Creating Manga Characters: Sweatshop Studios

Manga is an emotive and expressive form of storytelling that has become popular worldwide; vivid and fascinating characters make a large contribution to its appeal. Characters are an essential component of a good story, crucial to the plot and vital for engaging the reader's interest and emotions. They are also enormous fun to imagine and to draw, but it not always easy to fit your characters, your world and your plot together to create a seamless, convincing whole. Written and illustrated by five artists from Sweatdrop Studios, this book starts with drawing in the manga style before going on to describe the process of character creation and how your character could express their personality and emotions. Five original characters help to explain every topic, including character traits, from personalities and typical roles all the way down to the individual details important to make your character unique. The book also looks at the creation of side characters to complement your main character, and world-building. Packed with tips, it describes how to make your world realistic and intriguing, no matter how fantastical or everyday its basis. Topics covered include: ? Anatomy and expression ? Character roles and how to look beyond them ? Creating a setting, side characters and mascots ? Examples of comic pages from thumbnail to completion AUTHOR: Morag Lewis is a member of Sweatdrop Studios, a UK-based independent publisher and comic collaborative creating original manga-styled comics. It has published over eighty titles including large-scale anthologies, with a variety of styles and subject matter for all readers. Many of the members are professional illustrators and artists with numerous manga accolades/awards and published works, and the group has extensive experience writing and presenting art and comic tutorials. 162 colour