Anime and Manga Drawing Classes at Chesterfield Libraries

Since January 2013, I have been teaching some Anime and Manga drawing workshops with Chesterfield County Public Libraries. The classes were offered occasionally throughout the year on Saturdays as part of the Libraries' Teen Studio Program. The library and I provided all materials to students for the program.

These classes have also led to other opportunities like teaching at the Chesterfield Library Comic Con Events and being a guest artist/teacher at Meadowbrook High School's Anime Club.

 So far, I have taught 4 installments of the Classes covering different aspects of the topic.

The first class was Introduction to Manga and Anime. This class mainly covered how to draw faces, and figures in the Anime style. I also covered drawing facial expressions, mouths, hands, feet, clothes, and hair. Students used the information and techniques I taught them to draw their own Anime/Manga character. I taught students how to transfer drawings using carbon paper and how to finalize characters through inking. I provided various inking materials and techniques for them to experiment with including India ink, brushes, brush pens, multi-liner/micron pens, etc. I also taught a short version of this lesson at the 2013 Chesterfield Comic Con Event, which covered how to draw the face in the Anime style.

 

Ad for Intro to Manga and Anime Classes in the library's magazine

The second set of classes explored Character Design. I taught students how to use a matrix/chart to get unlimited ideas for characters, personalities, costumes, and environments. The matrix technique was from a book called The Manga Matrix by Hiroyoshi Tsukamoto. (This book is an absolutely awesome reference to have! I brought a copy to class so everyone could take a look at it.) In addition to the matrix, I reviewed how to draw the face and figure, taught how to draw unique characters from a basic shapes, body proportions for realistic vs unrealistic style characters, character variation, using a silhouette to check the strength of a character design, and inking.

Postcard Ad for Character Design Classes

 The third installment of the classes dealt with How to Make a Manga. First, I quickly reviewed how to draw a face, the figure, and character design. The main topics covered on making a manga included layout, panels, speech/word bubbles, font, sound and line effects, black and white vs. color in manga, planning and process of making a manga, publishing/sharing a manga, and inking. I had two exercises built into the lesson for students to try their hand at story telling, paneling, and speech bubbles.

Ad for How to Make a Manga Classes

My most recent class discusses How to Draw Chibi Anime and Manga Characters. In this lesson, I discuss what a chibi is, the characteristics of chibi's, body proportions, chibi characters vs regular anime characters, and how to draw a chibi. For drawing chibi's, I covered the face, eyes, bodies, mouths, facial expressions, hands, feet, clothes and hair. I taught this lesson at Meadowbrook High School recently and I will also be teaching it at this year's Chesterfield Comic Con Event on March 22nd from about 10:30-11:30.

Ad for 2014 Chesterfield Comic Con Event

These classes are so much fun! The students really seem to love them. We often talk about the anime they lik and even play some clips and songs from their favorite shows at the end of class. I love getting to see their drawings, they are really talented artists!