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Over the past few years I've run across many individuals with the sole desire to become Japanese Manga artists and the ideals they have seem a little distorted. The want to be manga artists and manga artists only yet do not realize the process one must go through to achieve that dream.

It's much more than scribbling a circle with a pair of huge eyes and a tiny mouth and I hope to help guide artists in the right direction with a small set of guidelines. Perhaps they are not things that must be followed precisely but I think that they should help potential comic artists find their true talent. Mind you these are tips given by me alone so, though they may not be perfect, I do think they could be very helpful to beginners.

Firstly, a "manga" artist has to realize that the style of Japanese comics isn't the only style that exists. If you are just starting out and hope to be able to draw something on par with, say, Kiyohiko Azuma or Takeshi Obata you are solely mistaken. Those artists spent years refining their craft and they didn't start out solely as comic artists. To be a good comic artist you must start with the basics. When manga artists and animators are hired in Japan they don't interview for a position with a portfolio full of anime art. They bring realistic artwork because animation and manga studios want to see that their potential employees understand the basics of the human figure, space, tone, and other various things first and foremost. Manga artists must always learn the basics before anything else if they have any hopes of attaining a job.

Figure Drawing - As most comics focus on human beings or animal characters rather than, say, animated inanimate objects a good comic artist has to know how to draw an actual human figure to begin with. I'm sure many artist have started their craft with a few sketchy cartoon figures but in order to draw a good anime character you have to be able to draw the creature it was based off of. Of course this doesn't mean that you have to attend life drawing classes in order to succeed at this (though they are extremely helpful). There is life all around you. Sitting in a mall with a sketchbook for an hour would be more than enough, or even buying, say, a Barbie doll to study how the parts fit together would work. Maybe Barbies aren't the most flexible objects. If you want to work on anthro art study up on animals and visit a pet store or two. Petsmart and Petco allow owners to bring their animals in so odds are that you'll

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