MANGA DRAWING

At a Tokyo-area vocational college where manga artists and other pop culture content producers receive training, Tokyo Way arranges private manga drawing lessons for our guests taught by faculty members who themselves are published manga artists.

After an explanation of how the manga publishing industry works and the role of the manga artist, the instructor gives guests a semi-finished page of a manga story that lacks important details. The teacher shows guest show to indicate emotion and action through various kinds of lines and shading, and how to fill in background sections of each manga frame with patterns and textures that help give continuity or emphasis to parts of the story.

At the end of the one hour lesson, guests have a manga page they helped create, a wonderful souvenir to share online and back home. Maybe more important, they also have gained new insight into how manga comics are made—an appreciation of the complexity and the skill involved, and a hands-on experience of the fun of being a creator.