The general thread for Manga / manga-styled comic-making, manga-style illustration and related comic work. That said, everyone is welcome here.Support each other and talk about your work or the work of others that excites you. Inking, character design, paneling / layout, writing, planning, and other discussions are all welcome.Post resources, questions, in-progress pages, breakdowns of other works, etc. If a work is not yours, credit the maker (unless it's fucking obvious like a full page of One Piece or something).Thanks to everyone for making /mmg/ a level-headed and helpful place. Remember, drawing and making comics and manga are difficult endeavors, and we're all in this struggle together.Previous thread: >>7896174Some resources:/asg/, our stylistic sister-thread series for those focused more on illustration >>>/ic/asgBooks:Understanding Comicshttps://e-hentai.org/g/2042453/83e7da6ed0/Making Comicshttps://annas-archive.org/md5/d55168f7579c1e23275d1fc9f0a2255dManga in Theory and Practice: The Craft of Creating Mangahttps://annas-archive.org/md5/2877da11e2f852d220853e9944e6ea49Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwritinghttps://archive.org/details/RobertMcKeeStorypdf/Even a Monkey Can Draw Mangahttps://kupdf.net/download/even-a-monkey-can-draw-manga_58b9ca16e12e89233badd376_pdfThe Shonen Jump Guide to Making Mangahttps://mega.nz/file/i81imLpI#GcheJ9Jjk3lw1RE9nQWgL4RG4wEBNOcRmgA-iaU6WpgVideos:"Manga Senpai/Tokyo Name Tank", "SMAC! THE SILENT MANGA AUDITION COMMUNITY"Habanero Scans: https://www.dailymotion.com/HabaneroScans/videosManben link can be found on archive.org on different pages separated by season: https://www.reddit.com/r/manga/comments/1bu9f0y/found_all_of_naoki_urasawas_manben_and_manben_neo/Urasawa Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkIFOAoFm47XOAlJwTa6Ieg/videosOP image is from Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure
>>7901095Some western / indie publishers of Manga:Saturday AM ( https://www.saturday-am.com/ )> Digital indie magazine, seems to be on the up-and-up> Open submissions for long-form series; also distributes series currently being published elsewhere.> Regularly publishes one-shots, making it a good potential outlet for already-finished work.Oni Press ( https://onipress.com/ )> Technically indie, but at this point large enough by comic standards to be mentioned in the same breath as other publishers.Antarctic Press ( https://antarctic-press.myshopify.com/ )> Longtime large-indie publisher of OEL / manga-esque books.> Seemingly taking submissions at present if https://antarctic-press.myshopify.com/pages/submissions is anything to go on.Yen Press ( https://yenpress.com/ )> Started out as a small indie publisher of original / Korean material, and has grown reasonably popular since.> As of 2016, it is also one of the western arms of the Kadokawa Corporation, with Kadokawa owning a 51% stake.> Editorial inquiries can apparently be sent to yenpress@yenpress.com, however, they apparently are not open to new submissions at this time.Viz Media / Viz Originals ( https://www.viz.com/originals )> *The* western manga publisher.> Currently in the exploratory stages of setting up an English label.> Submissions are open and several books have been announced. However, progress on the label seems to be moving very slowly.> Still might be worth a shot anyway.Shrine Comics ( https://shrinecomics.com/ )> Small indie manga publisher> Seemingly attempting to make the transition to physical volumes> Allows crossposting to other sitesIconic Comics (https://www.iconiccomics.com/)>A bit like Oni Press and Antarctic Press>A small publisher with a focus on indie works with manga inspiration
>>7901097Other open comic publishers:Dark Horse ( https://www.darkhorse.com )>Dark Horse still welcomes your submissions, and all submissions will still be reviewed, just as they always have been.>All unsolicited story/series proposals must have a full creative team on board. Writer-only proposals will not be reviewed.Image comics ( https://imagecomics.com/ )>Image Comics only publishes creator-owned material. They do not contract creators; they’re only interested in publishing original content for which you would retain all rights.>Image Comics publishes creator-owned/creator-generated properties and THEY DON’T PAY PAGE RATES. Image takes a small flat fee off the books published, and it will be the responsibility of the creators to determine the division of the remaining pay between their creative team members.Drawn and quarterly ( https://drawnandquarterly.com/ )>Please email a low resolution PDF with at least 20 pages of comics and cover letter to submissions. Do not send dropbox links, scripts, or proposals. Please read our submissions FAQ.Fantagraphics ( https://www.fantagraphics.com/ )>submission page: https://www.fantagraphics.com/pages/faqTop Shelf Productions ( https://www.topshelfcomix.com/ )>Regarding submissions, we're easy. Just email us a download link of what you'd like us to review. NOTE: We cannot accept cover letters, plot synopses, or scripts unless they are accompanied by a minimum of 10-20 completed pages (i.e., fully inked and lettered comic book pages).Additional publisher lists:> https://jasonthibault.com/definitive-list-comic-publisher-submission-guidelines/> https://writingtipsoasis.com/best-independent-comic-book-publishers/
>>7901099/mmg/'s very own anon-led anthology: /ic/onographyhttps://discord.gg/QYnFBves7Vhttps://forms.gle/d3a2Cwwd44sJYyqv9(Anthology project is defunct but the discord is alive)Additional community added Resources:Mangafonts: https://mangafonts.carrd.co/Hiro Mashima YT: https://www.youtube.com/@mashimaCh/videosGanmo, a job listing board for manga assistant work: https://ganmo.j-comi.co.jp/postsHow (You) can help /mmg/:> Know about a contest or a publishing opportunity? TAG THE OP and post a link.> Have a new resource? TAG THE OP and link / mention it for inclusion.> Don't be a crab> Have a link / DL for a mentioned resource? TAG THE OP and mention what you're supplying a link for.> SCREENSHOT / PASTEBIN effort posts that help you for posterity.
>>7901100Ongoing contests:>Kadokawa (Ends March 31):https://kadokawaworldmanga.com/ ends March 31>Inkobon (Ends April 12):https://inkobon.com/pages/inkoboncup>Pixiv (Ends March 31):https://www.pixiv.net/contest/GlobalComicAwards2026>MangaPlus/Shueisha (Two Dates Listed- Original Story on May 15th, Prepared Drawing on May 31st)https://mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp/web_pages/2225/
God I hate when I uploading pics from my phone to PC for it to only still stay flipped hate that shit.Anyway to start the thread
>>7901108When you take a photo, the photo stores the rotation data from when you took it so it knows how to display it. 4chan scrubs all of that sort of metadata so people don't unknowingly dox themselves.
>>7901113Wish they still kept that IP counter though
>>7900910You have a real good sense of staging on how one drawing carries into the next. However while I realize that you are drawing in a minimal sense, when you do zoom ins like pic related you gotta up the detail and care for your drawings a bit. There are examples too when you do close-ups of the eyes they get to look more detail and clarity but in pic related its a copy paste
>Tfw another day I didnt make any mangas
>It would be hard to imagine a culinary manga without realistic - that is to say, appetizing - depictions of food.
>>7901151Most food looks like shit, ESPECIALLY the expensive stuff.
If you want your manga to appear more professional use front face shots sparingly.
>>7901243frontal face shots, like this
>>7901145it's joever
>>7901243Lul, i do that, and it's something i laugh about myself
>>7901318You're doing good lad
>Make Girl character>Can't draw girls for shitPain, I practice drawing them and I never get better. They just look like men in wigs.
>>7901401Hmmm, looks like one image got two layers in the pic, woops.
Posting page
>>7901243What does this even mean?
>>7901401>2nd row 2nd face>mfw
>>7901401Make the neck thinner, about the distance from one pupil to the other from a front view. dont draw too many surface details using lines. Dont draw in muscles too much unless she's meant to be unnaturally buff. Make the jaw smaller and more neotenous, dont use that many lines for the lips Use as little line as possible for the nose, in fact, try only using lines at the tip of the nose and maybe the nostrils and let just a little shading with a midtone describe the rest of the form
>>7901430>>7901401Try editing your previous faces to reflect these changes, they should look more feminine
>>7901432I kept edits as minor as possible to show what I mean
I don't know where else to ask this but is there a thread on this board for cartoons and unique styles?
Could picking up one of the most realistic/detailed/master level mangaka (Takehiko Inoue, Kentaro Miura, Murata, Otomo, etc.) for having an artist I can safely base off my initial art style from by emulation and master studies while also trying to understand their fundamentals, and then switch to the more stylized manga styles I actually want to draw like (Soul Eater and Hellsing's art styles specifically) give me benefits for general art evolution? I already draw from life often and study from basic fundamentals resources enough btw, I just want to learn how to draw properly in a manga-like style without it feeling aimless and generic despite being clearly /beg/ (or at least what's considered /beg/ on this board)
>>7901529You're complicating the learning process (same as your sentences) to avoid practicing. Copy what you want your art to look like and study realistic stuff to further your understanding of the underlying anatomy the stylised thing was based off
Hey frens. Haven't posted in a while but I'm still working on stuff. I'm kinda stuck atm because I keep avoiding working on this piece of shit. But I'll make more pages as soon as I'm done with this.
>>7901493Pro Tip: If you want to ask for advice, do so with your big red flashing warning sign turned OFF
>>7901430>>7901432>>7901443I will try to keep that in mind.
need some critique on some shitty fucking pages I shit out they suck and I dont like them it doesnt work. The outline could work but this shit just fucking sucks.
>>7901664I don't feel like reading them so I'll just tell you what you apparently want to hear.They're shit and they suck and I don't like them they don't work.
>>7901529I think you'd be a stronger artist for doing so.I noticed when looking at how manga artists draw noses. There's this popular conception that in manga they don't draw noses, or if they do, they're just a dot, or a > shape, and that they don't actually think of actual noses with nostrils and stuff.But that's not the case, as you can see from this collage, they just noses from many angles and it's clear they know what a nose is. But they'll still draw it as a dot or a > frequently when the angle suits it. It's not stylized in the way that I think we think of stylization typically. We tend to think of stylization as like spongebob where he doesn't actually have eyelashes but merely three straight lines coming out of his eyes, they must always be three, they must always be straight, they must never behave as actual eyelashes
>>7901678Here in the west we have a tendency to do pic related, and we call this stylization, but imo it's more of a flanderization of the art than anything else.The hair stops being real hair and just becomes this very defined shape, the whole body loses dimensionality and becomes a fixed set of lines that are always drawn in the same way and the artists forgets what the lines even mean.Look at the ear in these ones, it starts out as a real ear, the artist is trying to draw and ear... but eventually it just becomes a symbol, a line here and then a squiggle here to represent the ear... but it's not actually an ear.
>>7901680But you can't bring this way of thinking into manga, it's not how they're drawing it.When they draw a nose, or anything else, it's not this simple symbol that's just "this line then this line", it's a nose, it's a real nose, and they are thinking of that when they draw it even when they're drawing it as just a dot.And so if you get yourself a foundation in drawing more realistically, you'll be better equipped to then stylize, whereas if you only ever learn to copy dots and >'s you'll have no idea what they really are, and you'll be unable to draw it truly dynamically.
>>7901682That being said, there is a skill to be learned in drawing these dots and >'s, or rather, there is a skill to be learned in stylizing in general. How do you know to draw it as this dot or this >? How do you know when drawing the lips of the character not to draw too many and make it look like they're wearing lipstick, or drawing the under-lid of the eye and not making it look like they've got eyebags? This takes skill to do, and it requires practice. If you only draw realistically you won't have much experience in the ways of stylization. So you should practice both imo. Become a well rounded artist who knows his medium inside and out.
>looking at deleter manga paper>under $20 for 40 sheets of 110-135kg specialty paperWhat's the catch? Stuff like Strathmore bristol board is like twice the price for less than half the weight. I would switch to using only deleter paper for finished pieces
>>7901684I know you said you were a /beg/ so I hope I haven't thrown too much jargon at you. The short of it is, the stylized manga are drawn better with an understanding of realism, so I think you'd benefit from learning to draw more realistic
Beg here, trying to win an art contest, or at least make it to the third place. I was thinking about drawing a manga/ comic. But other than drawing shittily became I'm still a pre-beg, I don't know what to do. And the contest ends on 6'th of April.How do I panel and like do stuff properly?
>>7901529This sounds like a watse of time. If I take your word for it I assume you already have a basic understanding of fundamentals, and based on your comment>switch to more stylized manga styles I actually want to drawwhich implies you already have some semblance of characters in your head that you want to put on paper. If thats the case forget fundie shit learn how to properly design characters. Whats the point of doing studies of this artist vs that artist if you dont have characters that you can apply that knowledge towards?Before any more fundie shit you need something that is yours to mold and have knowledge be applied to. However shitty your initial characters look, it serves as a springboard on what elements work and what dont, and what you see in other artists work that you might want to apply to your own.Like look at pic related, this is from a published work called Brody's Ghost. Despite the work being a very grounded dramatic thriller, the author initially thought up the design that you see on top for one of its main characters. The author clearly later on found the design not fitting for the story it was trying to go for, so they decided to look up a manga author that was more in line with the tone that they were trying to achieve, studied that artist, and APPLIED that knowledge back to the character. While in abstract you can see similar design motifs and elements such as a punk aesthetics and stylized hair, there was a huge shift in the final design. But you cant KNOW what desired outcome you want without you also needing that first initial springboard idea. Feel free to keep doing fundie shit and delay drawing your own original crap but if you study Takehiko Inoue only to find out the story you had in mind is on par with some shit like Doraemon your just wasting time. It be faster to make your own shit and decide what you need to learn from there but whatever dude
>>7901696Write down your story, be it a proper script or bullet points or whatever, and figure out what drawings you need to tell that story. Stuff like paneling and how the images are organized is dependent on your script and how the series of drawings flow from one to the next to tell your story. I mean I can give you examples but its all dependent on your output.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tPW4FA0FMshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjyZscilmX0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JF0Y2Thbswhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csbgkb1vhp0Lettin ya know right now though, if you are a /beg/ and legit havent made a serious attempt at even a small comic before, if your idea for a comic has the level of detail like in your pic, you are only gonna get to like 12 pages max assuming you haul ass on every element to the point you get arthritis in your hand. I wont say comics are hard but its time consuming if you dont know what you want to do. I mean you ask>How do I panel and like do stuff properly?but brother thats a question only you have the answer to cause you need to know what you wanna fucking draw.
>>7901696>How do I panel and like do stuff properly?Making Comics by Scott McCloud
>>7901702Thanks for your help friend. I'm uber retarded and I assumed that if I did a drawing/ panel per hour, I could like finish a page or two a day, and finish in a week D:.Dayjob and being in my 30's is fucking killing me already :')Started drawing and studying anatomy a week ago, but I gots to win.The story shouldn't be that hard, I'm just going to fanfic some portions of the game. It's a game art contest, but the angles and the in-game stuff is oblique.I keep trying to draw everything super fast, but I'll try slowing down.https://youtu.be/DYiuZGA96Cs?si=NZfRcaQn-cg97kOt>>7901715>Making Comics by Scott McCloudThanks friend. I'll check it out.
>>7901696>How do I panel and like do stuff properly?If it looks good, it is good.
>>7901696you're fucked.it takes years to get good enough to perform well in a contest, obviously.that said, can't hurt to try, the attempt will be good practice. for paneling and pacing, just look at the opening chapters of your favorite manga and try to emulate what you see.
>>7901723oh she has dark hair?kinda got used to her being a blonde...
>>7901696If the contest is based in the west, then the judges will be racist and sexist, and not in your favour
>>7901730Fuck me. :')>>7901738>If the contest is based in the west, then the judges will be racist and sexist, and not in your favourIt's Artix Entertainment, based in the U.S.Dey're bretty liberal.But I'm Romanian, which technically makes me a minority. Does that count?
>>7901732All these characters have black hair, just haven't been bothering to render that in the sketch because it's time consuming.
>>7901409Nice, keep it up
>>7901696Re-did it. If I do a panel and re-iterate on it a few times, I might have a page or two in a week.
Is a comic/manga creator more an artist or a writer?
After doing that two Altarusia in Trad and having to make the other comic in Digital again it feels extremly boring. I will keep it now for this chapter but after that I will change to Trad too.
>>7901685It's fine. The paper is really bright white and the guides are extremely faint, so this means when it gets scanned the color of the paper makes it easy to wash out light lines. You might lose some detail if you draw too lightly. Quality wise I think it may be a hint less smooth than I-C? I only say this because it has a tendency to slide around when stacked lol. I have no issues using this paper even though people have complained about a supposed "bleed" issue. I have been drawing with it every day for four years.
>>7901685Strathmore bristol is almost twice the weight.
>>7901680>>7901682>line>line, japan
>>7901827I'd say the difference moreso lies in purpose of the symbols. when drawing manga the reason noses tend to become symbols is to remove detail that can clutter the face when drawing and looking at small pictures. I'm sure this is a matter of choice for some who just maintain their symbols no matter what size, but drawing large naturally allows for more liberty that you can take advantage of for something that feels personal. Thinking about it, I haven't really put a whole lot of thought into how webcomic artists handle the symbol problem. PA has the luxury of staying deadly consistant because of the strip format.
>>7901830It's just faster to draw characters and easier to keep them consistent when you don't have to draw a detailed face.That I believe was the original reason anime and manga started doing it
>>7901723Beanie girl seems like she got bigger some how. Like she got 3 inches taller. Maybe it's just cos I haven't looked at the previous pages recently enough.
>>7901834Yes, that too. My character designs have evolved to fit these limitations as well, but i'm so much happier with my art in general. Readibility is a core issue though. Most of the panels will have people's heads be barely larger than your thumb, you have to make the most of your space. Even if you draw digitally, if it's going to be printed you still have to consider how the final version will look.
>>7901151
>>7901797A manga creator is a storyteller who uses art as a means to tell a story, so 'writer' seems more natural to me. However, the distinction is utlimately meaningless because writers, painters, sculptors, filmmakers, photographers and so on are all storytellers in one way or another, they just use different materials/methods.
>>7901842cute!
>>7901151I love drawing "food"
>>7901151Like this.
>>7901835Nah her proportions are different between those two pages, I just drew her torso longer/head smaller in the righthand page because it fit the composition better.The last panel (leftmost bottom) is also a bit fucked up, her hips are higher than they should be in that pose.
>>7901937..... uh... isn't half of this straight up just an edited photo of food converted into foundational lineart? Whereas >>7901902 and >>7901842 manually drew things?
>>7901961If that's an edited photo than it's the best damn edited photo I've seen. It looks hand-drawn from ref to me.
>>7901318damn, what's the story?
>>7902041Hikers nearly get caught in an avalanche, and are stuck in a cabin buried by said avalanche. The girl almost died, and, realizing she doesn't want to die a virgin, asks the guy to have sex with her. Her mum joins in and they have a lot of sex while they wait for the snow to melt.
>>7902050Hopefully they have plenty of food.Banging a virgin and her mother can build up quite an appetite
>>7902052It's a multi-day hike, they brought stuff.
>>7902094nice, looks good!as for me, I say FUCK manga, I'm about to give up (I won't) but fuck this shit
>>7902050>her mumwhat the helli thought this was pg-13 porn
>>7902140Cheers>>7902159Maybe the next one can be for the kids.
>>7902050>cabin in snow, >avalanches.I'm glad the aussies are writing what they know.
>>7901318how long have you been drawing and how did you get good?
>>7902050The other lady is her MOM? She looks the same age!
>>7901095thought this was the mega man general
>>790221212 years and I dunno. I drew a lot of comics. >>7902216I've been forgetting to draw the subtle eyebags and mouth lines that are supposed to make her look older, so that doesn't help.
>>7902293>I drew a lot of comicsSee this is why I think comic making is not for me. If I didn't start doing it when I was younger that means I have no real desire to do that activity. When I first started listening to dubstep I wanted to make it so I made it. Rap beats, same thing. I only have premises for stories, not actual stories I want to tell. The fact that I'm even questioning if this would be a waste of time to pursue probably means I shouldn't do it. Sorry for the trauma dump, your work is very good.
>>7902300>If I didn't start doing it when I was younger that means I have no real desire to do that activity.Not that anon, but interests can change. I never really drew all my life until I was an adult and one day I just said fuck it, let's just do it already why not. Now I'm several years into drawing a comic.
>>7902300Not to stereotype, but if you enjoy dubstep as an adult, then perhaps writing really isn't for you.
Found parts of an old project while spring-cleaning my apartment.I know I drew this before the pandemic so I haven't looked at it for at least 7 years.It was conceived as a single chapter, 35-40 page mash-up retelling of Paradise Lost and Dante Alighieri's Inferno where each page/panel is a Wimmelbild.
At the time I was somewhat convinced that I was fundamentally unable to learn perspective and anatomy, so I overcompensated with small details and hatching. As a rule, I included no human or animal characters in any of my scripts.This was idiotic and cost me many years of progress.I can't help but look back at these pages with regret, but on the other hand I now know that I can get better and eventually draw a far superior version of this story.
>>7902399>>7902401I'll be honest dude, this looks like a 13 year old doodling in a school notebook. It looks like something you do while smoking weed
>>7902300That kind of negative thinking won't get you anywhere. I had a sort of mid-life crisis where I realised there were bundles of lame jokes I'd never get to tell unless I took a leap of faith and just doodled whatever came out of the pencil. A comic https://tapas.io/episode/3787073Remix repost edition https://bunnyseries.the-comic.org/
>>7902404H-hot
>>7902401> I was somewhat convinced that I was fundamentally unable to learn perspective and anatomy, so I overcompensated with small details and hatching.>I can't help but look back at these pages with regretHumans have a detrimental way of coping where we try to convince ourselves that we don't have to do some difficult thing. But if you really love something and want to do it to the fullest, you are only cheating yourself when you don't do the work. Fundies, boxes, anatomy, perspective, panel composition, etc.Many people convince themselves they'll be like ONE, and people will love their work despite the bad art because the story is so great. Or that the learning will come naturally, and they don't have to push themselves hard. Everyone wants others to enjoy their work. It is terribly depressing to spend enormous time to create a work that no one reads or cares about. Some people can't even accept this feeling at all and will preemptively cope that "I make it for myself so I don't care" (true for some, but many are dishonest with themselves).
>>7902523>Some people can't even accept this feeling at all and will preemptively cope that "I make it for myself so I don't care" (true for some, but many are dishonest with themselves).From a philosophical standpoint I wpuld argue that while this can be true for a drawing in and of itself, it is impossible for that to be the case for a story. The entire purpose of a story is to tell it to other people. Telling stories to others is one of the most fundamental things about being a human, even if we never made visual art as a species. A story that was worked on for a long time only to be completely ignored is tragic.
>>7902300>If I didn't start doing it when I was younger that means I have no real desire to do that activityI'm weird though so don't compare yourself to me.I didn't draw whatsoever until I finished high school. For some reason, a switch just flipped in my mind around that time that made me want to tell stories. I didn't want to get a student debt for something I didn't want to do so I never went to uni, I just stayed at home and leeched. I tried to learn to draw through study and I barely touched my pencil as a result. So I figured I'd just try to jump into making stuff, and that worked a lot better. I've had plenty of periods of lazyness or getting sidetracked by video games and shit, and I never studied. If I was more disciplined I might be a much better artist and author than I am now.>>7902401>so I overcompensated with small details and hatching.Lol I did that shit too.
>>7902573waah waaah waaah me me poopoo no drawing
hows this look?looking at it now, ill redo some of the folds on the clothing cause i made them too big. is this style appealing?
Where can I find a comic drawing gf with whom I can team up with as a writer/artist duo? Should I start lurking in art libraries?
>>7902810Libraries belong to the homeless and criminally insane. You need to hang out at the art department of your local college. Art hoes are a rare commodity that is highly sought after, so the gf part is probably less realistic than the creative duo part.
>>7902770Very evocative writing, nicely done. Do you actually draw in ms paint or with some paint-style brushes in Krita/CS/?
I wish this general were more industrious. It would be really neat if, just for fun, we could work on eachothers manga as assistants, and collab together. The /mmg/ Jump magazine is still too small to even be worth making.
>>7902810I don't know (but I suspect the answer is something like "anywhere"... almost everyone knows someone who's into writing)Just a word of warning. Don't hold off making comics just because you haven't found a writer to partner with. You don't NEED a writer. If you find a good one who doesn't flake (all of mine flaked) then good, but if you wait for it you'll just waste away years doing nothing.
>>7902831Anon, that's unfortunately a complete pipe dream>artists are already known worldwide for being immature and will have a melty for [any reason you want put here, INCLUDING dealing with other people let alone other artists]>4chan anons are even worse for this>many anons will say that working on any other comic is taking time away from their own comic>also runs the risk that if they DO the work assigned to them, the main anon on XYZ project decides ultimately its no good and does something else on a panel, thus making it feel even more it was a wasted effort>if said helper anons reject the change discard and insist on their work, all it does is cause pointless drama>anons also regularly come and go at the drop of a hat, several prior regulars have not posted for half a year if not several years now, nobody knows what is their reason>there is a greater than zero chance that the anons who take the time out of their day to contribute as art assistants are treated like just jannies with a different name (i.e., "this panel is a mess, clean it up") :^))))))))))))>not to mention several anons here based on their work are very clearly industrious, but they are only industrious when working quietly on their own comicThis is why nothing like a true /mmg/ jump happens. The biggest project people do on /ic/ is that OC battle that happens once a year.
>>7902876Unfortunately the responsibility is not a given, in many cases even when people want to they don't realize they have less time and energy than they thought to dedicate to some easily put off "project". It is inevitable the work becomes lopsided or an unfinished mess. The best you can hope for is something similar to a vidya cover collab where it's a few people collabing on one page doing their own panels as a fun communal effort, but it's not something worth reading (and it will still somehow take a month to complete)
>>7902831The more realistic thing mmg could do is hold our own competitions.
>>7902831Okay anon, then collab with me on a comic right now! Assistant work in mutual exchange, short oneshot, proofreading/editing, typesetting, writing. Any of these sound good to me. I did a collab during college, fun times.
>>7902876This guy is a nodraw, I can smell it.
It's not a manga, but a friend asked me to draw my favorite All Tomorrows for Steam games
>>7902828Thank you. Yeah I do these in ms paint
>>7903021i love this. i don’t know how to say it, but it feels perfectly immersive and breathtakingly beautiful to me.really wonderful work.
>>7903042Thank you so much!! I'm still practicing with colors!!!
>>7902831We did do those pseudo-4komas in 2025 (and 2024? Maybe?) where an anon starts it by drawing the first panel, then another anon draws the second, etc. That was always funny.
>>7903121I liked the recent group drawing that was done, does anyone have the final version (or atleast the latest version)?
Print test only to check out something
>>7903164Godammit 4chan stop inverting my images
>>7903164You've gotten a lot better than when you started altarusia, anon. Good for you.
>>7903165It's because you're below the equator
>>7903169I have stagnated for a time but now I think I improved a little more >>7903182I see
>>7902050>Her mum joins inanon...
>>7903191What?
>>7902756I like it well enough, but I think you can also change your style to make it pop more, for exmaple having the outline of her body be thicker. You have some folds and wrinkles be thicker so I know you can do it, putting that thickness on the outline in certain spots according to the curve and fold of her sillhouete will add a lot.Also, adding darkness, I don't know what the term is, but shadows in nooks and crannies like under her neck, the hair behind head head that no light will reach, the insides of her sleeves, and some folds can be pitch black (and thus ultra thick lines).The pose itself is nice because its got plenty of character Ithink, it feels like her personality is showing, but these changes have to be done in a simple fast way so you dont overrender every figure you draw.
you dont need a writer to start, if you're drawing then you're going to learn how to write just making comics. Someone who is a good writer doesn't have to know how to draw and won't help you.If you are able to draw interesting characters then you're already able to write them, because you will be drawing the characterization. If you want to just draw exactly what someone else tells you, you're not gonna make it past 2 pages before realizing you're wasting your time or deciding you can do better. Writers contribute nothing the artist can't already do, except make sure the ideas are good. But at that point they're not the writer, they're the editor.
>>7902756Id say in general yes but you can afford to use less lines still. Like i get in context shes dirty or something so I get why you put a lot of lines over her body this time but look at her clothes and consider how linework can be used to differentiate between types of fabric.Like I know what shes wearing is supposed to be denim overalls, and I dont know if you've ever worn denim overalls or even just denim pants, but if you did you would know they arent like cloth or silk, it a tough fabic that doesnt really fold unless you REALLY force itLike look at pic related. This bitch's overalls only has like a few noticable fold lines. The rest of the lines you see on her is just the actual detail of the denim but not folds. The way you have it drawn currently looks like like shes wearing drapes.
>>7902831Don't worry anon once I'm done making my Little Red Riding hood doujin I'll be sure to share some pages for the class to enjoy.
>>7903121Is it time for another one?
Not to crab ok young authors but am I the only one who feels that a lot of manga plus’s titles are /beg/? That kinda gives me hope for us westerners to catch up on japs
>>7903339I think the recent popularity of titles like Chainsawman, Kagurabachi, and ONE's webcomic have given new authors the confidence to publish their work even before they're readyBut having said that, extremely popular titles in the past were amateurish as well, the standards were just lower back then. At the end of the day it's whether it's actually entertaining to read that matters.
>>7903380I've been drawing alot of background characters in my comic lately, do you have any strategies for how to go about efficiently designing and drawing large numbers of background characters?
>>7901103i hate that all these contests are timed to end of march. No, your fucking contest doesnt need to hit some culturally relevant "beginning of springtime" time limit for fuck's sake
>>7902876I plan to hang around, desu socials suck rn , everyone wants to be Akira toyiyama or the p Diddy of comics ,"money money money" but no fucking skill and shitty attitudes on top of it.Until that even begins to change, ill prolly keep posting here, at least you retards actually give a fuck about making art
>>7903384There are brushes in clip studio specifically for making generic background characters/mobs. During far shots, you can use rough silhouettes instead of drawing actual characters. During close shots, cram your background characters into panels like what I did.
>>7903398Such a technique is only useful for extremely distant characters, but I'm more interested in background characters who's features are still visible
What app do you guy use for drawing the manga lineart? I am looking for an app that has easy interface for panels and speech bubbles
First page for the contest I'm in. :D
>>7903465I am currently making a comic for someone and I want the feel to be manga-like
>>7903384You need a strategy? Keeping my hero characters consistent and looking good is so much of a pain in the ass that I find myself yearning for a page where I could just fill it with a bunch of one-off randoes.
>>7903487Drawing the main characters is hard enough yes, but they're also the main focus of the comic so it's expected you be prepared to put alot of effort into them.Drawing background characters however feels very tedious. You're not supposed to look at them closely, they're not important, but they still require you to draw them well enough to not look sloppy.
>>7903339You wouldn't survive the schedule. Regardless of the level of art, 17 pages per week for extended periods is crazy. The art isn't the bottleneck, it's the schedule.
>>7903394*cleaningYou're so fast. How many years have you been drawing?
>>7903466Cool designs, but is this a finished page? You'll need something for scale - these are supposed to be characters I assume, but they look like action figures / figurines sitting on a shelf.
What's the difference between a manga, a comic, and a webcomic, aside from country of origin?
you guys ever did exhibit your comic, even at a small gallery?
>>7903535bitch i look like goku
>>7903534>comic/manga/manhwa/manhuaCountry of origin>webcomic versus a comic"Comic" is an umbrella term and obviously encompasses webcomics, but webcomics as the name implies is (possibly solely) offered through digital mediums and have very likely are not going to be offered in a real physical way like a book. Depending on the creator, webcomics are much more engaged with the audience. Ultimately it really doesn't matter. Everyone is here making comics, and they're all posting them on the web.
>>7903339are you talking about their main comics? Or the stuff anyone can post?
>>7903535>>7903537How do you get an art exhibition as a /beg/? Do you pay the gallery a fee for the spot?t. genuinely no clue how fine arts works
>>7903535>>7903537This looks like a very fancy rape dungeon.>Don't be scared, after I show you my art I'll let you go!
>>7903351kurumada is amazing in how he's drawn for over 30 years without a single pixel of noticeable improvement
>>7903648what was he supposed to do, copy the greats? HE IS THE GREAT.
tip of the year:if you are going to draw your characters in perspective opt for 1 point perspective most of the time. you can make a lot of pretty dynamic shots with smart use of 1 point. i'm reading older manga and they spam 1 point perspective because they don't have 3d models like we do and it doesn't take away from the story at all.
>>7903683>i'm reading older manga and they spam 1 point perspectiveIf it works, it works.
How do you guys deal with family making working on your manga/comic near impossible? I moved back in with my mother to take care of my grandfather, who’s since passed, and now I’m stuck waiting to move out again.Entire days get eaten up solving her problems, usually caused by her own negligence, and my evenings after work go to chores made more complicated by autistic demands. Groceries need debrief-length list write-ups because she can’t make one without me there, turning 15 minutes into 50. I work 4 days a week, 8-hour shifts, plus a 3-hour course 2 to 3 times a week, so I’m busy full-time before I even touch my comic. And then she comes in…She’s highly autistic and throws a fit if you try to correct her behavior. Separation isn’t an option right now, since housing is rough, and while I’m at the top of a waiting list for an apartment in a nice area, I still have to wait for one to open up. Ignoring her isn’t an option either, she reacts passively aggressive and will make noise or bother me in other ways. There’s an Alexa I can’t unplug because everything in the house is tied to it, lights turn on and off on timers I can’t disable, and she’ll call me on WhatsApp or Alexa from two rooms away while I’m working because she wants to tell me something or show me something I dont care about, then she gets angry at me for not showing the reaction she wanted me to show
>>7903688I know you're just venting, but it sounds like you already have your solution.If there's somebody who doesn't respect your time and won't listen to reason then remove them from your life, either by kicking them out or by moving away.I've had my own share of family problems, including one coming up that I have no real solution for. You just have to grit your teeth and work through it all.
>>7903688I hate family members like that. Narcissists who demand you also be in a weird co-dependency with them are the worst. All you can do is go full no-contact.
>>7903629iirc he's in some adult school
>>7903688
>>7903688The same way you deal with any pursuit under time restraints, you find the cracks in the wall, and use your time wisely.The fact that you think you have truly no time at all is evidence that you don't actually know your time as well as you think.Make a spreadsheet or keep a notebook of every 30 minutes or 1 hour of your day, write down in a word or two what you did in that 30 minutes. Do this for a week or two and you'll have a perfect understanding of how you spend your days. Don't try to correct your behaviour by being more productive, just observe your natural habits and come to understand them. You'll be surprised at how much time you waste. The fact that you had the time to make this 4chan posts suggests to me that you do indeed have some free time, and free time that you would probably agree would be better spent creating your comic instead of reading the brainrot you find on this website.Of course not all time is equal, a 15 minute break at work is no time to plan a complicated story, for that demands more time. And half an hour before bed is no time to solve a plot hole, for that demands more focus and concentration than you have at the end of your day.Use those small gaps of time to do simple but time consuming tasks such as filling out rendering or drawing the boxes, speech bubbles, and speed lines. 10 minutes here and there throughout the week adds up to a few hours a week, in real terms, a page completed.When you have the rare opportunity to actually sit down and work properly on your comic, don't waste that time with trivial tasks but be cognizant and do the difficult tasks like sketching faces and dynamic poses.This is all very unpleasant to be sure, but ask yourself, do you want to make your comic or not?
>>7903688>>7903768There is also the emotional factor to consider.After suffering through a tiresome argument for 2 hours, you finally get some peace and quiet... but you use that time to catch your break and recover from the onslaught you've just endured. If you're not careful, this recuperation period will last right up until the next argument or some other distraction, which will then require more recovery, and so on forever.The best defence is an offense... speaking metaphorically. If you rest, you only become weaker.Mental energy is fickle in that way. You don't gain energy by resting, you gain energy by frequently expending more of it. Like exercising and becoming fitter.Rather than resting after such a mental barrage, you should instead flip a switch in your brain and change modes. Gone is the poor fellow who lives with his terribly annoying family, and switched on is the man who is excited to work on his comic. It's compartmentalization. When you go from one mode to the other, you forget all about the other, and so do your woes about it. It's the only way to survive.
>>7903688While I dont find my family as annoying as yours, whatever free time I ended up having would be spent in the library. Most people dont acknowledge you, and you can be drawing fat tits and most people wont acknowledge you cause theyre stuck doing their own tasks or enjoying themselves. >but I draw digitallyget a decent tablet to use if you dont have one already>but I use PC CRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINGEEEEEEEEEEE
>>7903683I don't know what any of these point perspectives even are, so i that must mean in on the right track
>>7901103I heard that you can submit your published old work to the Kadokawa World Manga contest?
Making comics = hard
>>7902404I have some suggestions for the face and body. I'd have to find some reference for the cloth to push it further but here's a quick and dirty drawing to show you what I mean
>>7903563Thanks anonI've used the terms basically interchangably
>>7903922I mean yeah you can, granted if you treat that old work like your baby I wouldnt do it, but if its more of an abandoned idea that you think you can polish up yeah fuck it
As I've been playing with trad inking I've started to really dig it. I've even ordered some B4 Deleter manuscript paper to try incorporating it in my manga. For starters I'm thinking of making a oneshot of 15 - 20 pages or so. I never imagined I'd give trad a proper try, but here I am
>>7903768>The fact that you had the time to make this 4chan posts suggests to me that you do indeed have some free timeTrue, but as you said, not all free time is equal. The vent was me at roughly 1 A.M after I already got something done with what remained of my time, but I do see your point. I think it is generally true. Some amount of time wasted comes from me anticipating interruption rather than being interrupted for real too>Mental energy is fickle in that way. You don't gain energy by resting, you gain energy by frequently expending more of it.This is true as well. I hope this isnt taken out of context, but this same concept is why extremist political leaders, cult leaders and other radicals and delusionals keep being succesful. Their understanding of their own sheer vitality, charisma and power being resources that arent spent but increased through their usage like a growing muscle is a big part of what makes their success>>7903793I use both PC and tablet, but I must confess I get quite distracted by what's around me when in public. I also live in a city where you cannot be doing these sorts of things in public, sadly. I've gotten accosted at my local library in the past. Ironically, I can work somewhat freely at work after my shift, but I dont have that much time there before closing
>>7903768but yeah, I'll try jotting down what my time goes towards. I already have a faint idea of what I'll see
Any of you guys in nyc?, need friends that are into making manga
>>7904129I live here but I don't know how willing I am to meet up with people from this site
>>7904057Hey anon, thanks for taking the time to draw your edits, I appreciate it.Regular clothes - I'll add in some of your drapery folds, those make sense.Cape - This would also make sense normally, but I was attempting to communicate that the material for the cape was a bit sturdier/thicker made so I was trying to show less folds. But I'll add in a few more, yeah. Thanks again.
>>7904130That is beyond reasonable lol
>>7904129>nychow do you afford being alive?was it truly necessary to draw Lord Frieza this zesty?
>>7904191Are you going to any upcoming events though?
>>7904129"Ba- , Baka-Monkey uwU"
>>7904057Another idea from a differnt anon: try using CSP’s binarization on your lineart before second pass. It can help push line variation. It does make things a bit rougher though, so it depends on whether you’re okay with that. I’ve come to like that rougher feel over time, so figured it was worth mentioning.
>>7904211Unfortunately I'm one of the two(?) PS users in /mmg/. I do own CSP but I haven't used it for the comic yet, just little silly drawings here and there. How does binarization work?
>>7904251>How does binarization work?It lets you turn a layer into pure black and white by comparing the values to a threshold you set. So if you use this on your line art layer with lines that have anti-aliasing on them, set it to a real low threshold, it's like it shaves away the bits that arent considered pure black by what you set it to. Basically it chaves away at your lines, makes them a bit rougher too, takes off quite a bit from the thinner lines and less from the thickers ones, basically increasing your line variation with the press of a button, which I guess is an unintended use of the function.
>>7904279Ah ok, that makes sense, thanks for the explanation. I don't suppose you have a picture example of a before/after by any chance?
>>7903688>>7903688Im not saying this to ignore your plight, but man I wish I knew you IRL, judging by your skill level and style we prolly aren't that far off in age lol. Amazing work
>>7904129Day job in trades, honestly till recently ive been just shy of homeless lolAnd when was Frieza ever not zesty af lmao
>>7904192 ^^^^^ oops lol
>>7904289dont you cretins have your own containment thread?
>>7904523Don't you have a manga you're not posting?
>>7904616He's either a bot or has no history with this thread>>7904279I feel so fucking stupid I have never used it. After reading this I tested it several times over old pages. I'm using it forever now, thank you
>>7904115As someone who only uses digital now, good.Trad is still the best
Anyone here finished reading Chainsaw Man? What did you guys about the ending? ngl I'm baffled about how Fujimoto wrapped it up. Feels like rushed, but at the same time it leaves a ton of opportunities for fanfic. I kinda want to make an alternate post-ending doujin where my favorite girl wins. >>7904130Why are his pants down lol?
>>7904701Can you show the difference?
>>7904707maybe the real chainsaw man was the friends we made along the way
>>7904523You're in it.>>7904707Been waiting for it to end to read beyond part 1. Guess I'll get around to it at some point.
>>7904739Your mileage may vary but I found my best threshold to be 175, that doesn't crust up the lines too much or highlight any other sketch lines or stuff behind it that shouldn't be showing up in my scans. The reason I decided I liked it was because sometimes I want the lines to be just a hair darker without touching any other settings. I use a .05 milipen for some details and it doesn't hurt for them to stand out a little more.
>>7904830I like it so far, very nice
Polishing an old comic to submit for the clip studio x pixiv contest due Mar31https://www.twitch.tv/efsius1/I added this as the last page because people said the original ending was sad. I want it to be more uplifting/optimistic.
progress, thanks to anon I hopefully improved the whip page and used her reaction to end each page
>>7904926>brown girl being whipped Anon...
>>7904989its seinen
>>7904926Whip hit looked great.
>>7904926Very nice page anon. Good work
>>7905060>>7905011thanks bros
>>7904926fantastic page, you can really feel the whip impact
Uh, since mangadex bend their knees to jews, can I just upload my manga to weebdex?
>>7905127They did?
>>7901409Posting page, I managed to get two in one thread this time
>>7905153Yep, they partnered with Visa and Mastercard >>>/a/286978267
>>7905306Oh so that's why they will no longer be illegally distributing teenage romance
Should I go digital or traditional?
>>7905327Do what you like but I went back to digital after I realized I was going to take more than a week to finish one page, and most of my time was going to trivial stuff like copying and scaling things that would be just a few clicks on a computer.I can draw faster on a pencil than a tablet but only when I don't really care about the quality of the outcome, like when I'm just drafting a storyboard or something.
>>7905327If it was just for lines, I think there's some benefit in traditional. A digital g-pen can never compare to the real thing.But manually cutting and pasting screentones? Na miss me on that shit, digital all the way there.
>>7905256the level of detail you put into the page and the colors is insane, you should print and sell this
>>7905336This, I'm a digital cuck and I can't stop. Most of my time is spent resizing panels, swapping the order of things, or staring at the page making sure the reading flow works. On trad I'd be spending hours of my life erasing when I can just move layers on digital.
>>7905006>seinen>no rape happening in the entire page
>>7905361I'm glad you like it!This whole thief chase scene is a bit of a practice run for me, to get some experience drawing comics.This is what it looked like 15 pages ago, I think I've already come a long way. I think this thief chase episode will be somewhere between 40-60 pages in total, by which point I hope my art will be good enough that when I go back and do the actual chapter 1 of the story, the art will be attractive enough that it catches people's eyes.
>>7905368You say "this is what it looked like" as if its a drop in quality, I think the page layout and colors are still near professional
>>7905369That's reassuring to hear. While it's my first comic, I have been drawing in general for many years. And I spent alot of time observing and analysing other comics/manga in hopes of learning what makes a comic look good/bad
Been away doing commissions. Got back at it today. Just finished the page on the right.
Been slacking lately.
Maybe I overdid the gore a bit
>>7905687
so many cool updates, /mmg/ is.... back?!>>7905688doesnt look like too much to me, looks sick. I think when the insides are dark shadowy essense then you can go all out.
>>7905688Oh no, he called, they answered.
>>7905638You're getting better, I see a lot of subtle improvement in form and posing
>>7905808Don't worry it'll be gone in the inks hehe
Guys i hate csp brush engine for line work, cant use it. I prefer photoshop. But csp has so much quality of life features, speech bubbles, panels, effects and so on. But as i said, i hate the brush engine so much. Is there a way to use photoshop for manga?
>>7905638>mother x daughter actionaiiee, my secret weakness!
>>7905688
>>7905676I like the art, but I'm never a fan of handwritten font. In most cases it's just more tedious to read.>>7905632Looks good, keep it up!>>7906046interesting
>>7906046I've been waiting a long time for this ghost bitch to get what's comin.
>>7906158After two years of fighting
>>7906046the chain in the second panel should be more visible somehow
>>7905676
>>7905256Three pages in one thread? We're on a roll
>>7901409>>7905256>>7905368i fucking hate anime so much
>>7906337Well thank god this is the MANGA Making General you fucking mongoloid
>>7906339that isnt a manga. you knuckle dragging retard
What a retard i am...should have checked properly that this thread was for this topic.First attempt at manga/hentai in my entire life. I'm heavily influenced by Adam Hughes, Kevin Maguire, and Arthur Suydam.
>>7905368After seeing your wips now and then I have to say it feels pretty engaging, the compositions are not bad also. I'm a little befuddled by the setting seeing people in modern clothes after only seeing the protagonist and the thief, but I think this is just due to not having context.Have you done much else before this?
normalfags are consistently mindblown at basic storytelling and think its black magic, it kind of makes me mad.
>>7906387No I've only got these 16 pages so farThe clothes thing is a work in progress. I'm still figuring out the fashion styles.I don't want to draw characters in totally ancient clothing because I think that'd be really boring, but I also don't want to draw them in totally modern clothing because it's not a modern world.It's not an historical setting, it's a fantasy setting. I'm hoping to achieve something along the lines of Naruto, where there's a mix of traditional and modern clothing.
>>7905827Why not just raise the contrast and lower the gamma, then clean up the lines? I always find it funny that digital artists still use the old "pencil/inking phase" workflow when it's completely unnecessary. If your first draw looks good, just polish that up instead of drawing it again.
>>7906525nta, but even in digital, the "pencil" stage is more of a rough sketch, just putting the lines in the right place but without any finese, that comes in the inking stage
>>7906530My point is that you don't HAVE to ink everything. If your sketch turns out to have just the right lines, you can just keep that.Everyone complains about how their inks suck the soul out of their pencils, but in digital this shouldn't be a problem since you can just use the the initial sketch and turn it black.
>>7906487Naruto had a very unique setting based on what i've seen. I think I would consider it moreso "Ninjapunk" than it being set in the past. It's weird cause it's interesting but i've never heard anyone talk much about it, even my (at a point) Naruto obsessed friends.In the most flattering way possible, this feels reminiscent of Megatokyo- The author Fred Gallagher has a background as an architect so there's a special emphasis on his backgrounds that far surpass his other skills. You seem to have most of your house in order in this way so to speak, so all I can say about this is keep practicing!
>>7906638ah I like the sound of "x-punk", that's a good way of thinking about it. I should look at my own work as "greek-punk" or something.I want to have the benefit of being able to draw characters living in a modern world with amenities such as windows, interesting clothes, and well paved streets, but I also want to selectively omit other modern things like cars or telephones. Just a rule of cool approach really.I can definitely relate to your frustration there about the lack of discussion of Naruto's worldbuilding, it really is interesting I think, but I haven't even heard Kishimoto himself once really talk about it.
>>7906646I think you can really see Kishimoto's tastes in architecture in its purest form with Amegakure.He likes tall buildings with lots of pipes and wires everywhere, and large written signs dotted about.
>>7906647Also alot of round buildings. The main building in Konohagakure is very similiar to the main building in Sunagakure.I don't really see any meaningful reason for the Naruto world to be this way. It could have been entirely set in the Tokugawa period. I think Kishimoto just simply likes to draw these things and so he made a manga that features these things.
>>7906651NTA but the same reason half of anything that happens in Naruto happensbecause it looks sweet as fuck
>>7906651Though I do think he lost alot of the quirky modern elements later in the series.In the first episode of the anime, Naruto has an electric kettle. I don't think we really see stuff like that again once it gets going.
>>7906655I think the rule of cool is a valid way to go about things.If what you make doesn't look cool, what's even the point.Unless you're really going for a specific historical setting, I think it's fine if the setting doesn't make perfect sense.I want my greek world story to be cool. Though this kind of thing relies on good visual communication. I don't want to confuse the reader by making them think it's an historical setting, and then have a character in a modern leather jacket run past. Whenever I get to making the actual chapter 1, I'll be sure to communicate the way this world is right from the bat so nobody is confused.
>>7906362>VIP casually assaulting his female bodyguardsSuch a hot concept, but did it really have to be ugly bastard?
What vibe is this giving offI'm pingponging between soccer mom and raging lesbian
Were pre-2000s era mangakas just built differently in terms of sheer skill or did they just work harder? It's incredible to think we had Akira Toriyama, Katsuhiro Otomo, Tetsuo Hara, Hirohiko Araki, Kazushi Hagiwara, Kentaro Miura and Hiroaki Samura all being active and pushing some of the best pages the medium has to offer in terms of both overall draftmanship and art direction in the span of just 15/20 years within popular manga.Nearly no shounen artist whom was published after 2010 is on par with them, and even if the author has high tier art fundamentals they're usually weakened by piss-poor character designs (Dandadan is guilty of this) and/or lack of strong art direction (Chainsaw Man and JJK are good at this but Fujimoto and Gege aren't technically strong artists, Kagurabachi fails at all 3 the requirements I just proposed)
>>7906742>Were pre-2000s era mangakas just built differently in terms of sheer skill or did they just work harder?The bad artists were forgotten, and styles that were considered in vogue have since changed.
>>7906745But that still requires good artists to exist at allWhere are they now
>>7906798skilled artists are a liability, studios have 30 years to optimize the manga making process and they realized people like araki are too risky of an asset. Investors dont want Michael Jacksons, they want Taylor Swifts.
>>7906525>>7906624I've spent so, so much time thinking about why I don't do exact this. And I've tried it a bunch of times.The answer is that it's a mindset thing. If those were going to be the final lines, they wouldn't look like that. I'm a lot looser and more gestural when the lines aren't commital, like in a sketch. Regardless of which brush I use for the final lines, the result is the same.
>>7906742This post is retarded every time. If DanDaDan came out 20 years ago you'd be bawing about how nobody can draw like that anymore.You just ignore the present good shit because all the gold of previous decades has already been found. It's easier to find them, that doesn't mean there was more gold back then.
2 pages done
>>7906831
>>7906834had to crop due to limitations
AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH I gotta get to inking as quick as possible, but I still have like 6 pages of sketch to do as well AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH(luckily inking in trad is surprisingly fast, since I cant hit undo)
>>7906742In the 80s, manga was less commercialized. Artists still had more freedom to draw what they wanted. It's the same like videogames and movies. Movies are also not the same anymore.
>>7906808>but if uh...Not an argument, pure speculation to support your unsupported stance. Again, WHERE is this good shit from today? Who?The "Gold" from previous generations were not "found", they were never hidden, they were the top of the charts and top of the pack. The top of the charts today are absolute trash in comparison. So are you implying there is some hidden master in the back of some obscure bi-annual comiket doujin anthology that we are simply not aware of right now that will become known as one of the greats next generation? And you surely have some evidence of this?
>>7906897>And you surely have some evidence of this?Of course not, because>If my assumption is not true, my entire argument and worldview evaporates into mistThey operate like modern scientists, everything must support their predetermined conclusions and ready-made models even if they have to twist the observable data into balloon animals with tape and glue to make it fit
>>7906897>Again, WHERE is this good shit from today? Who?To name a few standouts:Kyoutarou AzumaKamome ShirahamaHiroMatsubara ToshimitsuAkira Hiramoto>The "Gold" from previous generations were not "found", they were never hidden,They were precisely as hidden back then as the good works of the current day are. If you looked, you'd find them. You're clearly not looking. Read more manga.
>>7906836You gotta clean your art style up man. It would look 10 times better if you just had clean lines and cleaner colors.
>>7906905Hiramoto is the only one on that list that is above mediocre, and that's just barely. Fucking dire.
>>7906912Your brain has wrong wrong.
>>7906914Why are you taking it so personally? Current artists have yet to reach the level of their predecessors, it's a simple observable fact.
>>7906897nigga, get back to drawing
>>7906842looks sick, but I dont recognize it
>>7906742>Chainsaw Man and JJKSomething about the art style for those two intrinsically repulses me at some base level, much like One Piece does. I literally cannot read the comic, even if you paid me money, it's that personally repulsive to me. They very well might have good stories, but I would rather read the entirety of the One Punch webcomic in all its pre-/beg/ "glory" in a single run than even one chapter of Chainsaw Man or JJK.
>>7906905>search the names of these manga artists>see a link to Takehiko Inoue>see his latest photo on wikipediaDamn he loos old as fuck now. He literally used to be the best looking manga artist. Now he looks totally different... Time fliees...
>>7906046
Would every manga be much better if they don't have ecchi, fanservice, and se*ual tension?
>>7907053No.In fact, more should have them.
>>7906046>>7906998Man I just want you to know,this fucks.
>>7907053Many manga in fact would be worse.
>>7906742JJK and Fujimoto rose up in popularity because their quick sketchy art and fast paced storytelling was refreshing compared to the slow paced heavily rendered super clean Manga that came before it. It's simply a matter of taste. In music think of it as grunge rising up in response to overproduced super technical hair metal and rock that was popular the generation before it.
another day another dime another rhyme another dollar another stuffed shirt with another white collar
>>7907053yes
>>7901095How much do you guys agree with this?>https://x.com/ikejiri_biz/status/2036363607466975240I end up getting way too absorbed in it.Content that makes you desperate to know what happens next—so much that you can’t sleep—keeps pouring out of Weekly Shonen Jump.Every single work has a powerful, distinct personality.So at first glance, you think, “Only geniuses could create something like this.”But when you actually analyze it, there’s a deliberate “mechanism” that the writers and editors intentionally build in behind the scenes.What exactly lies on the other side of content that pulls you in so deeply?1. “Structuring” through reader questionnairesWeekly Shonen Jump takes reader questionnaires extremely seriously.Writers and editors constantly receive feedback:“What do the readers actually want?”Every week, they refine the story based on the latest poll results.They repeatedly improve the work while watching real market reactions.It’s even harsher than that:Popularity poll rankings directly affect whether a series continues, what position it gets in the magazine, and even how many pages it receives.So the creators run a high-pressure PDCA cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act).In the worst case, the series gets canceled.There’s even a rule of thumb: if it hasn’t caught on by around the 10th chapter (10th week), it’s usually axed.It’s severe and cruel… but it has one huge positive effect:You can cut your losses early.The magazine and the creators can quickly move on to the next challenge.They don’t cling to failures—they can keep producing new series until something hits.This built-in metabolism (constant turnover) is exactly what supports the “mechanism” that creates hits.
>>79076912. Designing both “empathy” and “aspiration” into the same characterOf course, the stories themselves are packed with techniques to pull readers in.One of the biggest is the coexistence of empathy and aspiration.A protagonist who’s perfect is boring.A protagonist who’s only weak is also boring.When you break down the protagonists of hit series, you always find both:Empathy-inducing weakness (complexes, anxiety, ordinariness) Aspirational strength (talent, grit, willpower, love, action)Take Tanjiro from Demon Slayer.He’s too kind—his personality isn’t rational at all. That feels like the “weakness” anyone can relate to. But when it really matters, that same kindness turns into insane action power.That is the coolness we admire. People fall in love with characters who possess both weakness and strength.We empathize with them, cheer for them, and respect their growth.True emotional immersion isn’t created by strength alone.3. Clear, easy-to-understand goalsJump’s hit series all share one trait: the content is clear and easy to grasp. The editorial team emphasizes that they never want to waste the reader’s “time” or “effort.”Examples: One Piece Become the Pirate King. Demon Slayer Restore my sister and defeat the demons. Spy × Family End the East-West cold war. Assassination Classroom The students must assassinate their teacher.You can summarize the entire series in a single sentence.Because it’s so clear, you immediately think, “I want to read this.”Clear goals also prevent readers from getting lost halfway through.You get the satisfying feeling of “moving forward together with the protagonist.”This is what psychologists call the progress effect—simply feeling that you’re making progress becomes pleasurable in itself.Clarity prevents drop-off and creates deep immersion.
>>79076924. Massive change within a single chapterMost hit works focus on maximizing the amount of change inside one chapter.For example, the very first chapter of Jujutsu Kaisen:Ordinary high-schooler Yuji Itadori swallows a finger Sukuna awakens He’s saved by Fushiguro He receives a death sentence. His status completely flips from “normal person” to “vessel of a special-grade cursed object / death-row inmate.”The situation at the beginning and end of the chapter is 180 degrees different.The bigger the change, the stronger the reader’s satisfaction:“It was worth spending time on this.”Creating a clear “before vs. after” gap maximizes the reader’s sense of fulfillment.5. The sweet spot between “unknown” and “classic”In an interview, the Jump+ editorial team said something like:“Something too new that readers can’t understand at all won’t sell. But if everything is too easy to understand, it gets boring. There has to be just the right balance.”This is exactly cognitive science’s “optimal complexity” theory.Readers are pulled into an “unknown world” through “familiar emotions.” Slam Dunk: Brand-new basketball manga (unknown) + the classic story of a delinquent getting serious and growing. Demon Slayer: Classic elements (family bonds, master-disciple relationships, battles) + fresh twists (Taisho-era setting, making you empathize with demons).Classic patterns + unknown elements maximum “I want to know more” curiosity.Too many clichés = boring.Too much novelty = confusing.The perfect balance maximizes curiosity.
>>79076936. “Hooks” that release dopamineBecause it’s a weekly series, the ending of every chapter is critical.They deliberately betray expectations to create that “I need to know what happens next!” feeling for the next issue.This “hook at the end of every chapter” is actually the device that creates immersion.It’s called reward prediction error in the brain.When something exceeds your prediction, dopamine is released.Being surprised becomes pleasure, so you crave the next surprise.You can’t let each chapter end too neatly.The more cleverly you craft the ending to make readers want the continuation, the more they get hooked.I’ve analyzed it pretty arrogantly here.But in reality, the writers and editors are layering on countless “ingenious tricks for making something interesting” that I can’t even imagine.That’s why they can achieve insane numbers: One Piece 500 million+ copies Dragon Ball 260 million+ Demon Slayer 200 million+ Slam Dunk 180 million+ KochiKame 150 million+ Jujutsu Kaisen 150 million+Some of the mechanisms proven through that effort can be used in our own content creation and business.The elements I introduced here: High-speed PDCA based on real market feedback Character design that balances weakness and strength Clear, easy-to-understand goals Stories with massive change The optimal balance of unknown + classic Dopamine-releasing “hooks”These are all proven factors that attract people and create deep immersion.The next time you read a manga, try this while enjoying it:“Why exactly am I so obsessed right now?”The moment you can even slightly objectify that psychology, it becomes a powerful weapon for your own content creation and marketing.Only those who put real effort into delivery can make users truly hooked.(End)
>>7907617>their quick sketchy art and fast paced storytelling was refreshing compared to the slow paced heavily rendered super clean Manga that came before itWere there ever that many post-2000 weekly Jump manga that had art like this besides a few like Eyeshield 21, D. Gray-Man, MHA and to a lesser degree Death Note? The big 3 were on average drawn very loosely ouside of cherry picked double page spreads, and Demon Slayer was barely a notch above CSM visually speaking
>>7907691What are you even asking? Do I agree with what? These posts just describe how the manga industry works. I don't work there so I'll just take their word for it.
>>7907691>>7907692>>7907693>>7907694AI slop
>>7907695Naruto and Bleach were never drawn tgat loosely or inked sketchily. Imo Isayama was the main who who originated the new style of loose and sketchy with more emphasis on good writing and pacing.
>>7906836>>7906908Don't listen to him, this looks awesome. Clearly intentional schizo art style
>>7907053What manga?
>>7907927>Naruto and Bleach were never drawn that loosely or inked sketchilyStill, even if Bleach had cleaner lines than JJK I absolutely wouldn't call the former heavily rendered at all, if anything one of the main appeals of Kubo's style is the intentional minimalism
>>7907786it looks more like japanese translated into english, not AI.well its ai translated off twitter probably, but you know what I mean
>>7908058my weakest type of panel is the large panel with a closeup of a head. It takes me just as long to draw that single detailed head as it does an entire page, so I avoid it. Its like I don't want to spend double or triple the time on a page because of one panel
>>7908114Drawing close-ups of heads/faces is usually considered a cheat panel because it is so easy. That's why it is so discouraged or usually seen as a negative when every page is just a few closeups of a head/face at only slightly varying angles.
>>7908117It does feel the most boring when its not a reaction panel
>>7908113It features all the telltale signs of AI.The bullet pointing, the excessive use of words in quotations, the lack of pronouns (ie repeatedly using the noun rather than a word in favour of the noun), the equally sized paragraphs for each point.The oddly specific references to technical things that aren't really relevant.The excessive use of example lists.Robotic referencing back to what was only said a few paragraphs ago.But most damning is the em dash. Twitter does not feature em dashes.This is entirely ChatGPT
If i make manga about zombies, do i have to come up with a new name instead of using "zombie"? Whats the point?
7 month, 60 page difference. Am I getting better lads?
>>7908143Not seeing much difference, but that's normal. Progress is measured over years, and hundreds of pages. 60 pages isn't all that many to gauge improvement with.
>>7908146That's fair. Just need to work harder/longer, good to know I've not regressed.
>>7908152>Just need to work harder/longerNTA but that's not how art works. Hard work is a sign of incompetence. You don't have to work hard, you have to work smart.
>>7908143Definitely, lots of improvement, the faces look way better, and the compositions are more dynamic, keep at it man
>>7908163>Hard work is a sign of incompetenceI do need put in more hours per day though. Got a horrible addiction to youtube and ff14 and I need to kick it...I probally only do 1 hour of work a day and I hate it.>you have to work smart.Out of interest, what does that mean to you?
>>7908128you don't. Why did you think that you have to?
>>7908163>Hard work is a sign of incompetence. You don't have to work hard, you have to work smart.This is a silly thing to say. Working hard and working smart are not mutually exclusive, and guess what, both is needed.
>>7908173Most people do.
>>7908177Nicely drawn, but why all the black space? Just a cropping fail?
No bro! It’s because the file size is too big to be uploaded properly. These are screen shots on my iPadI’ve tried everything and the images are always still to big despite looking like shit with 3 pixels, I’m looking for other methods to upload these pages
>>7908188If you weren't using flat grays there then you could just export it as a monochrome png, which is very efficient and lossless.Otherwise, exporting as a jpg will be your best bet for filesize.When you screenshot like that you're just using whatever the default filetype for the screenshot is which is likely not a very efficient option for what you're screenshoting. Also, the image dimensions here (2732x2048) is absolute overkill for just posting online, and exporting the image gives you control over the size of the image.
>>7908163>Hard work is a sign of incompetence.Ok, I need to see your artwork.
Yea I decided I wanted to try starting a comic at night and figured it would look cool with varying gradients. Ive tried converting to jpeg still too bigSo far this is the only way to post them on 4chan for now, even image compressors didn’t help! They came out like shit and we’re still 700MB
>>7908198You shouldn't be "converting" anything to any filetype at any point here. Does your drawing program not have an "export" button? Most drawing programs do, because being able to take the work file and make a standard, easily distributed image file from it without losing the original work file is a pretty essential function.
>>7908198This looks really great! I hope you stick around and become a regular for us here!But I must complain about the gradients. They look terrible when they're so digitally smooth. Compare them with the other area of ground you've done here that has more texture, it looks much better. You don't have to mimic traditional media, but you should avoid such a sanitsed look when it comes to gradients. At the very least you should paint them with a slightly sloppier look so they aren't a perfect gradient. Go for a natural look and shows the artists hand.
As a beginner should I sketch ahead? That is to say, should I do the sketches for the next like 20, 30 pages while I have them in my head and have the motivation to draw them and then later render them all when I'm not feeling quite as artisically inspired?I find I learn something new with each page, and that changes how I draw the next page. Art wise, not story wise. I worry if I sketch like 20 pages ahead, they'll all be pages for my current skill level, whereas if I only sketch 1 page, and then render that 1 page, the next page will be better.But at the same time, I could get a lot more work done if I draw 20 pages ahead and then render when I don't feel like sketching, because rendering is just busy work.
>>7908217Yes, sketch ahead. It's standard practice. If there's anything you realize you want to change, better that you didn't go through all the work of inking it yet.>I worry if I sketch like 20 pages ahead, they'll all be pages for my current skill levelTrust me man, that isn't an issue. Improvement is gradual. 20 pages is nothing on the scale of work needed to feel major improvement, at least beyond your first hundred or so pages. It just isn't a problem, nor is it something you need to worry about.
It is my first time doing a digital comic so I’ve been really experimenting so I feel consistency has not been achieved yet or ultimate method to shade and colorI have been enjoying background creation a lot also!
>>7906742its soul, soul was just different back then
>>7908219It's well drawn, but it probably would be benifical if you picked between using tones or using flat grays and just stuck with one for the whole thing. Mixing them just takes the worst of both worlds without the benefits.
It’s definitely a mix! I’ve been trying to see what can work together and what doesn’tI find it hard to choose! I enjoy using gradients but sometimes they don’t look “grainny” or “textured” enough
>>7907486Glad you liked it
>>7908313I'm getting huge Baki vibes. It's the huge chunky hands and feet lol
>>7908217Yeah. You should. For my current project, I sketched out 11 pages of story in 8 days.I then went back and started working on the first page. Well... I've already spent more than a week on just that one page. Clearly I have a lot to refine about my methods... but if I didn't know where the story is going I probably would have given up already. I just gotta push ahead and learn to get faster while I go along I guess. Need more practice in doing finished stuff so might as well practice with this one.In any case even if the stuff you produce isn't great, just doing sketchy comic outlines is probably better practice for storytelling than trying to do finished stuff straight away, because you'll just get so much more of it done. Once you've done a dozen pages or so, you can usually already tell if there's potential in the story or not, and whether it's worth finalizing it.
>>7907641Awesome work. Girl on the left in panel one’s head is slightly bigger than left. Looking forward to some pubes and incest.
>>7908373>Girl on the left in panel one’s head is slightly bigger than left.Oh, good catch. I hadn't noticed.
>>7901401I feel you concept design is actually quite hard
>>7901401I agree with the other anon. The necks are far too thick for a woman
>>7908128Writers not wanting to call them zombies is early 2000s hollywood marketing bullshit. The zombie genre was a dead meme and creators who wanted to make zombie movies had to convince companies their movies wouldn't bomb. So you would hear them all say "It's not exactly a zombie movie." Don't fall for that bullshit. calling them anything but zombies is embarrassing. also watch romero's of the dead trilogy before writing any zombie story. His are the only truly great zombie media.
I don’t think I’ll be using flat greys anymore but now I don’t know how I’ll convey darker skinned characters, anyone here ever draw a black character in a dark setting?
>>7908737i mean, it's either flat greys or screentone. Doent have to be the dots, can also be one of those noise tones they also use for expressing fabric and stuff like that
I got the file sizes down so this is awesome! Except this one DPspread! So it’s a screenshot
>>7908840Looks good, no loss of detail with the compression at all.Is this the actual page 1? Or are you doing the thing where the title doesn't reveal until a few pages in?
Yea there’s a few pages missing I figured it would be nice to take my time with an intro
How do i keep location and background consistent?Is there a low tech solution for it?
>>7908997Copy and paste?Layouts with ref photos/blender?Apart from that... just practice. Get better by trying to do it. You learn to run faster by running.
>>7909002>Copy and paste?But i need to turn it.Refs, maybe. But my setting is mostly fictional, post-apocalyptic. How do the pros do that, do they really photobash shit together, like concept monkeys for games?I tried blender, i hate to work with it, feels like an office job.
>>7909003If you need ref, then you make ref. However you choose to make refs is fine.If you don't want to make refs, then find refs. If you can't find refs, then get good at drawing backgrounds without refs.These are your options. If you're hoping for a secret third option then I'm afraid you won't find one.
>>7908737I'm also something of a gradient abuser lolThe majority of my scenes take place at night or in the dark. What I learned was that it's not only easier, but a lot faster to rely on an interpretation than to tone everything literally. You can give the reader context by establishing the scene semi often as a way of saying "It's night time" or "It's a dark place" and they will carry that way through while reading it (as opposed to re-establishing the context every panel). It looks like you already have an idea of this concept, it's not a bad thing to keep in your back pocket.I tend to save heavy shadows for scenes with a lot of gravity. I think the shading in this looks nice but I hope it helps to point this out if it starts overwhelming you. Maybe I will make something to show what I mean in detail.
>>7908997What do you mean? You mean drawing the same background more than once and trying to keep it looking the same?Depending on how many times you plan to draw it, make a reference sheet of it like pic related, showing where everything goes, proportions, etc. And be sure to stick to the model.This applies to characters too, there's a reason it's used in the animation industry and I wouldn't be surprised if it's used in comics also.
>>7909014
>>7909015
I am a HUGE apple fritter fan yesAnd I have noticed that technique in many manga, it’s been really fun playing with black and darker tones throughout so far I’ve been trying to see how I can interpret things in darkness, by the time I’m done I figure it looks good enough to move on to the next page!
>>7909021Aha, clocked ya. I think it's pretty interesting when someone chooses a style that others don't find conventional. I think eventually when you go your own way with an unconventional inspiration, you can easily create something unique. Looking forward to seeing what else you can come up with.
>>7908997A good thing to remember is... they don't keep backgrounds consistent even in movies. Where they literally have physical locations and props. They keep moving things around to compose that perfect shot.Don't worry about it.
That said, if you want to get autismal about it, there's no shame in using references. Even Hergé did it. Can you believe it, 3D models are older than Blender.
someone asked for an eagle for good money and I can't help but make it look like a comic book page lol
>>7909307
feel like ive posted the same two pages for a year because i keep redoing them
Ive been excited to share here for a long timeIt’s been fun drawing it all I’m excited to see how the style will evolve as well! This eagle is nice,water color is vibrant and birb angles excellent
>>7909387Nice artwork but DAMN those are some tiny speech bubbles. Whatever's in them is gonna need a magnifying glass to read once the page is released in a standard format, unless you're going to be printing it fuckhueg.
>>7909577There are only a few words on this page, i think it should be okay. Hopefully this shows scale better
Probably the hardest pose I've tried to draw to date.
Did the last 2 pages here today. one panel left unfinished though.>>7909779great stuff from you throughout the whole thread.
Gonna have the next batch of about 30 pages up around the weekend(probably by the time theres a new thread)
>>7908303
>>7909779Looks kinda wonky to me. Her hips look kinda small and like they're not really positioned right, and her right leg looks small and positioned oddly. Also feels like there's really no weight to her, and that position would be uncomfortable for the dude with her essentially digging her knee into the area between is lower stomach and pelvis.
>>7909870I know, I tried for ages to try and fix all that but gave up. I'm just not good enough to pull this pose off without problems. It's a much more difficult pose than it seems.
>>7909855I've also taken some of the feedback from the previous thread and rewrote my power system to be simpler. I was able to remove 2 pages by cutting the fat, and removing redundant explanations.Many warned me that my original system would take focus away from the story. I was resistant to this idea at first. I can say balancing both is possible, but doing it is another thing entirely. I think now, things are well defined, but are simple enough to not need more than a couple paraphrased dialogue lines to explain. you shouldn't require any of that knowledge to follow the action. I'm putting more focus on unique character powers, and the spells instead of weird sudo-science energy mixing nonsense.
Almost done drawing my 45 page storyboard
>The van Hellsing clan have long been embroiled in a war with the rulers of the night, the Vampires. Some generations back, the vampires struck down all the mighty men of the land, leaving only puny men alive. As a result all the men of Romania are now twinks!!!>The last remaining van Hellsing with just an ounce of manly courage left in him now challenges the strongest of the vampires, the one progenitor above them all, to a final stand. But there is one issue: The vampiress he is about to face has gone with the times and has reinvented herself as a modern Gyaru, his one glaring weakness!!!>Will he save mankind from the vampires evil feeding practices, or will he fall to the vampiress's maneating cunt?Initial idea for /dad/ 's smut comic challenge. Thoughts?
the first panel of tits in my porn comic, 40 pages in, story creep is real. like i actually have no idea how doujinshi artists do it. keeping to like a concise 24 page edition is impressive.
>>7910286>/dad/'s smut comic challengeI'm not familiar with this, do tell
>>7910315Any socials where I can see your stuff?
>>7906798>But that still requires good artists to exist at all>Where are they nowdue to worse economic conditions they cant afford the assistants to keep up with weekly schedules so they are either in monthly releases or in perpetual hiatuses with basically bi-weekly release schedules
>>7908188>the way the feet and hands are drawnare you a fan of baki by any chance? not implying there's anything wrong with them but the very "meaty" look reminded me
>>7909871You aren't kidding.Foreshortening the legs helps but you lose the shot of her tits, and crossing her legs more helps but then you lose shot of her cunt and the other chicks hand. you've drawn yourself into a pickle. very interested to see if you come up with a better solution.>>7910340nope, i just post here occassionally.
>>7910378>you've drawn yourself into a pickle. very interested to see if you come up with a better solution.Lol, I don't think I will. I'm just gonna rock the drawing with messed up proportions. Gotta pick yo battles on this bitch of an earth.Or maybe I'll ink it and it'll like so bad that I can't bear the thought of printingit and I'll just kill myself on it for days for it to come out only slightly better than where it started.
>>7910315You could just start with this page, I doubt your readers are gonna miss the 40 other ones
Any anons considering making a visual novel first?
>>7910429It won't be less work, if thats what you're wondering. However it can be more dynamic and if you feel better drawing environments, scenes and backgrounds, then it can actually be easier. I hate coloring and drawing backgrounds so a VN is out of the question for me.
7 Chapters in to the comic I started last year. Not much really, but it's the longest I've ever committed to one project which is cool. Although my drawings have I think gotten more rushed as it's gone along.Can I ask, where do you guys promote/share your comics? Does anyone publish them? I spend so much time drawing them that I might as well start trying to spread them around, but idk how to get started. Thinking of getting some printed and looking around for local/indie book stores, or comic book shops and seeing if I can just leave some around, and link my website n socials on the back. (https://greasequeen.com/2026/03/09/gold-split-chapter-7/) >>7910286so ridiculous it's fun. the last hellsing should also be a twink though and maybe the vampiress should be a twink>>7910315she looks attractive in your art style, nice. I'm having a little trouble reading the text though, is it all gonna be typed or half handwritten?>>7909387really good. don't redo them again, make more!
>>7910315Rape?I love rape.
>>7910435>speedrunners that get trapped inside their gamethis sounds like pure soul, I will give it a read tomorrow but just from that picture I think theres a lot you can improve going forward that isn't realted to art style (I think yours is good enough to tell the story). Things like panel layout, size of the subjects in the panel, word flow, etc. If that stuff is not excellent, then that's the biggest hurdle that will stop people from reading when they see it.
>>7910445actually I just started reading a bit and its much better formatted than that page you posted.
>>7910445>>7910446haha, I'm glad you liked the premise. Definitely continually trying to up my paneling, I'm def inconsistent with it since when I'm storyboarding some scenes easily come to me, and some I get stuck trying to work out how to make clear on the page. Thanks for checking it out!
>>7910435I really like this! It's exciting and approachable. I haven't read through it properly to judge the writing but the premise looks interesting.But the art could be better.For the tone of this series, the art needs to be dynamic. The character's designs are dynamic but the overall art is not playing to that as well as it could.Pic related is Outlaw Star. You can tell just by looking at the art style that this is balls to the wall, this is action, this is cool.Art direction aside, there are some more general things that can apply to any art style.I think the tones are too grey, it doesn't feel like there's much strong lighting but rather things are just coloured grey, if that makes any sense.I think the lines are too thin and wispy, particularly in the various speed lines and hatching. I think you could get away with something more bold.And personally, I like comics designed to be read in tankobon format, I think it's nicer proportions wise, but this feels like it's designed to be read at floppy size, that is to say, there's lots of panels and the drawings are small relative to the page. But that's just my taste.
>>7910435>>7910477With the art style thing, maybe another way to argue my thoughts is through music.It's like you're playing rock or metal... but you've got a fiddle or a banjo, when what you really need is an electric guitar.
>>7910477>>7910480hm, it's kind of hard to articulate but I do see what you're saying about the style when I look at smth like what you posted and compare. It's a little plain and i'll see if I can try and pack more impact into the panels. Tones are definitely something I struggle with yeah, originally I was thinking about making it just entirely black and white but found it difficult to break up the page. Probably will experiment with some more bold lines too. It is made for more of a taller floppy size, mainly because I had been reading Nausicaa at the time and really enjoyed how that felt, though I like tankobon style comics a lot too. They're definitely better for reading digitally also, which was kind of an oversight on my part since mine are currently all online. Thanks for the feedback!
>>7910484Do be careful not to fall to the opposite extreme when making bolder lines though. If you make them too bold it tends to look amatuerish. Find the perfect middle ground where they look pro.About the lighting thing, it's very hard to explain in a few words.I think it's about mindset. A mindset about making things look "real"Look at this comparison of two drawings of a church, they're both more or less the same picture, but one feels far more impactful and "real" than the other.When you colour the walls of the church maybe you think "the building is red so I'll draw it red" and then you add the shadows with a 40% multiply layer or something because that indicates shadow. But that's not real.If you saw a photo of a real church it wouldn't look like your drawing, the "red" would not be red at all, either in the light or in the shadow... but you would look at the church and its red colour would be immediately obvious to you. Or another example is a forest of trees, trees are green right? and their trunks are brown? But actually look at a forest and you'll see a huge variety of colours, and if the forest is in the distance, the atmosphere causes the whole thing to be not green at all but blue! But even when it's blue you still recognize it as a green tree. Our eyes just get it.
>>7910492contI know I'm talking alot about colours here, but this applies to black and white as well.Look at this Batman drawing. It's obvious that the artist drew Batman with his reference sheet colours, and then applies the lighting afterwards with layers. But it doesn't look like real lighting. We understand it is a sunset lighting, but it's more of a symbol or represenation of sunset lighting rather than actually sunset lighting, It's not "real".The rim lighting on the top of his head is totally wrong, it looks like he's got mud on him. I've made this blunder myself when I try adding an overlay layer of orange onto blue, it doesn't play nice in digital. This could have been avoided if the artist took a step back and just look at what he had drawn and asked "is the lighting convincing? does it feel like real light?"It really is a feel thing. Slap down a colour or a shade, and just tweak it until it feels real. Don't rely on the logic of "I added orange on an overlay layer so that's lighting". Make it real!I'll try to get some manga examples
>>7910496Looking at the bottom panel in this one I think is a good showcase of this realistic approach to the lighting.Almost certainly the books a certain colour, and the door another, and the cardbox another... but that has all been rendered secondary to the lighting of the scene, and the result is a very convincing lighting arrangement.
>>7910499Of course, there is also the storytelling function of the lighting, like making a face darker for dramatic effect, but you clearly already know how to do that.I think this theory applies well to backgrounds mostly.There is also the need to consider the efficiency of drawing, you can't make every panel a painted masterpiece, often you only have 1-2 shades to work with, so you have to consider that also.
I really need to fucking nail this character design down, I've been working on her on and off for a month.Does /mmg/ have a preference?
>>7910370Names?
Gnome
