or more highlights. Small, only slightly dened nose. This can range from a dot, to a short line, to a small oval, to an arrow shape. Small mouth thats only a lile wider than the nose.
In fact, you can make your character more or less realistic by changing any or all of the above four features.
See Figure 21.
Exercise 2
Draw a realistic character, a highly exaggerated character and an inbetween character, emphasizing the dierences between their head shapes, eyes, noses and mouth.
Eyes
The eyes are the dening feature of your characters face, perhaps your character as a whole. Dierent shaped eyes are typically associated with dierent types of characters. Take a look at Figure 22: The more simplistic the character e.g. a mascot the less detail the eye will have. You may simply draw the eyes as large outlines with black pupils and one or no highlights. Heroes and heroines tend to have large, round eyes. Also the younger the character the bigger and rounder the eye, especially the pupil. Boys also tend to have narrow, more almond shaped eyes, while girls
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Figure 18
Figure 19
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tend to have rounder eyes. Girls also have longer eyelashes. Villains tend to have narrow, angular eyes. Also, older characters oen have narrower eyes. Older characters also have more wrinkles around the eye.
You can approach the task of drawing the eyes in dierent ways. Some artists like to draw the outline rst; others like to draw the iris rst and then draw the outline around it. Its up to you. The important thing is that the eyes are consistent with the character youre trying to depict and that they look right. While drawing eyes front on is relatively straightforward, its tricky to draw them when the head is facing in a dierent direction. However, if you have completed Exercise 1, and will continue to begin with guidelines, youll nd it much easier. Essentially, when the head is tilted to the side, the eye furthest away becomes smaller and narrower (horizontally).
Tip
Draw the pupils in the direction your character is looking in. If your character is looking straight ahead (at the audience) the pupils should be in the center of the iris. If the character is looking upward, the pupils should be at the top of the iris, close to the eyelid. If the character is looking downward, the pupils should be at the boom of the iris, furthest away from the eyelid. Whichever aspect you choose, make sure that both pupils are in the same position otherwise your character will look as though he or she has a lazy eye!
Exercise 3
1. Draw the head of a young girl, a young boy, and an older man, with particular emphasis on the eyes. 2. Now draw the same characters with their heads tilted towards the le and looking slightly upward or downward.
Hair
No doubt youve already been drawing hair on your characters. Hopefully, youve only added it aer geing the shape of the head right (otherwise your characters might look as though they have at heads!).
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Figure 20
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Figure 21
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Figure 22
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The style of hair is up to you, but it should reect the type and personality of your character. Consider his or her: Age Gender male or female? Occupation Personality Time period if your story is set in the past, your character will have a dierent hair style than he or she would now. Culture if your character is part of a dierent culture, or lives in a dierent country, he or she may have a dierent hairstyle. Genre you might use a certain hair style to match the genre. For example, long, sweeping hair for the character in a fantasy story.
Highlights in hair may enhance the look of your character. While you can draw highlights however you like, Figure 23 shows three conventional ways of showing highlights: Normal highlights Streaky highlights Animation highlights
The important thing is that the highlights accurately reect the direction of the light.
Exercise 4
Heres an exercise that emphasizes the dierence that a dierent hairstyle can have on a character. 1. Draw a head and face (no hair just yet). Then give the character a short hairstyle, drawing lightly. Aer youve nished, look at the character and make some mental notes about who you think the character is based on his or her hair cut. 2. Either rub out the hair with your eraser or draw over it, creating a longer hairstyle. Now, what kind of character have you created?
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3. Rub out the second hairstyle or draw over it with a third dierent hairstyle. Who and what kind of character do you have now? See how a hairstyle can make a character seem dierent?
Assignment
Now its time to invent your very own character. Well, his / her head and face at least. 1. Before you start drawing, think about the kind of character you want to draw: Simple, exaggerated or realistic? Male or female? Age? Occupation? Interests? Personality? The genre historical, fantasy, sci-, thriller, drama, comedy? The seing school, city, countryside, island?
And so on. 2. Decide what your character will look like hair color and eye color. 3. Think of an interesting pose to place your characters head in e.g. his or head could be tilted to one side and/or looking above or below. 4. Draw your character! Instructor-led students: please submit your assignment to your instructor for grading.
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Figure 23
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LESSON 3 - DRAW
THE
BODY
Youve drawn heads and faces but theres a lile more to characters than that. Like their bodies!
Height and Proportions

Artists use heads as the measure for determining the height and proportions of the human body. Adult males and females are typically eight (8) heads high. So the actual head is one-eighth of the total height, and the other body parts are broken up as indicated in the following illustration. See Figure 24. Note the following: The neck isnt straight but tapers where it joins the body. The elbow joint is just above the hipbone and about level with or just below the waist when standing. The hands fall mid-thigh when standing (except for characters with legs that are longer than the torso, in which case the hands fall a lile higher). From shoulder to nger tips, the arms are about 3.5 heads long. Wrists are about level with the crotch. The legs narrow around the knees then become wider around the calves. The knees are about half-way between the crotch and the heels. The feet are about 1.5 times as big as the hands. The face is usually the same length as the hand (but see the section about drawing females below).
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Dierences Between Males and Females

Youll also note some key dierences between males and females:
Males General Heavier, more muscular and angular not curvy. Make sure wrists and ankles arent too thin.
Females Slender and curvy from shoulders to waist to hips to knees. Lile or no muscularity. Hands are smaller with longer ngers. Gentle chin line Thin neck Slightly sloping and narrow - as wide or only slightly wider than hips Bust Narrow waist
Chin Neck Shoulders
Firm Thick, with Adams apple Broad shoulders, wider than hips
Chest Waist
Flat, muscled Only slight narrowing at waist Straight Flat Large hands, somewhat thick ngers Larger
Hips Buocks Hands
Curved Curved Small hands with thin ngers Smaller
Feet
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Figure 24
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Anime and Manga Bodies

Anime and manga characters come in a range of head heights, usually from two to eight. The size of certain body parts heads, arms, hands, torso, legs and feet also diers depending on the kind of character. Here are a few character types. (This isnt an exhaustive list, nor is it set in stone there are plenty of anime and manga characters that fall outside the denitions here.)
Typical Character Chibi (small, cute young children and characters)
Head Height 2 heads
Special Features Head is half the body. See Figure 25.
Super Deformed or SD characters and mascots
2 heads
Large head, small body.
Cute children and comical characters
3-4 heads
Large head, narrow shoulders, waist not too narrow. Legs shorter than torso. Lile dierence between joints and limbs. No muscularity. See Figure 25.
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Cute characters, young boys and girls
5 heads
Legs longer than torso.
Fat / stocky man
5 heads
Broad shoulders about three times wider than the head. Short neck - about as long as the length from the mouth to the chin. Thick arms - upper and lower arms have the same width. Shoulder, elbow and wrist joints have the same width. Thick / fat waist. Big hands - as big as his face. Short legs and large feet - larger than his face. See Figure 25.
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Fat / stocky woman
5 heads
Feminine, curved shoulders. Large bust, waist and hips. Stomach and bust protrude to same extent. Large thighs and short legs. Waist only slightly dened.
Bishoujo (young, prey girls
6 heads
Thin waist, slight denition of body contours. Dened joints and muscles. See Figure 25.
Shoujo manga (Gals comics) character
7 heads
Very thin with long legs. Small head, dened body contours. Boys are drawn similar except with broader shoulders
Real type
8 heads
Legs and torso approximately the same length. No exaggeration of features.
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Strong man
8 heads
Tall and muscular. Broad shoulders about 1.5 times his waist. Legs and torso about the same length. Large hands and feet about the same size as his head.
Whatever the head height, the proportions for other body parts are usually the same for any type of character. The only dierence is that while the torso and legs (not including the waist and buocks) are generally the same height for characters two to four heads high, the legs become longer than the torso for characters taller than four heads high. Female characters especially have long legs.
How to Draw the Body

Now you know about height and proportions, but how do you go about drawing the body? Here are the steps, illustrated in Figure 26: 1. Draw a stick gure with circles delineating the joints. 2. Sketch ovals over the stick gure to indicate the rib cage and hips. 3. Build the body transform it into a 3D form by drawing spheres and cylinders as appropriate. 4. Round out the body remove or draw over the construction lines and round out the body to make it look real. Add curves (e.g. to indicate muscle tension) and clothes, etc.
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Tip
Draw through the body by drawing every body part, even if it will eventually be hidden from sight (because it will be covered by another body part or object). This ensures that you position each body part correctly. Later you can erase the sections that will be hidden. Lets try drawing a few bodies right now.
Exercise 1
This exercise gets you practicing drawing dierent types of characters, based on head height. You know those lineups in police television (TV) shows? Well, youre going to draw a lineup of eight characters, each with a dierent head height. Choose between drawing (a) a character that looks the same, except with dierent head heights, and (b) dierent types of characters with dierent head heights. Draw these characters facing the front (as they would in a police line-up!) and remember to draw stick gures rst, then add ovals for the chest and hips, then build the body with spheres and cylinders, and nally, give the body esh, tone and clothes.
Hands and Feet

Hands and feet are dicult to draw because of their complexity. But the task becomes easier if you draw them as cubes and / or cylinders rst and then round them out. Follow these steps, illustrated in Figure 27:
Hands
1. Draw the hand as three rectangular sections: the arm just above the wrist, the hand, and the ngers. 2. Break the ngers into individual rectangular boxes. Note that the lile nger is thinner than the rest. 3. Change the boxes into circles (for the joints) and cylinders. Aer a while, youll start drawing hands by sketching circles and cylinders rather than with boxes.
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Figure 25
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Figure 26
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4. Remove the construction lines and round out the shape so that it looks more like a hand. Give shape to the ngers, noting that while the thickness of each nger is the same between the joints, it narrows at the tip. The thumb angles outwards. 5. Give details to the hand, including webbing between each nger and nails.
Figure 27
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Lets look at some poses that you might use when drawing hands. See Figure 28.
Figure 28
Feet
Here are the steps, illustrated in Figure 29: 1. Draw each foot as a combination of boxes. 2. Cut into the box to indicate the arch and divide the rectangular box
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at the end into ve even toes. 3. Change the boxes to circles and cylinders. As you draw more and more feet, youll start at this step rather than the two steps before this one. 4. Remove the construction lines and round out the shape so that it looks more like a foot. Add the ankle bone. 5. Complete the drawing by adding curves to indicate the joints, nails and lines to indicate the bones, joints and tendons.
Figure 29
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Lets look at some poses that you might use when drawing feet. See Figure 30.
Figure 30
Exercise 2
One of the best ways to perfect the art of drawing hands and feet is to draw real hands and feet.
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1. Hands Ask someone to pose for you or get in front of a mirror and draw the reection of the hand youre not drawing with. Practice three dierent poses. 2. Feet Get into a position where you can draw one of your feet. Practice three dierent poses.
Foreshortening and Perspective

Flat poses are a lile boring. You can make a character look much more interesting and dramatic not to mention, tell the story in a more powerful and meaningful way - by foreshortening one or more of his or her body parts. Foreshortening means shortening the length of something as you tilt the top of the object closer towards you and the boom of the object away from you. For example, hold your pencil straight up and then tilt the top towards you. Notice how the pencil becomes shorter as the boom moves away from you? Thats foreshortening. See Figure 31 for an illustration of foreshortening. Characters also look more interesting and give the story more power and meaning - when theyre drawn at an angle (using two-point perspective) and dramatic when theyre drawn both at an angle and from above or below (using three-point perspective). See Figure 32 for an example of foreshortening (its inevitable that youll use foreshortening whenever the body is at an angle) and three point perspective.
Exercise 3
Now its your turn. a. Draw a character at an angle, from above. b. Draw a character at an angle, from below. Now, your perspective of a character is not the only thing that will make him or her interesting or unique. The expression, posture and/or pose are also important. But well look at these in Lessons 3 and 4.
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For now, theres something else we need to consider when drawing bodies What clothes theyll wear!
Clothing
How your character looks his or her hairstyle, clothing and jewelry (if relevant) are all elements of his or her character. When the audience sees your character they should be able to immediately recognize and understand the type of character he or she is. You may have been told not to judge a book by its cover, but the fact is people do and they also judge characters by how they look. So when choosing hairstyles, clothes and other adornments (glasses, jewelry, taoos, etc) make sure your choices reect your characters: Age children, teens and adults generally dress dierently. Gender youd rarely put a skirt on a boy! Occupation if your character goes to school, you might have him or her wearing a school uniform. Interests if your character is sporty, you might have him or her wearing sports clothes. Personality an outgoing character might wear bright, ashy clothes, while a shy character might wear conservative clothes. Time period if your story is set in the past, your characters will wear dierent clothes than what theyd wear now. Culture if your characters are part of a dierent culture, or live in a dierent country, theyre likely to wear dierent types of clothes. Genre your characters will wear dierent clothes if your story is a fantasy or science ction story. Other dening circumstances think of other circumstances that will determine what your character will wear. For example, a character that is part robot part human may have to wear special clothing!
Figure 33 shows a fantasy character.
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Figure 31
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Figure 32
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Aer youve decided on what your characters will where, the next step is to draw the clothes so that they have a realistic look. You can use lines and shading (lighter or dark, depending on where the light is coming from) to display clothing folds and creases. This gives the clothing that realistic look. You dont need to go overboard with all the folds and creases. In reality, clothes have many, many creases. In manga and anime, the aim is to draw enough creases and folds to ensure that the drawing looks good. In particular, you want to keep the folds and creases to an acceptable minimum in anime. This is because you or an animator will have to draw and redraw the character for each frame of the cartoon (there are 24 frames per second for standard television cartoons!). Can you imagine having to draw lots of creases and folds over and over again?! So draw the main creases and folds. Use your judgment as to what is enough. In fact, heres a way to become a master at drawing clothes including the folds and creases in no time.
Exercise 4
Ask a friend or family member to pose for you, or if this isnt possible, hang a shirt in front of you. Draw the clothes that the friend / family member is wearing or the shirt. Draw all the main creases and folds you see, but not with lines. In fact, dont use lines to draw the clothing. Instead use shading lighter or darker as required to show each element of the shirt the edges, the main part, the creases and the folds.
Okay, youve practiced drawing bodies - got the head heights right for dierent types of characters, drawn them from dierent angles, and given them clothes. Now its time to give your own character a body!
Assignment
Remember that character you invented in the last lesson? Now its time to give him or her a body.
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Figure 33
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1. Before you start drawing, pause to revisit who this character is: Male or female? Age? Occupation? Interests? Personality? The genre historical, fantasy, sci-, thriller, drama, comedy? The seing school, city, countryside, island?
And so on. 2. Decide what your character will wear. 3. Decide on head height. 4. Determine the pose and the perspective. 5. Draw your character! Instructor-led students: please submit your assignment to your instructor for grading.
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LESSON 4 - DRAW EMOTIONS

Youve given your character a head, face, body and clothes. By doing so, youve given your audience an insight into who he or she is. But what is he or she thinking, feeling? What are his or her aitudes, beliefs and aitudes?
For him or her to really come alive and to tell your story without spelling it out in words (which, as an illustrator, you want to minimize) - you need to display your characters thoughts and emotions. Emotional states can be temporary or long-lasting. For example, a character may be perpetually down, have an aitude problem, be constantly cheerful or may suddenly erupt in anger, become sad, or get excited. Whether you draw a characters normal or everyday emotional state, or an emotion they suddenly feel, you can do so by giving them certain: Facial expressions; and Bodily postures.
Facial Expressions
There are basically four head / facial features that you can use to show your characters emotions: Eyes Eyebrows Mouth Head
To see the truth in this, notice the people around you. What happens when they get angry, sad, delighted or excited? Thats right their eyes, eyebrows, mouth and head change! Sometimes in subtle and sometimes in not so subtle ways.
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Bodily Posture
To really emphasize how your character feels, youll also want to change their posture how they hold their body. Now lets take a simplied face and body and show how they might look in a range of emotions. See Figure 34.
Exercise 1
Were going to take this step-by-step. Here are some more emotions that we havent included above. Draw a corresponding (simplied) face for each one and change only the eyes, brows and mouth to display the relevant emotion: a. Smug b. Proud c. Embarrassed d. Suspicious
Exercise 2
Now draw and alter the head for each of these emotions: a. Smug b. Proud c. Embarrassed d. Suspicious
Exercise 3
Finally, draw a simplied body, including the face and head: a. Smug b. Proud
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Figure 34
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c. Embarrassed d. Suspicious There are lots of other emotions too. Can you think of some others and draw them as well?
Anime and Manga Characters

Now, well use real faces well, those in the anime and manga tradition to display the above emotions. To start with, well just alter the head, eyes, brows and mouth. Keeping in mind that there are all kinds of anime characters, well just choose three (3) types: A boy, realistic type A young woman, realistic type A young man, realistic type
Notice the dierences between these characters in the various emotional states. You would expect a boy, for example, to display his excitement dierently to a young woman. Having said that, how your characters display their emotions should be unique each person is dierent aer all!
Boy, realistic type

See Figure 35.
Young woman, realistic type

See Figure 36.
Young man, realistic type

See Figure 37.
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Figure 35
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Figure 36
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Figure 37
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Exercise 4
You guessed it, youre going to draw anime and manga style heads and faces with the emotions below. Choose one of the characters above or create your own: a. Smug b. Proud c. Embarrassed d. Suspicious Now lets look at how three other characters faces and bodies might look in dierent emotional states A small boy, exaggerated type A bishoujo (young, prey girl), simple type A young man, realistic type
Happy
See Figure 38.
Angry
See Figure 39.
Sad
See Figure 40.
Afraid
See Figure 41.
In pain
See Figure 42.
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Figure 38
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Figure 39
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Figure 40
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Figure 41
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Figure 42
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Assignment
Take the character you drew in Lesson 3 and draw him or her with all the emotions weve covered above. You could also include the extra emotions that at youve been drawing in the exercises. And heres a special benet: youll have a table of emotional states that you can refer to whenever you want to draw your character in a particular mood for your very own manga book or anime cartoon! Instructor-led students: please submit your assignment to your instructor for grading.
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LESSON 5 - DRAW ACTION

Anime and manga are about characters doing things taking action! What they will do depends on the story, and the personalities of the characters. However, there are some common actions that most characters in most anime and manga will perform. These include standing, siing, lying down, walking and running. Lets call these routine actions. Then there is the type of action that gives meaning to the action genre ghting, ying, jumping from one building to another, chasing and being chased, ring a weapon, and so on. When you draw action, your aims should be to: Reect the characters true nature; and Move the story forward in a powerful, compelling way. Whatever you have your characters doing, the action should excite the audience and have them begging to see the next scene or turn the page.
So how do you draw action?
General Approach
Remember those stick gures we drew before eshing out the bodies in Lesson 3? Well, the rst step is to draw your characters as stick gures. But dont worry about the joints. Just sketch a few lines to depict your character in motion. You can esh them out a lile if it helps to make them seem more real. The main thing is to convey movement. You choose the pose you want your characters to have and then you draw (using stick gures) dierent versions of that pose. The idea is to experiment and then choose the best version typically the most dramatic - of the pose. For example, lets say you want to show a character running. Your rst version might have the character fairly upright, as if he is jogging. Then you might draw a version with the character bent more so that he looks like hes sprinting rather than jogging. You sketch a few dierent versions, until nally you sele on a drawing that excites the audience and reects the story best. Now you can draw the fully-eshed out character in the pose.
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See Figure 43.
Tip
When sketching a character in motion, be sure to rst draw a line through the center of the body from top to boom. This line is the motion line and indicates how your character will move. Even when your characters are just standing, you should experiment with a few dierent stick-gure poses in order to determine the best most interesting, telling and compelling pose.
Exercise 1
Youre going to draw a character diving to catch a ball. Draw the character as a stick gure including the center line and try six (6) dierent versions. Then make a mental note of which one you think is the best.
Routine Actions
Now lets look at some routine actions and what the body and dierent types of characters look like when theyre performing them: Standing Siing Lying down Walking Running
There are lots of dierent ways for characters to stand, depending on who they are and why theyre standing. Again, how they stand should communicate something about their nature and about the story. The possibilities are endless, but lets look at a few variations, using a stick gure and then a body thats a lile more eshed out. See Figure 44.
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Figure 43
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Figure 44
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Exercise 2
1. Draw your stick gure character in all the above poses, but try a few variations of them. 2. Select one of your poses and draw a eshed out body in that position.
Routine Actions for Anime and Manga Characters

How one kind of anime or manga character performs a routine action will generally look dierent to how another character performs the same action. Lets see how three dierent types of characters a young boy, a teenage girl, and a young male warrior - might look performing some of these actions: Standing Siing Lying down Walking Running
See Figures 45-48.
Fighting
Action manga, anime and computer games typically depict characters ghting or in some kind of bale scene. So lets consider some common ghting moves that we might want our characters to perform. See Figure 49 for some characters in these ghting poses: Straight punch Front kick Firing guns Wielding a sword
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Figure 45
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Figure 46
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Figure 47
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Figure 48
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Figure 49
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Exercise 3
Draw two stick gures, model bodies and nished characters ghting one another.
Perspective and Foreshortening in Action

Remember how we drew the body from dierent perspectives and used foreshortening to dramatize dierent poses? Well, using interesting perspectives and foreshortening enhances your action drawings. Look again at Figure 49. Notice how powerful and exciting these ghters look because of the use of perspective and foreshortening. Look through your manga comics and notice how the illustrators have drawn the action Thats right - using perspective and foreshortening to create more thrilling and dramatic scenes!
Exercise 4
Draw a character ghting and use an interesting perspective and foreshortening to make the drawing look more powerful.
Assignment
Now take your character and place him or her in an action pose whether its walking, running, jumping, ghting, whatever. Choose a pose thats consistent with the character and the type of story he or she is likely to star in. Begin by sketching your character as a stick gure and experiment with dierent variations of the same pose. Then choose the best one and draw it as a nished drawing. Instructor-led students: please submit your assignment to your instructor for grading.
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LESSON 6 - COMPOSE YOUR DRAWING

By now, youre prey adept at drawing characters, giving them meaningful expressions, and showing them in action. But your characters dont exist in a vacuum, they exist somewhere. That somewhere is the seing. This seing forms the background to the characters in a given frame or scene. So, yes, you need to draw stu other than the characters, like the background. Props things that the characters hold or that exist near them are also important. But its not just about sketching any old building, or some trees, or some other things, behind your characters. To make your scene really work (whether its a scene in anime or manga) you need to carefully arrange or compose your characters, props and background elements. The way in which you arrange each element can make the dierence between a stunning picture or scene and a so-so drawing. But before we tackle composition, lets look at drawing backgrounds and props.
Drawing Backgrounds and Props The Purpose of Backgrounds and Props

Backgrounds and props are integral to anime and manga stories and are an extremely important part of your drawings. As much as possible, your backgrounds should locate your characters in place and time, and convey part or all of the what, when, where, why and how of your story. At the very least, use your background to tell the audience time and place rather than having the characters reveal it in the text. For example, if your story is set in historical Japan, draw the historical Japanese countryside with some ancient temples, rather than have your characters actually say where and when they are.
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Props too, should give the audience clues about who the character is and what he or she is doing. For instance, instead of having your character say I have a gun, simply draw the gun in his or her pocket or hand. It may seem basic, but your backgrounds and props are there to help tell your story. So whenever you need to explain something in your story, rst try to explain it by drawing it. In fact, always try to show, rather than tell. As the saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words.
Drawing Buildings
Buildings will oen form the background to the characters and action in your story. Use a ruler to draw straight lines and aim to draw as accurately as possible. Apply the rules of perspective that you learned in Lesson 1 and make sure all the following look right: Length, width and number of windows Length and width of doors Height of each oor Space between windows
And make sure your lines are straight!
Drawing Characters and Backgrounds in Perspective

When you draw characters in front of a building or other structure, its crucial that each element is consistent with your chosen perspective. If not, your drawing will look funny or just plain wrong. The trick is to rst choose your eye level (horizon) and vanishing points and then draw the background. Then place your character in the scene making sure that he or she conforms to the perspective and looks in proportion with the background. Look at Figure 50 and notice the dierent perspective used in each frame.
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Figure 50
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Exercise 1
Do this exercise with a real person modeling for you, or use a doll or some other object that can double as a character. a. Have the person (or doll or object) stand or sit in front of your house or some other building or structure, in a position where his or her eyes and your eyes are both at the same level. Now quickly sketch him or her, including the building or structure in the background. b. Now move closer to your model and get on your tummy and draw him or her and the background from below. c. Finally, sit or stand higher than your model and draw him or her and the background from above. Notice the dierences in your model and the background in each sketch, all because you changed your perspective? Okay, so now you know how to draw characters and great looking backgrounds now its time to pull them together into a spectacular illustration!
What to Do Before You Draw Anything

Before your draw your scene in fact, before you draw anything except for quick sketches - you need to think, and get clear, about what youre trying to communicate with and in your drawing. In short, you need to plan. Planning doesnt have to take long - it may just be a maer of leing your imagination run wild for a lile while, then doing a few rough dras - known as neemu among Japanese anime and manga artists. But whether it takes 3 minutes, 3 hours or 3 days (!) good planning involves these three steps (in order): 1. Working out your objective or goal. 2. Working out who and what you want included in your drawing. 3. Sketching your neemu(s). Planning is important because when youre clear about why youre drawing
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something, what and who should be in your drawing, and you have sketched a few dierent neemu... you will end up with the best possible drawing.
1. Whats your objective?

The rst question to ask yourself is: what is the objective or purpose of your anime or manga drawing? For example: Are you trying to tell a story? For instance, is it a frame of a manga comic or anime cartoon? If so, what is the part of the story - or scene - that you are trying to illustrate? What are you trying to communicate about the mood / atmosphere, the characters, and the plot of the story? Are you trying to convey a fast-paced bale in which your hero overcomes the villains? Or are you trying to show the nasty side of one of the kids in your story by showing him picking on someone at school? Or are you aiming to create a dark, foreboding mood in a small, remote village... As you can imagine, the possibilities are endless! Or are you trying to perfect / demonstrate a type of drawing? The type could relate to the type of composition, the type of content, or the type of technique. For example, do you want to draw a wide-angled landscape (composition)? Or draw a warrior (content)? Or draw foreshortening (technique)?
2. Who and what will you draw?

If youre drawing a manga frame or anime storyboard, this second questions may be easy to answer. In order to tell the story - particularly this scene in the story - youll know who and what you have to show. If youre drawing for some other reason - to practice or display certain skills or styles - it may not be so obvious (the choices are endless!) so youll need to think a lile harder. Either way, youll probably need to think about some of the details. And its the details that really make the dierence between a good drawing and an awesome drawing. For example: What will be in the background, and what part of the background will
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you show? What time is it? Is it night, day, sunrise, sunset? Do you need to indicate this, and if so, how? Where will you position your characters? What will they be doing? Standing, siing, crouching, jumping, running, ying? What will be their facial expressions? Happy, sad, angry, nervous, excited, determined? What will your characters be wearing? What will they be holding? What other details can you add to make your drawing more realistic, compelling or intriguing?
3. Sketching Your Neemu(s)

Once youve gone through the rst two steps, youll be ready to draw. But not your nal drawing just yet youll draw your rough sketches or neemus rst. In fact, you should really sketch a few dierent neemus - each a lile dierent - before deciding on the best layout. (Well talk about layout or composition techniques below). And thats really the purpose behind doing a few rough dras. You want to determine the best layout now - before you spend ages slaving over your nal drawing only to realise that it doesnt look all that good. So, you might draw your character in one position in one neemu, and put him or her in another position in another neemu. You might show the background from one angle in one neemu and from another angle in another. You get the idea. Just make sure that you sketch - theres no need for making anything look perfect in your neemus. You can even use stick gures and scribbles! Once youve done a few neemus and determined which is the best layout, you can use this as a guide when drawing your nal illustration.
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Variables of Composition
To produce a good layout you need to understand and make the right choices about the variables of composition. As well discuss below, your goal is to create an illustration that looks unied. But rst lets talk about all the main composition variables you can play with and should experiment with in your neemus to come up with the best possible result: 1. The surface area the area and shape of your piece of paper or drawing surface. 2. Negative space all the shapes and spaces other than what you draw. See Figure 51.
Figure 51
3. Picture plane the imaginary at plane onto which you project your 3D reality. This is your drawing area. See Figure 52.
Figure 52
4. Eye level this determines the horizon. See Figures 53 and 54.
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Figure 53
Figure 54
5. Viewpoint (your own camera angle) your position and distance from the object or subject. Your viewpoint determines the angle from which you view the object or subject. You can oen make your illustrations more interesting and dramatic by tilting your viewpoint like you would if you were using a camera. See Figure 54.
Figure 54
6. Vanishing points the points on the horizon where parallel lines converge. See Figure 55.
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Figure 55
7. Eye path the path through the composition to the focal point the centre of interest of the drawing. See Figure 56.
Figure 56
8. Field of vision an 180-degree area that you can see without moving your head or eyes. Within this area you can only clearly see objects within a 45 to 60 degree cone (the cone of vision). Everything outside this cone is out of focus. See Figure 57.
Figure 57
9. Open composition any drawing that doesnt use the paper edges to reinforce the design. See Figure 58.
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Figure 58
10. Closed composition where you use the paper edges as part of your composition. See Figure 59.
Figure 59
11. Cropping where you move and reposition the borders of your drawing. See Figure 60.
Figure 60
12. Proportion the size of an object or part of it relative to another. See Figure 61.
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Figure 61
13. Scale the size of a drawn object relative to the actual object. See Figure 62.
Figure 62
14. Distortion where you distort scale or proportion for a dramatic eect. See Figure 63.
Figure 63
15. Foreshortening where surfaces that arent parallel to the picture plane recede or advance in perspective, giving them dierent proportions and dimensions. See Figure 64.
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Figure 64
16. Convergence where parallel lines join at a vanishing point. See Figure 65.
Figure 65
17. Overlapping where you overlap shapes and objects to simulate depth. See Figure 66.
Figure 66
18. Diminution where you make objects that are further away smaller to suggest distance and depth. See Figure 67.
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Figure 67
19. Interval the amount of space between lines or shapes. You can make objects and subjects interesting, and suggest space, by varying intervals. See Figure 68.
Figure 68
20. Clarity a way of simulating depth by making objects in the foreground clear and objects in the middle and background blurred. See Figure 69.
Figure 69
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Exercise 2
Its all very well reading about the variables of composition, but can you put them into practice? Your task is to revisit each of the 20 variables listed above and draw your own quick sketch to demonstrate each one, much like the examples given. You can include more than one variable in each sketch. Dont worry about doing complete drawings just small, quick sketches that emphasize each variable.
Achieving Unity
As mentioned above, your aim in composing a drawing is to achieve unity, so that each element works together to create or complete or whole composition. How can you bring unity to the diverse elements of your composition? There are actually three (3) techniques you can use to achieve unity in your compositions. 1. Repetition repeating the same object or echoing certain shapes, lines, colors or textures within your drawing. Emphasizing the similarities between dierent objects helps to unify the composition. See Figures 70 and 71.
Figure 70
Figure 71
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2. Proximity - clustering objects or subjects close together. See Figure 72.
Figure 72
3. Sequence providing a clear eye path for the observer to move from one element to another within the illustration. See Figure 73.
Figure 73
Exercise 3
In this exercise, youll be seeing, rather than drawing. Okay, you can draw a lile if you wish. Grab one of your manga books one that you dont mind drawing lightly on and look at some of the illustrations. With a pencil, either draw a shape over, or lightly shade in, the most prominent elements of each drawing. The areas that youve outlined or shaded in are the focal point of the illustration. And notice that theyre unied, rather than scaered all over the frame? These shapes represent the unity in the drawing.
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Now, ask yourself how did the artist achieve unity? Was it through repetition, proximity or sequence or more than one of these? By the way, manga and anime artists dont consciously decide to use repetition, proximity or sequence, nor do they draw such shapes rst and then try to squeeze in the main characters and action. Rather, when composing the drawing, they intuitively arrange the elements to form such unied areas using repetition, proximity and / or sequence. You will too. Try outlining or shading in the prominent areas in a drawing that doesnt look quite right. You might nd that youre outlining or shading in several unrelated shapes. So its no surprise the drawing doesnt look right it lacks unity!
Composing Your Drawing

Composing your drawing is about making certain choices about the variables we looked at above. 1. Size and shape of illustration what do you choose? Your choice will be dierent depending on whether youre drawing: Something for your portfolio - where you can choose the size and shape of the paper; Anime - limited by the size of the cell paper that will be lmed; or Manga - limited by the size of your manga manuscript paper (generally A4 or B4), but with some freedom to create a frame on that page.
2. Content what will your drawing consist of? 3. Emphasis - what objects or subjects will you emphasize? How will you emphasize them through placement, proportion, scale and the position of the center of interest? How much contrast will you use? 4. Balance symmetrical or asymmetrical? A symmetrical composition has an axis at its center, with the design on one side and a mirror image on the other. Alternatively, the design may radiate from a central point (called radial symmetry). Symmetry is quiet and formal, while an asymmetrical illustration is o-centered and therefore more interesting and dynamic. Asymmetrical drawings beer convey movement. 5. Eye level high or low eye level creates interesting divisions of space.
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In particular, dividing the surface into thirds creates a harmonious, eye-pleasing proportion. Alternatively, placing the eye level halfway down cuts the surface shape in two and is a lile jarring. Compare Figure 74 with Figure 75.
Figure 74
Figure 75
6. Negative spaces you might be tempted to ignore the negative spaces in your drawings i.e. its what you draw, not what you draw, thats important right? Wrong! The arrangement of negative spaces contributes to the overall impact of your drawing. So while you focus on what youre drawing, keep in mind the impact that the negative space will create. For instance, give the sky a denite shape, rather than let it be any old empty area. See Figure 76.
Figure 76
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7. Repetition play with repetition and rhythm. You can repeat elements that have the same shape, interval, and value; or randomly repeat value, while keeping shape and interval constant; use random repetition of value and interval while keeping shape constant; or repeat value, interval and shape at random See Figures 77 - 80.
Figure 77
Figure 78
Figure 79
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Figure 80
8. Depth you can simulate depth by pulling the eye into the picture (to the focal point) rather than across its surface. See Figure 81. Two other ways to show depth are by convergence (see Figure 82) and diminution (see Figure 83).
Figure 81
Figure 82
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Figure 83
Exercise 4
Think of a scene you want to draw you can include characters if you wish, but keep it simple and experiment with three (3) dierent versions, based on experimenting with the above variables of composition.
Wow, were almost done with this lesson, and with the course. What a journey its been! Hopefully, youve done lots and lots of drawing and if you have, Ive no doubt that youre well on your way to becoming a master at drawing anime and manga (if youre not already!) I know - theres still more to learn. Like how to use color, how to draw manga using manga pens and manuscript paper, and how to animate if youre more interested in anime. (Well be covering those in upcoming courses.) And you can still get beer mostly just by drawing day aer day. Thats what professional artists do - they practice their cra everyday. But youve certainly got a strong foundation now. So lets put what youve learned to the test in your nal assignment.
Assignment
Imagine the story that stars your character. Whats it about? Now, think of the most dramatic, exciting scene from that story, starring your character of course. It should be a scene that you can draw in one illustration and one that would look stunning as a poster. Your scene should communicate something of what your story is about. The background and props should give the audience an idea of the what, where, when, why and how of your story. Your character provides the who. Now think of the most dramatic, compelling
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composition you want for your illustration. Review this lesson (and any of the previous lessons) and make some neemus (rough sketches). When youve sketched a few variations, choose the one you think will look best and start drawing! Instructor-led students: please submit your assignment to your instructor for grading. Even if youre not taking the instructor-led version of this course, please either scan and email, or snail-mail, your illustration to us. If emailing, scan and send it to us at artwork@drawanimestyle.com with Lesson 6 - Aer Drawing in the subject line. If mailing, mail your drawing to our snail-mail address (visit hp://www.kikabink.com/contact.htm). Be sure to include a note with Lesson 6 - Aer Drawing and your name on it. We may display it in our online gallery, so others can view your work! Thanks for working through Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga. Its been great having you and we hope youll continue to learn and draw with us!

AAM 101 F D A M: Course Manual

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AAM 101 FUNDAMENTALS OF DRAWING ANIME AND MANGA

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Table of Contents

77 78 81 87 87 88 88 91 94 101 103 107

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Introduction

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Introduction

Lesson 1 Sharpen Your Drawing Skills

Lesson 2 Draw the Head and Face

Lesson 3 Draw the Body

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Introduction

Lesson 4 Draw Emotions

Lesson 5 Draw Action

Lesson 6 Compose Your Drawing

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Introduction

How to Get Better Faster

Before and Aer Drawings

LESSON 1 - SHARPEN YOUR DRAWING SKILLS

What You See is What You Get

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

Can You Draw a Straight Line?

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

Eye Level, Vanishing Points and Perspective

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

One Point Perspective

Two Point Perspective

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

Three Point Perspective

Four Point Perspective

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

Multiple Vanishing Points

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

Your Building Blocks

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

See Figure 15.

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

Shadows, Light and Shading

See Figure 17. Want some practice?

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 1

LESSON 2 - DRAW HEADS

The Standard Head

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 2

boom of the nose and ears. See Figures 18 and 19.

Anime and Manga Heads

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 2

See Figure 21.

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 2

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 2

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 2

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 2

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 2

AAM101 Fundamentals of Drawing Anime and Manga - Lesson 2