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Praying Mantis Kung Fu comics show down in Kapow Express

Praying Mantis Kung Fu comics show down in Kapow Express Manga Friday!!!

Now it is page #012 of Kapow Express Manga. So yeah, some of you are right (luca and dahaca), but you still never know what's going down later. Thank you for all your idea and feedback...I wish I could have time to scribble out more pages in a week, but due to my real career with NCsoft...that's all I could pull off from my sleeve at the moment. Some time I could imagine what I would really do if I could blog full time...:) Better art and tutorials...MORE MANGA and comics!!! Plus I can draw and scribble whatever I want to. Perhaps...maybe some year soon.

Thanks again for all the support and cheering, I truly appreciate you guys are helping me keepint idrawgirls.com alive and inspiring!!!

Here I present to you all! Online Manga Kapow Express page #012
Kapow Express, Manga, online, comics, comix, kung fu, anime, assassin, action,

Previously:
-Online Manga Kapow Express page #011
Or For page 1-10 goto Online Manga kapowexpress.com

Creator's NOTE:
Preying Mantis Kung Fu form are really bad ass in my opinion. The real preying mantis are also one of the most effective predators. One of the coolest form I've seen, but it's often under-rated because people are often drawn toward tiger, dragon or some more intimidating animals. Just imagine if you see Preying Mantis as big as those guys, now you would be intimidted.

Now, what should happen next? Feel free to give me some idea or feedback. I did implement some of our readers' idea, Dahaca, mix them up with some twist for the next plot line. It sounds crazy good, like super deliciously good.

Drawing Software & Tools I used and recommended:
-Genius MousePen 6x8
-Wacom Intuos3 6X8 Pen Tablet
-Bamboo (Small) Pen Tablet (new from Wacom!)
Economy for everyone.
Softwares:
-Gimp (Free Download)
-Adobe Photoshop CS2 (Professional software)
*You can just use pencil, paper, markers on this one...just practice rendering.

New tutorials:
-Draw quick comics panel using values and composition.
-Drawing haunted tree and castle
-Manga tutorial drawing giant mecha robot
-Values exercise with three cubes
-How to draw face soft shading female.
-Drawing and painting female nurse cartoon.
-Concept Art tutorial, magma river lava environment.
-How to draw chibi robot Gigantor step by step
-Drawing mutant humanoid creature head

FEATURE TUTORIAL:
Face Constructed: How to draw faces
Archetypes Design Manga Characters Tutorial Download
Character Design Tutorial Download
-Draw and Paint Women Body Tutorial II: Female Manga Fusion II
-Character Design Tutorial: Dark Valkyrie

** If you have any basic questions or specific please looked up Q/A section. Most of the time your questions has already been answered in Q/A.

If you need any help or support you can
-post questions or comment on the post (seems to be the fastest way to get response)
Peace,

Comments

Luca said…
Ah brother I really like it especially now that there are animal styles! You know I have to tell you now...I also practice animal style kung fu (Shaolin Kung fu!) so if you need to know the main characteristics of the certain animal feel free!
The praying manits.... I still never expected that especially from Mei!! Maybe one knows the tiger and she knows the mantis and they can teach each other! I recommend you something brother... long time ago I said to myself that someday I'll have to make a kungfu based comic (including Qi / Chi powers). I will reveal to you something I'd never said to anyone else... lool! :D I'd have included the famous chinese Drunken Boxing!! I think you know it.... well it's nice to do some stuff like that. It's my favorit Shaolin style (after the snake one!!)
This weekend I'll try to upload on my blog and community some of the paper sketches I did long ago regarding this one!
I'm "revealing" this only to show you my appreciation of what you're doing! ;) lol

Keep it up man!
pokepetter said…
This manga is really good!
Anonymous said…
Getting better and better!!
. said…
hey! first of all gongratulations for ur nice and really helpfull blog...its allready in my favorites and ive just been checkin it since yesterday! im a fashion ilustration but i really dont use to much the computer things, like programes that could help me to draw paint and present in a very nice way my work. so, here is a question? you use photoshop right? but witch one do u use that has all of this elements and extras? i should start with the basic, like the photoshop elements and then add the extras? maybe this questions will sound quite stupid to you but i really would like to be better in my illustrations and i think this could and will help me. thanks so much, hope u are well. hugs, tiago
Andrew Wong said…
Wow, this is great. I've watched your blog after seeing some Guild Wars art, but I didn't know you do comics too.

I realize you're probably busy, but would you have 15 minutes for an informational interview? I'm lead artist for the comic club at the Art Institute of California SF and it'd be inspiring for the new members to get some advice from a painter in concept art.
Dahaca said…
I bet she's gonna grab the BOSS and frighten him:"YOU ARE GONNA PAY FOR MY FOOD" Mei smash! :D :D
Anonymous said…
I know I have asked about this already but I can't find where I posted it. So... I have been working with a few of the tutorials and I am finding that it is really hard for me to draw straight. When I draw the lines are really shakey. I am drawing with a wacom graphire 3 and photoshop 7. Also what do hard and soft brushes look like. How can I tell the difference. Is there a short cut to resize the brush?
Andrew Wong said…
jason:

You might try making faster marks, but not too fast, since photoshop seems to have trouble keeping up sometimes. You can make perfectly straight lines by making a mark, holding shift, and making another mark where you want the line to end.

Soft brushes have fuzzy edges. There is a slider on the brushes palette under "Brush Tip Shape" labeled "Hardness." Any brush can be made harder or softer. The Airbrush toggle setting also has a similar effect.

The shortcuts to resize the brush are the bracket keys ('[' and ']').
idrawgirls said…
luca> Thanks brother, :) Yes Qi power will come into play. And the Shaolin North and South, including some others will be in. Of course, Dragon, Tiger, Monkey, Drunken Monkey...There hopefully will be many interesting characters as the story progress. :)
Also there might be some imaginary made up stuff along the way, not forgetting Vampire, Zombies...which are coming sooon. I also should do more environmental shots in this comics as the scene will provide.

Peace!

Pokepetter> Thanks brother

Jason Sunday> Thanks brother. It is also hard for me to draw straight using wacom, I wish I had a bigger one. Usually I draw straighter using big pad and pencil because I can use my whole shoulder to draw and that is the right way. With wacom it's a little tricky you can do as Andrew Wong suggest, he is right. Or free hand it which it will come slowly as you progress in your drawing. But the best way is to practice with pencil and paper regularly by drawing BIG I usually use Newsprint recycle paper 24 x 38 and go life drawing with it. Fun.
As for brushes...Andrew Wong answered for me already. It is the 1st round and 2nd round default brushes. Airbrush toggle will make if even smoother and softer.

Tiago> I've never use PS element so I don't really know how to compare. But if you cannot get the full version of PS. I highly recommended Gimp. It's an open source, very very similar to the full version PS. All the icons and short cut are also similar...if you use PS you will have a good grasp of how to use Gimp. It's free open source, I like it very much.
It's because I use PS professionally every day, so I am very fast at it and it's easy for me to do tutorial with.
But once in a while, I use Gimp and it will get the same result.
Anyway, it doesn't really matter what program it is. What matter is that you improve in your drawing and you get the foundation.
Hope that helps!

See you again soon.
:)

Dahaca> Ha ha...We will see who will be the boss. I am glad you guys enjoy the Manga and getting involve! Thanks Brother!

Andrew Wong> Thanks for the filling in on the info to help the fellow readers brother. :)
And yes I will check the e-mail and send you the detail info about how we will go about in interview and such. Thank you very much. :)

Comics is sort of my personal passion, they don't pay my bills as good as Video Games. :)

Thank you guys for the comment, feedback and support!

Cheers!
Anonymous said…
Hey Xia, Sorry about all the questions but I have another . How do you do the contruction lines? I have seen several methoids but I have never seen your methiod before. Yours seem alot fewer lines and produces a cleaner look. I have looked at the tutorials and I haven't seen one that goes in depth with it. And my final question of the day is... Have been looking at online art schools to become a concept Illustrator, all I keep finding is Academy of Art. Can you recommend a good affordable online art school.
. said…
xia, thank u so much, specially finding a little time to answer my question. i will do what u recommend and after i will let u know. keep on the amazing work and inspiration for all of us. cheers!! tiago
Luca said…
Jasom Sunday:

Regarding the art school can't help you but regarding the construction lines they are very rough. You must keep in mind that construction lines are there to give you the right proportion and overall -- they should not be super detailed lines. Well Xia as he said works professionally on this matter so he passes at least 7-8 hours a day drawing! The best way to improve is to practice practice practice! And if you want to go a bit in depth you can purchase his featured tutorials. (Blonde with guns is very detailed and also the Archetype has also very useful tips (especially construction lines)

Xia I also need to ask you one thing! How come my paperwork is good and my digital work is "passable"?? Were you also like this at first (with digital drawing)???

Thanks bro!
Chris Reeve said…
Wow look at all this writing! LEt me join in :)

Tiago, I'm going to assume your doing Fashion Illustration at a University, in which case you are a student and STUDENTS GET A GREATLY REDUCED COST TO PHOTOSHOP. I think CS3 is roughly £300 - £500 normally, however I got mine for around £100!

Just look for "Photoshop CS3 (or of course now there's CS4) Student Edition" online. When your disc arrives it should have a form for you to fill out, scan into your computer and then send off to Adobe. I've never tried Gimp though, so it might be an idea to look at that first.

Also if you want to draw straight into your PC I'd suggest a graphics tablet (not cheap!) over using your mouse any day. Either that or scan in drawings.


Luca, of course your digi drawing is going to be more crude then your paper drawing. The friction is different for one thing (although you can change the pen nibs), you don't have as much space (unless you have a huge tablet) and it's just not as natural.

Xia, we use recycled newspaper sheets as scrap paper for printing, how can you draw on that stuff without it tearing all over?! Charcoal is abou the only thing I can use on it.
pokepetter said…
We got CS3 master collection for free :D