Step By Step, how to make a Manga

Hey everyone who read this. I’m putting this in the Spam, cause I don’t know where to put it.

I'm going to be making a "how to make Comic's/Manga/Other" It will be a step by step thing, and it will be short, I think I will make about 6 or 7 stages of it. The only thing I can't do is screening, at least that’s what I think it is called.

Now I am not a pro at this, nor do I claim to be, its just fan's helping fan's, and who know, maybe people can make a good story and put it together.

I will post some rules.

Rules: Mind you, these are my views, and this is rather long, but hay, just covering for myself.

NO FAN FICTION:
Be it that I love reading it from time to time, fan fiction is not "art". Fan fiction is a starting point for many people, or even an ending point, it can be good, but it can also be bad. Most people learn from the fan fiction experiences, and help create a nice flow to the story.

No ADDING CHARACTERS from other show's or stories:
Sorry, you can't have Inuyasha, or Pikachu in your story as side characters or as a mascot. You can sometimes have them in the background full of people, just as a homage to the show or whatever. (Now this one, I have read many stories that are good, that is until they bring in another character, then I lose total interest in the story.) Its ok to have, lets say a Pikachu stuffed animal, but not a live speaking one.

No copying or stealing someone else idea:
This also goes back to Fan Fiction, where people "claimed" they wrote it, but changed the tile, characters names, and so on, so it's "100%" original. (This makes me laugh)
Now, I haven't seen anything close to original in any story line, but this can be due to the person's influences. Here is an example that would not be copying or stealing:

The creator of Naruto Masashi Kishimoto, has a twin brother Seishi Kishimoto, who created a manga called 666 Satan. Now both men where influenced by Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball. Growing up together, the boys learned the same drawing techniques, and had the same idea’s every once in awhile. (As both main characters of the two respected writers, Naruto and Jio, both have a monster inside them, no parents, and were lonely until they decided to have a goal in life. After that, that’s most likely the only similar thing they have.) But their story is different, and I like it that way.


Now an example of stealing another one’s work would be this: Taking “Peter Pan” and re-writing it, changing names, some scenes, and renaming in “The boy who could fly.”(Not the movie, just saying something like that.)

No Tracing, or coping a picture out of a magazine:
Tracing can help a person with their art, but they are not learning how to do so on their own. Its easy to follow lines. Also, its not original, just a copy. ( I have been angered about this. I let a friend borrow a manga of mine. She liked the cover, took a pen and paper, traced over it, leaving my manga ruined, and beamed at me that her drawing was perfect. Never again did I let her barrow.) I have seen people sale copied art work at Con’s, and find a bad taste to it all. Then there are those who do it free hand, jut by looking at the picture. ( Kind of like this more because that means people can do the art, but not much unless its just for fun and not for profit.)

Now, some people will see a pose in a fashion magazine, and want to copy it. Now I have seen some manga ka artist do this, and have gotten in trouble for doing so. I can only think of one or two manga ka who got away with it, having the company they copied from, say that it was a homage to the work, instead of “copying it.” Now when it comes to drawing a characters clothing, it’s a free for all, just use different variations of clothing, but don’t take clothing already being used, like an orange jump suit, unless your paying homage or your character is a cosplayer. (even that may be sketchy, I think it depends)

This last one is more like a guideline, and kind of like a rant I guess..LOL so its under spoilers, also more like a warning of becareful where you tread.

Spoiler:

Here was a question asked by one of my college teacher’s. He already knew the answer, just wanted to know what we thought of it. Also, he is very, very COOL!!!

Why do people get offend more with Manga/Comics on racism/religious/other, when its in Movies, books, etc.?”

Spoiler:

wOW.. This is such a cool topic! I'll will move this to the creative center if it's alright with ya Smile_For_Me

Is that ok to do so? With the Rules and all? But yeah you can. Thank you.

Step one will either be up Tonight or tomorrow

Step 1: Making the story

Now, I won’t be the first to tell you, nor will I be the last, but trying to write a story is HARD. It may come easy to most, harder for others and then there is always the writers block. Well lets stop talking about writing, and start moving to the story making.

One of the things you need to do it get inspiration for a story. That inspiration can come from real life, a dream, day dreaming or even a book, poem, song, music, movie, moved you to do so. Now, finding inspiration can be hard. You have to motivate yourself, challenge yourself to do so. When you finally have something that you want to write about, hold on to the idea. For many people, they either write it down right away, or play with it in their head before writing it down. I do both, depends on the story.

Once you have your idea, get a note book. I use a Composition Book, 9 ¾ x 7 ½., 100 sheet.
I use both pen and pencil, so what-ever floats your boat.

Now there are three ways to start the story. Not in any order

I: Drawing the Characters first, Naming them and building the Characters off from the advancement of the story. In this stage, you can have the characters age, blood type, birthday, gender, family, favorite food, etc. (Don’t be afraid to make your own stats)
After done with that, make a little summary about your character and how they connect to the others. Have a past, present and future in mind. An example would be this. Person A will end up with Person C. Person B will die, unsure if I want to kill them off with murder or sickness. Each character should have a start and an end.

II: Short Summary of Beginning, Middle, Ending. Here you can name some of the characters you’d want to have in your story. Later the characters that you have, you work with them, then draw your characters around the Beginning, Middle and Ending. Keep the summary about 4 to 9 pages long. Leave in mind that your story may change as you move closer to the middle of the story, so expect to change the ending. Then you go over to Part I.

III: Brain storming a whole bunch of ideas, adding as you go, dropping things you don’t want. Just playing as you go. No set plan what so ever, and just letting the flow take you to where ever it want to. This is rather challenging, and not recommended, at least to me anyways, everyone is different. You can draw a circle, a square, or a cloud, put a few words into the said item you are using, *1( Snow, Dream, Princess, Change)1* the number of words you can put into it is up to the writer. After that, start branching off the words to others ones. *2(Summer, Fantasy, Prince, False)2* and *3(Sword, Dragon, Peasant, Truth)3*. You can add as many branches and bubbles connecting to the main bubble. You can also branch off from the other bubbles too if you want, or add different bubble numbers together. Ex 1+4+5+9= the story. But if you want you can add the numbers you want together, equaling it to 19, then you can have 1,4,5,9 and 19 in the story your are making as an odd ball thing. (That is if you make that many bubbles) Once your done writing this all down, you have to round it out, and proceeded with Steps II and I.

Now there maybe other ways, to do this, but I don’t know about them.
Next time:
Step 2: Character Development

If you have any questions please ask.


III Example:
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Since it didn't show up on my post, here it is again.

Please tell me what you think, and if you need any help, please ask.

Working on Part 2

woah... thanks for the full tutorial on steps how to make a Manga. I might have to start one as well

Thats a good Idea, it will show people's diffrent steps on how others make theirs. It will be fun.

Part 2 is almost done, I just need to scan some things in.

Part 2 will be up in the morning.

I hope people forgive me for being late on this. Its was Xmass...LOL.

Have a nice day. Please any questions just ask.

Sorry, we have been having problems with the wireless internet company, its going out of business, so I have to find a new one soon. Please forgive me.

Step 2: Character Development

Well, I can’t tell you how to make your character(s). Or how to draw them, but I can give you examples on how I draw them. Everyone has their own style, some that are new, or some that are influenced by someone else’s drawing style. Now for me, Naoko Takeuchi and CLAMP, have been my influences, but now I have created my style. I will post all my styles of one character. I will be using about three or four different mediums.
1: Pencil
2: Pen
3: Marker (Black)
4: Tablet (I got this for $99.00, along with Photoshop and a cool Paint Program.)

Part I: Basic Profile
Now, you start off with circles. (Its best that you see things in simple shapes)
At a horizontal line and a vertical line in the center, making sure both lines cross. Draw to curving lines for the neck base. Up where the curving lines and circle meet, go to have way of the circle and draw a square and then a triangle, smooth it out. Erase if needed.
Now you have the basic facial profile. You can add eyes to the horizontal line, the vertical live use as a base for the liniment for your eyes, nose and mouth. Notice now that your character is bald, and has a big forehead. Add hair to what you feel like, but don’t make it look to unrealistic. Long hair and short hair are now used for both sex’s, so feel pleased to draw what ever style you want. Your basic profile is done.


Part II: Body Profile
Think of the body size as circles, squares or triangles.
It can take 8 to 9 circles to make a teen or adult body. 5 to 8 is pre-teen and teen. 2 to 4 as toddlers. And 1 to a baby.
I won’t explain much on this one, just look at the sketch for the walk through.
Now you don’t have to put hard to draw clothing yet, boxers and bra’s work fine for me, or you can draw what the character is interested in, like punk or classical.


Part III: Emotion Profile
Your characters have to have feelings. Happy, sad, pain, joy. Not some strait faced Jack all the time, (Unless they are made to be so).
Work with closing eyes. Winking. Crying. Shock. Sad. Happy. Drugged. Dreamy. Anger. Fear.
Notice the eye brows, and how they work with the eyes.
Look at the mouth and see their expression.
Also look out for your characters hair style, make sure it can merge well with the eyes.

Part IV Minor and Major detail

Is there pricings you want your characters to have? Tattoo’s or scars? Missing body parts, potential sickness. Possible mental issues. Look out for the characters actions and interest. Are they EMO or GOTH? Yes there is a difference. How do they speak? Do they speak with polite words, or vulgar? The standing styles, walking styles, unique differences about one character to another. A nice example would be: Character A: Sits Crossing legs, and rests arms on the thighs. Character Sits with legs apart, and rests hands on head. (And right here is character development. I could see A and B being total opposites. Oh joy, fights abound) Even sleeping patterns of a person is a rather unique style.




Look for scans of these soon.

Part Three: Summary of a story and sketch of story board