When beginning to draw do not worry too much about any list of suggested art materials. It is best to start practicing with whatever you already got readily available at home or school like printer paper and regular pens and pencils. What is really important to improve your drawing skills is that you practice doodling and sketching often to develop your manual dexterity and control making different marks on the paper. If you feel ready to start experimenting with some shading and coloring in your Manga art, you might want to try brush markers like the Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pens that work quite nicely on Canson Fanboy Manga 150 lb drawing paper and are a far more affordable initial investment than a set of the professional grade Copic Markers. For more info on selecting art materials you can check this blog entry and this step-by-step marker coloring demo.
After reading your thoughtful comments and suggestions in the workshop's feedback survey, just wanted to highlight or add the following books to my list of recommended Manga drawing reference books.
For those interested in a book focused on drawing Manga girls you might want to check out How to Draw Anime & Game Characters, Vol. 5: Bishoujo Game Characters by Tadashi Ozawa.Which is getting a tad hard to find on Amazon, but can still be found in-stock in some Anime online retailers.
This book by Yuki Kirishima and Ran Mutsuki KAOPPE, Let's Draw! Illustrating with Copic, is an ok reference for the use of Copic Markers, the choice of many professional Manga artists in Japan. Quick side note: If you decide to get your Copic Sketch markers or any other recommended art materials online through Blick Art Materials, I would really appreciate it if you were to order them after clicking on one of displayed Dick Blick Art Materials banners (scattered throughhout the right column or at the bottom of this blog) since I am one of their affiliates.
I would recommend checking out this book by David Chelsea, Perspective for Comic Book Artists, to improve your drawing skills and render more realistic cityscapes.
Fantasy Cartooning by Ben Caldwell is a personal favorite fun reference book on drawing Fantasy warriors, swords, and monsters in a cartoon style that was already included in the suggested reading list.
* The Andy Warhol Portfolios: Life and Legends exhibit will conclude this May 3rd, so you better hurry in planning a visit to The von Liebig Art Center if you haven't check out this Bank of America collection of screen prints which includes several complete series like Endangered Species and Myths. For further details check this website.
First hand-drawn sign in the CCPL Anime Club window case at the Library lobby.
Workshop sign and flyers at the Young Readers section in the back of the Library.
Close up of one of the hand-drawn signs featuring fantasy characters inspired by Japanese Mythology.
With a Sketching mindset, the goal of the above doodle was to explore random ideas that pop to mind using symbols learned and developed through regular practice and exposure to Manga and Anime. It was drawn straight with a Sakura Pigma Sensei 0.6 mm pigment pen. Started with the guy on the foreground and gradually added the bird, droid, girls, 2-headed dragon, cat, floor, and ended with the rear wall detailing. I suppose it could make a fair coloring page, but it is basically a hastily drawn concept that could serve as a preliminary study for a finished drawing. If I would like to refine the sketch further, I would probably start with loose pencil construction lines to improve the composition. Seeking some reference material to be more precise and anatomically correct would lend more believability to the image. Using different pen nibs sizes to render elements in the foreground, middle ground, and background would better convey the spacial relationships among the picture components. Thicker lines could be used in rendering foreground objects, and thinner lines could be used on background objects as they recede in the distance. For this first workshop, we will concentrate on creating your own Manga sketching symbols and hopefully motivate you to develop your own personal Manga style.
For our first meeting I plan to go over some of the drawing tools and materials suitable for drawing Manga characters, monsters, and robots while demonstrating my design philosophy and quick-sketching techniques. No special materials are required, but you are welcomed to check out the suggestions and tips posted on the right column of this blog. Whatever pen or pencil you already have at home along with some regular printer/copy paper would be fine to get you started. While I am a bit of an art supplies collector myself, there is no need to get everything from the list of suggestions. In fact, it would probably be best to try only a few at a time before you get stuck with tools that you do not care for. Drawing tools selection is rather subjective, and there is no magical perfect pen that will make you a great artist overnight. That said, you might find the learning process and sketching more enjoyable if you choose reliable quality tools. If you would still like some specific suggestions and tips on local retailers check out the comment tags on this photo. A good minimal starter kit would be to pick a 9"X12" sketchbook along with the Sakura Pigma Sensei manga drawing set. That would give you plenty of paper to practice, a nice 0.7 mm mechanical pencil, a foam eraser, and a range of different pigment liner nibs to cover most inking needs. In the meantime, feel free to ask any questions through the comments section or by contacting me by e-mail.
Quick tip: Small plastic toy animals can be useful as portable 3-dimensional references for more believable quick sketches of the subject models viewed from different angles. Don't get distracted with textural details since generally these type of toys are not that accurate on that regard, but use them as reference to get the general posture and relative position of the limbs. Gradually rotate each figure 360 degrees, and draw it from different points of view until you are satisfied with the results.
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