Profile:

Name: Viviane
Born: 5th February 1983
Nationality: Switzerland
Website: www.viviane.ch

Information about myself:

I loved to draw since I was a baby and was always fascinated by cartoons. When I was 13 years old, I read my first manga and through the Internet I found out what anime means. From that time on, to draw manga has become my passion. I always knew I want do draw when I'm grown up, but I were unsure what to do exactly. But when discovering manga, I suddenly knew, that's what I would like to do 100 percent.^^

It was a great fortune that my best friend Bruno was an enthusiastic writer. So we teamed up to create our own manga. He firstly finished the script, so I had a better imagination of the story the characters and the ambient. Afterwards, I began to think about the look of the world it takes place in, did the character designs and then drew the pages.

Our wish has become true. The first volume (of total 3 vol.) of our manga, called GOTT GAUSS has been published in Germany in summer 2007. Information and the first 86 pages can be read online: http://gottgauss.viviane.ch (in English and German language).

Unfortunately, I can't live only drawing manga. Thus I work as a graphic designer. The most wonderful jobs are to do prints and products for the manga community, of course.^_^ At the beginning, this commissions were very rare. Now, I already have got some really great request.

For a finnish convention, I could draw a poster.

Drawing Tools

For drawing a manga page, I use:
White bristol board by Canson, size A3 (29,7 x 42 cm)
Pen nibs by Brause and indian ink "Nan-King" by Lefranc & Bourgeois (for the characters)
Tria Marker Pens
Water- and markerproof Fineliners (marker resisitant fineliners available in the Letraset Manga Store) and my beloved Rotring Rapidograph 0,10 mm (for details and backgrounds)
Program "Micrografx Picture Publisher 10" to add screentones.

For drawing coloured artworks, I use many different art supplies. You can see a description to every artwork if visiting my portfolio site: http://artworks.viviane.ch

I use Tria markers for a very long time and I can't imagine to paint without them anymore.It's possible to create alot of different styles of paintings when using Tria combined with other media.

If only using Trias, shadows have a sharp edge. It remembers of cel-painting used in cartoons and anime.

Instead of using Trias for painting the shadows, you can take coloured pencils, pastel chalk, watercolour or coloured indian ink for more interesting, sophisticated styles.

Trias with coloured pencils (using two different colours instead of only one for the shadow parts, looks just more interesting)(Trias with watercolour)

Using Trias for the base colour has a great advantage: The coloured areas looks very smooth and uniform. So, the artwork gets a neat, professional look. Tria marker can be used on almost every sort of paper (very smooth or glossy paper can be troublesome).

Pay attention that the fineliner you use for the outlines is markerproof! (Ed. such as the Letraset range!) The best is to make a test at a blanc paper first. The line should stay clearly and not become blurred when painting over with Trias.

Black ball-point pens also works for outlines and they gives a spirited and slightly sketchy touch to the artwork.

Step-by-Step:

Usually, I do a rough sketch and then elaborate it. This time I jumped over the elaboration. This is a disadvantage, because I have to pay much more attention when drawing the outlines.

I used a very smooth color copy paper by Neusiedler (very good quality!), so the pastel chalk can be applied very smooth and even. The more rough the papier is, the more intense you will see its rough structure.

(Ed. Letraset bleedproof paper can be put through inkjet printers and has a smooth film finish.)

I used the lightbox for drawing the outlines, because I choose to take a orange-brown crayon. So I had no chance to rub away the pencil lines anymore. By the way, if something is going wrong, the sketch will be protected, because you draw the outlines on a blanc paper.

I took a second purple crayons and intensed the outlines of the character. The orange-brown outlines show through, that looks nicely.

The parts are painted with Tria markers. I mostly used the fine nib for all the details.

With a paper stump I grabbed the powdery consistence from the pastel chalk with the tip and smudged the coloured tip onto the paper. For greater areas you can paint with pastel chalk onto a kitchen towel and than convey the powder on the paper.

For painting the highlights on hair, skin and clothing I used a soft, white crayon. With a white gel-pen I intensed some highlights.

At last, I traced the outlines again with a dark pink crayon, because they were to faint.

In order to avoid, that the touchy pastel chalk doesn't blur anymore, I used a protecting spray (Ed. Tip. use hairspray if you do not have any fixative). Then I cut out the artwork with a cutter and glued it onto a permanent surface. Fini!^_^

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