How to Draw a Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for comics. In the English speaking world, it is used as a generic term for all comic books and graphic novels that were originally published in Japan. The characters in Manga differ from those in Western cartoons, and with a few guidelines it is not very hard to draw the basic structure and outline of a manga character.

You will need

• Paper
• Pencil
• Eraser
• General drawing tools

Instructions

1. When drawing a manga character, the right proportions are important. The average human is about 7.5 heads tall, a manga action hero tends to have more elongated proportions, and is at least 8 heads tall, or taller.
2. Added to the elongated stance, manga characters have comparatively small heads, heightening the dramatic effects of a low viewpoint in the towering ‘hero’ stance. This differs significantly to the big headed style of cartoon.
3. Otherwise body proportions are standard: shoulder to elbow is roughly the same length as your elbow to wrist. The same goes for hip to knee and knee to ankle.
4. Begin the wireframe figure by placing (not finishing) the head, then going into the rest of the wireframe, because the head usually guides the body. The detail is developed along with the rest of the figure, not finished first.
5. Copy the wireframe man pictured here, adding circles and ovals (as shown in the picture) between the joints where muscles should go. Make them slender for a lean character, like the one pictured, or thicker for a bulkier build. The forearm and calf muscles don’t continue all the way to the wrists and ankles, because the limbs narrow towards those joints.
6. Next, draw the outline–curvy, quite continuous lines that defines the character. The gradual curve of these lines are very important. Sharp corners on a figure tend to look mechanical rather than organic, and so look incorrect.
7. As you can see here the drawing is male. Apart from having breasts, females will have wider hips and thinner waists, giving the “hourglass” shape.
8. Manga style dictates that their shoulders are less broad than men’s, and their necks are more slender. Often artists draw women in a stance such that their feet are touching to further enhance the hourglass shape.
9. Erase the guidelines within the outline. Make any corrections to things that don’t look quite right. You should now have a basic figure, ready to add detail.

Tips and Warnings

• Keep in mind that you still want to practise all types of builds to improve at the art style. Also manga characters don’t tend to be as muscular as Western cartoon characters.
• The wire and ball approach is a common one for drawing figures, and is a useful place to start. Once you’re confident, you’ll find that you’ll often use just a suggestion of a framework, sometimes skipping straight to the outline. This is a simple character to begin with. The wireframe method is useful for working out quick poses, too.
• See if you can copy poses from photographs of athletes and martial arts exponents, or use a wooden artist’s mannequins to set up a pose. You can also look at this link for ideas.