Shonen Manga

Book excerpt: A step-by-step guide to all the tricks-both freehand and digital-to creating the best manga characters, Shonen Manga is a fun, easy to read manga manual for artists of all ages and languages. Focusing on Shonen-style manga and anime (a genre targeting young boys-”Shonen” means young boy, referring to elementary through grade school age groups), Shonen Manga is a practical, hands-on guide to learning the skills of action-packed drawing. It includes detailed information on how to apply digital colour, 3D designs, vectorial drawing, and a host of other fascinating and useful design applications. Each project in Shonen Manga includes step-by-step instructions specifying software, tools, and professional tricks to achieve the gritty eyes, roaring faces, and clenched fists of teen heroes, martial art masters, ninja girls, and violent samurai, integral to the Shonen genre. Shonen Manga will walk an audience of manga artists, illustrators, and graphic designers through the basic stages of manga production, beginning with black-and-white sketches and ending with vibrant, fully costumed characters.