Le Pen: Technical Drawing Pen MARVY

I've been using the Le Pen's Technical drawing pens and I've totally fallen in love with them. There is no way to prove what is 'best.' There is only what works with some things and what doesn't, what fits your needs and what doesn't- and sometimes those needs change.

The Le Pen set I have includes a 0.8, 0.5, 0.3, 0.1 and 0.03, and one brush tip pen. I use the 0.3, 0.1 and the 0.03 the most, because I like to make one thin line, and thicken if needed. I don't use thicker pens often because there is no way to thin the line afterwards.

I haven't found ANY cons really, so I'm here to tell you about the pros... Well, they are a little big, so if you like small pens/have a small hand, I guess you could count that as a con. The technical drawing pens are a bit large, but I like the feel in my hand. Their size enables them to have a bigger ink cartridge than the Prismacolor manga pens, which means they hold more ink, and will not dry out as fast.

 The Le Pens have an extremely even bleed with no bubbles in the ink because of the felt tips. They are escellent for flat line art. To create thickness of lines, either just go back over your old ones with the same pen or switch out for a thicker pen size. The 0.03 is great for small details, while the 0.8 helps block out areas of black or for bold, attention-grabbing lines.

This is a piece I inked with the Le Pen Technical Drawing Pen.
The last thing I've found about these pens is that I do not have to wait for it too dry before erasing the pencil lines underneath; it's ink soaks into the paper instantly. Less drying time, more drawing time.

I am convinced I will be continuing to use this brand and am very pleased with it.
So, to recap:

1) larger Ink cartridges = longer life
2) Even flow, no surprises
3) Many different sizes, great for details and larger projects
4) Drys instantly

Manga Studios How I draw

Another slide of a manga art piece I did, a girl with a sweater and pockys. :)

Koi Marker Brush pens

Another gift I received for Christmas was a set of gray Koi Marker brush pens, and of course, I wanted to try them out right away. I got out my clip board and started doodling while everyone else finished opening their presents.

 It was a set of six: three warm, three cool. I used the darkest warm and the lightest cool for the above. I really liked the girl's face, and after completing her, I made her into a chibi, but changed the position of her furthest arm.

Here is the set. Koi markers are water-based and very wet markers. Their flow is very controllable, and if you like brush tip markers, they're great.

How to blend Koi markers: I wondered what could make them blend, and rubbing alcohol didn't really work, so, being brilliant as I am, I got out a bunch of hair products and bathroom liquids and tried them out. Hair spray: No. witch Hazel: No. Mouth wash: YES. I used mint mouth wash with a small percentage of  alcohol, and it did great. I didn't use it for blending, instead I just dribbled it onto the paper to suck out color blobs.
Things I learned: 1) Mouth wash can be a great water-based marker blender. 2) Don't work on a tilted surface- liquids run.

All in all, the Koi markers were GREAT. I definitely suggest using them as a great shading set.

My Neighbor Totoro

For Christmas I received my very own Stuffed animal Totoro, handsewn by my sister. Totoro is a character from Ghibli Studios 'My Neighbor Totoro.' Totoro is one of my most important childhood memories, second childhood movie only to 'Monsters Inc,' from which I earned my first nickname as Boo. 

Followers, meet Totoro, Totoro, my followers. :)

Here I am with my Totoro:

 And, Just so you know what our duo is up too:

 lol, I just love my Totoro. I carry it around everywhere- and guess what? I also have the mini white and blue ones, the entire set!

Digital progression

Here's one of my first manga art piece in Manga Studios compared to my last one, drawn today.

And this closes my 2015, my third year of art, and first year of digital. Here's too 2016, a whole new year!

Merry Christmas! Manga Chibis

Merry Christmas everybody! Tonight is the big night... The one where I stay up till 4 covertly wrapping 'santa presents.'

My Chibi self and my chibi friends wish you a Merry Manga Christmas! Oh... You don't celebrate Christmas? Well. Happy random Friday. :P

What do I need to create a Manga?

Seriously. People act like you need to be 31 with 50 years of experience and copics and everything- and Copics are $$$. <--- It's what makes us Manga artists cry at night.
Really, what do you need?

1. A pencil(Simple, right?). I prefer Ticonderoga. 

2. A pen. Micron is AMAZING, but if you're a penniless student like me, than any pen will do fine; Ink rollers and felt pens are great for Mange IF you let it dry and you aren't like me and smudge it all over the place.

3. Paper. Any paper will do really. If you can afford the fancy stuff, buy it. Cardstock was recommended to me as the cheapest and best by several Mangakas and manga artists, including Supittha Bunyapen, author of manga how to draw book 'Shojo Wonder Manga Art School'

I use copy paper for my sketches, and sometimes use sketchbooks( they don't really work for me, but I really should carry one around and use it. I have several, I just never use them because my perfectionist inside will not allow what is in them to be imperfect, which means I rip too many pages out) and Cardstock for final pages.

4. A ruler, not a big one, just a foot long works fine. The bendy, plastic ones are okay, but I prefer the metal ones as they give you clean/crisp lines.

and lastly...

5. Imagination. Manga really translates into English as 'whimsical pictures.' People want to be taken new places, experience new things or old ones more vividly. The vibrancy of the image is as high as you make it.

This really is all you need to create your very own manga. You don't have limits with these in hand, and while all the expensive material is cool and can save time/have other benefits, if you master these, you can create just as good manga art as with a 100$ pen or a X (<--- insert a number followed by many zeros) stack of watercolor paper, or Copic markers( That's my biggy. I want them so bad!).
After this, you don't need any more, but you could definitely use more, and more would be great. I will make a post on the more expensive art materials I've used, tried and trusted for those of you out there with a little money to burn. xD

So go on and make your own manga. I tip my hat to you, Friend. :)

Basic Manga Guidelines Female and Male

How to draw manga: body guidelines.

First I have the female character. Even in real life, girls are much more curvy and generally shorter than the guys; Manga enhances this. While manga enhances the girly things about girls, it also tends to make it's male characters more macho: Shojo, for instance.Take a look at the basic structure of these two drawings.

Usually I start with the head, an egg shape. Then I create what I call the 'chest-box-thingy.'
then, the two lobe-like things symbolize the lungs. I connect that with the triangle box for the hips. after this first basic shape, I rough in where I want the arms to be along with the legs.
After that, the basics are done, and all that's left is too add 'weight,' or muscle to the drawing, too shape them.

Character requests

So, as those of you who've read my previous posts know, I've been doing Manga Character requests on Nanowrimo, where I received requests and drew manga characters for them. I just wanted to post a few of my favorites.

 With these two, the big one is one I did for my own character, David. The character request reminded me of him, so I drew 'Edison' from David. :)

How to draw a Manga boy: Basic guidelines

Basic guidelines for a manga boy....... ish.

Remember these guys from my last post? 

Well, I finished them, and you get to see how.

I'm just going to put a few photos I scanned while drawing this, review what I thought was important and let you learn from watching/staring at it obsessively- I'll also write out a few pointers for drawing the typical manga guy. This is likely to be my longest post. I really need to get a video camera.

I wanted Raider to be taller than Brandon so I moved that circle up just a tad.

Raider's neck is thicker because he'd more muscular/older.

Manga male torsos are long and rectangular, but that doesn't mean that they're stiff. They have a 'wave,' a shift of weight you can observe in real people (Artists are stalkers, hate to break it to you kid). Watch the next couple guys you see. Watch everybody. It's like bird-watching, but people-watching.

I really don't know how to draw guns, so... don't reference this photo for them.

 Imagine out clothes for your characters and test them out.

 Faces! guys generally have smaller eyes. To draw a Manga guy is to create a stylized version of a real one. 

 Hair! We all love a good hairdo, even if it's a spiky mess. Guys' hair generally has less volume than girls and is shorter/messier. Just adding different little details. ..

Come back in with a pencil and fix up the details. Here you only draw what is visible to the 'readers.' The basic guideline step is over! 

Now I put a paper over it and traced it with pen. They are opposite personalities, so I chose 2 different colors.

Now that I've inked it, it's time to color it- with pen, which is different than most art media you come across. It's a useful tool to master. Here's how they turned out!

Why Guidelines?

My first manga instructor was Mark Crilley. I learned from his youtube lessons before I bought mastering Manga, which is a great book by the way, check it out.

One of the things Mark always stresses is- GUIDELINES. <--- This is the one thing; the ONE thing, out of any drawing concept that I could pick, that I would not, could not do, and because of that, I still have problems. A year and a half from purchasing his book, I have continued to struggle with this. Don't be like me, don't just skip out on guidelines, or at least ground work- Otherwise your manga characters will look funny.

To make it easier, and more fun, I started using a light blue prismacolor pencil to do my guidelines, then filled it out with a pencil and finally traced it with pen onto another paper and added the final touches.

This guy's name is James, known among friends as SEMAJ. Whenever you think life is hard and that you've started out small, don't worry- he started out as a bunch of blue lines. He was also a mistake. A mistake, because I wasn't going to draw James, he hadn't been created yet. When I started, I was going to draw a Sci fi character, but as I went along James popped in instead.

As another example, here's a drawing I'm working on now:

Let me introduce you. On the your left, you have Brandon, and the right, Raider.

Take a closer look at this drawing. The blue I sketched out first, so we can see the shape of both their heads. We can also see that Brandon started out with a sword; one on his back, and then switched to one in his hand. Then, after I did it over with pencil you can see that I gave him a gun like Raiders instead. The ability to go over it again with a different color helped me to separate what would be visible or not, like Raider's ear. It helps me tailor the character's clothes and figure out what the heck I really want in the picture.

So, in closing; GUIDELINES, GUIDELINES, GUIDELINES.

Ink sketch, finger flex, 100 more, take a stretch

I don't know what it is about a pen, but it always brings out my best skills. Or my worst. I guess it just depends on the day. xD
So, I spectacularly failed Inktober, but I still do ink manga art, and ink my pencil manga art too. Here are a few I did recently, the red ones today.

Sometimes it ends up in a terrible mess of unerasable lines, but EVERYTIME, it is a learning experience. If you haven't, I strongly suggest doing Inktober, or just making a goal to create one ink drawing, whether manga or not, every X weeks or every month. The pen trains you to overlook perfectionism; even if it looks like it's going south, hold to it for five more minutes and I promise you won't regret it. If you did, well... DO IT AGAIN.

My Favorite manga sketches this week

Here are a few of the Manga drawings I've completed this week that I actually like. :P

All of these were drawn with a Ticonderoga 2 hb pencil, and the last one is a characters request from a Nanowrimoer. Here are five of my favorite pencil drawings from this week. 

I have not been drawing lately, because a lot of my energy is gone and hasn't returned since November 30th. I hope you like these ones anyway!