The Lakes International Comic Art Festival: Manga MashUp Workshop Programme For Young Creators

Latest from the Lakes International Comic Art Festival (LICAF), one of the UK’s finest festivals – Manga MashUp workshops with Chie Kutsuwada, Sonia Leong and Inko Ai Takita.

It’s something that LICAF does very well, the community involvement aspect, bringing in so many locals and visitors to its location in Bowness-on-Windermere, right in the heart of the picturesque lake District, not just during the festival week itself but also throughout the year.

Now we have three professional artists well-versed in animation, anime, manga, and comics – Sonia Leong, Inko Ai Takita, and Chie Kutsuwada – running Manga MashUp workshops for young creators that start in May and finish in November.

Hosted in Barrow-in-Furness Library and Kendall library, the Manga MashUp workshops see the three artsist leading different aspects of the workshop programme for two and a half hours to find out more of the culture, history, and techniques fo Manga and Anime.

“We are delighted to be working with the team at Kendal and Barrow libraries to offer these workshops, led by professional manga artists who work in the UK today. This is such as popular form of comics, and all our libraries have great collections of manga to borrow. We hope these workshops inspire young people to continue to make manga comics in the future.”
– LICAF Festival Director Julie Tait.

 

 

Find out more at the LICAF site and order tickets here at the Westmorland and Furness library page.

The Manga MashUp schedule runs like this…

Welcome to the world of Manga with Inko Ai Takita
1.00pm – 3.30pm, Saturday 4th May 2024, Kendal Library
10.30am – 1.00pm Thursday 30th May, Barrow-in-Furness Library

An introduction to Inko’s artwork and a brief history of manga. Develop your creative skills through following Inko’s step-by-step manga character drawing and create your own considered character design. There will be time to chat to the artist during Q&A at the end.

A brief introduction of Kawaii Manga monsters with Inko Ai Takita
10.30am – 1.00pm, Saturday 1st June, Barrow Library

Kawaii means ‘cute’ in Japanese, often Japanese manga, anime and games have cute monsters in them such as Pokémon, and Animal Crossing. This 120-minute workshop takes you to a brief history of manga, then invites you to watch a manga artist Inko Ai Takita draw live and then create an exciting original kawaii monster together.

How to draw Chibi with Chie Kutsuwada (Kendal) &Inko Ai Takita (Barrow)
10.30am – 1.00pm, Friday 31st May, Barrow Library
10.00am – 12.30pm, Saturday 8th June 2024, Kendall Library

In the first session, you’ll find out more about what makes manga manga. The concept of chibi is introduced, there will be a demonstration of the ordinary proportion manga character, and how to make the character into chibi style. Step by step draw along a chibi character (front and side profile) with the participants. After a 30-minute break, participants return to draw different chibi style facial expressions and poses. Design and draw your own chibi! The artist will walk around to have a look at how the participants do and chat with them individually to give them personal advice and answer their questions. Ends on a Q & A.

Create your own Manga Yokai with Chie Kutsuwada
10.00am – 12.30pm, Saturday 6th July 2024, Kendal Library

In the first session, you’ll find out more about Chie and what makes manga manga. Draw along with Chie, who will give a demonstration of creating a manga character as a warm-up exercise. The concept of yokai, Japanese mystic characters will be introduced – draw along one of the common Japanese yokai with the participants. After the thirty-minute break, Chie will give participants a briefing of the task and some tips for designing and drawing your own Yokai.

Chie will ask participants to think about the backstory of theircharacters, such as where they will be spotted and how they scare people. Whilethey are drawing, Chie will walk around to have a look at how the participantsdo and chat with them individually, to give them personal advice and answertheir questions. Ends on a Q & A.

Manga workshop with Sonia Leong
1.00pm – 3.30pm, Saturday 7th September, Kendall Library
10.00am – 12.30pm, Saturday 19th October, Kendall Library
10.00am – 13.30pm, Saturday 9th November, Kendall Library

 

 

Now, for those who don’t know… quick bios from LICAF…

 

Chie Kutsuwada

Chie Kutsuwada is a UK-based Japanese manga creator and illustrator. After graduating from theRoyal College of Art, London, she’s been creating many works, which are often very delicate and romantic in style.

She creates stories as well as illustration by herself, such as King of a Miniature Garden (2007 collected in The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga 2, Constable & Robinson) her first manga, and Moonlight (2008 collected in The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga 3), which was shortlisted in Manga Jiman competition organised by the UK Japan Embassy.

She has also been working on some well-known titles such as Shakespeare’s As You Like It (SelfMadeHero, London) and Musashi Miyamoto’s The Book of Five Rings (Shambhala, Boston & London).

One of her recent projects is the ongoing, bimonthly illustrated columns called “Mondo Manga” for Mainichi Weekly (published by The Mainichi Newspapers Co., Ltd) about life and culture in the UK. Chie also provides many illustrations for art books such as Extreme Stickering Manga, Artful Etching: Manga and Artful Etching: Kawaii (Thunder BayPress, USA).

She has also written and illustrated several how-to books such as 10 Step Drawing Manga and 10 Step Drawing Kawaii (Search Press, UK). She has recently collaborated with author Julian Sedgwick to create Tsunami Girl (2021 Guppy Books, UK) which was nominated for several book prizes, including the Carnegie Medal; and also their latest creation, 100 Tales from the Tokyo Ghost Café (2023 Guppy Books, UK).

Alongside creating manga comics, she also attends many manga-related events in and out of the UK and runs manga workshops at schools, universities, libraries, and museums, such as the British Museum, the British Libraries, Wellcome Collection and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

She has also worked on projects for the UK Japan Embassy, BBC, Channel 4, CNN, Wagamama, and Winsor & Newton.

 

Inko Ai Takita

Inko Ai Takita is an award-winning manga artist from Kyoto, Japan, who currently resides in the UK after honing her craft at Kyoto University of Art & Design and later at Central Saint Martin’s College of Art & Design.

Her works have graced esteemed institutions such as the British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum, where she’s delivered manga workshops. Additionally, Takita’s collaborations with British artist David Blandy resulted in captivating projects like the manga posters for the London Underground’s Embankment station.

Her manga adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was one of the finalists on the first International Graphic Shakespeare Competition in 2017, and runner-up on the second in 2018.

Her published manga collaborating with Scottish comic writer Séan Michael Wilson, including titles like Lady Murasaki’s Tale of Genji (Tuttle) and the award-winning Portrait of Violence (New International), have been critically acclaimed.

Furthermore, her illustrative contributions to the online theatre “Flight Paths” earned recognition at the Superfest Disability Film Festival 2021.

 

Sonia Leong

Sonia Leong is a comic book and manga artist, and author of popular drawing guides, including Draw Manga: Complete Skills (Search Press) and Beginning Manga (Franklin Watts).

Her award-winning debut graphic novels include Manga Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet (Self Made Hero). She’s worked on Doctor Who (BBC Books), Assassin’s Creed (Titan), Domo-kun (TokyoPop) and Bravest Warriors (VIZ), amongst many others.

She also illustrates for children’s books, fashion, advertising, film and television, recently appearing on CBBC’s Britain’s Best Young Artist as a judge.

She is the Director of Sweatdrop Studios, a UK-based independent comic publisher and is currently working on The Chronicles of Ciel, a series of illustrated fantasy light novels.