As you can see from my Google plus tag, I am a veterinary student with a passion for art, music and pizza (my absolute favourite food). I started this blog to provide people with the kind of reference materials I always look for when I get stuck, but can never find. If anyone can't find the tutorial they need, feel free to throw me requests. I will be happy to oblige and maybe I will learn something too.
One thing you may notice about my tutorials, is they tend to involve a lot of text. There are two reasons for this. The first is that I am a traditional artist first and foremost, a pencil and some paper are how my creations come into being. My handwriting is illegible to anyone but myself and my lack of skill with image editing software makes it difficult to organise each step to look pretty from a scanned image. The second, and perhaps most important reason, is that when it comes to art the only way forward is to learn the basics and build on them by observation. It is all well and good learning what shapes make up the human body, but you must learn to see these shapes in your reference (and later for those lucky few, in their minds) without being taken through it step by step. For that reason each of my tutorials will usually contain one or two step by step constructions showing the shapes, and a few references for other more interesting angles for you to copy and practice at your own leisure. My tutorials are thus designed to be used as easy access reference material once the text has been read and the main points understood.
The best piece of advice I can give to all you budding manga artists out there, is grab a mirror or a friend and observe! If you can't find a reference for that elusive angle, have a friend pose or take a photo. Manga is a beautiful simplification of a reasonably accurate human form. Real humans are always better for proportional study than someone else's artwork. Once you have the basics feel free to diversify from the norm, develop your style and make your characters (or someone else's in the case of you fan artists out there - keep providing me with wonderful art and plenty of laughs you guys) appear to be as unique and full of personality as possible.
I try to post every Wednesday evening (here in the UK that is, not sure what time it would be over the Atlantic), so see you then!
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