I’m really enjoying my manga drawing class in small part due to the exercises being rather fun and in large part because our teacher is so adorable!
(If you haven’t already, please read about my first class here!)
We still haven’t found out his name. I wanted to ask but was too shy. But I will do it this Sunday. Hopefully. Heh. So I’ll call him Manga Sensei until I find out his name.
LAST SUNDAY WE DREW NARUTO!!! =D
Well, okay, I feel a bit of a cheat to say I drew Naruto. We didn’t really draw him on our own strength. We merely added pencil strokes around a provided frame.
I wonder how long artists have to practise before they can draw stuff without using circles and lines. Even with the guidelines, I found it hard. It took me five minutes just to draw the hair to my grudging satisfaction.
Manga Sensei also drew Naruto. On the whiteboard. Without those circle and line things.
Oh, this time, he came to class more prepared. He had, I think, rather painstakingly gone through his dictionary to cobble together many sentences of English instructions.
He would write down the words on the board and then read them to us in a halting manner.
It wasn’t always clear what he meant to say, though.
The words shown above: “Paint the picture tips. See the entire balance. Finary draw A fine plase.”
And then he wrote “about” beside Naruto’s head. I have no idea what that is supposed to mean.
I managed to speak more Japanese with him! It’s cool being able to practise with a native speaker. We had a bit of chat about our favourite manga and the music that he was playing in class.
He also showed us a very elaborate Gundam drawing he did which took him 13 hours just for the pencil sketch alone.
So, after Naruto, we received this worksheet which looked easy at first glance but ended up not being as easy.
There were given 16 faces with different facial expressions printed out in very faint lines and we were supposed to trace over them. Some of the lines, especially the hair, were so faint as to be hard to make out.
Here’s the result of my labour:
Now, don’t say I draw well, because I didn’t actually draw these on my own. I was tracing faint lines. And, in fact, my faces aren’t as handsome as the original ones, somehow! Sigh.
Our next exercise was different. We had to write a comic strip! Oh dear.
We were given a comic strip and told to fill in words to fit the drawing. This is really hard. I can never think of good jokes.
It didn’t help that the two examples we were given DID NOT MAKE SENSE AT ALL.
Like, totally HUH? right?
Anyway, I didn’t want to spend too much time on this (cos I’m always the slowest in completing all the exercises), so I did this lame excuse for a joke:
So engrossed was I in trying to figure out what the example strips meant that I totally didn’t notice the instructions telling us which speech bubble came first.
I mean, being a manga reader, I should have known that the Japanese read from left to right. But I just forgot about it at the moment and stuck to the English style of right to left.
Minou also. Haha.
When we were done with this, Manga Sensei walked over with a blank piece of paper and started saying something about “homework” and “his turn”. We eventually figured out that he meant that he was going to give himself homework!
He started copying down the words of our comic strips, saying that he was going to go home and look up the words in his dictionary.
We had to use a mix of Japanese, English and sign language to communicate, as usual.
Anyway, when he copied my comic, I noticed he was writing it in the wrong order, from left to right, instead of the way I meant it to be. And I wondered why… until he was copying my other friend’s work. SHE had it the correct way.
So, Minou and I had to number our speech bubbles to tell Manga Sensei that we had gotten our order wrong and for him to take note of that on his “homework” sheet.
Once we were done with that, he showed us what he wanted us to do next, via English writing on a piece of paper. But no matter how we tried, we couldn’t figure out what he meant!
I can’t remember his exact words but it was something like, “If you have time, please post … (something). Favourite picture.”
Totally incomprehensible. Heh.
He finally gave up and gave us another task, which was this following worksheet.
It’s the hardest of all! We had to draw bodies in all kinds of poses. Of course, we had faint drawings to trace, like the faces one, but this one was even more faint and in many cases indecipherable.
After tracing all the bodies, we had to pick four of our favourites and draw them in boxes below!
I only managed to draw three before class ended. This is VERY VERY difficult. My bodies suck.
The worksheets are getting scary, increasing in difficulty at a crazy breakneck pace!
I guess I will have to spend a lot of time at home practicising if I ever want to improve. But… how to find time? Japanese test next Monday and I’m still lost in some of the lessons!
Oh dear.
I can haz LOLz!
Anyway, it figures that he’s left-handed. :)
BTW, your depiction of a rabid Cumla… I mean Cullen, fan is spot on. ;)
Boo hoo. I’m right-handed. Does that mean I’ll never be a good artist?
/ignore rest of your comment.
hehe… good bubbles talk..
Yurs doesnt seems like a beginner class though …. thought beginner class teach how to draw simple face simple body posture simple hair only frontal … the propotion of a figure
Yeah, that’s why I say the pace is crazy! It IS supposed to be a beginner class. :(
I think expression shouldnt be in this beginner class seems slightly too advance coz i believe you cant draw anything yet as its all about copying and with guidelines
well maybe its this comic class way … bear with it till the end it may prove to be correct … only can deduce at the end
Jia You!!
*Raises hand*
How many classes have you taken already? Is there any intake coming up or is it like there’s always one?
I is wanna draw my own Naruto!!! ;x
Oooh. So far I’ve only taken two classes. You can join in any time, cos the teacher will just give you worksheets in progression. There’s not much actual teaching involved, lol.
4コマ? おもしろそう!
Always wanted to draw 4-panel gag manga (w). Wish they have lessons on weekend mornings, I’d be interested to join, except that I can’t really find any available time-slot in my calendar, except for weekend mornings (www).
Btw, regarding your last reply (last manga class post), you can try this (no guarantees because I’m pretty rusty LOL):
Nihongo nouryoku mada mada desu ga, yokattara, nihongo de kaiwa shimasho!
Trans: My Japanese proficiency is not quite there yet, but if it’s ok with you, lets converse in Japanese!
Aww, that’s a shame. Have you checked with them if they have other timeslots that can fit your schedule?
Thanks for the Japanese tip! But I don’t feel confident in my level of Japanese to say that yet. I mean, I don’t think I can actually converse in Japanese fully yet, so I don’t want to give people the wrong idea.
I would want to say something along the lines of, “I can speak just a little bit of Japanese, so would you like to tell me stuff in Japanese and I’ll see if I can understand a word here and there?” LOL.
I’ve only glanced at the website and saw 2pm and 4pm for Sat. Maybe I
could call in and check. Thanks for the SUG. (^_^)
Oops, I should have thought of that. (^_^)” すみません! It does seem a bit
too “flashy” for you. Though I’m pretty sure your enthusiasm for
Japanese stuff (hope I’m not mistaken here) will ‘level’ you up in no time. (w)
Btw. if you are a manga enthusiast but haven’t read Bakuman yet, and don’t mind shounen manga, you might wanna give this a try. It’s a manga about mangaka (漫画家) and manga, and written / drawn by the authors of Deathnote. While I feel it’s not at masterpiece level, it’s still very interesting, gives a lot of insights into the manga industry, has very good ratings and sales figures, and an anime is coming out sometime coming October / November period.
日本語の勉強が漫画の勉強もこれからも続いてがんばってくださいね!
HH より :P
Bakuman sounds nice! Just nice, I was looking for something to read after Naruto. I started on Densha Otoko (something I KIV’ed many years ago and finally got around to it. :P) but it’s a short one so should be done very fast. Will read Bakuman next. Thanks!! :)
But after reading Naruto then watching the anime, I find that the anime has so much more details and extra dialogues not found in the manga. Makes me wanna just watch anime and forget the manga altogether. :(
And, uh… I haven’t learnt Kanji yet. So, your Japanese sentence… I had to read it as Chinese! Haha. But still don’t really understand what you’re trying to say. O_o
For most series, if you want to get maximum enjoyment, you need to read the manga. Because many anime adaptations are condensed, and may even have their own endings, which 90% of the time are no good. But I still like to watch anime if I have the time, cos good seiyuus (voice actors) and BGMs can really bring life to the story, battle scenes are easier to understand, and some have pretty awesome opening and ending themes.
That aside, for “The Big Three” (One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, though Kubo-sensei of Bleach has consistently serve us garbage after the Vaizard arc that I wish it will end already) and other top best-selling mangas, normally the anime will be faithful to their endings. Some of the extra stories you see are known as “fillers”, and are used to stretch the anime out for the manga to get ahead again. Sometimes they are good sometimes they are garbage. >_<
For Naruto, I suggest to just watch until episode 135. The remaining 80 episodes are garbage filler material IMHO. After that just skip to Naruto Shippuden and resume from there. (w)
I will break up the Jap sentence and decode it for you :P.
日本語 = にほんご (Japanese, I'm sure you know this already LOL)
勉強 = べんきょう (Studies, this is indeed funny if you read it as Chinese LOL)
漫画 = まんが (Manga)
続いて = つづいて (dictionary form is つづく and it means "to continue"; have you already learned じしょけい ie. dictionary form?)
In Romaji:
Nihongo no benkyou ga manga no benkyou mo kore kara mo tsuzuite ganbatte kudasai ne!
Trans: Please continue to do your best in your Japanese studies, as well as your manga studies! (in an encouraging tone :P)
より in this context means "from", and usually used in letters / emails / memos.
I'll drop you a mail on a couple of great dictionary sites that help me a lot in my Jap studies…, once I find the links… that is… :P
Oh yeah, one more thing, in case you're not aware of. 'w' is short for warai. Sometimes people use (笑) instead. It could mean smiley face or LOL, and I use it habitually when my mind is in Jap mode :P
HH: Wow!! Thanks for your long comment! :) I’m glad to hear that it’s mostly better to read manga than anime. Was worried when I watched Naruto and discovered that the manga is missing out on many minor details. Like the anime has lots of extra dialogue in scenes missing in the manga. Nothing crucial, but I do enjoy the little extras because it adds personality to the characters.
And I prefer to read manga generally cos it’s takes less time. I don’t have so much time to watch anime. :P But I do love watching anime cos I can listen to Japanese! ;)
Yup, we learn dictionary form right from the start. Actually all the forms. Thanks for breaking up the sentences! You’re a good teacher. I should converse with you more in Japanese, hehe. :P
Okay, let’s take it to emails. Easier there anyway! ;)
Lol, you are funny. I like manga too, I am looking forward to your next lesson post :)
Thank you. I’ll try and write about it soon! ;)
Hey Sheylara~
How come you’ve stopped posting about your Manga classes since 13 July? Is it going well? I was really happy to find that you’re attending Inoue and was very curious about how the classes are going cuz im personally very much interested and have actually made a reservation for myself this Sunday!
I agree with Rayanne. I was browsing through some manga drawing tutorials, then I suddenly remembered about your manga lesson, and I have to read through all your recent blog posts just to find… nothing! No additional post after the second lesson! Why? D:
@Rayanna @zazaza Well, I just posted an update today. Thanks for kicking my butt about it. I was just sitting on it. :P
Rayanna, have you started your classes yet? :) Hope you’re enjoying them!
The worksheets used look great where does the teacher get them from?
@Claire: Um, I don’t know, sorry!
Wow… I love to read manga, I already wrote couples of story myself…But i didnt know I have to goes thru hell to draw my caracter…oh boy i guess i will keep writing my story and keep it to myself…I CAN’T DRAW MANGA….