How did you come up with your anime style?

[Wp]

Style? What? Isn't anime a style? Well, there's plenty of different ways to draw anime; an idea that's hard for non-anime fans to grasp. I'm just curious how everyone chose to draw the way they did. There has to be an anime or manga that influenced you, but I've noticed that only Space Coyote seems to heavily mimic the manga that influenced her. How did you decide to deviate from that anime which inspired you?

As for me, I don't have a really established style. I've been experimenting a lot recently.

[Keffria]

Hm... I wouldn't say that I've been influenced by any one style; in fact, I think I got into webcomicking (my first real comic-making experience) after stumbling across comics like Megatokyo and Irritability and thinking "hey, I should try that!".

The first in-print manga I ever read was Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, and I think I'm always striving to reach that quality of art and storytelling. I like Bleach for its style, though the story isn't so impressive, and I will admit that I'm currently making my way through Mars, which happens to be available through the public library.

I will admit that I sometimes see techniques that are interesting ("hey, I like how she drew that nose... hmm..."), and I may experiment with them. However, I've never wanted to draw just like someone; what's the point of just repeating something that's already been done? (And I try to make my style more pseudo-manga than anything, both because I like the uniqueness/flexibility, and because that way, I can capitalize on the manga-consuming masses while still appealing to people who are sick to death of the style.)

That being said, I do find a lot of anime to be inspirational. Whenever I'm in a slump, I sit down for a bit and watch some fansubs (right now, I'm watching Last Exile; Cowboy Bebop was great for inspiration, too, but I don't generally watch anything twice). That usually helps to kick-start the creative spirit.

*Edit* Whoo~! 1000 posts!

[Arumo]

Mars is available at my public library too! I actually read most of my mangas for free from there, like I just borrowed the first four volumes of Naruto. The scenes with Haku are so emotional... anyway, back to the topic. I started with a sailormoon and DB hybrid, and believe me, they were really terrible. I did it mostly because I didn't have a lot of artistic ability when I started and I noticed they didn't go too much into intricacies. Naoko Takeuchi managed to make a really nice shoujo style without drawing a lot of hairlines as opposed to the hairlines used by Yu Watase and many other shoujo artists.
The facial features used by Akira Toriyama seemed simple to me. The basic facial shapes, eyes, nose, and mouth for the DB characters seemed easiest to learn from. I think most people start drawing the anime style with the head and have drawings that are just a head and go to maybe the clavicle. Anyway, eventually I stopped cutting and pasting and went for my own thing which is still everchanging. I look at stuff that I did in November and it's different than what I'm doing now. Personally I'm deeply influenced by shoujo and shounen styles and I don't think I've quite reached that level yet. I also don't think if you look at my stuff now you can see what I used as my learning foundation. But it is how I started. 8)

[JexKerome]

My still's derived from Rumiko Takahashi's, back when VIZ first started to put out her works in mag form. In fact, when I showed the first draft of my comic to people around here, they quickly pointed it out. Still looks kinda like it, though.

And like Kefrria, whenever I need a boost I go read some of the great manga titles lying around the house.

[Wp]

But your style is obviously not an imitation of Takahashi, otherwise your art would look more like Zhan's work. How did you deviate?

My original style (and to some extent the style of eyes I draw even now) came from an internet anime drawing tutorial called "Bioboy's Art Page," which has long since disappeared. I never even got to thank the guy. But his style leaned more towards the small lower face/large upper head style that most people seem to use, so I changed my faces to be more shoujo for the guys (Fushigi Yuugi specifically). The girls still retained much of the original tutorial look, except with longer faces. Body style is completely of my own devising, but that was more of a recent development.

Nowadays, I've been picking and choosing styles from various anime artists on the web that I admire, and seeing how I like them. Nothing has really stuck so far, except thicker eyelashes for girls, and deviations away from the "unilash" that was popularized by CLAMP's Rayearth. I'm also trying to draw rounder eyes for the younger females, but it's not feeling very natural to me, so I may go back to narrower eyes.

[JexKerome]

But your style is obviously not an imitation of Takahashi, otherwise your art would look more like Zhan's work. How did you deviate?

By sucking at drawing

[Keffria]

Geez, Jex! What is with all the self-deprecation among us Keenspacers? (*ignores the fact that she's guilty of it*)

I'll admit that your style does look a bit like Takahashi's, but you aren't directly ripping it off, and besides which, you're quite competent. So stop feeling sorry for yourself.

[JexKerome]

What?! if anyone has NO right to self-deprecation is YOU, Keffria! Your art rocks!

Mine's adequate to my needs, but lately with the translation I've gotten the chance to see old art and can't say I really approve of it. Then I look to my current art and notice some things are still wrong!!!

And yes, my main deviation was my inability to get a lot closer to Ms. Takahashi's art; so I decided to inject some of the old (non-manga) style, specially since cartoonish (as in, Tom & Jerry) poses are easier to me than 100% anatomically correct ones.

Of course, then I read Eiichiro Oda, the author of One Piece, did exactly the same with his work (add Tom & Jerry cartoonesque tones), and so I moved away from that.

No worries, though. I calculate that 2050 I'll be drawing like Soap or you or War. Of course, the world as we know it is gonna end in 2012, but hey, I don't see that as a reason to stop.

[Keffria]

2012?!

Oh, God, I've wasted my short little life! *throws down her manga* ;P

[Wp]

No! You haven't read enough!

I don't know if I'll ever reach Soap, War, or Keffria's level. I'm one of those people who, if I don't draw constantly, I regress and have to work my way back up. And with my life, there's always a random one week gap where I don't get a chance to draw anything.

I've thought about adopting non-manga attributes to my art, but I like the manga style so much, I can't think of anything non-manga to add. It's not that I refuse to like anything else (I read non manga web comics too), it's just that I'd like my own style to be manga.

[Phact0rri]

same with me WP. I should show people some art from before I took a big ole four year break from drawing compared to now. I hate myself for not continuing to draw. drawing is so not like riding a bike for me.

in other news Jex's art does rock insanely hard. I like the feeling the artwork has. and strangely I've never really thought of Jex or Keff's art as anime style. they might have been influenced, but both of them have definatly put a lot of themselves in thier art that gives it more than what they looked at when developing thier styles *nod nod*

[Arumo]

and strangely I've never really thought of Jex or Keff's art as anime style. they might have been influenced, but both of them have definatly put a lot of themselves in thier art that gives it more than what they looked at when developing thier styles *nod nod*

Yeah, I saw Keff's stuff and I really didn't think it was anime until I saw she drew chibis. Jex's stuff is still pretty obvious, but at least they're not just duplicating already existing styles.

[Keffria]

Ehh, I don't pull out the chibis often, but there are some times when they really are great to use for exaggerated expressions.

I wonder, how, exactly, might we define "anime-style"? Because there seems to be a very blurred line between "anime" and "not anime"...

No! You haven't read enough!

*thinks about it*

....

*rescues "Planetes" from the garbage can*

[Phact0rri]

well my define is a little harsh and it might even be a little insulting but here goes..

if you do a comic and live in japan=auto Manga

If you live in the west and you do a comic= comic

If you live in the west and you run around with a clone copy of an anime/manga style= Anime

I also tend to call any comic that copies another form (whether asian or jhonen vasquez) as "Amerimanga" just cause it has that same sort of mentality. as there are more people who copy out there than people who like anime, and I'm one who likes to see people draw with heart and show themselves, no matter the influence. Course I'm also a little corny. ^_^

[IVstudios]

I don't know if my style qualifies as Anime/Manga either, but it's probably influenced equal parts by Anime and Manga, American comic books and Saturday morning cartoons (the good ones they don't have on anymore like Eek the Cat and Rocco

[Wp]

I don't have any hard and fast rules for defining anime, but I simply categorize it as an art style, without incorporating cultural attitudes and norms. I just kind of look at it and say "hmm, that looks close enough." From my impressions, World Warp does not look very anime-ish. The most defining characteristic for me is the face: eyes and nose and mouth.

Oh, and btw Jex, your art is nice in that it is not static like most webcomics. You know how to handle your action shots pretty well.

[Keffria]

Personally, I'm not very cut-and-dry with my definition, either. I agree with phactorri in that I'm hesitant to call anything Western "anime" or "manga", but you see all sorts of stuff on television and in comics that's "anime-esque". Hairstyles and eyes, in particular, seem to be borrowed from Japan.

While we're partly on the subject, Martin Mystery stole Galad's hair.

(Never mind that I believe the character is loosely based on something from the 80s.)

[JexKerome]

I've said it before, and said it again: authentic manga and anime can only come form japan; everyone else is jsut using japanese-style art. Including me.

As for Martin Mystery and its sibling (Megas, them Three spy chicks) they are really really bad fakes, overusing clich

[Keffria]

As for Martin Mystery and its sibling (Megas, them Three spy chicks) they are really really bad fakes, overusing clich

[IVstudios]

As for Martin Mystery and its sibling (Megas, them Three spy chicks) they are really really bad fakes, overusing clich