Last Manga Cartooning Class for the School Year

Recommended viewing & reading: For inspiration, check out this comedy animation series: Azumanga Daioh - Class Album (Complete Series). The manga by Kiyohiko Azuma has also been released in one volume collecting the entire series: Azumanga Daioh Omnibus Volume 1. Both provide a humorous look at the High School years of a group of teenage girls in Japan, and the latter in particular features several good examples of yonkoma 4-panel comic strips and short comic stories. It might seem rather odd to Western readers that in Japan this title was published under the Shōnen genre (so it was aimed at young male demographics). Yet once localized for the American market, we would probably consider it a Shōjo title given its young female heroines. Regardless, this series presents a fairly entertaining view of Japanese school life and unique cultural experience.

For our last meeting of the 7-lessons cartooning course, we tried out some alternatives to the traditional wooden art manikins: articulated Spiderman action figures and some Japanese PVC figurines.
Japanese collector's PVC figurines while lacking articulation in general, they tend to be quite rich in detail and can effectively function as art reference manikins. Especially fantasy theme series, like these Capcom Furuta Onimusha traditional Japanese heroes and demon figures.
A student did some nice work using this ghostly samurai wielding two swords as reference, but I unfortunately did not get a picture of his sketch.
Drawing the figurines.
Pencil sketch.
Source reference: 4-armed zombie PVC figurine.
Pencil sketch.
Source reference: Tengu PVC figurine.
Finished pencil sketch after laying down the stick figure structure first.
From the color, I suspect this plump Japanese demon to be a type of mythological fox.
Yup, he is going to try to draw this demon fox figurine. Right after he finishes his snack.
We'll accept this head sketch as an initial attempt, but expect to see some improvement after the student works some more on his sketchbook over the summer.
Enjoy the summer break guys! I'll get around doing a group drawing based on your pictures soon.

Upcoming Manga Cartooning Classes for the Summer in Naples

I will be teaching introductory Manga sketching and cartooning classes at the following locations this summer:

Boys and Girls Club of Collier County
Weeks of June 22 through Jun 26: 9 - 11:30 am for Middle School girls.
August 3 through August 7: 9 - 11:30 am for Middle School girls.


The von Liebig Art Center - ARTScool
Week of Aug 3 through August 7: 1-4 pm for boys and girls 7 to 10 years old.

Pencil doodles drawn at the library

As we approach the summer break, remember that there are many places in Naples like the Pier and the beaches that provide ample supply of drawing subjects to improve your illustration skills. Keep your sketching kit compact (small sketchbook, mechanical pencil, and maybe an eraser) for maximum efficiency and mobility. I would recommend carrying it in a waterproof container to protect your sketching tools from the elements (a Ziploc bag can work in a pinch to keep your kit dry, clean, and free of sand). For coloring options, a compact watercolor box and a waterbrush are a good choice for sketching on-the-go.
Warm up doodle page practicing figure structure and different designs for pairs of eyes.
A few doodles drawn at the library with a selection of 2 mm leadholders loaded with H, HB, and B graphite leads.

A few more Comic Page Thumbnail Templates

This additional batch of thumbnail comic page templates features a few digitally applied screentones, so additional elements can be overlaid right on top of the patterns and backgrounds by drawing them on a sheet of tracing paper taped to the template. Once a pleasing result is achieved, the drawings could then be transferred to a thicker sheet of paper and then cut and pasted on top of the screentones.

A couple of reference backgrounds and panel templates for a School Manga story

Tweaked some photos of the school on Photoshop, so that they could be used as practical reference for creating the backgrounds on a Manga story taking place in an American school.
Courtyard.
School entrance.

Hallway leading into ESOL classroom.
Art Classroom reference 1.
Art Classroom reference 2.
This first template with a background establishing shot of the the bus loop could be further enhanced by pasting some characters and vehicles directly on top of it.

Blank version that can be use to draw your own wide-angle establishing shot for your story.
This last template could also be flipped over to have a wide angle establishing shot at the top and the two vertical panels on the bottom.Ditto.
The blank templates are letter size when printed on regular copy paper and can be used to quickly try out different comic story layouts and design ideas as oversize thumbnails. This preliminary stage can help you explore the structure of your story visually and plan your work flow more efficiently. If you were planning to draw a regular American size comic story, the originals typically are drawn on more expensive and heavier illustration supports (like 2-ply bristol board) that measure 10" X 15". Thus using the sketching templates to work out the early structure of the comic is both time and cost effective.

Another example of a doodling session

Had some time to kill at the bookstore, so I doodled a few pages of faces and figures to explore how some minute changes in the proportions and relative size of the features can create different looks.

Class reminder: Sketch everyday gang!

Filling pages with manga-style pencil doodles using a 0.5 mechanical pencil loaded with a B lead (which creates a nice dark line similar to a black gel pen) and a 2 mm leadholder loaded with an F lead (which retains its sharp point longer and works well for gradated shading).
When doing these daily practice doodles do not spend much time planning nor worrying about making a perfect finished picture, just start doodling faces, random patterns, favorite subjects, and fill both sides of the sheets to maximize your practice area. Take note of what you like, which of your manga symbols work as intended, and what needs improvement to more clearly convey your visual message. Keep the sketching habit every day during the summer break, and you will rewarded with greater confidence in your drawing skills and increased speed by the time the next school year starts.

Lesson 5 of Manga Cartooning Workshop Photo Journal

A few illustrations of cartoon versions of some students were used to demonstrate the effects of the different drawing pens from the classroom sketching kits.
The first illustration was drawn using a single 0.4 mm pigment pen with no line variation. Thus in order to convey different textures, a fish-net pattern was used to darken some parts of the character's costume.
This second drawing was made with a selection of pigment pens of different line widths plus a warm and cool gray brush pens to give a stronger sense of volume to this energetic character type.
Another drawing made with the same larger selection of sketching pens.

Quick pen drawing of age-progressed Naruto's Team 7 characters used to illustrate the concept of Dōjinshi.
New student's baseline drawings.

Some student drawings that used previous class reference material for inspiration.
Working on the projection board right next to the reference image.
Student's skillful Manga interpretation of the Mochica Crab Centipede monster concept.
The student here first drew a set of Manga eyes, and then drew this character around them.
Drawing a Manga character based on a photo reference of fellow student projected on the classroom board.
Work in progress showing a fellow student as a fairy type character.
Drawing a Manga heroine type.
Student using some reference material to draw his very own Kaiju (Japanese Giant Monster).