adamwarren
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1997's WIZARD magazine "How to Draw in the 'Manga Style'" piece!
🕑 Added 2020-07-14 13:01:00 +0000 UTCAfter posting the first page of this stuff last Friday for a "Rando's Cornucopia" grab-bag post, I was vaguely startled to realize that I'd apparently never posted this material on the ol' Patreon before. (I was likely working under the assumption that most Patrons would already have seen this long-ago article, TBH.) So, here 'tis!
From that golden year of 1997, during a short-lived era of optimism and positivity when my comics career was on the upswing with the publication of both Titans: Scissors, Paper, Stone for DC and Gen 13 Bootleg: Grunge! the Movie for Wildstorm, I also did a "how to draw manga-style" piece for Wizard magazine. (This despite the fact that I consider the term "manga-style" to be a bit of a joke, as the piece's text addresses.)
And now, a few words on the pages, assuming I get the time to go back and add commentary before this sucker posts:
Yeahp, I first learned about "big eye" facial proportions by doing such analyses on Tsukasa Dokite's character designs from the 1985(-ish?) Dirty Pair TV anime series.
Also, the three eye examples at lower right were based on the following works: A) was derived from Kazushi Hagiwara's Bastard!!; B) was taken from Kenichi Sonoda's Gunsmith Cats; and C) comes from Yuri's character design in the anime Dirty Pair Flash.
PATREON KEYWORD AUTOFLAGGING ALERT: And yeahp, just as you would expect by now, my use of the name (and suspicious keyword) "Yuri" just triggered the site's automatic dialog box waning that "Patreon doesn't allow the featuring of seemingly underage characters in the context of adult content." Dagnabbit!
That odd, arguably nonsensical line about "That's the main reason most manga are in black and white" is notably not something I wrote, and was added in the editorial stage; gotta say, though, I'm still not sure what the hell the editors were driving at with that inserted line.
At the time I did this article, I was already sliding dangerously behind schedule on my arc on Gen13 Bootleg, hence the fact that I rolled with very tight pencils for the art instead of showing finished inks.
That last panel's bit about bold lines indicating dramatic emphasis rather than motion is an insight that's held up over the years, given that I still use 'em for that purpose.
If you've never drawn speedlines using a French curve (as notably depicted in panel 1 above), I strongly recommend giving the technique a try!
The overlapping-lines moiré-pattern bit (from panel 2) isn't as common a technique as it once was, but I still see it used in manga from time to time. Don't think I've used it myself in a long, long time, though.
TOMORROW ON THIS HERE PATREON: Time for s'more "Distressed Damsel" material for the $5+ tiers, though as yet I'm not sure what the heck I'll be posting for DiD content this week.
Comments
JoJack86
What an awesome blast from the past! I used to cut these sections out of Wizard each month and keep them in folder.
Strypgia
The only Gen13 stuff I've ever enjoyed was yours.
Will_K
Be glad Patreon does have a "big eyes" warning.
T.Geist
ahh yes saucer eyed dames and speedlines..dem memories
Tekkaman-James
I still have and very much cherish this issue of Wizard. I learned so much from you.
