Manga: Drawing meshes

Creating meshes in manga…? What's that about? This is a more or less elaborate technique that allows you to add texture and density to your settings.

A mesh is a set of superimposed rectangles inside of which you draw a grid.

1. Two, three or four line mesh

Start off with the help of a ruler. Over time you'll be able to draw the lines freehand.

Step 1: overlay your rectangles

• Draw your first rectangle with a pencil blue.
• Starting from that rectangle, add others, overlaying in all directions until you've filled in the whole area.

Note! Make sure all the rectangles have the same dimensions.

Step 2: add the mesh to each rectangle

The key to success: keep the same space between lines for a consistent rendering.

•  Two line mesh: draw vertical very perpendicular horizontal lines.
•  Three line mesh: vertical lines + horizontal lines + diagonal lines.
•  Four line mesh: vertical lines + horizontal lines + diagonal lines. + reverse diagonal lines.

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2. Shaded mesh 

There are two solutions for creating shaded meshes:

•  using several kinds of mesh, from darkest, with 4 lines, to lightest, with 2 lines;
•  varying the density of the rectangles and lines in the rectangles: the more rectangles and lines there are, the darker the rendering. And conversely!