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November 5, 2014

High school students put ink to paper with visiting manga artists

Japanese language and cultural high school students attended a manga drawing workshop with two visiting international artists at the ¾«¶«´«Ã½ of ¾«¶«´«Ã½ recently.

Students from Smith's Hill high school at the manga workshop at UOW

With a bottle of black ink and a drawing pencil, the high school students practised tracing over the faint lines of manga images (Japanese comics) under the guidance of Japanese manga artist Sonoko Fukushima and Korean artist Sookyung Yoo from Kyoto Seika ¾«¶«´«Ã½’s International Manga Research Center (IMRC), who had travelled to Australia to attend the Manga Futures conference hosted by UOW.

Smith’s Hill high school students Alice and Stephanie said they chose to study Japanese as an elective in Year 9 because they are interested in the country’s history and culture.

Stephanie, who speaks Mandarin at home with her Taiwanese mother, said she is intrigued by the similarities between Kanji, the Japanese writing system, and Mandarin Chinese. A cornerstone of Japanese popular culture and the country’s biggest cultural and artistic export, manga too has put Japanese language and culture on the radar of young Australians.

“I think manga is a fun and interesting way to express stories. Manga can represent the expression of the characters really well. Because it’s visual you can feel like you’re in the story,” Stephanie said.

Students Alice and Stephanie with visiting artists Sookyung Yoo and Sonoko Fukushima

Alice, who says her Chinese ancestry and a general interest in Asian culture prompted her to pursue Japanese studies, is a fan of anime (Japanese animation).

“Anime uses similar drawing techniques so through learning manga I can gain an understanding of how anime is developed,” Alice said.

“Today, we’ve gone through a few of the techniques professional manga artists use and it’s difficult.You have to be very meticulous. It looks easy when they do a demonstration but it’s not easy at all.”

Sonoko Fukushima said international travel is a source of inspiration for her fantastical manga stories, which she creates for a predominantly female audience. These influences are evident in the works showing at UOW as part of the Protean Borders exhibition.

An art work by Sookyung Yoo

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