#manga tutorial

SO- start with the basics, my short attention span reader

Keep in mind i know that the 2nd page has poor paneling flow, all cuz I don't care about social norms if it looks great.

(I suggest not to do that if you struggle to feel "how to panel" yet)

You just need to keep up with the flow of the panels: R,L,R or another way around.

If we're speaking about panels themselves - make them vary and different to avoid the same boring squares like you use in memes only if you don't have a long scene that needs repetitive panels.

(I don't mind repetetive panels tho, but if your reader is stuck on a long panel of your character snatching keys off a table or running somewhere - it ruins the atmosphere)

Use different sizes and shapes: big - long, small - quick, side - push or quick action.

NEXT COMES->

Don't know if many people know it, but i see it a lot - a poor usage of spaces between panels. It hurts me physically to see a great art on a page that looks just like this (1) instead of this (2) :

See the spaces between the upper panels and ones below? -> that's the breaking point that gives you and your reader a moment for a break.

The simpler and clearer the page is looking - is easier for your brain to consume the picture, instead of being stabbed by 60 panels a page like some trap in the pyramids and hungry sphynx cat that want to eat you aliv—ahem!

If you see a cut like this - that's a must.

Also i'd add that in between panels - you can even put them pixel to pixel (see page 3). People use a big cut for the sides too, but I rarely saw it, maybe for a roll-in to another scene, OR for a new scene to happen

These two are self explanatory pages - be creative with your panels and push yourself to do even simple backrounds.

Creative peace of the pages and panels keeps people hooked, makes them jump up and down just to see more and more - that's something you should use. In addition, it also helps you and your readers understand the story with pictures more than oversharing with the text.

Yes, people have short attention span and would'nt remember the leaf you rendered 40 nights ago or what word was 60 pages ago at panel 3 on left, but do yourself a favor:

1. Make your pages full to avoid (simple)-(rendered)-(simple) pages in this chronology if its not needed, it ruins the mood and makes it look like you wanted to draw just for that one scene (i feel that, me too reader, me too...)

2. Show and don't tell, keep somethig out of reach, hide it and show 70 pages later (only a nerd for your manga would notice whilst binge-reading)

3. ALWAYS SPACE! don't push everything in one page, there is unlimited canvases in CSP you can use to draw your leaf falling off a tree into the mouth of an alligator

4. Remember to have fun, play with perspective, make your picture in that 4×7 square looks as good, it would make people want to use it in edits (don't overdo it tho)

MOST IMPORTANT: If you want draw like your favorite author ot just be like the pinterest picture gods- study their paneling, make up rules that you think they used to understand what and how to draw and roll for it.

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A little disclaimer: I will be showing a few images of other illustrators and mangakas to further explain something and/or provide concrete examples. I do not own them, and I’ll make sure to properly credit them!

Most of the mangas that I will mention in reference, if not all, are BL or Boy’s Love as that is also the genre of the original series I’m currently working on, so read them at your own risk! (some R-18)

Nonetheless, the focus will primarly be the techniques of drawing the hair.

Let's go!

I. INTRODUCTION

Manga hair ways of detail, inking, and (screen)toning has always been a problem for me. It’s different from normal drawing and coloring in general (or at least how I do mine), and most mangakas use very, very detailed hairstyles. Comparing those to my own art style is just depressing to look at.

Let’s have a quick example just so you can see what I’m talking about:

I repeat; depressing.

And so, I went for a very thorough research (okay, maybe not THAT thorough) to see the different ways and styles of different mangakas and artists with detailing, inking, and toning manga hair.

I’ll be using some samples I made by myself, explain each one by one, and possibly provide some samples and/or tips.

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II. DETAILING THE HAIR

The one I used for an example earlier was a work of Tennouji Mio, one of the mangakas I know with very, very complex hair detailing in her works.

Along with other mangakas I stalke–…er, researched, I’ve classified their way of detailing according to the hair strand complexity; from Level 1 to Level 3+, Level 1 being the easiest and the simplest style and Level 3+ being the most complex and hardest. I say 3 with a plus(+) because it can go even further, even to levels I can’t even reach yet (or never will).

Hair Detail Levels according to their (hair) strand complexity

– – – LEVEL 1 – – –

This is a level recommended for beginners for its simplicity. Yes, it’s a bit plain and often just the solid outline of the hair with barely any hair strands as details, but there are ways to spice it up with inking and toning (you’ll see it later). This is also most commonly used in chibi styles.

・REFERENCES USED:

① from AnimeOutLine

② from Xiataptara

③ from DragoArt

– – – LEVEL 2 – – –

This level is what I commonly see with the mangas I read. It’s also a middle ground for beginners and intermediate-level artists. It’s not too complex, but it’s not that simple or plain either. Depending on the artist’s style, the way the hair is drawn can look very complex despite having only a few drawn hair strands, sometimes are even in bundles.

The way the hair are drawn in these examples are a bit detailed compared to Level 1, but not too complex like the next levels.

・REFERENCES USED:

①Oh My Maid! by Itsuki Kaname

②Oresama Wa Koi No Dorei by Chitose Piyoko

③Recipe No Oujisama by Junko

– – – LEVEL 3+ – – –

I call this god-level style. While that may be an exaggeration, it’s just very far from my grasp to do or replicate. It has hair strands going on different directions, and sometimes even shaded one by one. Putting Tennouji Mio’s works as an exemption for the samples for this one (since I already used her work at the very first one), most of the mangakas I look up to have this style.

The complexity I aim for. But for now, I cry everytime.

・REFERENCES USED:

① Warui Koibito Ja Dame? by Mei Sakuraga

② Otona Keikenchi by Nekota Yonezu

③Love Neko by Mishima Kazuhiko

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III. INKING THE HAIR

Now that we’ve discussed the levels of detailing the hair, let’s move on with inking.

Inking the hair also depends on the character’s hair color. If it is light like blonde, most mangakas don’t even add shadows and ink them as it is. As for dark-haired characters, there are some mangakas who just fills up the hair with pure black inking, some with highlights. That said, here are some styles I gathered and some that I came up with myself with inking the hair:

Yes, I came up with the names. I really can’t tell if I’m genius or stupid at this point

Just a further explanation with the given samples I got:

USING LEVEL 1 DETAIL:

MINIMAL SHADOWS: The slightest of shading are placed where shadows are supposed to be, just to add some volume to the hair. Also called as the outline because the shadows can look like a thicker outlining on the already existing outline of the hair.

THE MINIMALIST HIGHLIGHTS: One of the easiest techniques, if you’re looking for something simple. Just groups of really small vertical lines around the hair that will serve as your highlights, viola!

SKETCHY HIGHLIGHTS: Similar to the previous one, minimalist highlights, but this one has longer lines.

SOLID BLACK FILL: When you don’t feel like detailing. Like, at all. Fill it up!

FILL WITH SIDE-TO-SIDE HIGHLIGHTS: Black fill with some highlights you can make with a fwoosh on both sides.

FILL WITH BUBBLE HIGHLIGHTS: A black fill with circles as highlights. I see this one a lot with artists who use chibi style or really, really cutesy art styles.

USING LEVEL 1 & 1/2 DETAIL:

FILL WITH WIGGLY HIGHLIGHTS: Another method of highlighting with a black fill. Am I the only one who thinks it looks like mustard on a hotdog sandwich? Or is that the growling stomach talking…

FILL WITH ZIGZAG GLOSS HIGHLIGHTS: This is mostly seen in older mangas made around the 80s-90’s. Compared to the other methods of highlighting with a black fill, this seems more…glossy, in my opinion.

HALF-BLACK FILL: It’s somewhat the lovechild of the minimal shadows (LVL1) and black fill (LVL1) technique; There are parts of it filled with black ink, but only the shadowy parts of the lower half. This can go to level 2 or level 3 territory, depending on how illustrator inks the shadows.

USING LEVEL 2 DETAIL:

FILL WITH WHITE OUTLINES: A black fill with hair strand details that are colored in white. I see this often with modern manga that are drawn digitally.

FILL WITH VERTICAL GLOSS HIGHLIGHTS: Somewhat related to the zigzag gloss highlights, this one isn’t a connected/clumped sequence of gloss placed on the middle going around the hair, but separated sections that are glossy-looking highlights placed all over it, as if highlights of different strands of hair.

FILL WITH WHITE STRANDS: It’s a black fill with some strands of hair that is colored in white, similar to the white outlines method. But instead of just one downward direction, the strands of this one goes in several directions for a bit more realism feel. Can also venture to level 3 if the direction of the strands are wild enough.

USING LEVEL 3+ DETAIL: 

I like to personally refer to these three as the “Deadly Trio“.

STRAND-PER-STRAND HALF-BLACK FILL: Similar to the half-black fill method, this one’s the level 3 detailing version of it. It leaves the upper part of the hair blank from shadows, but it’s inked strand-per-strand on the bottom parts. It just makes me go “oh no”.

STRAND-PER-STRAND LINE FILL: This is similar to the S-p-S Half-black fill, however, this one has even more smaller lines among the shading all compressed to one another to create the overall shade of the hair, and the parts where they end or aren’t present in are the highlights. It is very time consuming, and it just makes you go “why” at every minute of it...

STRAND-PER-STRAND COMPLEX GLOSS HIGHLIGHT FILL: The name’s title is enough to make you go “oh my god”. It’s pretty much a fill with the gloss highlights, but now, it’s highlighting per hair strand. Thinking of drawing a character over and over with this inking style is enough to make me cry.

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Overall, I think they’re all good techniques if used right. It doesn’t matter if it’s simple or complex, it’s still up to the artist how they can emulate the style and own it. And remember: Complexity doesn’t automatically mean good or godly, there are those who look really messy to look at. Vice versa, simplicity doesn’t mean boring, there is beauty in simplicity if done correctly.

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IV. TONING THE HAIR

The final topic of this lesson.

Using screentones in making manga is not necessary at all. In fact, there are some who just use plain inking in their work. But as per tradition, it does feel lonely without these monochrome textures for making the manga lively. For me, they’re the colors of the black and white of manga.

Some basic texture manga screentones, photo got from Akadot retail. 

Back in the days, these screentones are physical materials that you had to manually cut and paste onto the desired parts in your manga. But now, thank heavens for digital technology, you can input them just fine on top of your inked page’s layer on your software. There are still mangakas to this very day who stick to the traditional methods, however.

Personally, I use digital screentones, mainly because there are no traditional screentones sold in where I live. Moreover, I don’t have the proper equipment to use them. And as a bonus, there’s a ton resources and people on the internet that are nice enough to provide free screentones for personal use. Just look around!

V. Free Screentones!

▼ I've made a compilation of free manga screentones provided by very nice internet neighbors from old dA if you're interested! A lot if it is also what I use with my own works. ^^

Anyhoo, back to the toning techniques!

Similar to inking, really.

SOLID TONE FILL: As the name suggests, simply fill it in with one texture screentone. Voila!

SOLID TONE FILL WITH SHADING: A solid tone fill with shadows. See levels for differences in strand shadings.

SOLID GRADIENT TONE FILL: Similar to solid tone fill, but this one’s a gradient screentone that goes from the lightest shade at the top to darkest as it goes down. Perfect when you’re a ‘lil lazy for highlights or shadows.

PARTIAL TONE FILL: Like the previous partial/half-fill methods in inking, this one only fills the tone of half of the hair.

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I didn’t give much examples with toning because there is a lot, and I mean A LOT of different types of tones. There’s pattern tones, texture tones, decorative tones, etc.

It all depends on you what for, and how you’re going to use them.

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VI. HYBRID METHODS

You can combine inking methods and toning methods to create hybrids! They actually look pretty cool.

Pretty neat.

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Aside from picking what you think best suits your style, you also have to remember that different ways of detailing, inking, and toning are adapted depending on the atmosphere or mood of a scenario. I’ll probably make another separate post for that one to explain further. But for now, I hope this helps to anyone who’ll come across to this for some manga-making projects.

END.

Thank you for anyone who stopped by to read, and I hope this somehow helps. Feel free to ask me any questions or concerns. See you in the next lesson!

Mangaka-wannabe Aki signing out. 

・・・ホームページALL LINKS・・・

i’ve been working on this and a hard time choosing which cap should i work on, i decided to write it using an easy one to work on and writing the tutorial on, but you could work this one even in more challanging caps to clean! i’ll show examples of different difficulty at the end of this tutorial. i’m still a work on a process when it comes to cleaning caps!

*tip: always try to use a high quality files! i personally like to work on the official files if they’re available. they make a huge difference as seen between this old and newcleaned cap!

step.1 first step is choosing a cap of your choice and crop the panel that you like. mine is from Special A by minami maki.

step.2 zoom in the cap, i usually go with x800! then using the lasso tool i select all the area i would like to erase and clean! this step could take a long time with some caps that have overlaying background effect with the characters. you could also use the pen tool or the magnet tool, whichever feel more comfortable using.

step.3 once you finish selecting the whole area you want to clean, with a white color fill the layer with white color!

step.4 some caps do need to up the contrast in them just like this one, i usually use the levels to increase the blacks and whites by ticking the black point to the left to increase the blackness and the white to the right until i like the result i get. for this one as it leans more to the grey than black i only needed to increase the blackness.

step.5 some caps aren’t truly in black/white so i just add a gradient black and white!

step.6 add a new colorfill layer and fill it with #f1f1f1 and set it to multiply. and delete the mask!!!

step.7 this step could be the last step or will need an extra step to make. and in this case we’ll need the extra step use magic wand tool select the background that i just cleaned you’ll notice the selection will include parts of both hikari’s hair and kei’s face.

step.8 after deselecting, with a round brush with a grey shade color - my choice is shade is #373737 -, i would zoom in the cap again and notice where the gaps that’s causing the selecting mess is. and while in the cap layers i would redraw those tiny parts… sometimes the gaps are big and there’ll be many gaps.. you could either redraw by the mouse directly if the missing parts are small and tiny or use the pen tool to do that!

step.9 using the magic wand again select the area you want and select the colorfill layer click the mask icon from the layers box and you’re all set!

step.9 - optional- a last step i’ve been adding lately to my manga caps edits is adding this texture at the top of layers and lowering its opacity to 8% for a nice little touch!

the final layer box will look like this.

other cleaned caps before and after: before→ after | before → after | before→ after| before → after

you could add any background you like at the end for a different ending result