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>Reference things and add in my own inspiration that leads to understanding the idea?

This right here is exactly what I meant by "reinventing the wheel", right? So a little bit of fun history - during the Renaissance, a nice fellow by the name of Leonardo DaVinci got frustrated with his painting and how they wouldn't "come out the way he liked it". So he started to observe the world and figured out many of the rules that let us depict a three-dimensional world in the two dimensions of a canvas/paper/Photoshop file. Things like perspective didn't have may written rules before then, so he had to come up with those rules. I'm loosely paraphrasing here, but that's the gist of it.

Modern artists such as ourselves don't have to go through the trial-and-error method of the classics, we have much easier ways of doing that:

Dynamic Figure Drawing - I like this book but it's a bit more advanced. He doesn't explain much about what he's doing and how the basics work. Avoid for now.

Figure Drawing - Design and Invention - Good book. Also a bit advanced.

Figure Drawing for All It's Worth - Now this I have a PDF on Dropbox for whenever I need it. You can buy the book on Amazon, but this is the original from the 1930s. The copyright expired on it, so they can be shared.

Fun with a Pencil Same deal. Most of Loomis' books are available for free online. If you want to draw faces, start here. His method is essentially >The< go-to method for correctly doing faces of today.

I took those off a post I made last week for someone else, but it's about the same thing. If you view any of the books on anatomy for artists, for example, the authors are very good at building the body in its basic shapes and teaching you how to draw not only based on what you see, but what you know something should look like.

You can always do drawing classes, I think they're a good way to start, but they're not necessary. What you would get out of them is a personal sort of coach that will oversee what you're doing and try to steer you in the right direction and give you pointers on where you need to improve. Obviously, though, most art teachers will teach you realism (which I strongly recommend you start with to strengthen your basics). However, being self-taught myself I can't speak from experience on how much help a class could be.

Mentality wise you need to understand that, in the long run, having strong understanding of the basic rules of drawing, of drawing people especially, will save you much frustration in the future. And like I said before, if you're good at visualizing things and translating them onto paper, it's already a huge part of your work being done for you. This is a bit humorous but I think it's very accurate. If you can avoid steps 1-3, I think you'll be on the right track!

Honestly, finding 'good' ones depends on a few factors. One of which includes what genre you're going for. Shonen or shoujo? (Since I fall under the latter I tend to have a good selection.)

If you really want the best of the best try looking for ones IN Japanese. While Google Translate won't be 100% reliable, there's always the possibility someone online translated it. And if not, hopefully the pictures are VERY step-by-step and helpful. I agree with the other user, Mastering Manga is basically THE best you can get right now.

"The Masters Guide To Drawing Anime" series isn't HORRIBLE, but it could be better. However his art has definitely improved in general over the years this artist has been doing these books. So something is working in his favor too here.

"The Complete Guide to Drawing Manga" is one of my favorites! It has a ship ton of information in general AND different artists! While it focuses a bit more on the actual manga part there is a lot of good information. See if your library has it! That's where I first found it and I ended up buying it~ https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Drawing-Manga-Exclusive/dp/1438002734

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Other than that check comic/graphic novel ones too, just in case. Quite a few have an anime type style to them as of late so maybe there's something there~ After that it just turns into practice practice practice. Good luck!!

It's my pleasure, you obviously have a lot of talent and it's only a small issue! As a side note, I presume you're a college student now so you probably don't have a lot of free money, but if you're gonna invest in any really helpful art books I'd suggest starting with something like Anatomy for the Artist by Sarah Simblet (I know that's the UK link but it gives you a preview that the US Amazon site doesn't). It covers all aspects of both male and female anatomy and it's really high quality, it even gives you transparent overlay pages over photos that show you how muscles lie under the skin. It looks a bit like this. It also gives you examples of famous artworks in contrast to a photo of a real person in that pose, to show you how anatomy can be distorted/transformed in art without it looking 'bad'. Anything like that will give you a brilliant understanding of how the human body is formed and it honestly will reflect in your artwork. Subbing to other artists is also great, it's a cliche but the more you look at other people's work/draw the better you'll get. You obviously have a great foundation already, I really look forward to seeing more of your stuff!

Hi everyone, this is Kelvyn, author of The Many Adventures of Peter and Fi. WOW! Thank you so much for this wonderful piece, I love it! Seeing Fi in your style is so, so awesome and is filling me with inspiration. I especially like the ponytails decision, it looks so cute!

For anyone curious about the series, you can find out more over at r/peterandfi and check out the first book on Amazon

It's a four colour ballpoint! Not an "artpen" as such and I mainly use it in school when cleaning up notes, but they're pretty fun to draw with as well! it's a bicpen so it's actually decently cheap.

Also got another in pastel tones :)

I remember this book from high school when I first started. I remember not liking the style that much though. It seems too simple.

I just recently found one that I think is better and covers a variety of styles, anatomy, and different techniques ( digital, hand drawn, paint, ink, etc.) I feel like of all the "How to Draw Manga" books I remember from high school don't compare to what I found in this book after picking it up a couple months ago.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Drawing-Manga-Exclusive/dp/1438002734/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421722654&sr=8-1&keywords=the+complete+guide+to+drawing+manga&pebp=1421722660210&peasin=1438002734

I learned everything from this book:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-Manga-Katy-Coope/dp/0439317452

11/10. Best book. Would recommend to everyone. TOPKEK

What do you think happens when you let an American comic artist do manga? What happens if you give it to a 16 year old girl? You get.... TOPKEK.

I bought an Ugee tablet about a week ago and I absolutely love it. I was worried that the quality wouldn't be as good but I actually find it much nicer than my old Wacom.

Honestly, I've done a lot of research and I firmly believe that the competition isn't "cheap", Wacom just overcharges. Those digitizers are only about $100 and monitors cost about $150... there is no reason a cintiq should cost $800.

It's very rare for there to be vertical folds in the cleavage. They can make it look like there are "boob pockets" in the top. The folds should be horizontal and run between the breasts.

I'm not very good at drawing folds either, but I've found Drawing the Clothed Figure to be helpful.

[This] (https://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-Manga-Manga-Style-Composition/dp/4766117093) is the best "How to Draw Manga" book I have ever read. It basically shows you how to think about realistic anatomy and then translate it into a more simplified, manga style.

Ugee HK1560, it's worked perfect so far! Though I was so used to drawing on paper that it took a while to adjust to digital.

I'D recommend Mark Crilley.s Mastering Manga Serie it explains everything to character creation , scenery , dialog , background , facial expression.

http://www.amazon.ca/Mastering-Manga-Level-Mark-Crilley/dp/1440328307

and here's a sneek peak of the book by the author:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OJZhvj2kQM

If you're looking for books that can be used to learn from, I can recommend the ones below if you can find them -

How to Draw Anime and Game Characters Vol1

Mechanical Drawing

Giant Robots

a good resource for expressions

Its what the show "lie to me" is based on.

an example of how to use a grid to draw symmetrical eyes

I'm not sure if this is the style you want.
https://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-Manga-Compiling-Characters/dp/4889960422

The whole series have this same style.

hope i helped

You may be interested in The Monster Book of Manga. It's a giant compendium of how-to's with multiple art styles from school girl to cyberpunk. It has a sole focus on characters and little on backgrounds, but it does contain a how-to for scanning and coloring your art.

Here are some links I found:

http://www.amazon.com/Copic-I72B-Ciao-Markers-72-Piece/dp/B000MRWHBQ
http://www.amazon.de/COPIC-ProfiPinselmarker-sketch-72er-4511338003756/dp/B007RHAH8Y

Are those the right markers?

https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Motion-Universe-Emerald-Arcana/dp/1793497311/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549675170&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=cosmic+motion+universe&dpPl=1&dpID=31crpm13KpL&ref=plSrch or on YouTube if you search cosmic motion universe of arcana we also have fb and instagram

Here is the mobile version of your link

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1942021844/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Are those really Christopher Hart's drawings? Because if yes he's come a looong way from his actually TERRIBLE "manga" art syle from back in the day. His books were so terrible that even if I was desperate for a how-to drawing book I refused to touch his stuff with a 10-foot pole (same goes the other American chick's "anime" instructional book).

His old book: https://www.amazon.com/Kids-Draw-Manga-Shoujo-Christopher/dp/0823026221