Anime is a visually evocative art form several levels above standard cartoon drawings. Consider some of the most popular animated series, perhaps the one about a family in the fictitious town of Springfield. Most of the artwork comes across as two-dimensional and the colour palette is basic. Seldom is there any shading but what there is of it tends to be bulky and overt.
By contrast, anime artists choose their colours with a mind towards depth, dimension and mood. Anime characters may show the delicate blush of first love or fury over an enemy’s action, all without saying a word. Their internal dialogues manifest through the judicious use of colour.
Choosing the right colour palette for the story your characters will tell is critical and applying it to achieve the desired effect takes lots of practice. So let’s go over two very different colour palettes and talk about how they’re used for maximum effect. And then, we’ll talk about colour applications’ technical elements.
Miyazaki v Takeuchi
Hayao Miyazaki is known around the world as much for his fantastic tales (Totoro, Spirited Away) as for his environmental statements (Nausicaä, Princess Mononoke). His films often feature strong female protagonists who live by a strict moral code. His career as an anime artist spans nearly 60 years.
He has been drawing anime for longer than Naoko Takeuchi has been alive. While still in secondary school, Takeuchi began drawing manga and intended to become a manga artist. The school uniform she wore influenced her most popular anime character’s appearance and colour palette.
Miyazaki’s colour palettes tend toward the natural because most of his stories revolve around real-world elements and concerns. He chooses to not let his artwork dominate the story. Rather, he mutes his colours to complement – not dominate the narrative.
By contrast, vibrant colours leap off the page during Sailor Moon’s transformation and epic battles. Takeuchi also uses colour to highlight plot points and emphasise the treasures Usagi Tsukino and the Sailor Guardians seek.
Both of these legendary artists use colour to make a point as they tell their stories. Miyazaki strives for an even, lush visual presentation throughout while Takeuchi periodically creates colour blasts to jolt the viewers. For each, the palette suits the story.
Choosing Your Colours
The colours you choose depend on the story you want to tell, the demographic you want to target and your artistic medium. If you draw digitally, you will have a greater selection of colours and more control over their tone, hue and saturation. If you draw on paper, you will have to account for everything from bleeding to absorbency rates.
Action anime and anime for young audiences tend to feature thicker lines and more vibrant colours. Romance anime colours are more delicate, contained in thin lines. The hues are often blended or smudged, and sometimes even coloured over with a pale, glossy layer to make them appear mystical.
Many anime artists use a technique called scumbling. They use a very fine point pencil to draw squiggly lines over already-coloured parts of the frame. Miyazaki uses scumbling to great effect to show grass rippling, for example. Scumbling is different from crosshatching, which many anime artists use to accent their characters’ hair and clothing, especially pockets.
Using Your Palette
Once you learn to draw and colour the effects your story calls for, you can start to storyboard your anime. From the first frame, you only need to draw your characters’ outlines but as you progress you will refine their form and introduce colour.
From the outline, colour any part that will remain black, such as the pupils and eyelashes. Don’t forget to leave the eyes’ reflection points white (if you’re paper-drawing). Next, colour in your character’s major areas. Often, that’s bare body parts but if your character is robed or otherwise dressed head to toe, colour their clothing first and then their visible skin.
Hair colour is usually a significant element in anime because it sets off the character’s delicate features. Leaving a highlight line across the upper forehead is the crucial step in colouring hair if you’re drawing on paper. Hair highlight for digitally-drawn characters can be added over the colour.
Now, colour in the eyes and mouth.
Next, we add shading. If your character is wearing a top that reveals its collarbones, a slight shade underneath them will make them stand out. If they have a prominent nose, you’ll shade one side of it. In all cases, you’ll shade the neck and you might consider adding small dashes of shade around the eyelids.
Finally, we shade the clothes, hair and facial features. Add shade to whichever part of the clothing folds, maybe at the elbows and knees. Be sure to shade overlaps, too. And if your character is a maturing female, shade just under each breast.
Whichever part of the hair’s underside is visible should also be shaded, as should the irises’ upper third, to mimic the brow casting a shade. As your final stroke, darken the inside of the mouth save for the tongue, which you should have coloured earlier.
Graphic designers and 3-D artists commonly use this Cel Shading technique to make their designs pop. Manga and anime creators excel at making their complex designs come to life with delicate shading applied to their carefully selected colour palettes. You will too, once you master these aspects of anime creation.
