Materials
- Example comics
- Thick white paper for the final version
- A4 white sheets office quality paper
- Pens - Biros, Black ink pens
- Pencils and tracing paper
- Ink
This project will help students to develop various drawing techniques including an understanding of shading, tone, typography and story boarding techniques. It is recommended that if you are working with younger students you provide templates and plenty of opportunities to master the "style".
This is a project that will progress depending on students familiarity with the comic format. Japanese comics come in various sizes, but are usually B5. In this project students will be encouraged to produce one page demonstrating the ability to integrate text, using typography and shading. When planning the lessons it will be necessary to take into account the students' drawing ability, the higher the level the more it will be possible to focus on the subtler elements of typography and text and image placement.
Osamu Tezuka is a Japanese comic artist who created the Astro Boy character. His comics are a good example of classic manga. For a more modern look students might want to look at comics such as Naruto. These are good resources for the teacher too!
The first stage of this project is to help students make characters. Writing a character profile including name, age, favorite color, hobby, special powers and any other information you think will make the characters seem more real. You can design a simple worksheet with box for the face.
The next stage is to sketch the characters. If this is the students first experience of drawing in a manga style check this site for tips. Students can focus on drawing the face and trace if this is easier, adapting the characters features such as hair style later.
Stage three is to write a basic story. This can be the hardest part for many students.Begin the lesson by showing examples. There should be a basic pattern. First establish the character, then there is a crisis (or series of challenges) followed by some kind of resolution. Students should end up with 4 key ideas: opening, action a, action b and resolution.
If they are having trouble getting started I recommend working in pairs using the game of consequences. Students start by writing one of their characters` names at the top. The second student folds the paper and writes "went to... " and folds it over. This should be done four to five tmes starting with name, locoation, action a, action b, and finally (resolution).
Stage four is the draft section. Encourage students to look at comics to see that it is not necessary to include the whole figure. Sometimes just a face or words is enough to communicate their idea. Students will divide their practice paper into different sections, unlike Western comics these do not have to be standard box format. They can experiment with different size boxes. If this is too difficult, give students a standard template using variable box sizes, using one of the comics as a template.
Stage five students practice drawing figures (in pencil) to fit in the boxes. Working in groups or pairs get the students to pose in the action shots. Here they can use bubble drawing or stick men to sketch out the body shapes. This can be time consuming but very fun and will help improve drawing skills.
Stage six. Get students to view their sketches and select the four. These will be drawn onto the thicker paper in pencil.
Stage seven add text. Students will practice using the text from stage three. Here they can shorten and edit the script to include sounds. They will need to need to focus on keeping a balance of text and image. Examples of typography are useful.
Try to get the students to think about how the words feel – if they are trying to communicate an angry feeling then bold text might be larger.Again if this is too complex focus on the placement of the text on the page. An alternative approach is to spend a lesson looking at text from various sources - newspapers, magazines and get them to make a collage of a happy, sad, excited and angry sentences.
Stage eight. Get students to practice using ink to draw manga faces. Focus on shading using cross hatching techniques. Ink is very different medium from pencil or pen so it is good to use a fine pencil and emphasize that mistakes can sometimes add something positive to an image.
Stage nine. Using pencil will go over their designs from stage six.
Stage ten, students add text and present their final page.
This is a step-by-step guide; however, any of the stages can be adapted to fit with a different level, or taken on their own as a one off lesson plan. The focus of the project is to encourage an imaginative approach to a variety of skills and teach some basic drawing and compositional techniques.
Rachel Carvosso - Rachel Carvosso is a poet and freelance writer currently based in Tokyo, Japan. Writing on a broad range of topics her interests ...
