Art wise:Do you think i'm some-what ready to create a manga?

[BritAurora]

According to my art do you think i'm ready to start a manga or should I imprive a little bit The pictures posted below are random examples and won't have anything to do with my manga.

The first one:Just a geisha I drew. Instead of drawing the eyes all big and multi color hair I tend to make things a bit more realistic (that usually depends on setting and type of charactar). The letters on the side say Geisha(according to the internet)/

Second one: I know this one is REALLY random but I wanted to make something that would make people think of the meaning. I also understand that i'm not the best at drawing shirtless guys. Oh! and I also like doves.

First drawing:


Second drawing:

[Kupocake]

I'm sorry, I don't think you're ready to start drawing a comic yet.

Practice drawing real human bodies first, have a stronger grip on anatomy, composition, etc. Also, make sure to practice drawing backgrounds.

[BritAurora]

Kupocake

I'm sorry, I don't think you're ready to start drawing a comic yet.

Practice drawing real human bodies first, have a stronger grip on anatomy, composition, etc. Also, make sure to practice drawing backgrounds.

Oya! The background, thanks for remindeing me. I shall work on those. Thank you

[Great God Pan]

I'll counter their statement. I don't think you can ever be too bad to start a comic. You will get better just by doing it. You can always start over when you improve.

Of course this is just for fun. I wouldn't recommend trying to publish a comic at any skill level.

[Kupocake]

I'm going to have to disagree. Drawing a comic at an inexperienced skill level becomes completely frustrating. If the OP is working solo, not only will she have to deal with the conventions of script writing, she'll also have to worry about storytelling, panel transitions, page composition, layout, pacing, readability, etc. and naturally, the art itself.

In my opinion, sequential art is one of the hardest art forms to "get." A project that starts off as fun quickly gets thrown away because of lack of skill and/or experience. Let the aspiring comic artist work on their technical drawing skills first before tackling the nuances of the comic art form. It will be far more enjoyable and "fun" in the end.

[muddymutty]

Kupocake

I'm going to have to disagree. Drawing a comic at an inexperienced skill level becomes completely frustrating. If the OP is working solo, not only will she have to deal with the conventions of script writing, she'll also have to worry about storytelling, panel transitions, page composition, layout, pacing, readability, etc. and naturally, the art itself.

In my opinion, sequential art is one of the hardest art forms to "get." A project that starts off as fun quickly gets thrown away because of lack of skill and/or experience. Let the aspiring comic artist work on their technical drawing skills first before tackling the nuances of the comic art form. It will be far more enjoyable and "fun" in the end.

I agree with this completely. I can't even count how many times when I was younger I"d start a comic but throw it out simply because I didn't have the talent to express my ideas the way I wanted to.

[Erarina]

Maybe after a bit more practice. There are some pretty good tutes on Deviantart and youtube.

[Zee Coldwater]

I have to disagree -- the best way to learn is by doing and in comics, art skills alone won't get you far. You have to be good at sequential storytelling, which you can't learn without doing.

OP should probably start doing short comics and keep practising anatomy at the same time. And, if nothing else, doing comics will improve your art very quickly.

[Seijaku_Ishida]

You seem to fall short of capturing the 'movement' of the figure holding the mask. Part of the reason is because he's not balanced correctly...if you'd like me to redline, I will, but overall a book that will help you immensely is The Animator's Survival Kit. It has some good info on line of action and things like that.

I mention movement because it's a very important part of comics, is the ability to convey motion in a still picture. Also body language in general is very important as it can be used to tell half the story.

I'm kind of in the middle on whether you should do a comic or not. On one hand, Kupo has a really really good point. I'm pretty sure for me, focusing on improving my art while doing my comic stunted my panelling and pacing skills initially. On the other hand, doing a comic really helped me get in loads of practice for my art.

[GlanceLavender]

You really do need to work on anatomy and proportions. Let me give you some examples.

The first pic, the girl's neck seems to go into her chin instead of her head. There's no definition on her form, it's just a very undetailed line drawing. The proportions are either wrong, or so vague that we can't really tell.

On the second picture, everything looks shaky. It doesn't have form or weight. It looks like you draw an outline of the guy with no structure underneath. Then kinda drew his muscles where you think they might go instead of referencing a photo.

I can tell from this that you don't understand the figure in three dimensions very well, which is going to make it very difficult to draw anything from your imagination. When you have to draw people at different angles and poses, you're going to feel very frustrated, and unable to express yourself. You need to equip yourself with the skills you need to express your ideas.

In the artist's forum you can find a lot of resources on how to draw figures and objects. Look at different tutorials on the human body.

It is possible to draw a comic even if you have bad art, but neither of these pictures shows very much skill in the story-telling department, which is what you're going to need.

Start trying to tell a story with your pictures. Draw the characters doing something, and draw a background for them to be in. Then try short 4-panel comics. You'll learn some basics of sequential art from that. Then try doing manga-style pages.

If you have trouble drawing backgrounds, practice drawing landscapes and interiors. You'll need a working understanding of perspective, but there are plenty of tutorials out there.

The good thing is, once you learn how to use anatomy, proportion, perspective, and other elements of art, you will never stop finding them useful. It's worth all the hard work it takes to learn it.

[ElfinNissa]

Use the comic to practice the things you need to work on. It's easier to practice if you have some sort of end goal. If it works, great, if it doesn't, whatever. Don't feel too tied down to the project if you decide you hate your art/storytelling later.

Don't expect a breakout hit at this point though.

[Kupocake]

I can see your point, Zee and Seijaku. However, I'm speaking from my own experiences, mainly when I was at her skill level. Trying to draw comics at that stage was extremely frustrating for me, mainly because my drawing experience was so limited and I couldn't convey what I wanted with my artwork, let alone comic pages. It might have been a different experience for others, but I found that I rapidly improved my art more when I focused more on practicing life drawings rather than drawing comics.

It's only when I had a decent grasp of perspective, gesture, anatomy, composition, etc. and a good working habit when drawing comics because easier and "more fun" for me.

[Seijaku_Ishida]

Drawing from life is essentially a must for comics. It helped me loads too. Hell, my animation professor always told me for sequential art you can NEVER have enough life drawing. And followed her own example because she enrolled in at least one life drawing class a year, usually two.

I dunno, though. I did get frustrated at times but comics helped me break out of my box, because I NEEDED to draw things I wasn't familiar with, to have the story go on.

[Kupocake]

Same here, drawing for the OCT has pushed me beyond anything I've previously worked on, from exaggerated emotions to fight scenes to environments of all types. But if I tried to join an OCT back when my drawing skills were like this, not only would I lose out on the first round, I'd also have no idea how to direct certain scenes, let alone have the capabilities of drawing convincing drama.

I might be in the wrong, that the OP has a different mentality than I did several years ago and she'll keep challenging herself despite complete lack of knowledge in a certain field and never give up on her comic. If she has that kind of determination, then by all means, pick up that pencil and draw that manga.

[ElfinNissa]

Thanks for posting that old picture, Kupo. It's incredibly encouraging.

I'm still in favor of the "throw the baby in the water and see if it swims" method.