Ingrid Rodriguez
Staff Writer
Manga artist Kayono discussed her influence and showed some pages for her series, “Shojo Girls Comics in Action.”
On Feb. 15 at Pomona College, about 60 people went to learn more about manga, a Japanese genre of cartoons, comic books and animated films.
“Manga is basically media on paper,” Kayono said.
Since her mother was a freelance manga artist, Kayono was exposed to the art form at an early age. Kayono was only 17 when she first went into the industry.
“When we work on a story I definitely work with editors but on terms of my drawings I do it on my own,” Kayono said.
“I’ve missed so many deadlines,” Kayono said. “It’s not quite easy to work with editors.”
Kayono showed the audience a manga she drew of herself sitting at her desk crying and saying, “wait two more days,” and her editor yelling, “printer is waiting, publisher is waiting.”
Kayono said she has two assistants who draw exactly like her. These assistants complete the background and smaller details after Kayono draws the characters.
Kayono said it takes her about two hours to draw characters and an entire page varies in time, but normally takes about six hours.
Kayono said she uses computers for color. She also uses Photoshop to design the character’s clothes.
She said using a small point pen is easier to draw with but to get a variation of different or finer lines she uses an ink pen.
“It’s nice to see print and drawn instead of just doing it on computer,” said Jessica Simone Lewis, sophomore international and intercultural studies major at Pitzer College.
Ingrid Rodriguez can be reached at ingrid.rodriguez@laverne.edu.
