 Otakon has
had little trouble selling convention T-shirts over the last couple of
years, and Ian Kim is a major reason for that success. The manga-inspired
artist provided the cute female artwork for Otakon shirts in 1998 and 1999,
art that the fans loved. A crowd of those fans gathered in a meeting room
on Saturday to soak up some of Kim's observations about his art. |
 Kim spoke
about eyes, ears and hands. He draws a lot of catgirls, and he was obsessed
with finding the best way to make the big ears fit on the characters' heads.
Kim demonstrated the way that subtle eye lines can make a character look
angry, depressed or downcast. And hands may be the toughest body part to
draw, he said. If everything else fails, Kim uses his own hands as models
for the hands he draws for his characters. |
 "There's only
one man character in my comics. I'm not obsessed with drawing girls, it's
that I chose not to draw guys," Kim said to a chorus of laughs from his
audience. He then demonstrated how to draw a female figure, starting with
the head, the double triangular layout of the collarbones and bosom, and
the curves of the back and legs. "My characters are tending to get a little
skinnier," Kim noted. |
 Manga and
comics figures are most interesting when they're moving, and Kim recommends
that aspiring artists "...don't just think of any old pose. Think of what
your character is like. If he's lazy he slouches a lot. If he's evil, he
has the big hulking shoulder muscles." Kim admits that he doesn't get every
pose and proportion correct in his first draft: his eraser gets a workout
when he lays out a page and its panels. |
