AYUKAWA MADOKA from Kimagure Orange Road

FRONT VIEW

[2a] Can u draw this? ^ - ^ Most Matsumoto charas

are just variations of this. EYE is about midway to
nose. NOSE level is about 1 eye-length below the
eye. CHIN level is slightly below the circle.

[2b]
These are the author's steps to draw Madoka's
RIGHT eye – the eye-circle is not as wide as
Hikaru's or Kyosuke's, so u need to draw lid-line b4
drawing in the eye-circle. Her brows are long, thin,
quite straight and low – expressing subdued
character.

[2c] Imagine a line joining outer brow to lower lid-

edge – use this as guide to drawing sides of face.
Imagine a heart-shape where the tops touch the
centre of the lower lid, the sides roughly follow the
main face-circle, and the bottom joins at chin level –
use this as guide to drawing cheek and chin. The
imaginary lines are shown here as dotted lines for u
to see only – don't draw them in yours, ok? Try to
*visualise*! ^ - ^

[2d] The black lines are the sort of thing u should

come up with. Here, the 2 sides are drawn so that the
face turns slightly to the right, because Madoka
rarely looks u straight in the eye! (Her) left cheek is
flattened ie not seen, while the right follows the
curve – just like turning a hemisphere:

Add mouth and nose – these are also slightly turned.

 [2e] Add ear (from mid/low eye level to nose level).
Draw hair guidelines. Head size is variable,
depending on the amount of deformity u want.
Thumbnail shows the extremes (realistic vs super-
deformed), while main pic is semi-deformed.

[2f] Finishing touches: (i) refine the hair (ii) fill in

eyes (iii) add more eyelashes and thicken upper lid as
u see fit (iv) add clothing.

[2g] (further touch up – optional)

Lightly shade in hair and eye to make shiny.
Decorate clothes.

COMPLETE!^o^

DIAGONAL VIEW
[2n] Can u draw this? ^ - ^ NOSE level is about 1
eye-length below the (closer) eye. CHIN level is
slightly below the circle. EYE is still midway to
nose, but now u have to think about perspective.
But, but BUT! The eye itself goes AGAINST
perspective! ie the further eye is larger than the
closer eye. Also, note the midline is still straight
(because Madoka's face is kinda flat), but the nose-
to-mouth part is on a slightly curved line (to give
some perspective).
[2o] Use what u've learned in front and side view
to draw Madoka's faceline and ear.

[2p] Draw eye, nose and mouth. Note that the nose
is ABOVE the curved midline, not inside it.

[2q] Draw hair outlines. Head size is variable.

Head size in this pic is semi-realistic. Add upper
body if u like. Dotted line shows the back of the
neck hidden behind hair.

[2r] Finishing touches: (i) refine hair (ii) fill in

eyes (iii) thicken upper lid, add eyelashes and lid-
fold as u see fit (iv) add clothing
 [2s] (further touch up – optional)
Lightly shade in hair and eye to make shiny.
Decorate clothes.

COMPLETE!^o

CHUN-LI XIANG from Street Fighter

Though arcade charas aren't my piece of cake, I've been around my young teenage brother, William, long enough
to appreciate Chunli. This project was commissioned by him, if you will... 2 ice-creams worth. ^_^
Ok, Wil asks me to draw Chunli. He's pretty specific on what he likes, so throughout the project he gives me
feedback.

ROUND 1: What sort of Chunli do I want?

First thing, I need references. Easy, coz Wil's downloaded every Chunli pic on the net he could find. I quickly
browse through them, but don't try to take in everything. I only look for the info I need, and will come back to
them as I need more.
The first info I need is to get the feel of the chara. Wots her personality like? Arcade charas are hard to determine,
bcoz they are open to interpretation. Some people show Chunli as cute/SD, some as a swimsuit babe, some as a
ruthless fighter, and the list goes on.
I personally prefer how she was in SF2: The Movie, but since I'm drawing for my brother, I think a slightly
younger Chunli would be nice. Wil likes action, so the thought that comes to mind was Chunli doing a powerful
kick. Wil also wants her to be sexy (who doesn't? ^_^), which means I should probably do a close-up of you-know-
what.
By now I have a fuzzy picture in my mind. A young Chunli deep in a fight, a close up of her kicking...kinda
like the finished pic, but for now I could only see her head, boobs (sorry, no disrespect intended!) and part of
her leg. Something like this:
(The lines at the back are speed lines)
But what's the rest of her body like?

ROUND 2: Doodling time

This was my first doodle.
I looked back to the ref pics. What sort of kicks does Chunli do? I experimented with
Chunli's spinning bird kick and a back roundhouse. That's why she's rightway up (as in
round house) but with legs crossed (as in spin kick)...I was real confused.
I was also experimenting with arm position. Should her left arm be up and her right
down, or vice versa?
The pic has been cleaned up so you can follow more easily. My original sketches are actually very messy, coz I
can't visualise straightaway. I need lines as cues to help me see the image I'm looking for. Some people can clearly
see an image in their mind, and can skip this doodling part. I can't. People vary.
When I showed Wil the sketch, he frowned. Chunli doesn't kick like that!
He sketched a sidekick for me (it might be a roundhouse, I wouldn't know) like this:

I want Chunli to be kicking front-on, ie towards the viewer, coz foreshortening is very
effective in action poses.
So I tried visualising (seeing in my mind) Wil's sketch in that view, and
came up with this sketch:
Wil mentioned that he wanted some rips in the clothing. Ok, I'll keep
that in mind for later.
The sketch still wasn't right though. I felt the raised leg was too front-on (look at her
kicking foot—it's way too BIG, and it's gonna be real hard to draw!). And I don't like the
arm position.
No good, I thought. Have to get back to the refs. I looked at an SF2 series pic. Chunli was in her red outfit kicking
like this:
I tried sketching that slightly front-on (I was determined to do a front-on kick).
Also, Chunli in the ref was light and agile, but the Chunli I
wanted to draw was strong. How can I show this?
I tried clenching her fists, tense up her arm, and move most of
her weight onto her supporting leg so it seems more solid. I
achieved the last point by making her torso and the supporting leg more vertical. I also
tried slightly bending the kicking leg (but that doesn't seem to help).
I'm getting close to the desired pose. But it needs to be more dynamic... you know,
like Kaboom! Pow! I should probably make her legs straight. But how do I do that
without making them look like matchsticks?!
... I dunno. I'm busy trying to find a nice leg angle. I'm also checking that the arm position—right up, left down—is
correct... yes, I think so. I move the right fist closer to her face, and the left arm behind her body more. This makes
her pose more compact, wound up, ready to spring out—more dynamic.
This seems like a good pose. Let's refine it.

A habit of mine is to test what I draw with a real model... usually myself. I got up
and, yes, did a roundhouse (if you can call it that) at knee level (you thought I'd
do splits? ;P). Well, that was sufficient.

What did I learn? I found that the face and upper body had
to lead the legs. So I twisted the torso in the direction of
the kick, as in the right sketch:

I've now changed my sketch technique to a more classical

model, ie using sticks and ovals. I feel this method gives
accurate proportions and roundness to the figures. I didn't
use it earlier coz they're harder to draw, and I find it
harder to visualise a complete picture by looking at just
sticks. People vary.

By using this model, I could draw a straight leg that

doesn't look like a matchstick, coz the ovals break up the
straight line and give it roundness. The kicking leg was
still bent though, but at least the leg angle's good now.

Chunli is in a good pose, so now I can think about view point. Remember I
wanted a front-on view? Let's turn the above pic like so:

Note how I've made both legs straight. They look more
impressive than bent ones, ne?

I also tried raising the right arm to see if that would

make the pose more dynamic... hmmm...

Nevermind, let's get back to view point. Looking at this

pic, Chunli seems so far away. Her face is too small for
me to draw in the details...

Are you thinking what I'm thinking, B1? I think I am,

B2! It's... Close-up Time!

(For those who don't know, B1 and B2 are Bananas in Pajamas

-_^)

I choose the head size I think I can comfortably work with, then do everything else around that. As you can see, I
haven't got everything worked out just yet (the arm! the arm!).

All I've done so far was design the pic. I took a long time coz I'm brain-dead when it comes to creativity and
deciding what I want. If my brother could draw himself, he'd be much quicker, coz he knows what he wants.
This is the problem of having an intermediary I suppose (especially a brain-dead one like me :P).
Anyway, stop whinging and let's carry on!
ROUND 3: Details
Now that I know what I want, I can just follow book rules from here on. There'll be
minimal originality, which suits me fine. ^_^

I only did one detailed sketch b4 the final copy, and everything went pretty quickly. I
don't know how accurately I'll be able to recall what happens next, but I'll try.

For simplicity, I'll look at different parts of the pic in turn.

I like to start with the head, coz as soon as you add something there, the pic just comes
alive!

DETAIL: Head
As I said at the start, I had a fair idea of what Chunli's face was gonna be like—pretty
fierce coz she's fighting.

By the book, to get that effect, her brows should slant in, her eyes narrowed and
slant up, and her mouth stretched open [see left pic below].

Now I noticed that Chunli was looking to the left, since her head's supposed to lead
her kick. But I changed so she now looks more towards the viewer [right pic].

Getting eye contact helps the viewer relate to the chara.

I have the choice of an oval or rectangular mouth. I

choose rectangular, coz corners will make her mouth
more tensed. Since she's kicking, she could be
shouting (a kiai) or clenching her teeth. I'll choose the
middle road and draw her mouth as if shouting, but
leave it white, and let the viewer decide.

Remember I thought about Chunli's age at the start? This will be useful in answering
the questions:
How big should I draw the eyes? and How long should the face be?

By the book, the narrower the eyes and the longer the chin part of the face, the
older the chara.

I checked with Wil if the sketch above was ok. He said it didn't look like Chunli, so I
went back to the refs. It seems that Chunli's pretty mature, so I narrowed the eyes [left
pic below]. And her faceline? I don't want Chunli to be too mature (as I said, I'm
drawing for my young brother), so I decide on a medium-length face.

Also the straighter the face, the older; the rounder the face, the younger. I use a
bit of both [right pic]

Flowing hair is effective in expressing action. Since Chunli has a right fringe, it's
easiest to make her fringe sway to her left [left pic]. Later on, I realised my mistake: if
she's doing a back roundhouse, her fringe has to sway to the right! [right pic]

This instance illustrates how your "feel" for what looks good sometimes conflicts
with nature's laws. Often in anime&manga, your feeling wins, but in this case
nature wins (though Wil tells me the fringe doesn't suit Chunli now and to just stuff
nature... oh well, can't win, can I?).

Adding scratchmarks [right pic above] is also good for expressing action.
Scratchmarks over the nose and under the eyes make Chunli's face more heated, an
effect similar to blushing.

Those hair buns in the left pic are starting to look funny. I think making them a little
bigger and adding more details to them should do it for now.
DETAIL: Body/Clothing/Legs
The body and legs are pretty much drawn. I mainly need to work out the clothing.

First I outline Chunli's costume,

like her shoulder puffs. Then I
draw in the folds and stretches
of the clothing. Note that I'm
not bothering with loose parts
like her loincloth yet. The folds
show up the twist of her torso
really well.

Remember Wil wants rips? He shows me the various types for various fabric in Chunli's clothing (don't
underestimate him, Wil knows his stuff—just needs some more experience to draw on his own). Rips and tears
help add interesting detail to Chunli's clothing.
Both rips and folds help show body depth and roundness.

Here I'm adding the costume linings.

These details also help suggest depth.
Doing a close-up like this saves me a lot of work on the legs—no feet! ^_^ The main worry is getting the
foreshortening of the kicking leg correct. Basically the trick is to draw the curves out of sync, ie don't draw both
sides of the leg as symmetrical or parallel, and make their lengths different... also of course, the rips help.

DETAIL: Arms/Hands
Now I have to decide once and for all if I want the right arm up or down [left pic]. I prefer it up, but when I tried
sketching it, it looks anatomically impossible. So I settled for her arm down. The right pic is a rough sketch (so
rough that the knuckles don't match the fingers, oops!).
There's slight foreshortening in the right arm, but it's not so tricky as the leg. Just imagine the lower arm as a cone
[left pic]. With a little touch up, I get the right pic below.

For the left hand, I decide to upturn it—kinda weird, but I think it's more interesting. However, looking back at it
after a month, I think it's not something Chunli would do.

Anyway, here's the full pic so far.

The sketch is almost finished. Just need to add the last details.

DETAIL: Accessories
First I add the ribbons and refine the frills of Chunli's hair buns. The
frills are easy coz they're just wavy lines. Then I add her bracelets.
The bracelet itself is pretty easy (just ellipses), but the spikes are
more tricky. I have to make sure I get the angles of the spikes and the
spacing between the spikes correct. Oh, and better not forget her
earring.

Next I draw the loincloth. I don't need to worry about drawing nice
clean lines, coz the cloth is ripped anyway. The front part's
straightfoward, but I'm not sure about the back part. I'm not sure how
the cloth flows between her legs, so I just draw what I think looks
good. I draw one half flowing between her legs and the other half
caught against her right leg (just for contrast).

And lastly, her boots. Not much to say here, just that
it contours to her leg, and that the rim helps show up
the roundness of her leg.
Putting everything together, here's the big picture.

Now I just do the final copy – Yay!

ROUND 4: K.O.!
This is the part where I say "Abracadabra!" and the messy sketch in the previous page is miraculously transformed
into this work of stunning beauty you see below....Ta daaa!
Ok, ok, so it's not so stunning. Basically, I trace over the previous sketch very, veeeerry carefully, making sure I get
nice clean lines. I refine the details in some parts, eg eyelashes, hair strands and patterns on the ribbons. The pic
should really be finished at this point. However, bcoz I now intend to colour it, I need to remove detail in some
other parts, eg the scratchmarks on her face, part of the boot rim and the clothes folds at the torso. The pic looks
plain now, but as far as outline is concerned, this Chunli pic is...

COMPLETE! ^o^
Of course, we're not really finished yet. Next comes rendering...but that'll have to be in another section. So til next
time, Ja ne! ^_^

SHADOWS
It's all about light source. Say for light coming at this angle...

[LEFT] For a SMOOTH spherical object, there'll be a medium shadow.

[RIGHT] And a darker one on the underside. Note that the dark shadow doesn't reach the edge of the sphere.
[LEFT] For a VOLLEYBALL, there are GROOVES, and we can show that by breaking up the shadow.
[RIGHT] Again, a darker shadow on the underside.

[LEFT] From the outlines...

[RIGHT] We can accentuate the grooves by adding groove shadows.
Putting everything together, we get...

[For a light source from behind, and in front, the shadow may look something like this...]

For manga, we can simplify by using something half-way between a medium and dark shadow.

These were the sort of shadows I used to shade the titlepage below. Note that the balls deeper inside the pile will
have very dark shadows.
That's pretty much the principle behind basic shadowing.
– Bee yori.
SHADING ~ TREES

A generic tree with generic leaves...

[LEFT] Here's simple rendering of some leaves on the tree.

[RIGHT] The brown areas just show the bark (so you won't get confused).
 Rendering shadows using just black.

[LEFT] Rendering using a medium tone.

[RIGHT] If desired, add darker tone to achieve more realism.

Sometimes in (shoujo?) manga, leaves/branches are used in the foreground for interesting composition, as well as
to add depth.

[LEFT] Outline of a scene with foreground leaves.

[RIGHT] Showing the bark areas, and the people.
 Rendering in black... I couldn't do this very well. I'd need to be more careful and
use a finer brush or something (a bit hard to do on the computer).

[LEFT] Using medium tone for the tree leaves, while dark for foreground leaves. As I said, the foreground leaves
can be (and usually is) black if coloured in well.
[RIGHT] Add darker tone for tree leaves (for the screentone enthusiast).

This rendering technique could probably be used for any trees or plants, though ideally it's better to study the
various species individually.
Questions?
I'm right here. — Bee.

SHIMA-CHAN: Does the green-ness of the trees get darker as it gets farther away, or vice
versa?
Well, it should get darker – unless the trees are VERY far away. Mountains get hazier and lighter in the distance
because the atmosphere scatters light; you can use the same idea for far away trees.
Looking at examples by Urasawa-sensei:
1) Trees usually get darker with distance.
[The light/dark tree in this example has black shadows and is an exception because the artist has used a black&white technique instead of
greys.]
2) Very far away, they can be hazy and lighter. Whether they do or not is really up to you.

3) Sometimes, the foreground bushes are dark, because the main light source is farther away, so we see the shadow
of the bushes.