Hi! I'm Chie Kutsuwada
I'm a originally from Japan
and I live and work as a manga artist in the UK at the moment.
Today I'm going to tell you how I draw manga style characters.
Today I'm drawing a character
which I just came up with
and first of all when you are drawing you have a plan
you plan in your head and also on the paper
and do a lot of sketches.
I usually first you roughly get the head
if you draw the head
the size of the head
the body is usually 7 or 8 heads tall
as a balance.
So roughly speaking I create that with my eyes
and start drawing.
A lot of people somehow forget to add a neck and shoulders
so be careful with that area.
And think about sections of the bodies
and also
I'm usually don't draw human figures with clothes on directly.
I first draw some kind of mannequin
you know, a naked kind of body first
because it's a manga-style character
you don't have to draw them in an extremely realistic way
but you have to be careful with the body balance
like with the length of limbs
and how they balance with the body.
Drawing bodies is always difficult
but I think it's a balance
you can easily make the head bigger
and somehow the palms and hands and feet way too small
this is a common mistake you make when you are drawing a body.
And then also when you are drawing a body
you have to think of the pose
and a natural pose.
There are certain natural poses
but quite often you end up drawing a character standing up very stiff
or like when you want to draw a character running
but your character is just posing
and stiff and looks like they are stopping
So that kind of thing is quite difficult to draw when you're drawing bodies.
I always check because, even though I've been doing this professionally for a long time now
I still get doubts about how I draw bodies
I try to be very careful about it.
You need a consistency of your drawing
Especially when you are creating stories
you need to know how ordinary female character look
or how ordinary male characters look in your story.
Then if you set that average look you can make other variations for younger characters
or slightly taller characters
or fatter or you know
And then once you set the average
and you have that consistency
then the world that you are drawing looks more believable
which is very, very important.
So I will start with the face because it's very, VERY important
So when you're add the face
first you need to know what kind of person or character this is.
And then think about what kind of facial expressions this character might have.
And then for the balance of the face
...well...
do the kind of traditional "cross-thing"
and get the right balance
because there's no such thing as "one perfect balance"
because it's all about your style
so some artist draw longer faced characters
some manga artists go for a shorter face for cuter characters
it's totally up to you
but my recommendation is don't be afraid to make mistakes and adjust it
just draw and draw and draw
until you get the right balance of it.
Now I'm adding detail for the costume
Why I didn't draw the costume first is because you always have to remember that
under the clothing there is always a body
and for me
I need to know there's a body
so I draw the body first
then I'm thinking about how the costume sits on that body
and how it's creases and everything look.
Now I need to rub out a little bit
because it's getting too complicated now.
Why I am using this feather?
It's just to try to do less damage to the paper
so no oil from your hands gets on the paper.
Ok, so I'm going to add a little bit more details before inking
Some of you already know this but this character is
not
entirely
human
This has a tail
Ok
I'm adding a little bit of background now
But you don't have to use rulers and calculate everything
at the end of the day
if it looks right
that is what's important.
It's not like if it's...
even if the number is correct
if it doesn't look right, it's not right
So trust your eyes
which I'm trying to do now.
So this is a vanishing point
And I quite often hand draw this kind of thing
without using a ruler
because if...
it really depends on what kind of drawing you like
sometimes if you use rulers too much
your drawing looks a little bit too...
mmm... how do you say....
too cold or too stiff.
The question I get most is "how do you draw hands?"
I've done quite a lot of workshops
but I've never had a workshop without someone asking "how can I draw hands?"
and my answer for that is always
"I'm sorry but hands are....
...it doesn't matter if you become a professional
hands are still very difficult to draw."
But one bit of advice from me is
when you are drawing hands
first of all know what makes a hand a hand.
We have a palm
we have a big muscle here
the thumb is shorter
this finger is always longest
and that kind of thing.
You need to know that kind of anatomical thing about hands.
Then maybe you should start drawing mitten-kind-of-hands first
And then also look at the differences.
Use your hands.
Take photos of your hands doing the pose
I always do that when I'm drawing quite difficult hand poses or positions
I still look at the differences
or ask my friends to do the pose or
I do it myself.
I still find drawing hands is really, really hard.
And because sometimes I use my hands as a model
my character's end up having
chubby hands
so I have to change it later.
So I'm quite satisfied this
Ok. I think I'm almost done with the pencil stage.
I'm going to do inking with fineliners next
Hey! Thanks for watching!
We have something new for you next (this) Thursday
It is the theatre curtain
17 metres!
Fantastic!
from 1880.
The video is short, but sweet.
So put down your G-pen
stop drawing manga - just for a little bit on Thursday
and stay tuned.
Here.
Thursday.
for the theatre curtain