Manga Tutorial Books Review: Part 1

Hey guys!!! I posted on instagram and my facebook page a few days ago that I was planning to do a review on some manga tutorial books that I've never had the opportunity to go through before. I recently went on a rampage through my local library's catalog, and requested almost every book on "manga drawing" that the search turned up. Most of them, I have never read or heard of before! I've been looking for some new challenges and tutorials for upcoming art classes I'll be teaching, and I thought looking through some fresh books might help. Also, I believe you can never learn enough about what you have a real interest and passion in doing!!! =-)

Today, We'll be reviewing three books that I just finished looking through.... Actually, I have a HUGE stack of similar books on my desk, but I can only get through so many at a time... So I'm not sure how many blog posts there could end up being on this subject!!!  ^^;  


Here are the three books we'll be going over:

1: DRAWING MANGA: ANIMALS, CHIBIS, AND OTHER ADORABLE CHARACTERS

I've seen this book on the shelf at another local library I sometimes visit. I never looked through it until this time though. While it says "chibis... and other adorable creatures" on the cover, pretty much, this book focuses on drawing cute animals. It gives you the basics to draw realistic looking animals, then shows you how to turn them into chibis.  It also shows some drawings of  mythological Japanese creatures, though it doesn't really show you the basics of how to draw these animals. If you're enthusiastic about drawing cute animals, it's a good book to look into. Personally, I just didn't find it very helpful at this time, but it doesn't mean I won't look at it another time to do some referencing. =-)





2:  SHOUJO MANGA TECHNIQUES: WRITING STORIES

THIS. BOOK. I wish I'd known about it a while back!!!  This book skips over all the basics of drawing manga art, and lays out the basics of WRITING a manga story. The book is laid out like a manga comic as you read it, which is a really cute way to give a tutorial. This book is part of a two or three book series ( I could only find the first and second books, this one above, in my library's catalog) that is completely focused on how to create shoujo style manga. This book has already been helpful to me, because while I enjoy scribbling out fan fiction every once in a blue moon, I have never really been sure of how to lay out a story for a manga format... which is part of the reason I haven't even tried!! ^^;    I definitely recommend trying to find this book, whether through the library, amazon, or ebay (it's an older book, late 90's -early 2000's, and not in print anymore from the looks of it!!!).  Especially if you're like me and don't know the first thing about how to put together a story for a manga or comic!!






3:  HOW TO DRAW MANGA: PEN AND TONE TECHNIQUES

I was more excited about this book until after I sat down today and read it... eh.   -_-;

This is another series of tutorial books (I have several more sitting on my desk), and all of them talk about a different subject or genre in manga art. I think this would be a good series to update... It was published in Japan in 1996 and translated in English in 2000. The translation is HORRIBLY done. There were complete speech bubbles (it's laid out in a manga format again) that did not make any sense at all. Also, all of the drawing tools laid out in this book are drawing supplies that you can pretty much only get in Japan... or order them from Japan for ridiculous shipping rates. I feel like most of this book dealt with talking about these hard-to-get supplies rather than the techniques of using a pen. The only real techniques they show you are different ways to cross hatch when you draw. The last part of the book deals with how to use screen tones, which is something that I think is neat, but again, it's really hard to find screen tones over here... you'd have to order them. So right now, this book felt confusing and not very helpful. Like I said, I think the series needs to be updated and the translation needs a lot of fixing.





.... And so! Those are my thoughts about these three tutorial books. I'll be going through some more books (especially since I can't find my desk at the moment) and I'll post some more reviews soon!! If you've gone through any of these books, I'd love to hear your thoughts on them too!!   ^^



-Stasia-Chan '16

Happy Wednesday!

.......


Hello!!!  Hope you're having a great week so far. Things have been insanely busy lately, but I thought I'd try to do a quick post about what's going on art wise!


Last week we were just beyond crazy busy, and there was NO time for art. I was majorly bummed about it too, because art is such an outlet for me. But this week has been so much better!!! I've been feeling a little down lately, and so I've been drawing these little daily doodle sort of things to cheer myself up. It's been a long time since I've had so much fun drawing and using whatever colors and expressions I want, and it's been a BLAST!!!!   Wednesday up there is one example of these little doodles....   c-=


I've been trying to cut back on how much I use my copics, because I just haven't had the money to replace most of my colors or buy the refills. I'm currently on the fence about the refills. I liked them at first, but lately it seems like my markers are really drying up the color after they've been refilled. I can't figure it out, because I'm using quite a bit when I refill. I might just have to replace some of these problem markers and see how they work out when they're still fairly new? Anyway, I hope people won't think I'm complaining about money or something.... It's just a fact of life that copics are expensive, and I don't know many people that can consistently buy markers or refills on a constant basis!!!  -_-;   This is part of my reasoning for setting up a shop on etsy!!!

Speaking of etsy, it's coming along! I still haven't opened a store, but I hope to next week!! I've been working on things to list here and there the last few days, and I have a notebook with the inventory I have to list so far! Exciting!

Today, I caught up FINALLY on a couple Miyazaki Monday pieces! I colored both of these with colored pencil. I think I had the most fun with the "Spiller" piece, because I just sort of kept scribbling brown and green tones to keep it earthy.  ^^    I entered a watercolor of Totoro based off a Miyazaki concept piece in our local fair, and I won second place, which is very exciting for me!!!  ^^

Until next time.... Have a nice day!!  ^^

-Stasia-Chan '16

Social Media Hiatus and the Future!

Hello, and happy labor day!!  We enjoyed a day here at home. Since my husband didn't work today, I had a list of some chores that needed a man's touch here at home, and we ran a few errands around town that we didn't get to on Saturday. I thought I would grab a few minutes to write about my month without social media!!

I logged out of everything on the last day of July... Instagram, Facebook, even Pinterest. And to be honest, I didn't miss any of it like I thought it would. Being completely social media free was easier than I thought it would be. The only times I ever really wanted to post was when I was busily sketching and coming out with some stuff that I really liked, I missed sharing those things. Other than that, I enjoyed my month without the drama and depressing posts. Because, yes, while we can filter some of what we are seeing on these networks, you're never going to be able to block it all out completely. And, it's all too easy to fall into the trap yourself of playing the victim on social media. I know, because I'm guilty of it at times. If you've had a bad day, what's your first thought? Post about it and maybe someone will comfort you. While that's not necessarily a bad thing, it plays into the circle of drama and depressing posts that float around continuously. I found out that I sincerely enjoyed my time off of it. I have discovered this year that I seem to have a real problem with social anxiety, and social media has not helped the problem. I also enjoyed the time to get back to other things that I enjoy!! It's so easy to fall into the habit of when you have a few minutes, picking up your phone or tablet to check your notifications, and then you find yourself scrolling, and next thing you know, you've been sitting there way longer that you should have, and then you're complaining about the things that you didn't get done when it's your own fault!!  

Now, having said all that... and maybe it sounds like I'm being very candid.. I'm the kind of person that is horrible at face to face conversing, but when you put me behind a piece of paper or a computer, words just seem to pour out.. I do not disapprove of social media. I think there is a lot of good that is accomplished with it. But social media isn't right for everyone, and some people need to keep a tighter rein on how much they're using it. I've discovered that I am one of those people. Now, don't panic, I plan on keeping my social media accounts! But, I plan to cut back on how much I'm using those outlets. If I don't post much, that's why... Because I don't want it to be the first thing I run to all the time just to get some likes or favorites. I will still be posting, they may just be sporadic posts split up between a few days or a weeks time. I think this is going to be what's best for me in the long run, and I think it's going to help my art too. Less time on social media will (hopefully... between homeschooling and theater and other things!) mean more time to focus on art!!

I went into the month with TONS of plans... as usual, I set way too many goals for myself. I'm the kind of person that puts too much personal pressure on myself, and then when I don't get all those goals accomplished, I feel frustrated with myself!!  xD   So, I had a lot of good intentions... they just didn't all see the light....  xD    I kept up with the daily drawing challenge for a good part of the month, but it was hard. The month was also crazy busy! And I had several that I sketched, didn't feel crazy about, filed them on my desk to go back to later, and never got back to them... But!  I got a few really nice Clintasha pieces out of the deal, and I'm happier about putting in the time and passion into those, because they were ones that I really wanted to do and wanted to see them through! I may be selling a few of those originals... But I'll talk more about all that in a few weeks once I have everything ironed out on the selling end and go through what I have to get rid of! 

I did manage to keep up with the Miyazaki Mondays!! With the exception of the one due today, I have them all inked. As usual, my problem always seems to be in FINISHING a project from sketch to colors... It's hard to find the time to complete a project. I need to start working on things in bits and pieces. I think they would get colored faster that way!!

I managed to work on quite a bit of watercoloring, but it takes so. much. time. I feel like I've learned a lot about the technique of watercoloring this year, and it's especially been handy as I'm working to replace copic markers, but it takes more time than I usually have to work with them!!  

Probably my favorite thing I worked on for the month of August were these various poses and clothing sketches from the 1950's. It was just FUN to sit down and sketch whatever came to mind!! This is the only page that got colored, but I have three more pages of more of these sketches. Probably going to color those with pencils. My copics and I are not getting along at the moment.... xD 

Anyway, that was mostly my month being free from social media! I also did a lot of crocheting this month and learned a few new stitches, and I've been crocheting things to sell for American Girl dolls. All in all, I enjoyed my hiatus, and I'll still continue to post, though not as frequently. The good news is, this blog will never know the difference, as it never seems to be updated on a frequent basis!!! xD  


-Stasia-Chan '16

"A Fairy Tale Christmas Carol " Poster.. from Start to Finish

Hey guys!!  I thought I would post all the progress shots I took from working on my latest poster art for our community theater!! This poster is for the upcoming Christmas show, "A Fairy Tale Christmas Carol", and I'm also going to be running the light board for this show!!

I was asked to draw up some concept art before I sketched out the poster design, and as I did with the "Charlotte's Web" poster, I talked with the director first and made sure I had clear ideas as to what she wanted to see. 

Above are some of the concepts I came up with, with an idea for the poster art on the bottom. I sent this rough sketch to the director, and she approved and set a deadline, and I've been piecing it together since last weekend. 

 I decided to try doing the colors with watercolors, because the director asked for a subtle color scheme, and also didn't want too much of a "Christmas" theme in the poster. I felt that watercolors would show up better once scanned and pull off subtle better than pencils or markers would. 

First things first, had to sketch it all out, then start inking! I love inking, and I took some time to do this part one afternoon with a cup of coffee and our portable DVD player on my desk too... xD 

The inked version!!

No matter what medium I use, I always start with skin tones first. After that, I laid down a light red for the base of the mouth coloring.

I think my favorite part of the poster is this... the three little pigs hunkered down as they pop out of the book.    =-) 

Close to being done!! I had laid down a lot of base colors in one afternoon. I recently purchased a smaller sketchbook from Canson, and the paper quality is incredible for water colors. As long as you give it time to dry so that it doesn't warp, it's magnificent!! 

And this is what the final version looks like... I had something holding the page down as it drys completely. Yay!!!   


Here are a few other creations from this week... 

I finished up a custom order of "Finding Dory" notecards, and ran off a print that the customer also ordered for framing. 

I have a set of "Disney Princess" notecards started, and I managed to color Merida and Pocahontas... but I'm just sharing Merida today, because her hair just makes me smile. It's so loud and crazy looking.   =-) 

And a Howl that I sketched while catching up Miyazaki Mondays... I also have a Sosuke (from Ponyo) and Arietty pieces inked, but I haven't had time to color them as of yet. I colored Howl with pencils and did a wash of watercolor in the background and then tried to splatter a bit of purple watercolor over the whole thing. But I'm pretty new to that method, and was afraid of going crazy and ruining the picture, LOL....   =)

So! That's what has been accomplished this week. I had hoped to do more, but my afternoons have sort of gotten away from me... That's OK! With my upcoming "disconnect" month in August, I should hopefully have a lot of time to focus on some major art accomplishments!!!  

Until September, I'll be doing lots of this....  

Have a great August!!!   =-)

-Stasia-Chan '16 

August Drawing Challenge

As previously announced, I plan to take a total hiatus from the internet and social media for the month of August. I've been making a list of some of the goals I hope to accomplish during this time away from the distractions, and I have quite a few in mind!!  One thing I had decided on right from the get -go, was that I wanted to do a drawing challenge for the month of August. 

Have you ever done a monthly drawing challenge? I have done them randomly before, and I have loved doing the last two years of "Inktober"... I have a special little sketch book I set aside just to be used in October for this challenge!!!  I have also done some daily drawing challenges from time to time, but when life gets busy, well... the drawings stop. That's why I've been doing "Miyazaki Mondays"... it's still challenging me to draw, but on a weekly basis and not a daily basis (and at this moment I'm currently three weeks behind on these). 

Anyways, I decided it would be fun to try an OTP (One True Pairing) challenge for the month of August. I was looking through some of my oldies of Clintasha and thought, "I miss drawing them!!!". So I searched for an OTP drawing challenge, and came up with two that I liked different challenges, and sort of mashed those together, and added a couple of my own ideas to replace ones that I didn't like (for example, death... who wants to draw death?? That isn't a fun challenge!!!).  And so, I present to you, my 31 day drawing challenges....


AUGUST OTP DRAWING CHALLENGE (CLINTASHA)

1. A Selfie Together
 2. Sharing a Milkshake
3. Balloon Hats
 4. Cosplaying
5.Under an Umbrella
 6. 1950's Version (I did not make that one up!!)
7. Wedding Day
 8. Building a Cabinet
9. Ballroom Dancing
 10. Lazy
11. Medieval Times 
 12. Movie Date
13. Clothes Swap
 14. First Kiss
15. Stargazing 
 16. Morning Ritual
17. Something Sweet
 18. Shopping
19. Coloring
 20.Couples Date
21. Ugly Sweaters
 22. At Work
23. Sunday Cruisin'
 24. Ice Skating
25. Water Fight
 26. Holding Hands
27. Reading
 28. Housework
29. Taking a Walk
 30. Dinosaurs
31. Whatever You Want!


.... It looks a little intimidating now, but I have ideas for a few of them. When I was doing the daily Clintasha drawing challenges before, I was doing lots of Chibis, but I may swap back and forth between chibi size and normal sizes.. I haven't decided yet, and you'll have to wait until September to see!!  ;-) 


Today I was busy cleaning my mom's rabbitry, and I had a few minutes this afternoon to rough sketch the three Miyazaki Monday's that I'm behind on... I'm hoping to get up early tomorrow to work on a theater poster I'm due to give by August 1st... Afternoon art time has not been working out too well lately, and I guess I need a change up in that "me time" anyways. I'm just not a morning person!!

Anyways, the first week of August will be hard for me personally, because August 4th is the 2 year mark since my great grandma passed away very unexpectedly. We were very close, and she died the day before her birthday. I miss her every day, but this month will really be hard, remembering all the birthdays we celebrated with her while she was here. Also last year, on August 5th, my spoiled rotten pet rabbit, Mufasa, died unexpectedly. Even though I have three other bunnies in my life now, Mufasa was special, because he was the first and loved the longest. That first week of August we have our church VBS going on, so it will be busy and maybe help keep my mind occupied off of how sad I feel. Not that it's a bad thing to feel sad and remember these things, but you can let sadness take you down into a dark place, and I don't want that to happen. 

I have a whole list of things I hope to accomplish in the month of August, including, believe it or not, starting on CHRISTMAS CARDS!!! I also plan to do some Christmas crocheting, LOTS of reading (more than I do already), organizing the materials for Lucy's starting Kindergarten in September (we have decided to homeschool), some new stuff for doll photo shoots ( I should blog about that soon), and of course, LOTS of art. Hopefully I'm not setting my hopes too high about things only to become upset when they don't get accomplished, but I'm really looking forward to this coming month and all the things that I have planned!!!  

-Stasia Chan '16

The Truth Is...

Doesn't that title sound spectacularly dramatic???

I wanted to do a post letting people know that I've decided to take a complete internet hiatus for the month of August. It's probably going to be a bit hard at first ( I love instagram and pinterest at the end of  a long day!!), but I have been cutting down on my social media time recently, and I'm looking forward to living without the distractions.

Honestly, it's something that I really need to do. For a variety of reasons, but one of those reasons is for my art. I haven't really let on in my posts and such (not that comes right to my mind), but I have been majorly discouraged with my art lately. For awhile, actually. A slump is something you can find your way back out of, but discouragement is a hard one to grapple out off.

Part of the reasons for being discouraged are, I have majorly lost sight of what it I most love about art: Art is my outlet. I have a hard time socially. I'm shy and have a hard time letting myself really get to know people. Art lets me compensate for those times when I feel really lonely or bummed about friends that don't really talk anymore (actually, a lot of my friends have let me know that they don't care for my art style, manga/anime, but that's another story..). This year, I keep finding myself worried about NOT making it as an artist, and that's never why I started drawing in the first place. I started drawing because I was inspired to, and I loved the process. I didn't pick up a pencil thinking that I would become a household name or make enough money to let my husband quit his job (wouldn't that be nice, though!). And because I've lost sight of that, my art has felt so forced. I have produced a few things that I've been really proud of, but most of it has been because I felt I HAVE to, not because I wanted to.

I have also taken the summer off from some things, like theater, so that I could use the time to focus on creating concept art for the fifties project I want to do. And I'm proud of a lot of the things that I have drawn for those concepts. I'm just very frustrated because I'm not sure what to DO with it all now. I see artists that have their stuff put on things to sell, like stickers, and stationary, etc., and I don't have the money to get into that process. When I try to sell things, I end up losing money because it doesn't sell, or I have to undersell a project just to sell it... and again, it's not about money, but it can be very discouraging. Especially when you've become addicted to Copic markers... which I have slowly started buying refills for, but it's still been a pricey process, and when there's nothing coming in to go back into the art, it slows the process up.

So, I've decided to take a month off. To regroup. To fall in love with art again, and continue on from there. I have some Miyazaki Monday's I want to get all caught up with, and I also wrote out a 31 day drawing challenge to do for the month of August (I'll post the challenges here before my hiatus starts!). I'm excited about it, and hope that I can find my artistic "get up and go" again in the process!!!


-Stasia-Chan  '16

Mini Comic Con, #2!!!

So it has been a busy week of Comic Con fun around here!!!    This past Wednesday, I participated in my second Mini Comic Con at the New Philadelphia Public Library. We had a blast!!! Then on the following Saturday, I attended the "Mini Comic Con in the 'Burg" in Millersburg, OH, for the first time.  It was their second year of doing this comic con and my first time attending it!!!!  They actually found me through my blog here, so that's really neat!!! It means more people might be out there reading my blog then I think there are!!! 

They had a really neat set-up at this mini comic con, it resembled an actual comic con, with many different tables for artists and vendors and activities!!  I had a real nifty sign behind my table!!

My table display. I took a board with some of my favorite pieces and also some originals and prints to sell.  I passed out a lot of business cards and had several people take free bookmarks and information sheets.   =-)

They had several vendors set up with merchandise to sell. There was a gaming shop, a comic book shop, another artist selling prints, and a hobby shop selling things like Funko Pop figures. 

Pictures from the group participating in the costume contest!!!  My sisters were there again, this time as Asuna from "Sword Art Online" and Anna from "Frozen".  There were lots of Star Wars cosplayers, including a young Obi Wan Kenobi, and an old Luke Skywalker!! 

Some scenes from the drawing tutorial lesson. We worked on drawing a head in the manga style.   We had a nice little attendance group of all ages. (Someone drew a TIE fighter instead, though??)

The BEST thing ever was the Boba Fett Cosplayer!!! I fangirled so bad... He's my favorite Star Wars character!!! 

There was a caricature artist too!!!

Some more random fun... making buttons at the button machine, posing for pictures with Obi Wan and Boba Fett, and taking pictures with the standees!!!

It was a really fun day, and the set up was really well thought out. I didn't include pictures, but they also had set up a mini "Super Hero Training Camp" outdoors for the little kids that came, it was an obstacle course they could "train" with. And they concluded the afternoon with a "Poke'walk" where they walked outside the library trying to catch Poke'mon with the Poke'mon Go app. It was a great day, and we all had fun!!!

I do still have all these leftover prints (and originals too, but I forgot to take a picture of them!), so I'm not sure what to do with them. I might try opening an etsy and just see where it takes me. I've honestly held off doing so for this long because I was afraid that I would get discouraged if I didn't sell anything after so many months, and that it would be a waste of time. But, I suppose it doesn't hurt to try, so I guess we'll see. I have a busyish sort of week so it's just a matter of it I get around to it or not!!

Thanks to the Millersburg Public Library for having me participate in such a great day!!!

-Stasia-Chan '16

Some Pics from Library Con!!

Hey!!!  I thought I'd share a few pictures from the library mini comic con that I was a part of yesterday!!   We saw a great turn out and had a great time!! 

I chose not to dress up this year, and I didn't even have anyone take a picture of me the whole day wearing my "Kiki's Delivery Service" shirt...  But my sisters cosplayed as Elsa and Anna and did a boss job with it!! 

I had my caricature drawn, which I was super excited about!!!  I never have had anyone draw me before, so this was a nice change, LOL!!!  ^^   (And I had to wait in line for an hour to have mine done!! She was a popular lady!! )

The most popular event of the afternoon (besides the Cosplay contest) was the panel on "Cosplay and Conventions 101", given by two local young ladies that have been to several comic cons. They did a great job explaining everything and had a fabulous turn out for their talk!!!  I didn't get to hear the whole thing, because I was getting ready for my segment, but what I did hear was explained very well and in an exciting way!!

I decided to do a tutorial on some basics of coloring. I didn't allot myself enough time to get through the whole thing, but we covered the basics of skin tone at least. I had a nice little group attend, and then afterwards, we judged the Cosplay contest. =-)   

It was a fun day, but just those few hours wiped me out, LOL!!! I'm not sure I could make it at the real events like some people do.. xD   

I'm excited to be attending the second comic con at Millersburg Public Library this Saturday, the 16th!!! It's my first time attending, but their second year doing one, and from what I've seen on their web page, it looks like it will be a fun event!!  I'll be spending most of my day tomorrow getting all my print outs together to take with me there!! 

I've been working on a few originals to sell, and I'm taking some of those on Saturday. I'm also working on the poster for the theater's Christmas show, and finishing up a custom order of notecards!!!  But since it was a busy week, I took some time today to work on roughing out the sketch for the poster and then I did some more watercolor on my Cleopatra piece. I'm excited to keep adding more princess to this "Royal Diaries" series as I read through some of the books again. I'd love to make these a note card or mini poster collection once I've compiled several!!

Hope it's been a great week for all!!

-Stasia-Chan '16