Learning to draw manga/anime, how should I go about it?

[Anonymous No.6122532]

Hi, I'm a beginner who wants to learn to draw manga/anime art. I already have an idea of where to start, but I'd just like some general feedback.

I understand that I need to study art fundamentals like 3D space, form, anatomy, proportions, perspective, etc. However, this will likely take a year of grinding or more so I have some questions.

1. Would it be a bad idea to follow tutorials like "how to draw anime eyes/hair/face" while studying the fundamentals at the same time? If I'm going to spend years mastering the fundamentals, I figure I might as well at least draw anime heads on the side even if they're very still and flat without a body just to practice the hair and eyes at least. Or would it be detrimental to the learning process because I'd potentially be practicing bad habits?

2. Do I really have to learn how to draw a full anatomically correct human figure with all of the muscles and tendons shaded and everything? I understand anime is stylized realism, but the sort of characters I'm looking to draw seem very simplistic compared to a human figure which is so full of detail. The style I'm interested in has minimal detail and little to no muscles, so I'm not sure how learning figure drawing outside of the very basics is going to help me.

That doesn't seem to be the route Japanese artists take either. From what I've seen, they just copy and copy and copy for hundreds of hours until drawing an anime character is ingrained in them, and they pick up fundamentals like proportions and 3D space through osmosis and grinding drawing, rather than grinding fundamentals.

Thank you in advance for any feedback/advice.

[Anonymous No.6122535]

>grinding fundies
>copy and copy until its ingrained
>anime
you haven't even said what your endgoal is; there's more than one
you either sell out or it's just another pastime

[Anonymous No.6122540]

>>6122532
>1. Would it be a bad idea to follow tutorials like "how to draw anime eyes/hair/face" while studying the fundamentals at the same time?

No. As long as you keep practicing, you're fine. Learn the fundamentals but also keep working on smaller projects like those tutorials you mention. Studying drawing shouldn't be painful, you're supposed to have fun.

>2. Do I really have to learn how to draw a full anatomically correct human figure with all of the muscles and tendons shaded and everything?

No need. Drawing is mainly design. Look at Alphonse Mucha. No anatomy and no perspective yet his drawings look great. Anatomy and perspective are tools, not ends by themselves. If you know anatomy and perspective the drawing will look better; knowing the name of each bone and muscle will help you in some way, but in most drawings and paintings the anatomy knowledge used is minimal (Tomfoxdraws says this very same thing in his book). Things like proportion and good design are waaay more important than that.

[Anonymous No.6122541]

>>6122532
Lurk more. /ic/ is a harsh board sometimes so keep that in mind.
>1
It's fine. Have fun while getting good.
>2
Anatomically correct yes, all muscles no. Wouldn't drawing the same age and body type get boring after a while?

[Anonymous No.6122549]

>>6122535

My end goal is to draw like the picture attached in the thread. Or like NachoNeko: https://i.imgur.com/aNZZuLS.png

Western artists seem to recommend that you should grind fundamentals and figure drawing before attempting anything stylized. Japanese artists, however, seem to just copy and copy and get pretty decent at drawing anime through copying alone, mainly learning the fundamentals through osmosis and intuition as they draw more. That is not to say that they don't learn the fundamentals as well - they just don't seem to place as much emphasis on them.

[Anonymous No.6122560]

>>6122540

Thank you. That's basically what I figured. So fundamentals are obviously useful / important but there's no reason to put off drawing anime even if I can't draw a basic stick figure or gesture at the moment.

>>6122541

Thanks, I guess my goal at the moment is to focus a lot more on gestures and proportions as opposed to the figure itself. Maybe until I'm good enough to draw the first / second gesture/figure here: https://i.imgur.com/KAzqjm9.png

Then I'd drop figure drawing and solely focus on anime and stylized gestures since I imagine worrying too much about realism would at some point become antithetic to my goals.

Also, I suppose it would get boring, but I figure when I'm at that point I can worry about age and body types later when I already have a base style to fall back on.