How to Draw Manga Animals

CHAPTER ONE: STORIES AND CHARACTERS

Concepts for Creating Manga-Style Characters or Creatures

What comes first in character design, the character or the story? This is really a chicken or the egg question, without a clear answer, because it can be either. Sometimes inspiration strikes with a character concept and you build your story on that idea, and sometimes it s the story that comes to you first and you then populate that story with appropriate characters. Let s take a look at the two ways to begin your creative process.
 
Who s your character? What s its story?

Sometimes your initial inspiration to create comes from a character idea. What if there was a character who thinks and acts like this and struggles with that? Whatever this and that are, the character should spark enough conflict and interest to make you and your potential audience want them to develop further and see how they react and grow. Or perhaps you have a passion for some creature that lives in your imagination and you want to develop them more, see who and what they are, and what challenges they might face. And, sometimes, you just like drawing something! Once you have an idea of who this interesting character is, you can develop a story for them.

This intricate, detailed kirin would be perfect for a sweeping fantasy story filled with more realistic dangers and creatures.
 
This more cartoonish kirin would fit a cheerful, bright video game or comic full of cute critters, and an inviting colorful world.
 
Conversely, sometimes the story comes first. Perhaps you visualize a world that has something different and interesting to you, some challenge or property to it that you d like to explore further. Maybe there s a problem you see in real life and you d like to throw some characters into that mix and see how they might react, or even solve, that problem. Once you create your scenarios, you need to invent characters to live in that world and

J.C. Amberlyn is an award-winning artist, animator, graphic novelist, photograher, naturalist, and animal lover. She is the author of Monacelli Studio's How to Draw Manga Characters, How to Draw Dogs and Puppies, How to Draw Cats and Kittens, How to Draw Magical Mythological Creatures. She's also the author of Watson-Guptill's bestselling Drawing Wildlife, Drawing Manga Animals, and The Artist's Guide to Drawing Animals. She lives in Arizona.