"Using CLIP STUDIO PAINT EX to bring manga to the other side of the world"
Professor Tetsuya Chiba and Associate Professor Seiichi Tanaka
Manga Department, Fine Arts Faculty
Bunsei University of Art has used CLIP STUDIO PAINT as a teaching material in its manga course since 2013.
We asked Professor Chiba about manga and digital production and Associate Professor Tanaka about how CLIP STUDIO PAINT is used at Bunsei University of Art.
When we first started our manga course, our students still tended to think that manga was an analog art, but in the manga world, artists had begun sending names, drafts and even their completed works to publishers in data form.
I felt strongly that digitalization was essential in a place where students would learn about the field, and although my students did not share my enthusiasm at first, I implemented it passionately.
These days, my digital classes are now full and a much larger number of students seem to have made digital manga before attending our university.
Manga used to require a lot of paper, both for the manga itself and for wiping the pens.
With digital manga, you don't use pulp, which means no trees are being cut down for your project, so it's better for the environment.
Digital manga also allows you to use all kinds of pens - like G pens and mapping pens - as well as tens of thousands of paint colors and all kinds of tools, all in one program.
And you can use everything an infinite number of times.
With so many different tools at your fingertips, you have more ways to express yourself and can create better content as a result.
Creating manga is also a physical job, so damage to the eyes and hands comes part and parcel with the job.
Digital production makes the process more efficient and reduces various forms of strain on the artist.
So I think it helps manga artists to live longer.
As fun as it is to create worlds by yourself, creating manga is not just about what you enjoy.
Professional manga artists must want to make their readers happy and try to have an emotional impact on their readers even if they themselves find the process difficult.
In manga, even if there is no dialog, you can make readers hearts skip a beat just by doing something like having a dog appear.
You can say things without words.
Manga allows people who do not know each other's language to understand each other's feelings.
Wars are being fought in this world as we speak.
Manga are not exported to places that are at war.
They are only exported to places that are at peace.
With digital publishing, any person anywhere in the world can have access to manga.
I want young people to learn digital manga as soon as possible, so that they can express themselves in more ways and bring manga to the other side of the world.
In addition to the basics of drawing manga, our classes cover illustration and manga jobs such as advertisements and posters commissioned by nearby city halls and private companies.
This meant that it was essential to have a program where works could be made both in color and in black and white. CLIP STUDIO PAINT allows this, so that was the best option.
The best way for our students to gain experience is with something that they will use in practice.
It's easy to teach with CLIP STUDIO PAINT because it has clear rules for things like layers.
This provides a smooth transition for students who are using digital technology for the first time.
Our students also like functions like 3D models, which are only possible with digital technology.
Sometimes the students ask me things that even I don’t know, so we figure it out together.
The Q&A of CELSYS's support desk has a lot of information, which helps us a lot.
A class at Bunsei University of Art
Infinite possibilities.
Using CLIP STUDIO PAINT allows you to express yourself in ways you never expected.
If manga artists and CELSYS can keep tossing ideas back and forth, I think the potential for talented artists will know no bounds.
People used to have to move to Tokyo to do creative work. These days, digitalization allows artists to send their work straight from their own location.
We would like to send something even more real from our location in Utsunomiya.
Rather than our students approaching their lives as manga artists by doing nothing and assuming that things will fall into place, I want them to do everything they can first.
Opened in 1999 in Utsunomiya in Tochigi Prefecture, Bunsei University of Art is the only art college in the Tohoku region.
Its Faculty of Fine Arts includes eight courses in three categories, with the first category containing Japanese style painting, oil painting and sculpture, the second containing design, computer graphics, animation/manga and technical art/design, and the third category containing art theory.
There are many dedicated computer rooms, computer systems and programs for specific courses, and the dedicated computer systems have earned high acclaim even outside the university.
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