Akadot - Article: How to Draw Manga: Pen and Tone Techniques page 1

The book follows two friends, Keiko and Manabu as they speak to the manga artist Pen Ichijo and Ton Nijo. Keiko and Manabu think manga is a snap and easy to do. However, Mr Ichijo soon dispels that myth, showing the detail involved in drawing manga. Starting with the paper used, to demonstrating pens, ink and ziptone, Mr Ichijo covers it all. Zip tone is covered in the second half of the book by the rather scraggly beatnik-looking manga-ka Ton Nijo. Instead of showing how to replicate certain effects such as water or trees, he shows Keiko and Manabu the elements of how to create such forms. Just as the two students start to get used to their shady ziptone teacher, he has a few surprises for them towards the end...

With each example of a technique, Keiko and Manabu find it isn't that the techniques are difficult to do as a concept but are difficult due to the precision and fine control required. When Keiko and Manabu complain about the practice, Mr Ichijo doesn't hesitate in setting them straight, "practice is important! No way around it!" Unlike most of the books in the series in regards to how to use tools, this one actually teaches such things as how to hold the pen properly and how to get various effects commonly seen in manga such as certain patterns. For example, "nawa -ami" or cord hatching, is used in depressing scenes and for quiet or subdued backgrounds. It can be also used as a basic pattern as well to fill an area. The cord hatching is enlarged to see the pattern in detail and how to create it, line by line. Even the tools used are more than just a G-pen or spoon pen; everything from feathers to shaved chopsticks to bricks. Everything is a tool if it can make a line. Again, even in the zip tone section, overlooked things such as how to hold the tone cutter and how to determine placement for shadow are also explained fully with large graphics and simple pictures.

There are some drawbacks though. The artwork is a bit unpolished; it seems the artist was going more for clean cut examples than care. Although compared to some of the well-drawn but hard to understand examples, it would be better to be less skilled and understood than pretty and unclear. The book reads more of a manga artist's scrapbook than an instructional. There are questions and answers to common problems tacked at the bottom of pages. Subjects are loosely grouped together, which make referencing pages rather difficult. If looking for a certain example of a technique, it requires some page flipping to locate it. However, this cluttered laid-back approach gives a constant, un-imposing narrative of showing the concepts in action in the panels themselves. In the end, there is a sense of "I can do this, I can do this" rather than looking at highly polished work and wondering how it comes together.

This is an excellent read for those who have read the "How to draw Manga" series and needing more info or are a bit intimidated by the beautiful artwork they see in the manga they love. The fictional Mr Ichijo is a no nonsense teacher who will give the info straight but with a friendly touch. It is the type of instruction one might get from someone who is been just a bit further ahead than the rest of us, but is willing to happily give away his knowledge. Everyone, regardless of skill set, is worth teaching.

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