Toriyama's tools

[Joppuman]

I'm wondering what Toriyama used to color Dragonball when it was in serialization, and after, before he switched to doing it digitally. and were the color pages colored with different tools than the tankobon covers, or the chapter pictures he drew, (I cant remember what they're called exactly) or the promotional art and stuff. I'm also wondering what he used to ink and draw with as well, but mostly the coloring because i think i can make a better guess as to what he used when drawing and inking, but it would be cool to know the specifics.

[Blade]

Whilst I'm not entirely certain of what brands he used, I recall that like all fairly big Mangakas, Toriyama had his share of endorsements - so whatever he stated publicly to be using, he may only have been fulfilling his end of a contractual obligation by saying so.

[SaiyaJedi]

I'm wondering what Toriyama used to color Dragonball when it was in serialization, and after, before he switched to doing it digitally. and were the color pages colored with different tools than the tankobon covers, or the chapter pictures he drew, (I cant remember what they're called exactly) or the promotional art and stuff. I'm also wondering what he used to ink and draw with as well, but mostly the coloring because i think i can make a better guess as to what he used when drawing and inking, but it would be cool to know the specifics.

While he was still drawing by hand, Toriyama primarily used a "G-Pen" made by Zebra for inking, with documentary ink made by Pilot. For coloring, he used a drawing brush made by Tenshōdō and color ink from Luma. He's also stated that he has used diluted ink from permanent markers when he didn't want to bother with picking up more color ink (evidently because Luma was uncommon and a hassle to get), but I don't know if that's meant to be taken as 100% truth or an exaggeration. He also used white for correcting mistakes and adding highlights; this was also made by Luma.

For a long time, Toriyama used ordinary Kent drawing paper (not sure about the brand), but then moved to "Bird Studio" stationery partway through Dragon Ball (though I've also heard he eventually exhausted this and went back to regular Kent paper again). He also used the technique of photocopying his inked pages when doing coloring, so that if he made a mistake, he wouldn't have to draw again from scratch. (This is how the final page of the series exists in both a limited-color version for the comic proper, and a full-color version for the cover of Daizenshuu 7.)

He started coloring and applying tone digitally with Tokimecha in December 1996, which is why there's a huge jump in the amount of shading from that point on. In this intermediate stage, he drew by hand, then scanned the inked but unshaded manuscript pages into his Mac, where he finished it up via Corel Painter. Toriyama continued drawing this way until partway through the Dragon Ball Kanzenban covers in 2003, where he got tired of the ink-scan-shade process and started doing both inking and shading by computer via a graphics tablet and Adobe Photoshop — at least for standalone illustrations, anyway. At the time of the Chōgashū in May of 2013, Toriyama contended that he didn't do any of the linework digitally for his comics, but Jaco the Galactic Patrolman (which started in July of the same year) definitely was digital the whole way through. I'd have to go back and look at Kintoki again to see which side of the analog/digital divide the inking was on.

Notably, Toriyama didn't start doing his work by computer because he was interested in the "next big thing" or wanted to experiment. According to him, it was simply because he was tired of the traditional method, and wanted to try something else (the same reason he's constantly tweaking his art style). He's even admitted that his work done via the computer is "bland", but thinks that he probably wouldn't be drawing anything at all otherwise.

Neko Majin is the last series I'm absolutely sure he did with pen and ink (still colored digitally); however, to try for a different effect (and because he's lazy), he forewent his usual G-Pen for "Pigma" markers made by Sakura. (They go down to extremely fine widths, and don't have the mess of a G-Pen, which is a nib pen that requires preparation and cleanup, and is prone to spills or smudges by inattentive artists.)

I seem to recall reading somewhere that Toriyama's really early work was done with something whose width didn't vary all that much, giving it a very "flat", pop art-esque vibe, but I don't remember where I saw that. Maybe in one of the 1990 "The World" books.

[TheRed259]

As SaiyaJedi said Toriyama did use ''G-Pen'' made by Zebra and ink made by Luma (he started using it 2 years after the beginning of Dr.Slump). Toriyama said that he bought that pen at the age of 14 but he used it more later as a professional manga artist. He also used a mechanical pencil (0,5mn,2B).

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Nowadays, he relies more on Adobe Photoshop for his models' designs.

Spoiler:

[dbgtFO]

As SaiyaJedi said Toriyama did use ''G-Pen'' made by Zebra and ink made by Luma (he started using it 2 years after the beginning of Dr.Slump). Toriyama said that he bought that pen at the age of 14 but he used it more later as a professional manga artist. He also used a mechanical pencil (0,5mn,2B).

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Nowadays, he relies more on Adobe Photoshop for his models' designs.

Spoiler:

Which guidebook has those pages

[TheRed259]

I have them from my ''DragonBall - Le Manga De Légende'' collection. It's from a Dragonball magazine that apart from other things, it also contains 50 interviews that Toriyama gave in 2008 for the magazine. It came out only in France and Greece as far as I know.

[medama_oyaji]

Awesome topic! Thanks for the insightful responses everyone!

[Joppuman]

Thank you, every one who replied I'm a little confused as to weather or not he used the Luma for the color pages when coloring the characters and backgrounds or was it just for like inking text. Also i knew he switched to doing the coloring and applying tone digitally, but i never knew it was in the late 90s, I always figured it was in the early to mid 2000s. I don't know if i agree with Toriyama that his digital stuff looks bland, but i do prefer his older traditional stuff, also thanks again for all the reply's.

[SaiyaJedi]

Thank you, every one who replied I'm a little confused as to weather or not he used the Luma for the color pages when coloring the characters and backgrounds or was it just for like inking text.

Apart from sound-effects and some minor side-comments, the majority of the lettering was done in-house at Shueisha, applied during the final step before printing, so this wasn't really Toriyama's purview. All he had to do was pencil in the dialogue and other text as appropriate.

As for his main black-and-white inking, that was done using documentary ink made by Pilot. (I apologize; I've been adding in information to my first post in the thread as I go back through my materials.)

For further reading, consider:

• Dragon Ball: Adventure Special — Is That So? THE Dragon Ball
• Daizenshuu 1: Complete Illustrations — Akira Toriyama Super Interview
• Daizenshuu 4 — Shenlong Times (specifically the "Me These Days" section)
• Chōgashū — Akira Toriyama Super Interview: Latest Edition

There are also sections that deal with Toriyama's illustration process in the various "Akira Toriyama: The World" books that came out during Toriyama's career-retrospective year in 1990, but I haven't translated them yet. (I've used this thread as a justification for making some adjustments to Herms's old Shenlong Times translation, though.)

[Joppuman]

Thanks for the reply the links to those interviews really helped. My questions have been answered, thank you everyone who replied and a big thanks to Julian for replying, i know your really busy with work, and family, and all the site stuff you do.