HOW TO DRAW AND COLOR FEMALE MANGA HEAD

HOW TO DRAW AND COLOR FEMALE MANGA HEAD 

We will just go quick and simple.  I just wanted to share this one manga drawing.  I totally forgot about this blogger for half a year due to my busy schedule.  I'm so happy to be back.  We'll be discussing how to draw the body parts on the future blogs.  

But for now... Check this out:

1. Draw an outline sketch of the head.  Overlapping circle and triangle.  
   
2. Add a cross outline sketch at the middle.
   
3. Add more lines for the face's outline sketches.  
   
4. Draw an egg-like outline for the shape of the head.
   
5. Start drawing the actual lines based on the outline sketch we've created.  In this case, draw the brows first.
   
6. Continue with the eyes.
   
7. Complete drawing the actual lines of the face and then follow through with the hair.
   
8. Draw the top and the layers of the hair.
   
9. Complete the hair outlines by drawing the bangs.
   
10.  Remove or erase the base or outline sketches.
    
11. Start with the basic color of the skin tone.
    
12. Create the highlight and shadow using the colors needed.
    
13. Color the eyes.
    
14. Add the basic colors of the hair.
    
15. Add the shadows.
    
16. Make sure that the hair strands are shown.
    
17. Add some background.
    
18. Draw and color the clothes and it is viola!!!  Finish!!!
    

Hope you liked it! Thanks for reading....

3 BASIC STEPS IN COLORING A MANGA CHARACTER DESIGN

Last time, we discussed about how to draw a manga head.  And the last picture I have inserted on that  article was the final draft.  In this topic, we will be discussing the steps on coloring a manga character design.

In my head I've got loads of ideas about novels that I wanted to create , and hopefully, publish.  Even for free.  I just wanted to make them as long as my heart's contented.  I just don't have the chance to make them possible YET, but I've already written some of the scripts or plots on my notepad.  So I should probably start making one this year.

One of the characters that I have designed is Kyon.  He is the lead male character from "Morning Glory".  It's genre should be romance, fairy tale, comedy and josei manga.  He is the one that we've drawn on the previous blog, and now we will discuss how to color Kyon.

Step 1  DRAW THE CHARACTER DESIGN.  We have drawn the character design on the previous blog, and this is how he looked like.

Step 2  BASIC COLORS.  Add another layer and start the coloring with the basic colors.  Burnt sienna for the hair and brows.  Green for the eyes.  Flesh for the skin.

Step 3  PUT THE SHADOWS AND HIGHLIGHTS.  I always add another layer for each action that I make.  I added another layer here to put shadows and highlight on the eyes.

Next is the shadowing for the skin.  Always check if the darker shades on your drawing is appropriate for its lighting.  Always remember to put one source of light and make sure that it is shown on the drawing.

Putting shadows on the hair is more delicate than that of the skin tone.  The hair should always show its volume, and the highlight should always be in line with the strands of the hair.  I always start with the shadowing.  Here shows the darker parts of the hair that already gave the volume of the hair.

Next are the highlights.  You can see that there are parts with the bigger but softer highlights, and there are also parts with highlights that are thinner but sharper.  These two types of highlights shows more volume to the hair.  Therefore, shows the hair strands, manga style.

Hope you enjoyed reading!  'Til next time! :)

DRAWING A MANGA HEAD

It's been a while since I last made the HOW TO DRAW MANGA blog.  I've discovered a paint tool that I am using in creating my graphics.  It is called SAI.  Recommended by a friend who is also a graphic artist.  It helped me a lot in improving my skills in drawing anime characters.  And it is VERY EASY to use,  user-friendly and flexible.  Here is an update for the HOW TO DRAW MANGA blog.

I always wanted to draw a fan art about the famous anime characters that are also my favorite.  I also figured that that maybe a way for me to have more views, likes, comments or critiques about my works in the net.  But I somehow couldn't manage to give a time in making one.  My heart just doesn't feel like doing it that way.  Porbably in time.  But not yet now.

So I have been spending my drawing practices by making my own character designs.  It is a lot more fun and it is easier to make your own character designs than just copying the ones that already have been created by other famous artists.  It may give you less fame, but it surely feels  more worth it!  Creating my own character designs makes me feel like they are my very own children.

Here is a step-by-step tutorial for you to draw a manga head.  Later on I'll also post another blog about coloring this character that we will draw.  Get your drawing tools ready, and let's get started!

Step 1  DRAW THE OUTLINE.  I always start a drawing by putting an outline.  And circle is my starting point.  Lightly draw a circle.  It doesn't have to be a perfect circle.  Just ease your hand and draw a circle.

Then, draw the lower part of the head which would look like a cone shape.  The circle was the outline for the upper part of the head.

After drawing the circle and cone-shaped outlines, notice that it formed an egg shape as the head's outline.

Draw a cross line at the middle of the egg-shaped head outline.

Draw another vertical line on the upper part of the egg-shaped head outline.

Estimate the sizes of the facial features and add their outlines.

This is the finished outline of the head.  But to make it easier for you to see, I included here a blue lined drawings as to what feature should be placed on the face's outline.

Step 2    DRAW THE ACTUAL LINES OF THE FACIAL FEATURES.  I added another layer to draw the actual lines of the drawing.  Let's start with the eyes.

Draw the eye brows.

Continue with the nose.

And then, draw the mouth.

To check if the drawing of the face is symmetric, temporarily un-show the first layer.  This is how the second layer look like without showing the first layer.

Step 3  DRAW THE HAIR.  Add another layer for the hair.  Start with the bangs.  This never fail to help me draw the character faster and easier.  Drawing the hair starting with the bangs helps me anticipate how I want the hairstyle to show.  Whether or not it's short, the volume of the hair, would it be curly or straight, etcetera.

 
Continue drawing your desired hairstyle.  But still, don't forget to base it on the head outline, or else the hair would look plump as if it's a wig.

Add as much layers as needed.  I remember reading a comment on a video tutorial that I was watching months ago, one of the netizens criticized adding the layers.  He asked "what's the point of using the layers?! it's not important"  Believe me, guys!  Layers in drawing a character design using a computer paint tool ARE VERY IMPORTANT.  It will help you speed up the drawing by avoiding too much errors.  Without using the layers, you have to go back from scratch by erasing the lines again one by one and re-drawing the correct lines, in order to correct the error again.

While when using layers, you can easily delete the specific layer and the erroneous drawings will be automatically deleted as well.

Step 4  ERASE THE UNNECESSARY LINES.  Erase the lines that are not needed.  Since we've got Layer #3 for the actual hair drawing, we will be erasing the lines on the Layer #2(facial features outline).  But only the parts that are behind the bangs.

  
Step 5  SCAN THE DRAWING.  Scan the drawing using your eyes to see if you're already satisfied. As I check on this character design, I saw that there is something missing.  The pupil.  The pupil is very important in drawing the eyes of a character design.  It shows more feelings or emotions being conveyed by the character that you are trying to make.

Notice on the previous drawings that the eyes shows dullness, but as we add the pupil on each of the eye it shows a soul on the character.

Step 6  COLOR THE MANGA CHARACTER DESIGN.  Another detail that adds soul to the character design is its color.

Here is the final draft of our character design.  I hope you enjoyed reading this article.... :)  Looking forward to creating another one.... :D  Ganbatte!!!!!

HOW TO DRAW MANGA

Just to give you an idea to begin with, manga is Japanese comics or comic books in Japan.  There are different types of manga that suits whatever group of age you belong.  It is highly popular and acknowledged by countless fans because of its involvedness with the lives of the readers.  Many readers enjoy manga because they can relate to the characters and the plot of the story itself.  They experience unique and exceptional pieces or tales that can only be seen in manga.

           It doesn’t matter if you’re already an adult or a kid.  If you feel like you want to learn how to draw manga, you may want to search for good foundations.  Check out books or guides to help you learn easier.  Having guides will give you vast ideas in learning how to draw manga.  You can even create your own unique style in drawing. And in the manga world, being unique, rare, different or peculiar, is very much NORMAL!

Here are some tips to help you start with learning how to draw manga:

     Be familiar with manga.  Start familiarizing by reading manga that were already published in the market, or already out in the internet.  If you surf the internet, there are websites that have free viewings of manga that has been scanned and translated. 

There are also doujinshi manga, or the fan made graphic novels, that you can also check out.  Many fan made artworks can give you great ideas and techniques in creating your own.  You can also watch anime.  All of the most popular manga series were adapted and became an animated series.  They were animated for those audiences who prefer watching anime than reading manga.

     Gather the drawing tools and try drawing.  Before getting a book or a how-to-guidelines for drawing manga, try to gather the drawing tools first and start drawing.  Just get the basic drawing tools so that it would not be hard for you to find them. 

The basic drawing tools are a pencil, a ballpoint pen, an eraser and a small sketch pad or any drawing paper will do.  Try to draw some characters from the manga that you read or the anime that you saw.  Since you will be drawing for the first time, don’t fall apart if you can’t copy the character yet.  Drawing manga needs effort and patience to get to the top so do not ever lose the will of wanting to learn how to draw manga.

    Get a How-To Guidelines for drawing manga.  Buy a good book that would help you in learning drawing manga skills.  How-to-guidelines for drawing manga are, naturally, easy to understand.  They are meant, by the authors, to be made easy for the readers to understand and learn quickly.  There are step-by-step tutoring and they even have pictures while the drawing is being made. 

Do not cheat while reading.  Others only read the first part, and goes, directly, to the last instruction.  You have to read each step so that you won’t miss any secrets techniques or tips that the author might give.

     Practice drawing EVERYDAY!  For starters, you can try drawing your favorite manga or anime characters.  That way, it would give you inspiration to finish the drawing happily because you will see your favorite character drawn by your own hand.  Again, you can use your favorite character as a starting point.  ONLY as starting point. 

I suggest you draw a different pose and just use the character as a concept. But it doesn’t really matter if you copy the exact pose of the character or not.  What’s important is that you were able to learn the technique that other artists used while making their manga character. 

Make sure that you practice everyday!  Everyday doesn’t mean that you have to work overtime.  Give at least an hour a day until you get used to drawing each day.  Eventually, it will harmonize itself to your schedule and will become one of your daily routine.  Also, slowly, try creating your own unique style of manga.  Give it a try every once in a while.  Be imaginative and creative in making your own original character and manga.  It will come a time that you wouldn’t need to use your favorite character as a model because you have already created your own.  And nothing beats practice if you really want to become a better manga artist.

     Enjoy and have fun!  All the tips that I have given you earlier would never be essential if you do not get the last one.  The most important part of learning how to draw manga is to enjoy drawing.  If you do not have the pleasure and the willingness to learn it at the beginning, you wouldn’t be learning anything at all.  Not unless you are a super robotic humanoid or a cyborg that can just store the skill into your memory of your cyber brain.  But we’re all humans here.  We have feelings, so just enjoy it.  “That’s the secret weapon!” Aside from practice, that is!

Sad but true, most people think that drawing is unwise and useless.  All you have to do is to NOT LISTEN!  Although, there are many criticisms, do not let that get into your mind.  Take it as a motivation instead.  Keep on running towards your dreams.  You know you can do it!