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Watson-Guptill

Manga is the world's most popular visual art—and within it, there's a subgenre dedicated to teenage girls about teenage girls—shoujo manga. From serialized soap operas about everyday girl drama or a high school swim team that transforms into magical warriors fighting for love and justice, there's no limit to what you can write or draw about, though typically there's a main heroine, a cute love interest, a best friend, and a geeky guy who has a crush on the main character. All of the characters are supremely adorable, with the trademark big, expressive manga eyes and cool outfits.

Now, creating this popular genre is easier than ever with this ultimate guide that includes a CD to help you draw your own shoujo stories. From background scenes, speech balloons, color choices, accessories, tones, and effects (like speedlines), the CD offers a huge variety of templates you can work with in Photoshop and Illustrator and customize to your liking and your unique story. Whether you're a beginner who prefers to work with the line-art and accents provided, or a more experienced shoujo creator who adds her own flourishes, you'll get a complete explanation of everything, with tips and illustrations on how to use the programs effectively. Covering topics like dreaming up an interesting story line or concept, writing simple but compelling dialogue, creating page layouts and drawing hairstyles, outfits, and accessories—this is the first book to distill all the elements of shoujo into one easy-to-use guidebook.