Learn how to create beautiful manga art from pencil sketch to finished painting, with this comprehensive guide.As the popularity of Manga art continues to soar, manga and comic book artist Lisa Santrau shows beginners how to create subtle and beautiful manga pictures using pencil and watercolors-the simplest of art materials. Lisa explains the materials and tools needed and then explores the fundamentals of how to draw manga-from color theory and breaking down drawings into basic shapes, to body proportions and faces for both classic manga and chibi manga figures.You will learn how to sketch, how to create depth in your work with shading, and a range of watercolor techniques including washes, wet-on-wet and layering, as well as special techniques involving masking fluid and an innovative "film" technique for creating texture and patterns.The exercises that follow the basics explore a wide range of techniques including manga poses, hair and eyes, then learn about backgrounds, textures, gradients and more.Finally, there are twelve step-by-step painting projects to perfect your manga art skills, with downloadable templates if you want to skip the drawing and get straight to the painting. The projects are varied and fun, and comprise:

Foreword 4Materials 7Paints 8Basics 11Paper 16Preparation 18Brushes 19Techniques 21Color theory 22 Color selection 24 Effect of color 25 Examples 26Basics 28Proportions 29Faces 32Shading 34Sketching 36 Wet on wet 37 Dry technique 39 White areas 40 Special techniques 41Exercises 43Gradients 44Doodles 48Gemstones 56Feathers 58Snakeskin 60 Dragon scales 62 Walls 64Water 66Trees 68Landscape 72Gouache 74Hair 75Eyes 76Projects 79Sweet chibi girl on a slice of cake 81 Fresh steampunk chibis against a bright background 85 Chibi sorcerer's apprentice in a flying teacup 91 Chibi Harry aka a world-famous wizard 97 Young girl framed by a romantic floral design 101 Sailor boy in a symbolic sun circle 107 Girl in a kimono backlit by a window with flowers 113 Historic heroine in a voluminous ball gown 119 Melancholic schoolgirl against a fluorescent background 123 Silhouette in the evening sunset 127 Food overload: boy in the land of plenty 131 Girl's face with expressive eyes 137About the author/Acknowledgements 142