Freerefill wrote:My question would be... manga program? Is it drawing actual characters, and if so, free-hand or does it have pre-programmed whatzits? Or is it more like taking in pre-drawn art and putting in text boxes, color, assembling panels, etc?
As I understand it, it's basically a drawing program like CorelDraw, Illustrator, but specifically tooled for Manga work... It has half-tone pre-sets, action lines, text bubble pre-sets, etc. I know a lot of professional illustrators who've had a look at it, but none who give it more than, say, three out of five stars. They say it's just too complicated to use and too limited in scope.
Halo...
I posted in your other thread, and, in books, I'll add some stuff here. I do like the
"How to Draw Manga" books, and I've bought most of them... But I haven't worked through them yet...
And that's the key with books like these. Work
through them as if they were text books. They other key with drawing, of course, is to draw. A lot. As in every day. Simple as it is, that's the step where most people fall flat on their faces. They stick to drawing a single figure, full front, same pose, every few days at most. You can't go far wrong by picking a person doing a thing, at random, every day, and drawing that in the style you're working on... You see a girl on a cell phone from 3/4, walking away... Go back to the office and draw her, manga style. Next day, an old man, 1/4 profile, sitting on a bench and feeding pigeons, and you see him from a slightly elevated vantage point... Now go back to the office and draw it.
Another set of books to have are, basically, all of them by
Jack Hamm. He has a "how to draw animals" book, a "people" book, a "cartooning" book, and a "landscape" book... They cost about $7 or 9 each, and they are chock full of excellent step-by-step exercises and shortcuts. Excellent foundation work... And once you have a strong foundation, any specific style is just a matter of tuning.
