How to Draw a Basic Manga Figure
- In This Quick Guide:
- The Basic Geometric Shapes
- The Basics of Drawing a Figure
- The Action Pose
- More So with the Torso
As eager as you might be to jump into things and start drawing manga faces and figures, panels, and pages, one thing you are going to realize is that becoming a good artist does not happen overnight. It takes practice, and lots of it. In this guide we’re going to start at the beginning. We’re going to look first at the steps to creating a manga figure. Some of it might seem elementary, but it’s part of a larger, more important whole. And it’s something that every artist needs to know.
The Basic Geometric Shapes
You can look at just about any picture and break it down into very simplistic geometric shapes. And after you understand shapes and their relationships to each other, you will have a better handle on how to draw figures.
Circles and cylinders form the basis for figures.
When drawing bodies, circles and cylinders are your best friends. As you will see, you can make a rough outline of your character using only circles and cylinders. You can create a figure that looks human-shape and make sure you have that character in the pose you want, using the body language you desire.
Squares are also very important in composing your page.
Squares aren’t valuable in the way circles and cylinders are for building bodies, but they come in handy for many other objects, such as vehicles, buildings, even humanoid-shape nonhumans such as robots.
The Basics of Drawing a Figure
The most basic step: a single line.
The first step in drawing a figure is a simple line. This line follows the path of the character’s spine, based on the pose the character will be in. In this case, we’re going to draw a figure standing forward and upright.
Defining the shoulders and hips.
Next you add two lines to denote where the shoulders and the hips will be. You are defining your character’s torso here, even if you can’t see it at this point.
Adding the body.
As you can see, the figure is built primarily out of circles and cylinders. The head, chest, and joints are circular, whereas the limbs, neck, midsection, and fingers are cylindrical. Of course, not everything is a perfect circle or cylinder, and some differently shaped objects, such as the feet, pelvis, and elements of the hands, will simply take practice. But in general, the body consists of circles and cylinders put together in a human shape.
Finished body.
Finally, we see the finished body. That is, as finished as it is going to get in this guide. It still needs to be fleshed out, and there is a lot more to do to this figure before an artist would ink it. But at this point we want to make sure the figure’s body parts are in the correct proportions and that the figure is in the pose or stance that we want.
Of course, this is not a particularly natural stance, just one that best illustrates the human form. Most of the time your character will be doing something, and it’s the action pose that you will want to capture accurately.
The Action Pose
The start of an action pose.
We’ll next tackle a character in more of an active pose. In this step, all we see is a curved line, and we can’t tell too much about the figure other than the spine is not perfectly straight.
Defining the shoulders and hips.
Lines to mark the shoulders and hips are added next. And we still don’t have a clear idea of what the character’s pose will be. Consider this a very basic skeleton, a wire frame or foundation to build your character around. As you are drawing this, the figure should be taking shape in your head. The hard part will be getting it onto paper the way you want it, but this outline should help.
Adding the body.
Now, with the body added, we see exactly why the spine was curved and why the hips and shoulder lines were drawn at an angle. In this shot, the character is in a stance drawing back or throwing a punch. His shoulders are straight, but his back is arched. His legs are not straight; the figure’s knees are bent and his weight is on his left (front) leg, to support his weight as he throws the blow.
Finished figure.
Here we have the figure, sans outline. As we saw in the last figure, the way the body moves will affect the direction and curve of the spine, shoulders, and hips, even their lengths. Keep this in mind, because your characters’ bodies will often be in motion and active. At least, they should be, if you want your story to be interesting.
More So with the Torso
The pelvis.
Let’s take a step back and look at some of the trickier body parts. This is a figure of a pelvis, the lower half of the torso.
The overall figure is that of a half oval, bisected by a wide oval so we see only the lower half. Two other tall, tilted ovals mark the place of the legs.
The upper body.
The chest is more of a perfect circle, with smaller circles high on each side to denote the joints to the arms.
The complete torso.
And finally, here is the pelvis and upper body together, united by a circle (sometimes a cylinder) to denote the stomach and rib cage area. Recall the natural movement of your own body. The chest may pivot forward or side-to-side on the “ball” that represents the stomach, but it won’t lean too far back (not, that is, unless your character has a broken back).
And there you have it—the basic manga figure! Check out our other Quick Guides to learn how to draw a basic female and basic male figure. Happy drawing!
From The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Drawing Manga Illustrated, Second Edition by John Layman and David Hutchison for IDEA + DESIGN WORKS, LLC
