Colors Can Improve Any Manga Drawing

By Rick Feathers

Are you having trouble coming up with the right hair color for your new manga character? Do you struggle by not finishing your drawing because you can’t find the right color combination for the anime costume? Of course you do!

Finding new color combination is vital to any manga drawing because it brings out the personality of a character. Like a hairstyle or weapon, color is equally important to shape the costume and attitude of your new manga character.

Here is a tip to help you find that perfect color or combination of colors you are looking for.

First you need to have a good selection of materials. Colored pencils, markers, and even crayons come in a variety of colors and they are affordable at any department store. These are simple tools and very good at accomplishing what you want.

Second step is your manga drawing. Create a good clean pencil sketch of your manga character with crisp and solid lines with no smudges. This is probably the hardest step to overcome because you want to get your drawing just right. So try not to lose sight of your goal and that is to find the right color. You can always come back to this step later as you improve your drawing once your colors are picked out.

Third step is the easiest. Make copies of your manga character on a copy machine and the number of copies is up to you by how much you want to experiment and create.

The final step is fun and very motivating because you begin coloring the copies by using any and all combination of media and colors. This is a time to experiment and be creative and remember to keep all the color variation you come up with because it makes for a good reference later in your manga drawings.

Once you find that great color scheme you like for your manga characters hair and costume. Try different colors for a background like blue and green to see how they compliment each other. Also do some shading and highlights of the new color scheme because every touch of color adds character.