Seven Pointers for Drawing Anime Art

1. Don’t try to be original. Since the 60s, western society has been obsessed with originality. This is not the case in manga, and the reason mangaka get so good is because they are not afraid to emulate their masters. In fact, it is very much frowned upon to try to go your own way without having a firm knowledge of the basics. As with all things in Japan, one must be like everyone else first – then one can have the freedom to explore their own individuality. Originality should be earned. And this means, if you suck at drawing manga, don’t try to say it’s your own style. If you can’t draw in the conventional style, you still suck.

2. Never, EVER be afraid to trace. And I mean TRACE. This is a practice that has somehow become taboo in western society. But consider how many years a budding mangaka spends inking another mangaka’s work, and you’ll realize that there might be something beneficial in tracing. Some books may tell you to look and copy – that helps as well. But for us westerners who didn’t grow up in a society saturated with the anime style, there are a lot of techniques that are easier to learn if you just trace. But do it a lot, and NEVER try to pass it off as your own work.

3. Color is NOT secondary. Color creates the mood of the artwork, it must be treated with the same respect as the line art. Before you even begin coloring, decide what mood you want in your artwork. Then decide on a color pallet. This isn’t a tutorial on color, I don’t claim to be an expert in it. So take a painting class, or read a tutorial on color. Learn what looks good together. And again, look at other manga art. One thing that has always drawn me to anime is the use of color to create mood. You might, as an exercise, want to collect commercial anime art that represents a certain season or a certain time of day. See how they use color. And remember, stick with one pallet, but include a small section of the other for interest (as an easy example, a cool/blues image of a girl with red lips). And another thing, remember that shadow is NOT black and grey. Try not to use black in shadow at all. In fact, a darker but more saturated color can often look nice as a shadow. For instance, I will often use a light peach for lighter skin tones and a darker, more red, more highly saturated color for the shadows.

4. That said, line are is VERY important. Don’t take a crappy pencil drawing and expect it to look great once you color it. It will almost always still look crap. Personally, if I ink something on paper, I will always reink it on the computer. There is no easy way around this. Live Trace can help, but it’s still not nearly up to par with just going in there and inking with a tablet. Of course, this isn’t for everybody. If you have a steady hand and rock at inking on paper, then you certainly don’t need to reink on the computer. And something beginning artists don’t know about – take your scanned in inked layer, make it to the top layer in photoshop, and then go to the drop down menu at the top of the layers pallet and go to “multiply”. This makes all the white areas transparent. ^_^

5. Sketch and resketch. If your sketching on paper, start with a 6H pencil. Then go in with a 4H. Then a 2H. And on down the line until you get what you want. This becomes a whole lot easier if (like me) you sketch on the computer. Just sketch, create a new layer, make the old one about 15% transparency, and sketch over it until you get what you want. And try and get your sketch as close to the finished product as possible. Many’s a time I started out with a messy sketch and it ended up taking me twice as long to ink. It’s easier to figure out what your doing in a sketch then in a controlled ink drawing.

6. Backgrounds. Well, you don’t need to include them. And if you do, there are some really simple ideas that can look really nice (look at commercial anime art for ideas). But ALWAYS make them look as clean and finished as your drawing. One thing that bugs me is when people blow up the character and put him/her faded out in the background. This can look great, but only if your art can take it. Often in amateur art you can see all the imperfections when the image is blown up. Ugh. So remember, a background can enhance your art, but it can also very easily detract from it. So if you decide to include one, make sure it looks good and goes with your color scheme.

7. The right tools. If you’re using crayola markers on inkjet paper, you ain’t gonna come out with something very professional. I have a few comments on the right tools, so I made a different tutorial for them. Go check it.

That’s all I have for now. If I think of any other tips, I’ll be sure to add them.

By Laura Anderton (http://www.laura-anderton.com)