onezumi.com : Stupid and Insane Defenders Against Chaos

I feel there is a big overemphasis on supplies when you first start out, and then many of you will end up like me - sitting in a cramped apartment with tons of supplies you never use.

Keep in mind that the supplies you need really depends on what kind of art you want to make. I definitely encourage you to experience many different methods of art creation, but I feel that I need to give a word of warning about those pricey imported Japanese materials that you see in the "How to Draw Manga" (HTDM) book series and in anime stores.

Anime is getting so popular that companies are doing an excellent job of selling the Japanese experience. I think it's really cool that you can now buy Japanese art supplies, but at the same rate there has to be some reason behind it. If you can't draw with the materials you find in your local art store, then buying imported Japanese materials isn't going to help you, either.

I personally don't use Manga-specific art supplies. It is not because these things are bad quality; it is because they are really expensive to import, and unnecessary for my purposes.

In my mind, using a tone-hera (burnisher that is used to rub tone transfers on paper) to place tones is sort of like using a quill pen to write with. I mentioned that they were selling tones to another artist friend of mine and he busted out laughing. Most people use digital means to finish off their art now because:

Its easier.

It's not messy.

It can be scaled easily.

It shows up much better when displayed digitally and printed.

In the long run, it's cheaper.

This is the professional industry standard. If you want a career in art you will have to become friends with Adobe, even if you don't like them.

Even Japanese artists use digital means. There is a Photoshop clone specifically for manga fan artists called Open Canvas that has a tone function built in, and you can easily enable digital toning in Photoshop as well.

I actually find it unfortunate that the HTDM series pushes these manga-specific products so much on young people who haven't had the opportunity to learn about this stuff in school yet. For chrissakes they are selling A4 manga paper to American Anime fans. All of you Europeans know what this is, but I'm going to explain it for the Americans reading.

It's the standard paper sizes that Europe and Asia use to measure paper. It's not magically better or necessary, and it's not worth spending more money to import. I would argue that it's more annoying to use if you live in the US, because none of our binders and such are measured for this. So you are paying a premium for the same type of paper you can buy at your own art store, but its cut so it won't fit in your folders.

If you are European, then the measurements make more sense, but the import fees don't. Japanese paper is not magical!

There even was an issue of HTDM that featured
Copic markers in such a fashion that it appeared that they were the only thing you SHOULD use to make your art. Hell, for a second I thought that maybe I was some kind of super nerd for not knowing about these things myself.

Umm..no. I know many a pro-artist and personally worked in a well-respected animation studio. Nobody there has ever heard of these Copics. Why would you want to spend a buttload of cash on expensive markers that get used up fast and require pricey refills? I'll bet that faux airbrush attachment for the Copic markers destroys your ink supply. I fail to see an advantage over Prismacolor or Tria, unless you really, really need a pump airbrush attachment and have the money to blow.

Just because it is from Japan or written about in a "How to..." book doesn't mean it's what you need. Most likely they are a Japanese packaging of the same stuff you can get here.

My point is that these are probably excellent for having fun with, but don't feel you need to empty out your wallet before you can make good art. I made most of my early works with none of these items. I'd love to have a full set of Copics, and maybe someday soon I will pick a set up to play around with. However, that is a really expensive toy. Buy what you want, keep it in perspective, and most importantly have fun! And if you do try any of these trendy products out, let me know how it goes!

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