crumbdinger

by Yoshimi Sato pairs up the vengeful spirit of an ancient warrior with a born-hot-yesterday android night patrolman who happens to be a celebrated warrior, herself. Hungry for the souls women but unsure of whether this bot qualifies as his meal, he convinces both of them that she has a soul before attempting to attack her once more. Defeated, his last chance is to possess her as though she were a doll. Immediately detected and quarantined by her anti-virus software, he is trapped once more. But this physical evidence of a soul could be the very proof she needs to win rights for her kind.

To Dusk and Twilight

by Keito Gaku is the time-jumped, aged-up sequel to his breakout, award-winning hit series Boys Run the Riot. Still pursuing fashion, Ryo is out of high school now and is beginning to realize how exhausting it is "having to ask permission to exist" all the time. Can't everyone else look beyond what's on paper and see the young man standing in front of them? Inspired by the euphoria of a simple greeting (and his friends, of course), Ryo makes the decision to medically transition, even if it means leaving his relationship with his mother behind.

Still You

Voting ends November 10th and the top 5 stories will be serialized. You can find the voting FAQ here, including instructions on how to vote via twitter, if you'd prefer to do that.

I was hoping to decode this dress. Borrowed from Tsukasa's sister, it is completely filled in with what must be a nautical screentone, covered in shells, rope, and nets. As such, it obscures the lines of the dress.

Without looking at other reference images, I tried to make sense of the dress lines. Here is what I know:

There is a diamond shaped cutout on the upper back, the bottom point terminating in a zipper which runs down the rest of the bodice at least. There is at least one skirt overlay and at least one overskirt.

Jaeha, the Green Dragon, experiences the piercing gazes of both Shin-ah, the White Dragon, and Ao.

Yona of the Dawn is one of the many excellent shojo series whose anime never got renewed so I recommend you read it! I plan to draw a couple other panels from the series so I'll save the story for then.

Shin-ah is probably filled in with screentone in the original. I can't jump into that quite yet so I used a liquid [latex] mask with my nib and filled in the silhouette with black ink ("I got some!") before rubbing the mask away with a rubber cement eraser (clean or gloved fingies work too).

Thought I'd use this post to discuss the drawing process I've been using

Blocking

light blue erasable mechanical pencil leads

use simple shapes and lines to plan where subjects are in space

Sketching

red erasable mechanical pencil leads

refine line work

mark out important areas of shade or light

Final Pencil

0.3mm mechanical pencil

finalize important line work, erasing under-drawing to reduce ambiguity

Inking

before inking, TEST ALL materials you intend to use together, including your eraser, to ensure that they will not disturb the ink

lay down any prominent, thick, or foundational lines

draw finer lines and refine line weight where necessary

use a light hand to draw hatching and/or action lines

Finishing

erase all pencil lines

do any lettering at this stage, following the same process

Sugimoto's deer-flavored identity crisis.

I went slightly overboard with the action lines! But it seems to work, stylistically. I noticed there is some white hatching on Sugimoto's rifle, so I may try to find a bottle of white deleter ink soon.

The Summer Hikaru Died is an ongoing manga and anime series that is a captivating horror story following two boys from the countryside as they discover both themselves, and their generational involvement with the "thing" that's always haunted the mountains above their village...Because it may not be on the mountain anymore...

And the "Hikaru" seeing Yoshiki through these eyes is not the same Hikaru who was lost in the forest last winter--but this one seems to return Yoshiki's affections...why? and just how dangerous is he?

I love how the lighting puts one of Hikaru's eyes completely in shadow, echoed by Yoshiki's signature don't-look-at-me-bangs in the following panel. The diagonal composition of the panel also lends to the tenuous (calculated?) sense of balance in the moment.

Since this is the upcoming arc in the anime of Jujutsu Kaisen, I won't say very much about the situation or character--all you need to know is: his design is based on a Kappa and the resulting hairstyle is reminiscent enough of a crown for our purposes.

I used a crowquill nib on this one for those fine, fine lines and because I read that it is widely used in shonen manga specifically.

I really enjoyed working in Gege's sketchy, quick-hatched style; Dimension is implied by the slightest of curves despite the overall style being extremely angular and heavy-handed (non-derogatory).

Golden Kamuy is not for the faint of heart. Taking place between the Russo-Japanese War and WWI, we follow two groups of disaffected men as they vie for gruesome clues to finding a legendary cache of Ainu gold--enough wealth to achieve their respective political goals.

Our heroes are Saichi "the immortal" Sugimoto, a legend himself, and Asirpa, a young Ainu girl who uses traditional hunting and trapping techniques to help the group survive their travels and evade the two rival crews. She might be the key to unlocking the location of the Ainu gold--but what does her late father have to do with it??

Golden Kamuy balances the horrors of humanity with educational content, goofs, gaffs, and the complex (romantic?) relationships between the charismatic manipulator Tsurumi and his company.

Lieutenant Tsurumi, formerly an intelligence officer, strategically weaves himself into the lives of his men. To represent this, I have chosen a panel from his chance(?) rescue(?) of an adolescent Otonashin Koito, the last surviving son of a Naval Admiral. Otonashin, prepared to die at the hands of his kidnappers(?), is absolutely dazzled by his rescuer(?) and joins the Imperial Army to be closer to him.

I decided to combine my drawing drills and adoration of manga for my first year participating in inktober.

Blocking out drawings has always been a weak point of mine and I've been wanting to challenge my stylistic tendencies--the perfect time for me to learn from the masters through the art of imitation! Each index card features one panel from a manga series, inked in the style of the manga-ka (or as close as I can get to it while working at scale), and probably some thoughts on the drawing style, series, character, and/or some such thing. So here's that bit This is Chobi's magical girl transformation and you can't change my mind. Within every "girl" there is a sparkly dragon with RBF waiting to gracefully molt by thrashing around in the sky. Chobi's humanoid form is both awkward and elegant, much like that dragon.

Natsume's Book of Friends started off intending to be a "monster of the week" type story (which helped prevent third-arc-drag) but has since developed a comforting cast of recurring characters. The story follows Natsume, a high-school aged orphan who can see and interact physically with yokai, as he navigates a world that fears and ostracizes him. We are with Natsume as he navigates experiencing familial acceptance and friendship for the first time. Will the yokai he can't ignore help him in his mission to get to know his late Grandmother, a fellow family outcast, famed and feared among yokai? Probably only through the power of friendship, amirite guys!??!? This series is a great casual read with the perfect amount of silliness and occasional horror aesthetics. Natsume's relationships continue to deepen and change in both delightful and uncomfortable ways.