Manga - one for the boys

caviaporcellus · #1 12-14-2003, 03:46 PM

Hi.

This is a manga drawing I did a few years ago. It is Hitomi from the Appleseed stories.

Kath.

**Alan Cross** · #2 12-14-2003, 09:51 PM

Nice job on the bike....there is something about the girl and I can't quite put my finger on it....shoulders or knees....also the head might be a bit small....what do you think? I think its also hard to tell as its on an angle....
Alan

caviaporcellus · #3 12-15-2003, 05:14 AM

Yeah, the drawing is on an angle which makes it look off. Also proportions are something with Japanese animation that vary from artist to artist. Some draw them in proportion, others seem to emphasise on certain areas. Take eyes for example, its said that the Japanese envy the western civilisation for their wide open eyes which is why Manga characters have a tendency to have huge eyes. But then, the westerners can't always get it right either, just look at Barbie for example, I mean, how out of proportion can you get??!!

Kath.

LOU ZERR · #4 12-15-2003, 03:03 PM

what do you mean barbies out of proportion?

caviaporcellus · #5 12-15-2003, 03:38 PM

Why is Barbie out of proportion? lets see......

when she puts her arms by her sides, her hands only reach her butt (arms too short)

she has hips you could stand your pint on.

her legs are waaaaayyy too long, if she tried to touch the ground she'd fall over.

if she were real she would be around 7 foot tall.

info found on net.

Part of the problem stems from the fact that she is all out of proportion. If she were a real woman, she would be seven feet tall, have a 40” bust, a 22” waist, 36” hips and five foot long legs, and she would be anorexic.

BTW I'm not jealous or anything, I'm a size 8 and blonde and believe me, I would not want to look like her.

Kath.

Touya · #6 12-15-2003, 11:18 PM

Let's be fair though....Manga and Anime girls are no different.

Part of my main struggle with my favorite art style remains this: manga and anime girls are ANOREXICALLY thin (apologies to anyone out there with the disorder).

This is why I say don't relyy TOO much on real anatomy when drawing manga....I can draw people that thin, but my "anatomy conscience" keeps telling me "That's not right." :P

Use anatomy for limb placement and general idea of where things go, but in Manga, the thin is the thing.

As for your pic, caviaporcellus,first of all, I love your colouring and your work on the bike is super.

From what I can see, the hips may not be rounded in the right places. Nothing major, it's still a kick butt peice.

Touya · #7 12-15-2003, 11:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by caviaporcellus
its said that the Japanese envy the western civilisation for their wide open eyes which is why Manga characters have a tendency to have huge eyes.

Kath.

Sorry, just to clarify, but this misconception irks me.

The tendancy to draw large eyes was a trend started by the late Ozama Tezuka (Astro Boy) who is called the Father of Anime. Tezuka-san himself claimed that his inspiration for the large eyes was actually American animation, particularly Disney characters. He said that the exaggerated eyes gave life to the characters and allowed for quickly-read symbolic expressions.

I guess this is why we have Disney characters in the Japanese video game Kingdom Hearts and they blend almost perfectly with the anime characters. ^_^

Sorry Kath, just needed to clear that up, no hard feelings?

JayD · #8 12-20-2003, 01:52 PM

There has got to be something seriously wrong with me because I find myself really liking the bike. There is nothing wrong with the height of the girl. The proportions are about right for anime characters but the head should be adjusted--by the way the strange hair styles on Anime characters was partially for correction of such problems which explains for me Yu-Gi-O, The thighs are large for her but overall its a great picture. I think you took more time with the bike because the tones and textures seem to be different. As I said before--I love a good bike. I stink at anything with wheels so I really have a bad case of "bike-envy".

JayD · #9 12-20-2003, 01:56 PM

My understanding was that he actually spent time as a Disney artist before returning to Japan. The large eyes, which I personally love, seem to be toning down a bit in more recent Anime productions--my daughter and her friends are fanatics about this kind of stuff.

Touya · #10 12-22-2003, 09:48 PM

Well, that is ONE reason for the hair, a reason most self respecting anime/manga artists would never admit to though...

The main reason for the wild hairstyles with the wild colours is pretty simple though....because all anime characters in a given style look near identical, it became nessacary for manga (comic) artists to find new ways to differentiate them. Since they could always change clothes, hair became the new method of expressing individuality. Different hairstyles indicated different characters (for a poor example, check out the 6th issue of Yuu Yuu Hakusho where Yuusuke comes back to earth with his hair not slicked back and nobody recognises him. In a way, the artist was poking fun at himself).

Also, the reason for the wild colours is this: when a character in a manga is drawn "blond/e" the hair colour is simply not filled in....but when comes time to colour the work, sometimes making too many blonde characters didn't work all the time, so sometimes, new and odd hair colours had to be found (example: the anime Fatal Fury: Legend of the Hungry Wolf....to prevent the young version of villan Geese Howard from looking like the fully grown Andy Bogard, the producers decided to change Andy's hair colour to silver for that one movie. Afterwards, with Geese as an older gent with short hair in subsequent movies in the seires, Andy is once more blonde.)

orchid black · #11 01-08-2004, 10:30 PM

Great job! I love working in manga style. Anime is fun too! Did you get your inspiration from Kaneda's bike from the movie Akira? I realize your's is much more realistic, but that's the first thing that came to mind when I saw yours. And the girl reminds me of Gunbusters. Thanks for sharing this! Fantastic work!!!

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