If you’re a fan of anime you may dream of creating your own series. Or maybe you just want to learn how to draw your favorite characters. Either way, you need to learn how to draw anime and manga.
To help you get started on your journey, this article lists written resources and video tutorials designed to help you learn how to draw anime and manga.
Written Resources
While videos abound for drawing and manga, written resources prove more scarce. So be sure to keep these to hand before diving into YouTube tutorials.
/ic/ Fundamental Art Advice Support Page
If you’ve never visited 4chan, the site consists of several sub-communities. One of those sub-communities is /ic/ for artwork and critique. But even without accessing the community, the support page links you to information on tutorials, YouTube channels, reference, figure drawing, and more.
The /ic/ community also has an excellent 61-page guide for newbies and first-timers. It covers all kinds of fundamentals and walks you through common beginner topics: mindset, techniques, tools, software, etc. It isn’t manga-specific, but it will help sharpen your skills.
Complete Guide on How to Draw Manga
The folks behind Corel Painter, a piece of drawing software used by many artists, offer a collection of art tutorials meant to get you started from base zero. The tutorials cover traditional art, photo art, and illustrations.
Within the tutorial collection, one provides an overview on drawing manga, which covers eyes, faces, inking, and coloring/shadings.
Clip Studio Paint Manga Tutorials
As with Corel Painter, Clip Studio Paint provides tutorials for its program. However, unlike its competitor, it provides many manga-specific tutorials that go through the entire manuscript process. Whether you plan to use the software or not, it’s worth checking out the professional manga tutorials.
For those looking to learn to draw anime, the animation tutorials also are worth exploring. Once you’ve studied a bit, take a look at how the professionals do it. Visit the best websites where you can watch anime online for free to see the end results.
Video Tutorials
With the popularity of YouTube and its expansive amount of free content, manga tutorials are much easier to find. However, before diving straight into manga creation, it’s important to examine the fundamentals in video form as well. The playlists below provide a solid mix of the fundamentals as well as manga-specific content.
Proko
Proko isn’t specific to manga, but it is a must-watch YouTube channel for any aspiring artist. If you get through all of his videos from start to finish, you’ll have experienced some masterful advice.
He covers two extremely important topics that are rarely taught in detail in YouTube videos: gesture and anatomy. Start with the Figure Drawing playlist (to give your drawings life and motion), then study the Anatomy of the Human Body playlist (to give your drawings proper scale and details).
Once you know these fundamentals, you’ll be closer to learning how to draw manga and anime. There are no shortcuts when learning how to draw, but the sheer amount of resources on this channel will help you progress.
The Art of Wei
The Art of Wei YouTube channel is a good first stop for newbies. While he does have several videos dedicated to manga art, you’ll actually learn more from his series on drawing fundamentals.
Start with the Basic Tools for Drawing and Sketching and Best Ways to Pencil Shade Drawings playlists. Then make your way through the Drawing Lessons for Beginners playlist. Lastly, check out the How to Draw Manga and How to Draw Hair playlists.
Whyt Manga
Whyt Manga is the best channel for manga-specific tutorials. With lots of themed content that touches on all kinds of overlooked topics, you’ll be learning for a long time.
Start with the Manga Tools, Drawing Anatomy, and Manga/Webtoon Tutorials playlists. After that, you’ll learn plenty from the How to Make a Manga Series playlist (fight scenes, storyboards, character design, etc.) and the Manga Camera Angle playlist (paneling and other tips for visual storytelling).
With the frequency of his uploads, you can check back on his channel frequently to examine almost any question you’ll ever have about creation. Once you’ve reviewed his content, you’ll want to check out what you’ve learned.
Use these sites to read manga online for free legally.
Mark Crilley
Mark Crilley works well for manga newbies, plus he has a lot of content that will keep you busy. The artwork in his earlier videos isn’t as good, but the techniques are sound, so just keep that in mind and don’t let it turn you off.
The How to Draw and How to Make Comics/Manga playlists are good starting points. Also, check out his How to Draw Hair and How to Draw Eyes playlists. And don’t forget the Speed Drawings playlist, which will teach you a lot about the practical application of drawing theory.
Koizu
Koizu’s YouTube channel focuses on drawing manga and related techniques. You’ll learn genre-specific tips and tricks, like How to Draw Manga Body Proportions, Shading Techniques, and Drawing Poses.
The only downside is that the channel isn’t updated frequently. Fortunately, the channel offers plenty of content in the meantime.
Alphonso Dunn
Alphonso Dunn’s YouTube channel doesn’t touch on manga or anime at all, but he inks all of his artwork. And if you’re going to draw manga, inking will be one of the most valuable skills you’ll learn.
You should go through all of his videos so that you can pick up as many techniques and tricks as you can. But if you’re in a hurry, the most important videos are contained within the Shading playlist.
Mikeymegamega
Ignore the gaming half of the Mikeymegamega YouTube channel and focus on the drawing half.
The Draw, Simple, Easy playlist contains medium-length videos that show you how to draw certain characters from manga and comic books. The Draw With Mikey playlist contains longer videos of him free drawing and chatting with his viewers.
While this channel doesn’t offer much in the way of direct instruction, it’s a great way to learn by watching. Plus, you’ll pick up various tips and tricks along the way.
Learn to Be a Better Digital Artist With Manga Tutorials
If you want to figure out how to start drawing anime, it begins with manga. And if you’re looking to become a digital artist towards that goal, it helps to have the right tools. So, check out our list of the best drawing tablets for digital artists to help get started.
Image Credit: Bartosz Budrewicz/Shutterstock
Read the full article: How to Draw Anime and Manga Comics: 10 Tutorials to Get Started
