Welcome again to the Making Manga series.
Today we talk about writing dialogue and toning pages. I have been writing dialogue for the past two days as I draw. I am currently working on the last 8 pages of graphic noiz 2: the manga. I am almost done. I still have the following steps left to complete in the process:
Writing Dialogue for Your Manga
I wanted to talk about writing dialogue for graphic noiz 2. When we did the dialogue for graphic noiz 1: the manga, I just went in blind. Since the manga followed closely with graphic noiz: book 1 and graphic noiz: book 2 storyline I was familiar with the story, all I needed was to add the words to the drawings. It was only the first time that I had used Manga Studio so there was a learning curve but I finally figured it out and was able to add the words on individual layers which initially I had a problem with.
But back to dialogue. For graphic noiz 2: the manga, I planned out all the dialogue after I had about 68 pages drawn. I went back and looked at all the pages and hand wrote the dialogue with narration for all the panels. This will make it a lot easier when I go in to add the dialogue once all the pages are done and scanned into the computer. When I started the manga this time I also didn’t write any dialogue as I didn’t want it to screw with the artwork. I wanted to be free to draw what I wanted without being boxed in. I still have a little bit of a challenge with each page trying to figure out what to draw to convey the scene. I think I still need some help with timing since I try to get scenes into 1 or 2 pages but I still have a struggle with it sometimes. But I digress.
When I did dialogue this time, I did all 68 pages then started doing dialogue immediately for each page after I finished the pencils. I would draw the page then go into the notebook and write up the dialogue. This way I am a lot farther along in the process because all I will need to do after all the pages are scanned is add the words which are already planned out.
There are scene blocking, narration and offscreen and onscreen camera moves in the script for the dialogue. Each piece of dialogue is done by panel on the page with panel location so it is easier to know who has what words. This will make the process a lot easier because though I have used Manga Studio a few times I am still an amateur at it and have not learned how to use screen tone either for the pages. I really need to practice that because I think that would really help.
Adding Tone and Shading to Your Manga
So, here we are getting into my amateur-ness. I bought Manga Studio 5 and created graphic noiz 1: the manga pages in it to add dialogue but I did not apply tone using the application. I don’t know how. Instead I bough copic markers in warm grey and cool grey tones and shaded the pages in tones of grey and black. This was my solution. The back and front covers are also coloured using copic markers. Now I went to art school but never took a colouring class. Sure I took a painting class where we learned the tones and shades on the colour wheel but I never learned how to colour with markers though I did have a project where I had to use them. There was a blending marker and even though the teacher showed us I don’t think I understood what to do with that.
So instead of using the screen tones in Manga Studio, I decided to go old school and colour with copics the old fashioned way. Now my colouring is far from professional. I need to possibly go back to the graphic design program and learn how to do that. I did start art school in the animation program so I did learn how to draw and I think I seem to have a style now after all these pages of graphic noiz but I am still an amateur at shading grey tones or otherwise. My solution of using copics was because I had a problem and that was the only solution I could see to get this done fast without having to learn the Manga Studio program. Sure I should go back and learn it because it will only make my manga better. But we have time to learn that. I will get there eventually.
When I first started with the copics I had to get my tones down. Here was some of my initial system:
This system was used to get the colours consistent. By using these colours for particular things I could keep the tones consistent over pages. This key I used and followed pretty well. There was a slight mix up with Julia’s hair at one point in the middle of the first graphic noiz manga but we straightened it out after two panels.
The front and back colour of the graphic noiz 1: the manga was in colour. Shiro’s hair was blonde and Noiz still used the dark grey colour with some darker highlights. Still an amateur in my colouring, I will be colouring the cover for graphic noiz 2: the manga as well which also features Shiro in his white shirt and Noiz this time in an orange or a military olive drab hoodie, I have not determined what colour Noiz’ hoodie should be yet but I did buy orange and green markers. I was a little concerned if I make it green that the big red circle on the cover for the Japanese flag will make it look like Christmas if I make it green. So we still have to decide on that.
If you are using copic markers make sure you get your system down so that you can colour your characters consistently over panels. I need to do a patch page so that I have all those colours on a cheat sheet or key sheet so that I can easily refer to them. I think I will do that actually before I start production work on graphic noiz and do all the toning and shading. That seems like the right idea.
Sure I am an amateur. I admit that. But I am also making manga which is something that I have wanted to do since about the 6th grade. I was also in love with the animated shows on television and I liked comic books which were in colour. But it wasn’t the colour volumes that really got my psyched to make manga. It was the black and white serial magazines that I got from the Japanese book store in Manhattan with the colourful paper and black and white or purple ink lines on the paper. Those thick books with multiple 20 or 30 page stories I would read on the train coming back and forth to work every day when I was an intern in the 11th and 12th grades. Those volumes were love stories which was all I could find and it allowed me to follow a serial story and practice my reading Japanese. I learned how to tell a story through simple drawings and that the whole ambiance was necessary to tell the story in a few pages while conveying a larger story through multiple volumes.
I hope in the future that I can learn how to make screen tone in Manga Studio to help with the look and feel of the manga. I kind of like the way the screen tones are done in Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi where they don’t intrude too much and are not over used. That and Junjou Romantica will be the references that I will use if I do add screen tone to graphic noiz. But I still have much to learn and more research to do. So well, I hope you enjoyed this little manga lesson of my process and I hope it helps you make better manga yourself.
Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi and Junjou Romantica are copyright their respective owners.