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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
