[Nex]

I am no expert on anime/manga stuff but this does not look like manga.

If manga is your thing I'd suggest you study it more closely and find out the characteristics of this style.

Anyway an anatomy book for artists/drawing from life and a lot of practice will bring you there.

hope this made any sense.

[This message has been edited by Nex (edited September 30, 2000).]

[Dives]

well if this is manga then im the president of the unted states

[SewerRat]

It's neither anime or manga...just cartoons.

[YourMum]

Hi DeadlySCSI! I agree with SewerRat.. your pictures look cartoon type. Err... you have lots of work when practicing what's inside in manga/anime style. Keep working! Practicing after practising...

-Juha-

[DeadlySCSI]

Here we are... 2 Anime (or could that be Manga?) style pics for you people to take a look at.

These are my first and are only the line sketchs...

[This message has been edited by DeadlySCSI (edited September 30, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by DeadlySCSI (edited September 30, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by DeadlySCSI (edited September 30, 2000).]

[DeadlySCSI]

AHA! Finally! After 3 Edits you can finally see the pictures...

[This message has been edited by DeadlySCSI (edited September 30, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by DeadlySCSI (edited September 30, 2000).]

[DeadlySCSI]

*Grins* You people are experts at ripping it but thanks anyway... hey, these are the first. alot of replys. It's difficult doing magna Eyes that size... any suggestions to make them less cartoony? Proportions? Eyes? Hair? General stuff?

[Get-up Kid]

Deadly, I would suggest focusing on taking Manga as an influence. In my experience it has always been more rewarding to have my own style show. And if you are just starting out at drawing figures, try doing gesture studies instead of full-on sketches. Don't be afraid to be loose!
Try dividing your bodies into masses. Focus on how they connect and interrelate. A great book to get is Bridgemans Guide to Life Drawing. I know you'll benefit from it.

[DeadlySCSI]

*WARNING - TOTALLY SERIOUS REPLY COMING UP*
Ok... these only took 2 hours a piece and I've only been drawing for about 60% of my 16 year life, on looking how much you more seasoned Artists complain that Newbies post stuff like this I promise that I will NEVER post anymore unless I've spent about a week working and refining it before I throw it onto the dissection table. You Pros don't need to be bothered with stupid posts like these...

[This message has been edited by DeadlySCSI (edited October 01, 2000).]

[Rinaldo]

DeadlySCSI-
There is nothing wrong with your drawings. Skill level is relative. The thing is that no one on this forum can help you as much as a good anatomy book at this point in time. Also check out the book; "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards. It will help you with a lot of the perceptuial/proportion problems I see in your drawings.

The best Advice I can give you at the momment is vague. learn figure construction. Do your poses with stick figures very small to start with. Do lots of them until you get a pose that works and looks viable. then work on the shapes (body masses), then the details. learn what makes up the figure. View everything as a three dimensional shape.
your two hours are best spent learning to draw not drawing as such. not every bit of paper you touch has to be a masterpiece.
Get a big stack of crappy paper and go through it drawing whatever you want. Volume is pretty much the key. The more you draw the better you'll get. if you spend hours on a single drawing you have learnt considerable less than if you did 20 sketches.
Then take one of your favorite sketches and work it up.
Go through magazines and draw every face and figure to the best of your ability. notice what you are doing wrong correct it on the next one.
if you have a look at the majority of comics when an artist first starts to draw a character they don't do it all the well, it takes a few issues to get a feel for it. You need to know what you are drawing and have experiance with it.

I can't recomend "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" enough. I can promise that it will help you along as fast as is possible.

Happy drawing

[DeadlySCSI]

Thank you for the advice.
I'm going to have to change my mentality to drawing I think. I'm willing to give anything a try if it will help me though. Hope this book isn't too expensive

[SushiMaster]

Hi...

I'm not that good, but perhaps that puts me in even better position to give you some advice you can relate too... hmmm... eh.

Anyway, I would not advise starting with manga. I've seen this documentary on the TV, and did you know most anime artists, before they do anime, first get extremely good at drawing and copying very complicated drawings. First they learn to draw real well, then they simplify down to anime or manga to make money :-P Of course, some anime or manga is extremely complex - and that's where the skill becomes very much necessary.

Anyway, I've started drawing this summer, and first I though I'd try drawing manga stuff but thankfully I changed my mind. It's much better to first learn "proper", realistic drawing. Once you can do that, the anime you tried to draw just now will be so easy you'll laugh :-)

A very, very good way to practice is to get sketch/paintings books by great artists (eg Leonardo da Vinci and all the rest) and try to reproduce what you see there, with your pencil. It won't come out as good as an oil painting, but you can still get a lot of knowledge from copying those...

Then, once you go and draw something original, all that knowledge will pop right back and it will be much easier to draw...

Good luck!

Daniel

[Rinaldo]

my copy says $16.95 US.

What Sushi said is true. you need to know what you're drawing before you simplify it otherwise all you're doing is copying another manga artist's work. You'll have a hard time finding your own style.
One of the biggest mistakes that people make is to think that all those simplified drawing are easier to draw than the complex ones. Big mistake! You have a lot less to work with. You have to make every line count, You have to intimatly know your subject. no giving it form with a bit of shading. Have a look at your favorite manga artists or some good Animes. although the forms are relativly simple the subtlty of the lines and the amount of anatomy and form they describe is extreemly skillful and well thought out.
As Sushi said a lot of manga artist can draw realiaticalyl in fact you will see in a lot of manga that there are very detailed and technical depictions of cars and buildings etc with some little manga guy in their midst.
One of the reasons that manga is so simplified is because they don't do 22 pages a month like western comic artists. I'm not going to make an estimate, but a japaneses friend of mine said it was like twice that at least. The manga is read at about 1.5 seconds a page or something as well.

I'd not inhibit myself from drawing manga or any other form of comic stlye drawing but not for learning purposes so much.
Make sure you have fun otherewise your progress will be slower. Don't stop drawing what you like, just branch out into other things as well. If you have fun then you learn faster.:)

Just thought I'd add that little drawl:)

[RamDac]

Yep. Just practice. I�m trying to learn drawing manga myself. good luck.

[DeadlySCSI]

Well... looks like I can draw 2 conclusions from the above replys.

1) The first people who look at a newbies work (which isn't exactly what they were expecting) tend to just say "hey, that's not right..." and leave it at that (I think you were a bit harsh weren't you Dines?) and then then people come along and actually help.
2) The help which is given is extremly good.

So I've ordered the 2000 edition of "Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain" and I've started doing lots and lots of quick studies and working on them later on ("Richie The Stickman" is brought into being). Hey, I might even get a good mark for my A-Level Art project if I follow these guidelines. (I learnt today that we're not even going to be producing a final piece, just working up to it with lots and lots of studies and ideas)

If anyone cares I may work on these a bit more and re-post them at a later date. But then again... perhaps I woun't.

-DeadlySCSI
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Dopefish or Rotfish? It's your choice
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