What Manga are you reading?

[Nichi]

Nice :3

I'm slowly filling in the gaps in my Bleach collection. Maybe if I find them cheap enough, I might do the same for Naruto; since I ended up with volumes 1 and 14

[stewartsage]

I really need to finish Trigun.

I'll keep an eye out for Bleach and Naruto, they're pretty easy to find secondhand around here.

[Nichi]

Kay. Naruto is easy enough (Anything between volumes 1 and 14, and 15+), while Bleach gets tricky with my collection

[Chocofreak13]

checked the archives. (almost got buried under 200+ volumes in the process.) i already have volumes 1 and 2, meaning 3 and 4 is my first gap.

[Bella]

Since the subject of tutorials came up - I made two walkthroughs illustrating my drawing/coloring process.

The sketch: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BxyuHH7Q0xWyTkJWVzZqRUcxMjg

The coloring (part 1): https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BxyuHH7Q0xWyTEhsMThWSkp0U0E

Download them for best quality. No annotations, unfortunately, maybe if I stop feeling lazy I'll add some. (Though the really aren't meant to be tutorials, but a glimpse into my creative process.)

@Pent - if you want to learn to draw, the only advice I can give is start drawing! It can be anything - faces, flowers, stick figures in different poses, household items, scenes, animals, even working on penmanship / playing with lettering and text. A really important part of drawing (that a lot of people overlook) is developing the hand-eye coordination / a steady enough hand to produce more "advanced" drawings. Most art books jump right into tutorials on drawing certain things without suggesting random doodling (and the hand-eye coordination it helps improve) as a vital part of the learning process.

[Chocofreak13]

that's because most (good) art books focus on a specific subject. there's a reason that the original HtDM series has 43 volumes released (in america) over a course of about 10 years. the cheaper (good) ones still focus on a particular subject, such as my first How to Draw Manga book (not part of the series) focused mainly on figures, but had a chapter on objects, textiles, and shiny stuff. anything that tries to get everything into one book is a piece of shit not worth your pennies.

that said, the way you're describing drawing sounds like a contour line drawing. while it works for some, for others (like me), it sucks. not to say it's not a good method, but plenty of people need a tutorial to get started. once they have the base built, then they can work on the detailed stuff.

also, why are those on google docs? what is the deal with google docs and drop box being so popular these days? and what are they, videos or images or something? :\

just to keep up, i'll upload a cliffnotes tutorial either later today or tomorrow. >>;

[Bella]

They're PDF files. Using Google as a host since there are no good, free PDF hosting sites. And I already have a Google account, which means I don't have to sign up for some sketchy-ass filehosting site that may or may not have insane rules/file size limits.

[Chocofreak13]

fair enough. i'm probably about halfway to 2/3 through the tutorial i'm making. >>;

[stewartsage]

I'M READING K-ON AGAIN

WHY AM I READING K-ON AGAIN!?

[Bella]

I'M READING K-ON AGAIN

WHY AM I READING K-ON AGAIN!?

Because K-On is adorable and you love adorable things?

[Nichi]

Because the Kool-Aid Man is red? </at4w>

[Chocofreak13]

because YOU DIDN'T SAY LAZY

[Bella]

It's because it's adorable and he loves adorable things. : P

[Chocofreak13]

and he didn't say lazy. :3

[Chocofreak13]

got two new ones yesterday, Kare First Love and Imadoki Nowadays (vol 1 on both).

The former i picked out mainly because the main character's name is Karin Karino (my mother's name is Karen and her facebook name is Karina, so i cracked up when i saw it), but when i started reading it i devoured it in almost 2 hours (had to stop reading for a bit cause i was in the car). i want MOOOOAR. ;^; maybe i'm on a shojo binge or something.
it's wicked cute, and involves this nerdy girl somehow falling into the lap (almost literally!) of this pretty boy. doesn't help that her 'best friend" (more like blonde leech) likes the guy, where as she couldn't care less. however, over the course of the first volume, she warms to him, much to the chagrin of the bitch (her new name in my opinion). we left off on a cliffhanger, so i'ma have to go back to Double Midnight Comics (lovely comic shop in Manchester, NH, stop in if you're ever in the area, DO EET!!!) to get more cause it was cheap ($4!!!).

as for the latter, i picked it up after reading the back, not realizing who wrote/drew it. when i realized it was done by Watase Yu (author of my most hated guilty-pleasure manga, Absolute Boyfriend), i was all like "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO" but then i decided to make the best of it, hoping it wouldn't have a BAD END like Absolute Boyfriend (god i hate that manga but i couldn't stop reading it, it was like fucking crack). read the first volume, and it turned out to be surprisingly mild given the author, largely due to the sunny, ditzy nature of the main character. the main male character bears a striking resemblance to the main male of Absolute, but i'm chalking that up to art style. Imadoki was quite cute, and i'm looking forward to the next volume. plus, i got it on the cheap (another $4, WHOO!!).
The main character gets into a FANCY-SCHMANTZY PRIVATE AS FUCK high school where 95% of the population got in due to nepotism and money, making her an outcast from the start. her love of plants combined with her name (Tanpopo, meanding "Dandelion") and a little stunt she pulls involving an IMPASSIONED SPEECH and a beat-up dandelion earn her the nickname "weed". desperate to make friends and to be a rebel without a cause, she starts a gardening committee, which involves acts of vandalism via planting real flowers (since all the plants on campus are fake due to a convenient plot twist in the form of a weirdly strict school rule). a covert bitch signs up to help, as at first it was Popo and the main male character (who is not only cold but inspires further bullying for poor Popo due to a sort of idol-worship involving the entire student body with him). Tsuki, as the bitch is called by Popo (ironic considering Tsuki means "Like" while simultaneously being a shorter version of her name, Tsukiko) covertly bullies poor Popo while she is none the wiser, though she discovers this at the end (but due to her ditzy nature misintreprets this as a love rivalry, which it ends up being for all the wrong reasons). at the end of all, Popo INSPIRES A REVOLUTION and ends up starting to get her original goal, which was to force the male character to be friends with her.

i kind of can't wait to read more. :3

EDIT: For anyone who's ever wanted a peek at my manga collection. 393 volumes total as of today, Wednesday, June 20th, 2012.