From: isc30176@nusunix1.nus.sg (CHEN JIA TYAN)
Subject: How manga is done 
Organization: National University of Singapore
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 14:26:09 GMT



                        How Manga is Done [v1.1, 250193]

[This was originally a set of emails to answer a friend's (Dennis) queries.  I 
thought it might be useful for some other people, so here's a compilation]

I read it from 2 books on introduction to manga.  I have no formal education 
on drawing nor painting, just immense interest.  I have done some manga 
before, so some of the remarks are from my personal experience. I'm quite 
convince that I've spelt some of the artists names wrongly, please correct me.
Any comments, amendments, additions, criticisms should be directed to
Chen JiaTyan
isc30176@nusunix1.nus.sg
chenjiat@nusdiscs.bitnet
----------

(0) Equipment:
(0.1) Paper
A usual piece of original manga page is ranges from B4 to A4 size. The paper 
is quite thick, usually 90~120lb.  Get the smooth ones -- ones that you can't 
clean up the fibre as you rub it hard with an eraser.  Dennis mentioned that 
he used illustration board, which is too thick to be paper but too thin & fine 
to be card.  I guess that should be about right.  I haven't seen it before.

Other equipment include: pen knife, pencil, inking pens, ink, screen tones, 
brushes, white paint, and various others.

(0.2) Knives
The preferred pen knives are those that tilts at a 30degrees-angle when you 
place the blade horizontally on the paper, but one that is at 60degrees- angle 
will do just fine.  The rationale for the sharper angle is you'll find it 
easier to cut small corners, and curves.  You'll need the penknives when you 
cut screentones or even your manga.

(0.3) Pencils
Pencils can be either mechanical or normal.  The choice would depend on your 
familiarity with the pencil.  Try to get 2B lead, B would do fine, but HB is a 
little to light (and you have to press hard onto the paper, which can't be 
cleaned later).  3B leads are too soft for fine sketches. Some artists even 
get blue pencils.  They work exactly the same as black lead, and can be 
cleaned off using a normal eraser.  These are for artists who are very 
particular about their sketches, do them in blue, then in lead, then in ink.

(0.4) Erasers
To clean the penciling off, try to get soft erasers, and I mean soft.  Many 
artists chose MONO (look for a dragonfly in the logo) basically because it is 
the softest, or was, because I came across a new product that rubs even 
better: Pentel's Hi-Polymer eraser.

(0.5) Brushes
Brushes are mainly used for painting the black parts and for white 
corrections.  Get a thin one for painting white, that is when you have to 
paint fine lines, either to correct the black inks, or to draw on some parts 
you wanted white (say hair clips).  A thicker brush is used to colour the 
black parts, say night lines, hairs, &c.  It shouldn't be too much thicker 
than the 'white' brush, because you might need it to paint corners.

Inking pens, screentones, ink: KIV.


(1) Paging and formats
The artist first sketches the format of the page (ie the boxes) and then the 
characters in it.  The artist sometimes uses blue penciling for rough 
outlines, and then lead penciling for the more visible characters.

Much care is put into planning the page format: the position of the people 

must come in order of the speech, the bubbles must also be just large enough 
(too much talking crowds up the main ingredient), there must be suitable 
background in the respective frames, the frames' spacing also indicates the 
passage of time, etc etc.
NB:  I shall call the entire block of squares/triangles/rectangles on one page 
a "box", and each of these squares/triangles/rectangles a "frame".  I'm 
uneducated in the lingoes of comics, so if you know of a proper term, please 
let me know.

Pages are drawn larger than the printer manga books you usually see, and then 
reduced.  The original size varies, from A4 to B4.  Logically you'll have to 
draw larger than the printed version, else all the little mistakes you make 
might be glaringly obvious to the readers.  (I can still spot a lot of 
mistakes made even by the professionals - like unmatching shadings, forgetting 
to colour little parts of fabric etc)  If you intend to get your manga 
printed, you'll have to take note of how  the wordings and characters would be 
shrunk, and how the screentones come out after shrinking.

Here are sample dimensions of page from one of the artists:
(1.1)  Single page.      ..... are measurements in mm.
+---------------------------+
|              :            |   
|              25           |   Usually what artists do is that they measure
|              :            |   out the corners (+) on 1 piece of paper, then
|..21.+-------------+..21...|   stack 30+ pieces of paper together and punch
|     | :           |       |   holes through using a nail.  Of course they
|     | :           |       |   don't punch _on_ the corners, but punch guide
|     | :           |       |   dots to help them draw the inner box.
|     | :           |       |
|     |.:..180......|       |   The outer box is the paper size, ie, what can
|     | :           |       |   be printed.  The inner box is the recommended
|     | :           |       |   size of where the main drawings should be.
|     | :           |       |   You would have realised by now that many pages
|     | 264         |       |   do not have standard boxes, and many a times
|     | :           |       |   an artist draws right out to the border of the
|     | :           |       |   book.  That is this border's use -- to create
|     +-------------+       |   variation, and fit in excess drawings.
|              :            |
|              21           |
|              :            |
+---------------------------+

(1.2)  Double page.
+--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| :           :                        |                                     |
| :           25                       |                                     |
| :           :                        |                                     |
| :      +----------------------+ - - -|- - - +----------------------+       |
| :      |  :                   |      |      |                      |       |
| :      |..:........180........|      |      |                      |       |
| :      |  :                   |      |      |                      |       |
| :      |  :                   |      |      |                      |       |
| :      |  :                   |..11..|      |                      |       |
|310     |  :                   |      |      |                      |       |
| :      |  :                   |      |..11..|                      |       |
| :      | 264                  |      |      |                      |       |
| :      |  :                   |      |      |                      |       |
| :      |  :                   |      |      |                      |       |
| :      |  :                   |      |      |                      |       |
| :      |  :                   |      |      |                      |       |
| :      |  :                   |      |      |                      |       |
|.:.21...+----------------------+ - - -|- - - +----------------------+       |
| :      :                             |                                     |
| :      21                            |                                     |
| :      :                             |................212..................|
+--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+

                                       ^ Note that this is the joining of
                                         2 pages.  The (11+11)mm space have to
                                         be filled in with drawing also.
Some artists cut off the (21-11)mm from each pages, and tape the 2 pages 
together behind.  Some prefer to use a large sized paper so that the drawing 
is smoother (but most of it is going into the spine of the book anyway).  For 
double paging, there is no boarder at the center of each page.  Draw the 
picture (