/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

>>7086274
Some 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 http://www.antarctic-press.com/html/submissions.php 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 sites

Iconic 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

>>7086275
Other 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/faq

Top 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/

>>7086277
Current Contests:

Zenon Magazine:
https://comic-zenon.com/article/entry/2023/05/09/132801

Magic international manga contest: https://www.shibuya-productions.com/en/magic/magic-international-manga-contest.html,73

4-koma Contest:
https://kitakyushu-mangataisho.com/en/

Mangano:
https://manga-no.com/mangano_award_1st#rules

/mmg/'s very own anon-led anthology: /ic/onography
https://discord.gg/QYnFBves7V
https://forms.gle/d3a2Cwwd44sJYyqv9

Additional community added Resources:
Mangafonts: https://mangafonts.carrd.co/
Hiro Mashima YT: https://www.youtube.com/@mashimaCh/videos

How (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.
> Have a link / DL for a mentioned resource? TAG THE OP and mention what you're supplying a link for.
> SCREENSHOT / PASTEBIN effortposts that help you for posterity.

How do you type furigana besides kanji in Photoshop?

>>7086310
Do either of these links assist you?

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/asian-type.html

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/does-anyone-know-how-to-add-kana-symbols-in-japanese-text/td-p/8914358

How do I come up with character designs that will age gracefully and not look outdated some years/decades down the line?

>>7086389
you can't, culture is always evolving

So how do most mangaka do backgrounds?

A lot of backgrounds seem kind of daunting to me? Is all of it hand drawn or to they use photos and shit and trace them?

Also what's an affordable scanner that I can get for my comics? I'm kind of a trad guy. I know a B2 scanner is kind of out of the question.

>>7085982
>You can see what you're lacking on your own by looking at the winning entries and using your head
I was arguing this earlier, and I still disagree. If I try and clear my mind of rational thought, I can see why some of the entries were placed higher than others, but that doesn't account for the other 60%.
The only explanation I can think of, is they have a woman doing the judging. I'm not even trying to be sexist, I'm trying to find a reasonable explanation as to why I can't understand.

>>7086409
Depends on the mangaka. Some take photos and convert them into lineart via CSP or the like, others manually draw, some use 3d models, etc. Keep in mind that many higher tier mangakas have dedicated teams assisting them, they are not manually doing every single last little thing.

>>7086414
Women? Lol what? Don't they list all the mangakas acting as judges and aren't they all guys? Regardless, at some point they have to make a decision and and it's entirely possible for some they might just have their gut saying fuck it all, I like entry #4 better over entry #2, both are about the same but I am just leaning towards #4, etc. I think you're thinking way too hard on this.

>>7086414
What? Is it that unbelievable that some people have a different opinion than you?

>>7086419
So if I'm going solo it would probably be a good idea to convert photos to lineart using cps?

>>7086464
>>7086464
Anon, I can't tell you what or how you should do it. At the end of the day all of us here on /mmg/ are just fellow solo artists (as far as I am aware, I don't think anyone here has specifically mentioned being a group) and we all do different things to try to get to the effect we like. If you want detailed lineart that you converted/extracted from a photo and you're fine with that, then you're fine with that. If you want to pose some 3d objects and then use that lineart for your background, more power to you.

Personally, I just draw all my own backgrounds simply because I like being able to draw every single last piece of my work even if it isn't as precise and takes more time than some of the other methods. I don't begrudge anyone else for doing what they did, I just do me.

>>7086461
There is difference of opinion, and then there are some things that are objective anon. If you subscribe to the modern art ideology, then we just wont ever agree

>>7086409
>Also what's an affordable scanner that
Plustek ultraslim 1180

>>7086414
yeah that's right every contest you don't win its because there is a woman there, so you are better of not participating or drawing comics at all

>>7086389
What do you even mean by outdated? Kenshiro will never not be cool.

>>7086464
The only reason anyone uses 3d/photos is to save time. If you're not a pro with strict deadlines then you're wasting time by not practising composition and perspective.

>>7086666
You stole my get you son of a bitch

>>7086652
I don't participate in contests anon, I just like to read and make manga

>>7086666
Quads of truth.

>>7086673
so if you don't even participate you have no experience in the contest then, there are thousands of other retards who read and draw manga just like you, it doesn't mean that's something that makes people qualified for judging. I'll trust more in the people who are in the industry than the random 4chan anon

>>7086409
The assistants draw the backgrounds.

Does having sexually attractive female characters in a serious story do more harm than good?
I’m in dilemma whether to make my FeMC sexually appealing with ample bosom/
absolute cleavage/killer legs/etc. or to just make her modest.
I love drawing sexy girls, but I’m afraid it might turn the readers off as my story doesn’t have any sexual undertones at all.
Some context about my work:
>Genre: Fantasy, action.
>Main theme: Post-generational transition from “traditional magic system” to “modern magic system” and its conflict, set in fictional medieval Asia.
>FeMC is one of the predominant “modern mage”.
>She is the leader of the empire defense force protecting the current system against rebels of mostly “traditional mages” that were against the new order.
>Always have rather sly smile on her face.
>Very ambiguous, never tell what really is on her mind.
>Has enough prowess to even outmatch a stronger renowned “traditional mage”.

>>7086788
Does it bother you to have a sexy character?
That's really the only question you need to answer.
You are the one that will have to live with your decision one way or the other. Go towards what you love doing.

>>7086788
There must be something on /mmg/ that attracts magical girl enthusiasts.
>AECAST
Mage girls protecting the city from demons.
>Altarusia
Church girl vs evil spirits
>Oi
Magical psychedelic girls protect their village.

There is Wings of Draera too, but it's a magical shota trying to score an onee-san.

>>7086409
Depends on the author, but many pay assistants to draw backgrounds. This is not a silver bullet, however. The author still needs to be able to communicate clearly with the assistants what they want, which typically means sketching and giving ref. Plus to even get to the point where they can afford to pay assistants means doing it all yourself for a long time.
So in the end, you just have to nut up and do it.

>>7086464
Only if you're going for super realistic stuff and can't do it any other way. Otherwise, do it the hard way. You'll be glad you did in the future. Or, y'know, just do whatever you enjoy doing.

>>7086487
I don't get you. The feedback anon got WAS pretty objective. "You did this well, here's what you should do for your next entry".
Is it not objective because he didn't win? Is that it? Because that's delusional. It didn't win because the winners were better. The judges have read much, much, much more manga than you have, have all been viewing and critiquing manga for as long as you've been alive and are pretty much the best people to make these judgements, objectively speaking. What's more likely, you are wrong, or they are?

>>7086815
I think it's just typical 4channer taste: "I want to see cute girls doing x" etc. Maybe I'm wrong though.

>>7086788
when you're designing a main character make sure it's something you want to draw over and over
so if you're going to be more consistent and have a more fun time with big tits then do that
anyone turned off by the mere existence of titties is a creepy weirdo anyways, who cares what they think

>>7086788
Surely there is an in between anon?
Maybe not Z cups? I dunno.

>>7086666
I almost think this is backwards crab advice sometimes. The successful pro mangaka all use photo backgrounds to save time and because it looks better. If you spend time hand drawing every background, you will generate content slower than the pros and never be able to compete with them or become like them, especially if you don't have any assistants.

>>7086899
To elaborate what i mean, the smart and successful aspiring pros use every trick in the book the pros do and emulate the pros as closely as possible, including using CSP templates and edited photo backgrounds. You're actively holding yourself back if you refuse to do this.

>>7086899
>>7086902
What's backwards is you.
1. You're not "competing" with pros. Even if you were a pro yourself, it's not a direct competition. You can't make someone else less successful by drawing better than them, because there is more demand than supply. You're wrong to think otherwise.
2. Even if it was, photo backgrounds obviously are not the only, nor the best, way to compete.
3. The successful pro mangaka do not "all use photo backgrounds" at all, and of those that do it is not all "to save time and look better". There are those who do it for the effect that cannot be replicated any other way. It's a blatant lie to claim otherwise.
4. I guarantee that all of them can and have drawn backgrounds by hand themselves. To say that you can't "become like the pros" by drawing backgrounds by hand is a patently ridiculous lie.
The smart and aspiring pros recognize what and when is the best tool for the job. Photo backgrounds are a tool like any other and are often the wrong tool for the job. Being able to draw backgrounds yourself is undeniably a necessary skill, and you're lying to others and yourself if you claim otherwise. Quit looking for excuses to avoid drawing difficult things like backgrounds, you're only hurting yourself and the people you trick into following your footsteps.

>>7086922
How do you become a pro if you aren't attempting to compete with and become as good as them?

>>7086930
You're looking at the wrong pros
Guys were doing this by hand before computers were around, and many still do

>>7086899
>>7086902
>>7086930
You're talking like your series is about to get axed from shonen jump. Unless you're planning on having your series go for 1000 chapters then you can take your time, quality over quantity. If you're really concerned about time constraints then you're better off studying the theory really hard so you can create cool and memorable minimalist backgrounds. Takemitsu zamurai does this really well.

>>7086945
To be a mangaka don't you need a mix of BOTH speed and quality?

>>7086930
Again, it's not a competition. You're not trying to "beat" your peers. Maybe that's how you view it as a way to motivate yourself, that's fine, but it's not reality.
How do you become a pro? By making comics readers enjoy, whether you aim to do that or not. You don't need to "become as good" as other pros, you just need to make things that people enjoy reading.

>>7086947
Yes.

>>7086947
Speed just comes naturally with experience and the more muscle memory you develop. As long as you don't procrastinate all day the drawings will get done. Plus I think Shonen Jump has set a bad precedent, weekly chapters has resulted in some shocking work, longer monthly chapters is probably the way to go.

>>7086951
>How do you become a pro? By making comics readers enjoy, whether you aim to do that or not. You don't need to "become as good" as other pros, you just need to make things that people enjoy reading.
So in other words, there's absolutely nothing with with using photo backgrounds or 3D model backgrounds in your manga if it fits the art and readers enjoy it?

>>7086968
As multiple people have already said, you should do what works for you. People have already told you that being able to draw backgrounds is a valuable skill, but you should do what you want to do.
That doesn't mean that having the skill to draw backgrounds yourself wouldn't benefit you, it doesn't mean that it's stupid for anybody to draw backgrounds themselves, it doesn't mean anybody's crabbing by telling people that they should draw the backgrounds by hand, and it doesn't mean that there aren't both real pros who use photos and real pros who draw everything manually.
Yes, you should do whatever you think would be the best way to tell your story. That best way might not be the best way for somebody else to tell their story. It might not even be the best way for all of your stories. Whatever that way is.

Conversely, there absolutely can be something wrong with using photo backgrounds or 3d model backgrounds in your manga -- when it doesn't fit and the readers don't enjoy it. In those times, that's when you should be asking "am I doing it this way because it's the best way, or because I'm just too lazy/it's too hard to do it another way?"
That's when you'll regret not learning to draw backgrounds yourself. Maybe you'll only make manga where 3d fits, or maybe you'll run into this problem a lot. It all depends on the individual.

I don't understand people who don't enjoy the process of drawing, yet want to make comics. You could simply write your story as a book and avoid the unpleasant business of art.

>>7086979
That unpleasant business is unfortunately a core part of the experience I want for the readers. I draw not because I want to, but because I must. My pain is fleeting, the result is forever.

>>7086922
To add on to what you've said, there's also point 5 - sometimes drawing things by hand is a complete unavoidable necessity if the thing you want to showcase in the background literally does not exist in real life and doing it in 3d would take way too much time, time that you could have just drawn it by hand and be mostly done with already.

I probably wouldn't hate photo backgrounds so much if they weren't so boring and samey. What is stopping you from driving around for an hour looking for interesting backdrops that no one has drawn before. Like, if I heard that some third worlder was making a comic using real pictures of his shit hole village, I'd probably read it.

>>7086984
>I draw not because I want to, but because I must.
You are a perfect candidate for AI art.

>>7086984
you're just not good enough at drawing yet. When you get good, drawing will be a joy.

>>7087104
>wrangling a stupid machine instead of doing it myself
Pass.

>>7087105
Not for me. It is and always will be a pain in the ass. It's been exactly the same pain in the ass for as long as I've been drawing, an increase in skill has not resulted in a decrease in pain.

>>7087109
post your work, and i'll be the judge of your art quality

>>7087120

>>7087127
you're not cowboy anon. cowboy anon loves drawing

>>7087131
What? Yes I am, and I feel like I've been pretty clear in the past that I draw comics out of love, not for pleasure.

>>7087127
>I MUST DRAW to get my EXPERIENCE to the READERS
>It's just generic porn

>>7087134
you love drawing, you just don't want to admit it

>>7087135
I didn't say that, I said the art is a core part of the experience, which is true. It's not deep, but erotic novels and porno comics are totally different experiences.

>>7087137
If I'm not having fun either way then what's the difference? Like I said, my pain is fleeting but the result is forever. For me the result is worth the pain, but that's not the same as enjoying the experience.

>>7087139
i feel sorry for you, but sometimes, it do be like that

>>7087134
I'm sorry anon, you're talented but hate drawing.
I hope I never get that way, I love drawing

>>7087127
When can I buy this?

>>7087150
>>7087163
Lol, the condolences are appreciated. Have a cheeky sneak-peek at the thing I'm working on now (my 2nd commercial work).
I hope you continue to enjoy drawing, I wish I enjoyed it too but ya gotta play the hands you're dealt.

>>7087168
That one? No idea, it's shelved for now. The strategy my editor wants is that I'm gonna be a harem story author, and that story's only a threesome.
My debut work will be up on digital stores in a couple of months.

Did anyone else used to be big on manga discords then realize it was waste?

drawing manga is the highlight of my day

conversely speaking when I'm not drawing manga life sucks ass. i wish I could meet people in person more or something.

>>7087173
Goddamn anon. Sexo

So I finished reading all the manga's I've seen posted here, and here are my reviews:
>Wings of Draera
+Fun, starts out simple with an action packed first chapter
+Establishing shots
+Easy dialogue
+Action scenes!
-Beg art (gets better)
Story isn't geared to my age (not a positive or negative, just a note)
>Altarusia
+I love it. Not too much exposition. Not too much downtime, short, sweet, and to the point.
-Your art. it's beg, but it's like, passable.
(But you dont try and draw things you cant draw, so that helps.)
>Rococo
+Great art!
+Great backgrounds
+Great all around.
+Fan service
-Title isn't gripping. I wouldn't have read it if it wasn't posted here.
-Style changes too often (I get that you have to see what works)
-Not the fan service I want. Lets see some sideboob from the MC
>Aecast
+Good establishing shots (when you do them).
+Good use of negative space.
+Good violence (when you do it).
-Too much exposition, and dialogue from side characters doesn't seem natural (maybe intended?)
>Apocalypse Knight
+Good first chapter, nice backgrounds.
-Seems like its' going to be a slowburn with these flashbacks.
-Make the text bigger
>Cat vs The World
+Best thing I've seen posted. Deserves the million and half views.
-Not long enough.
>Oi
+Great title shots! Important to show your good art here! (something people dont realize)
+Establishing shots
+Negative space
-Boring af starting out. If you weren't here I would have stopped reading it
-Art starts off weak, but gets much better very quickly
-Art is clearly changed from Manga to webtoon style, especially in the first chapters, very noticeable (but thankfully changes)
>The Hotel That Stole Time Away
+Like the art style. The bell boy reminds me of Roger Wilco.
+Love the story premise.
+Has a lot of potential to be original.
-Not enough establishing shots (or shots are too close to establish much, but I liked the beach bar)
-Seems predictable (weird thing to gauge, right? It's only 2 chapters how can I say that?)

>>7087255
Mind you I am drunk (on a wednesday) so my Roger and Ebert level critiques should be taken with a spoonful of salt
If there are any other regulars I missed, please post them, I'm would love to read them

>>7087256
You could give Quickdraw! a go. I remember getting (you)s on the pages as I posted them, but I don't think I've ever gotten an overall review of the work like this, and I'm curious.
https://quickdraw.the-comic.org/comics/first/#content-start
It's a comic I decided to start on a whim, where I would draw each page as quickly as possible and post it the same day, daily. The quality fluctuates as a result, I think. Especially early on. Plus it's not a long read at all, especially since it just stops rather than ends.

>>7087261
Ahh! I remember reading the first few pages, some guy trying to sell something, and getting robbed, and not shooting the robbers. Yeah, I'll have a smoke and another drink and catch up on this. I do remember you simple shading, and negative space. Thank you!
Oh wait, I think I also remember you saying something about quitting though? Maybe Im just drunk and getting you confused

>>7087272
I stopped making Quickdraw because I couldn't juggle it and comms. I liked Quickdraw, but it wasn't going to be paying my rent. I didn't quit comics, I just switched to making stuff I could get paid for -- paid gigs and >>7087173.

>>7087274
Oh! It was you cowboy! I can kind of see it now, the sharp angles. I'm the anon who has insisted that he wants to buy your work (not you exclusively, I want to support all anons while I have the money, even if you are the most talented). I would love some critique when I get my work out next month. But I will say again, I want to support fellow icfags, please mention in the mmg's when I can support something you've done, (even if its coom)

>>7087282
>I can kind of see it now, the sharp angles.
Yep. Not trying to hide it, I just draw how I draw.
>I would love some critique when I get my work out next month.
I'll be sure to give it a fair shake, and I won't pull any punches even if you're a paying customer, lol.
>please mention in the mmg's when I can support something you've done, (even if its coom)
Of course. I think I've blogposted every major milestone since I got in contact with the editor. In retrospect, maybe I should have done so under a tripcode, so people can easily search it up in the archives... oh well.
I really want to post it for people to read, but I have to be patient. That's the curse of any pro... you're working on big stuff, then can't show anybody for months or years after it's done.

>>7087286
>Yep. Not trying to hide it,
Wasn't trying to imply otherwise, I've only been on ic for a year or so
>I think I've blogposted every major milestone since I got in contact with the editor
Here I assume? I don't follow or have any social. (yet)
>I should have done so under a tripcode,
Nah, apparently this community is small enough, and I'm an oldfag (for this site, not /ic/), much too jaded to respond to any tripfags
Either way, you do you, I'm gonna have a smoke and read Quickdraw, g'night

>>7087290
>Here I assume? I don't follow or have any social. (yet)
Yeah, these threads.
Have a good one mate.

>>7087255
I am glad you've taken the time. I really wanted to know if the story made sense or not. In terms of name, I used to call it "Adorably Incredible Rococo Feathersworth and her Amazing Friends" or "Rococo Feathersworth and 24 hours Chinese food" or something weird like that. I'll try to do something have getting the style more consistent and to reduce the horizon of the production schedule.

Is the EX version of CSP worth it? I‘m using pro right now and I kinda want the multiple page file feature, but doubling the price seems a bit much for making page management less annoying. Is there another good reason that I am unaware of?

>>7087323
It's not really worth the money IMO. There's a manual workaround for every EX feature (or there was for me back in 2020, dunno if that's still the case cos I switched to EX since). It's really just for convenience when it's what you do all day every day. I think if you make your living from it, or intend to produce work with it as if you were making your living with it, then I'd recommend buying EX. Otherwise the price isn't really worth it.
You could always pirate it and try to out anyway.

>>7087325
Thanks! I‘ll stick to Pro then. Can‘t pirate, I use my iPad. And since it‘s just a hobby, I‘ll be fine manually exporting the pages and stuff.

>>7087323
For me it's totally worth it, i'm kinda dumb and lazy so ex save me a lot of the work the other anon said workaround

>>7087255
Thank you for reading everyone's mangas anon, you really didn't have to, let alone try to provide feedback. For Aecast, my hope is I've learned how to better pace things since my first chapter, with a much bigger emphasis on show not tell regarding exposition. Also, given how you like the violence thus far when I draw it, I have a feeling you are going to like my next chapter, lol. Thanks again for reading everyone's stuff.

>>7086815
>Magical psychedelic girls protect their village.
The first anime I ever watched was Sailor Moon with my older sister when I was really young, that probably has some effect.
>>7087255
Thanks for reading it. When I started Oi 10 years ago I had no idea what I was doing and my biggest comic influences were Frank Miller, Cerebus Love and Rockets and Naruto. I was trying my best to draw manga style and was just bad at it. Also i was reading too many Frank Miller and 80s comics, so words words words there were too many walls of text. I knew my art was bad, but I used Cerebus and Love and Rockets as role models and had the philosophy that "yes, the comics may be bad now, but eventually I'll get good, then people will be willing to go back and read through old stuff despite the bad art". It was not the best philosophy, especially in today's cutthroat webcomic environment. I started coming to mmg when volume 3 started, and the main advice I got was use thinner lines, so I focuses on that and now my art is serviceable.
When I return to doing Oi and write the Servius starring Mediterranean tour and Pythian Games arcs, I'm planning on launching it as a sequel series that works on its own called "Oi! Grand Tour" or "Oi! Aeon Sophia" or something like that, and people can go back and read the old stuff if they want, but they won't have to to know what's going on. Sailor Moon was a sequel to Codename Sailor V, and I'd be going for the same thing- the sequel works as a standalone but is supplemented if you read the past comic.

>>7087255
>Altarusia
Glad you like it, anon. I've been getting positive reviews about the story so far, and that makes me really happy. I know my art is not great, but, as you said, I try to make it decent enough. Panneling and comic theory have been helping me a lot to make the storytelling better for the readers.

Oh and if you are curious, this is my first comic https://tapas.io/episode/2534058 Give it a read if you feel like it(I learned a lot from it kek)

>>7087318
link?

>>7087515
>Oi series
>separate standalone sequel series
>your new alien from pluto series

Anon you got one of them there Harry Potter time turner thingamabobs? Goddamn that's a lot of series.

>>7087584
I'm doing the alien series as a planned one shot and will do more if I like it. I want to start the oi sequel in summer or winter once I plan the whole thing out more from start to finish. Oi volume 2 and 3 escalated way out of control lengthwise primarily due to lack of planning. I knew the beginning middle and end but wound up taking way longer to get there than originally planned, oda style. Never again!

Anybody got some tips or resources for nailing body part measurements in perspective when the character is twisting? Like, I feel like often the midriff comes out too long, for example, or the head is off..
Am I really gonna have to do that Draw a Box stuff?

>>7087554
https://tapas.io/series/Rococos-Atelier/info

well, let me know what you think.

>>7087255
I forgot I really should have said Thank you, because I really appreciated the effort.

Im so sloooow drawing storyboards.
I hate it

>>7087885
have you seen the Hiro mashima video on storyboarding? He, Araki, and many other famous bestselling mangaka, don't just storyboard right away.

They write the dialogue first, and they divide it all up into panels, but they don't draw anything.

They first get the dialogues and panels, and only then do they decide on the art. This gives them time to decide on the story and revise the pacing of the entire chatper without stress, before deciding on cinematography

You might want to try it. Hiro Mashima has a yt channel where he explains these kinds of things, with english subs

>>7087885
It's slow because you're giving it careful consideration!

>>7087891
>They write the dialogue first, and they divide it all up into panels, but they don't draw anything.
Not him but I hadn't seen that and I often do the same thing. I'll load up the canvas in CSP, write the dialogue on the page as basically more of a reminder for what I'm picturing going there, I'll draw the panel borders too, and I'll do that for large chunks of the comic until I feel like going back and drawing the storyboards.
But then again sometimes I do the opposite, like here >>7087134 where I'll figure out the composition and the page layout before I've figured out what the dialogue is going to be beyond a vague idea.
I guess it just depends on the priority for the sequence.
There's something kind of funny about learning about the process of famous authors and discovering they do things weirdly similarly to the way you do it. Gotta wonder if there's just some convergent evolution going on with the process there, where multiple people arrive at the same solution because it just makes sense.

Do you guys redraw old pannels? Im trying not to touch in the old chapters too much as I used in the past but some pannels looks too rushed.

>>7088000
>trips
Checked. And no, I dont redraw old panels. If I were to go down that rabbit hole I would essentially end up redrawing 45% of my entire first chapter, where I had started out by intentionally rushing things. If I were to do a callback to an earlier scene, I would just redraw the scene itself from a different angle, etc.

You dun it nao, Arry Porrer.

........ about 80% done with storyboarding. Would have been done already but chapter 4 is going to be somewhere between 1.5 to 2 times as long as any prior chapter I've made. Just got to get over this last hump, then I can work on script editing as a mental break from scratching away at a computer screen all this time.

>>7087318
>I really wanted to know if the story made sense or not.
I really wasn't following it at first, I get that she was running from a monster, then it cuts to these other magical girls. Honestly I wasn't quite following there, but the art kept me. Then we get to the flash forward/back and it was much easier to read
>>7087549
I'll take a look at your other comic
>>7087405
>I have a feeling you are going to like my next chapter
Sounds good. And yeah, I understand how introducing a new world in the beginning can be a tight rope walk, but I appreciate the pacing changes later.
>>7087515
>I started Oi 10 years ago
Had no idea, my art from 10 years ago is chicken scratch, you seem to have managed to keep your style, while vastly improving. Congrats for keeping it going
I would also definitely read a sequel with you improved at
>>7087261
Just finished Chapter 1, and I want you to confirm something: Tell me >>7087127
is the great great grandson of Gums. Like with the Joestar family thing

>>7087788

>>7088233
>Just finished Chapter 1, and I want you to confirm something
Lol, no. Just a similar design. That would be funny though.

>>7088310
https://twitter.com/DB_official_en/status/1765935471971213816?s=20

>>7088310
F.

Ah man. RIP dude. Shit, I don't even know what to say. I remember collecting DBZ trading cards as a kid at the mall with my mom, was always a lot of fun.

>>7088233
>Congrats for keeping it going
>I would also definitely read a sequel with you improved at
Thanks. I started in 2013 and published volume 1 chapters 1-5 as a kickstarter. I signed away half the rights to an indie company who did nothing with it, and drew cat comics and animal coloring books for 5 years. I gave up on Oi thinking it was pointless to continue because how the publisher was treating me, but the characters and story stuck with me over the years and i kept thinking aboutwhat wouldhappen next. Eventually I was able to get 100% of the rights back, and I started drawing chapter 6 in November 2019 and have been working on it ever since. This COSMIC CRUSH alien comic is the first non-Oi comic I've drawn in years. I'm excited to work on something completely different.

>>7088367
So I have to ask then, if someone buys the rights, but doesn't do anything, does that mean you get paid, but don't have to do any more work? Or did you still have to put out monthly work?

>>7088389
He published it but buried it and did no marketing, refused to pay me all they owed, then threatened to unpublish it and bury it forever when I made a stink about it. The publisher and editor were huge cunts, and the main reason I've only self published since then and not even tried to work with other companies. I didn't have to do any new work for them, but any new Oi I made, they automatically would have owned 50% of it, so I drew my own cat comics and animal coloring books instead. Those made money but my heart wasn't in it, my real passion is telling stories with people and my dream is drawing manga.

Changing subject but this Toriyama news is really shit. Of all the big famous artists who died recently for some reason this hurts the most and is the most sad.

>>7088420
>Toriyama is dead
Fuck. fuck fuck fuck fuck

>>7088431
>>7088420
We should do a collab. Everyone take a panel from a certain DBZ page or something and put it together. What a freaking loss

hey guys do you know any books or videos that teaches you how to draw ghibli style and 80/90s anime style?

>>7089279
Why would you need a book? All the animes and mangas from back then are literally a few clicks away. Pick a panel or screenframe and start trying to mimic it. Do it again and again and again until drawing it becomes second nature.

>>7089279
Drawing a "style" is just copying what you SEE. There is no mathematical formula to follow, there is no button combination to input.

Someone told me that tracing Akira pages is a standard practice in the medium for studying. Is that true? Would it not be better to try and copy pages instead?

>>7089387
Guess it depends on what you want to get out of it? Tracing is pretty good at revealing ratios, angles, lines, etc. that can be hard to „grasp“ by just looking at it. However, I don‘t know how useful it would be to trace page after page. For me, tracing is a tool for solving a specific problem. Then again, I haven‘t tried going through an entire manga, so who knows.

>>7087173
Wait what's the rationale behind shelving it? I thought it was about to release sometime soon

>>7089284
>>7089301
ok, this make sense. thanks guys. hope you have a good day

>>7089387
As long as you judiciously study what you are copying/tracing and WHY you're doing it, any kind of study from a celebrated manga should be fine. A lot of mangakas said in interviews that they just copied from mangas they read while kids or teens, not that people had to copy in a specific order or from only specific mangas.

>>7089428
>>7089524
Thanks for this - I suppose I was thinking about it recently because the problem I’ve been thinking a lot about is how to accomplish consistent proportions, and reaching a level where I have a consistent grasp of the proportions and construction of each character I draw in every possible perspective. Otomo seems to have an consistent set of proportions and construction for his characters in his manga while making use of many challenging perspectives, unlike many other mangaka who may still be extremely proficient but still exercise changing proportions in each panel (Miura for one). At the moment I do a bit of guesswork in terms of setting up the basic shapes and trying to maintain consistency, but it’s far from a comfortable or consistent grasp of it. Would copying panels of characters from Akira help me with this or should I focus on something else?

Dumb question but how do I get straight lines like this in CSP? Is it a brush or do Gege's assistants do it by hand with a ruler?

>>7089563
CSP has rulers built in, and can make custom rulers if I'm not mistaken.

>>7089544
Perspective stuff just comes with time and the patience to do it properly. Please remember that some mangakas are either so rushed that its a case of "good enough for just a single non-money shot panel", or they are intentionally bending the rules. Akira copying won't hurt, but the important thing is that you just practice earnestly on getting perspective right whether its from a panel or a photo, etc.

>>7089544
sure, if you think it will help! But if thats your goal, dont bother copying whole pages, I would focus on exactly what you are interested in. In picrel you can see how I personally would do it. Since its just about proportion, I only traced exactly that. Then I made a quick copy with what I have learned (which is that it is fairly normal anime proportions and the perspective isnt too whacky—they stay almost perpendicular, which makes the perspective much easier to handle.
(obviously this isnt a real study, so there are mistakes)

>>7089513
The rationale is basically "why draw that when I could be drawing something even better?" "better" here meaning "fills a gap in the market/will sell better". It doesn't make much sense to put out a book of harem stories except a fat quarter of the book is not a harem story. Especially while I'm a newcomer, it's best to stick to the guns of putting out harem stories. So pretty much it's shelved because the stuff I'm making instead is better (from a sales strategy perspective at the least).
It's no big deal, I think it's a solid storyboard but I'm not married to it or anything, plus it's not like it's going anywhere. I might end up having a gap in a book in a few years and just finishing this work to fill it.

>>7089592
Thanks again anon. Out of curiosity, would you happen to have an idea of how much time it would have taken someone like Miura to draft a page that doesn’t have any money shots such as this one? Like a purely plot centric page that moves things along. Sorry for the low quality image
>>7089608
Many thanks for this demonstration!! This is so helpful for me and shows me how to move forward with it. I’m impressed with how efficient and effective your markings are to indicate each part of the body in proportion, and I’ll be doing the same

>>7089937
You have to remember that it is common for mangakas to have assistants. Miura himself had on average five other people working for him - that makes it a six man team with each doing specific stuff (inking, shading, backgrounds etc.). So a general page like that? A day, maybe two days. At the same time though, this is the same guy that would go on insane hiatuses when he also wasn't playing Idolmaster, lol.

For the sake of your own health please dont try to compete against professional mangaka when it comes to page production. Even with multiple assistsnts helping them take massive amounts of work off their respective shoulders, Miura died at 54, Toriyama died at 68, and Kazuki Takahashi (Yugioh) died at 60. It's not worth it. It really REALLY is not worth it.

>>7086788
I never like women designs that expose too much cleavage unless theres a reason for it. Modesty is better than sluttery.

>>7090031
For me it depends on the manga and the genre it belongs to. If the male readership is there to a decent degree then I'll give sexy outfits a slight pass. If its heavily male dominated I'll be even more lenient with blatant fanservice. But its when a manga violates its own rules that I roll my eyes. I can't remember what manga it was, but there was this one character who was supposed to essentially be a pure nun, and the manga wanted you to take this very seriously that she was genuinely pure, etc. But then she's got huge-ass underboob windows which absolutely made no sense given her background and the time period she was in (Sengoku era Japan) and I remember rolling my eyes into the back of my head. Like, I'm more than fine with the other girls in the cast looking sexy, but don't try to play off a genuinely "holy" character with conventional morals that you'd expect a genuine person of the faith to have, yet somehow they're wearing pseudo-sexywear.

>>7089937
Depends on how much of the page he actually drew, but sketching the whole page + inking the characters would probably be around 3 or 4 hours, maybe more depending on the detail of the sketch. Keep in mind he likely did not ink the background himself (still would have had to sketch it though) or apply the screentones. Also not taking into account erasing and redoing bits he messed up or whatever, which can happen.
If you count applying screentones and inking the background it's probably more like 6-8 hours.

>>7090026
I agree with your point but please don't use the unrelated deaths of famous people to make it. Takahashi and Toriyama died from physical injury (drowning and complications from a blow to the head) that have absolutely nothing to do with their career as mangaka, and I only don't count Miura among those two because dying from your heart fucking exploding isn't as obviously unrelated as the other two. To claim these deaths as being due to their careers as mangaka is downright misleading. Besides, all of them had basically been retired for over a decade and we know that at least two of them were fairly healthy men when they died. We have on record that Miura was taking care of his health, which is likely the cause of those "insane hiatuses", rather than playing fucking Idolmaster.
But yes, they're professionals, so naturally comparing your own output to theirs will be a poor comparison.

>>7090026

>>7090047
The point I was trying to make is that you can do what you want to try to ameliorate the side effects, but the insane workload and mangakas put themselves through does take a toll on your body permanently. Bad physical habits come with a price tag later on down the line, is all.

>>7090057
>but the insane workload and mangakas put themselves through does take a toll on your body permanently. Bad physical habits come with a price tag later on down the line, is all.
And that price tag is... drowning while scuba diving and tripping down the stairs and hitting your head in your old age? Manga doesn't put a fucking Final Destination curse on you dude. They're just bad examples.
There are better examples. Oda is a better example. Togashi is a better example. Tezuka arguably is a better example. We know these people had health complications arguably as direct results of either their work or neglecting their health over their work (Oda's health is still a private matter afaik, Tezuka died of stomach cancer, Togashi is a gimme). It's well known in japan that mangaka have a lower life expectancy thanks to the stress and grueling deadlines, it doesn't do anybody any favors to try and connect freak accidents to it too, plus it's kinda disrespectful.

>>7087127

Pornanon I need you opinion. Is this art style suitable for eromanga?

ugh why is my character so cute I wanna kiss her on the lips

>>7090084
Lots of styles can be suitable, as long as you do it well. What do the sex scenes look like?

>>7090092
just starting the story, I will post the sex scenes once finished :)

>All of the pages have the same image size
Do this means that spreads have to come apart? I mean like 2 different pages?

>Page direction is right swipe and the opening page starts from the left
This counts just the first page or the cover too

>>7090228
You mean on MPC?
Yes, split the spreads.
It doesn't count the cover, so long as you don't include the cover in the chapter upload itself -- the cover should be its own separate upload box iirc. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't uploaded there since it launched.

>>7090085
Ok Pygmalion, lol.

>>7090085
Which lips?

where can I find someone to review comic dialogue for readability and grammar mistakes?

>>7090410
Post it here

>>7090387
L-lewd.

>>7090410
Post it here and we'll give it a go.

>>7090410
Use grammarly then repost it here.

Going back a few prior threads, we were at one point talking about instances where a page (or two) has an insane amount of words. I think I have found even more words. I get that in this case the mass-rambling is supposed to be intentional given this character's mental state, but holy cow.

>>7090295
ur just jelous you dont have a galatea

>>7090569
I don't need a Galatea because my relative inability to draw at the level I would like fucks me everyday. :D

>>7090422
>>7090516
>>7090534
ok. If you think I'm shitting up the thread with this """furry""" stuff, I'm truly sorry. Someone on /beg/ told me to go here.

>>7090621
Ok, I read it. First, there's no need for 9000 x 2400 pic lol. Second, I would say that the very last panel does not need a second "I", as you already have that mentioned in the prior speech bubble. Lastly, it only looks kind of furry because you drew the dragon's face in that stereotypical furry style. If you made it look more realistically based (not realistic, mind you, since dragons obviously don't exist but closer to an actual reptilian head) nobody would complain.

I would also break up the humongous speech bubble in the bottom left. If I were the one making this, I would give the dragon's two sentences their own respective speech bubbles.

>>7090621
>Second page, second dragon balloon
Change "quet" to "quiet"
Change "does't" to "doesn't"

>Third page
Bottom left panel leaves too much open space in the corner, there is no reason the helmet should be trailing out of the panel in the other direction. Either move it the drawing to fill the space, or move the dragon's balloon there so we can see more of the sword in the other panel.

>Fourth page
The split action scene isn't very readable. Action is the most visually important part, so I would have that scene take up the entire center of the page, and switch the knight's face closeup and the taking aim scene to be smaller cut-ins instead.

Otherwise I like some of your choices a lot. The pan from the face of the helmet to the horns at the top of page 2 is great, as is the thought balloon interjecting into the dragon's dialogue on page 1

>>7090621
If killing dragons is furry then I've lost the plot

>>7090638
It's the Disney cartoon style the dragon is drawn in making it look like furry art, with the big humanized feminine eyes. If he drew it more like he did the horse, nobody would accuse it of being furry.

I'm finally done drafting

I would like to ask any way to post all the 54 pages, mostly because if i remember correctly, some anons said they would help me with the english, since i'm esl

>>7090712
You could try uploading to any general photo album site and paste the link here. You may also want to run your sentences by Grammarly to quickly get an AI read on your sentences prior to posting. Everyone on /mmg/ is generally willing to help, but 54 pages is a lot.

man this website is so buckbroken by the boogeyman of funny animal people

>>7090712
ignore this retard >>7090727, create a 270x270px canvas and compress the each page into a 10px image and paste all 54of them into the canvas that way all the pages will be in one image

>>7090729
>whaah people dont like when I post my fetish shit
No one asked faggot, either post what you want get take the criticism, or don't

>>7090630
>>7090634
Thanks for the effort. I appreciate it.

>>7090736
Why you gotta explode into rage like that
that anon shouldn't have to be cringing like an abused puppy and apologizing in advance because he drew his dragons eyes kinda big. Like why are you going all PTSD triggered over this Spyro looking fuck? you're so fuckin hypersensitive I just shake my head in bafflement.

>>7090744
It took me a second, but I get it. Funny stuff anon

>>7091062
I know you're still working on this page but what happened in the upper left panel? She zippity zapped the spirit with her lantern and... is the spirit supposed to have bits coming off and turning into smoke/burning up? Either way, you're getting better at drawing your main girl and the spirit looks like a proper spoopy boi.

Mah dialogue boxes still fill themselves with black in csp...
How do i stop doing that?

>>7091512
>the spirit supposed to have bits coming off and turning into smoke/burning up?
Yep

I think I finally landed on a design for the main characters!

>>7091533
click the wrench under text settings. tick background color off

I kek every time I see this shit. Does it bother editors as much as I think it does?

>>7091728
The point of those is to draw emphasis to a specific sentence that's important enough that it gets its own box. I do agree it can come off kind of clunky and not really aesthetic, though.

>>7091651
different anon but I have an issue where the "edge" for my text tool is defaulted on, and i can't seem to reset the setting to default off.

Is this linear good enough?
Keep in my that i suck in digital and i just have a wacom intous s

>>7091728
idk, you can do kino with words man
even memes like the heart have intent, it's not just laziness if that's what you're implying

>>7091781
that's good for how scratchy your sketch pages were
I'd say clean up his armpit in the middle right panel, and maybe redraw the eyes

>>7091728
Most of the time, they get "fixed" in volume releases.

>>7091576
Very cute.

>>7091781
Before I get to the lineart, the first thing that strikes me is that odd gutter between the first and second rows of panels. It being so strangely large compared to the others makes the top row seem very detached from the rest of the page, and almost makes it seem like a break in pages if this were a webtoon. Picrel is a potential suggestion if you needed to keep that character's height in that far right panel.

The lineart itself isn't that bad, but the brush that you are using for it is not doing it any favors. It makes it look as if the sketch was just scanned from the page and then adjusted digitally without redrawing anything. (You DID redraw this digitally, right?)
I know that that rough brush gives the impression of traditional ink on real paper, but it seems kind of redundant to draw it that way digitally, only to have it then printed out on real paper anyways.

>>7091898
I totally forgot to draw that panel, i'm sorry, i'm basically tracing from the trad drawings that i did...

Just that i realized too late that i maybe shouldn't extract the lineart so i stop doing that, but i couldn't find the original picture of the panel i forgot to draw

In case anyone is interested, the author of Boarding School Juliet did an interview about creating manga. It's a pretty decent read. If you've read stuff like this from a few different authors, you might have a general idea of some of the advice, but it never hurts to know more.

https://pocket.shonenmagazine.com/article/entry/hanamiti_20240306

Need to translate the text yourself though.

>>7091898
I barely know the basics of digital...
So i'm redrawing this with G real in csp, if you have any recommendations for any other brush i would be thankful

bear shits in the woods
https://globalcomix.com/c/new-project/chapters/en/2/1

>>7091904
Ooooh I see, that makes a lot more sense in that case.
Idk much about scanning pages, so I can't really give you much technical advice about turning those pages into manga, but I will say that when working from a sketch in general, it's better to very loosely follow it and make changes where need be. Remember the goal of making lineart isn't simply to trace over the sketch again but to reference the sketch to further refine the drawings. Some people may even repeat this process until they reach a level of refinement they are satisfied with.
That process may be something for you to consider, working from traditional, as the traditional sketches leave a lot to interpretation.

>>7091937
Digital takes some getting used to for sure. The good news for you is that since you have CSP, you already own the best digital tool for making manga.
For lineart, that G-Pen you are using is fine, but check to see if anti-aliasing is on (your page made it seem like it was off completely, like a binary pen), that will get rid of that grainy look and give you a smoother, more natural look. Over time, you will get a feel for what tools to use and how they work, so keep experimenting with all the tools CSP has to offer.

My recommendation would be to accumulate a repertoire of tools that you see fit and that fit your style of manga-making. This will allow you to create a "standard" of your own that will make your work look consistent to you as an artist. Examples include word bubbles, flashes, saturated lines, etc. Over time, you will find what tools work best for different situations, which will allow you to work more efficiently.
The jump from traditional to digital is daunting, to say the least, especially when CSP has so many tools and settings to offer. You'll be at your best when you get a handle on these tools and are able to turn them into something that's comfortable and that works for you.

>>7091986
>but check to see if anti-aliasing is on (your page made it seem like it was off completely, like a binary pen), that will get rid of that grainy look and give you a smoother, more natural look.
I don't think this is wise.
If you don't want it to be pixel-y when you put it out online then introduce a small blur when you export. DO NOT make all the line art anti-aliased. You want it to be monochrome for printing purposes, so introducing a blur in a non-destructive way at the end is probably the best way to both have a monochrome version and an aliased version.
In theory you could draw it all aliased then convert the layer to monochrome, but that makes it look extra pixel-y as you have no choice in how the program interprets the gray pixels into black pixels. Better to just draw it aliased yourself so you have control over it.

Sketches for the first 5 pages of my next work.

Can you guess what happens next page?

>>7092134
Our hero meets the worst gal!?!
I dunno, but it looks great. I will say him standing at the door he seems to be leaning heavily, is that intended?

>>7092196
Lmao, I didn't even see that. I'll fix it in the inks.

>>7092131
What game's he playing?

>>7092220
Feet Sighter 6

>>7092134
Anon do you use a screen tablet? What size is it? Beautiful job

>>7092134
>>7092231
Juri's in the room.

>>7092233
I do. It's this one https://www.xp-pen.com/product/artist-pro-16tp.html
It's okay. I only got it to replace my previous xp-pen screen tablet (I think it was https://www.xp-pen.com/product/artist-15-6-pro.html)) which was scratched to shit. I definitely prefer this current one -- the screen is much more scratch resistant, I've had it just as long as the last one by this point without any marks on the screen. Plus it's nice and sharp, the 4k is pretty nice. Pretty annoying when the rest of your monitors are just 1080 though, windows freaks out a lot.
I don't think screen tablets are necessary, I could still happily draw on the $80 intuous small I was using up until 2020. Much more comfy too, you can put it on your lap, recline as far as you want and look up at your pc monitor instead of down at the tablet screen. As it is I keep my screen tablet propped up on a bunch of books just so it's close perpendicular to me.

>>7092238
Lol.
Actually, I've been careful to avoid shots that would make it obvious what game they're playing, because I didn't want to commit to one. It's just "fighting game online" for now. I might have to draw the screen later though.

Besides drawing manga, what other activities / studies do you do to improve your art? Has anyone here made a full copy of an entire page? I saw a pro mangaka demonstrate that exercise, and it took him 16 hours to do that copy. It was a simple page too, just 5 panels, some dialogue, and the largest panel was a close up shot

>>7092134
My dude that stick is too long, no pun intended. Shorten it a little bit.

>>7092274
Oh yeah, way too long. That's what I get from drawing from memory. Thanks for pointing it out.

>>7091945
Paneling improved a lot. Good work.
>>7092134
Sex?

>>7092134
>>7092200
bro looks like hes about to do the smooth criminal when someone opens the door and greet them with a "HEE HEE"

>>7092317
>Sex?
With who?

>>7092134
some gyaru getting railed probably. By the way, I would use deepl over google tl

>>7092524
That is DeepL, but I tend to double check with both anyway.

>>7092509
If there was an alternate storyline where the door opens and he does say that and ends up getting punched in the dick and the series ends after that, I would laugh my ass off.

Yesterday i did the linear of 3 pages, 20 panels in total...
And my hand is already out of commission

is there a way to make screentones not go all fucky when you upload

>>7092562
I presume you are talking about a Moiré pattern?

https://tips.clip-studio.com/en-us/articles/6099

Manga is tough, cause even though I think my art is okay (read: below average, but stable), it feels like my art falls off a cliff when going through making pages. It's so evident how much of an amateur I am, not just to professionals, but even people here (this isn't a slight against anyone)

>>7092684
Being bad at something is just the first step to being ok at something, to becoming decent at something, etc. I understand the natural inclination to compare yourself to professional works but you need to remember that what you're doing is looking at your cutting room floor versus their respective highlight reels. That doesn't also even mention that you're just one person versus oftentimes an entire team of people.

Besides, nobody here on /mmg/ popped straight out of the womb drawing well. If you need a pick me up, remember that there are some professional mangas out there that have some (relatively) bad art. Wanting to improve is good (and I would even say necessary), but don't go overboard on beating up your own work.

>>7092317
>Good work
thanks bro, hope it was a fun read

>>7092684
I wouldn't worry too much about it. A lot of comic makers think that they should only be producing masterpieces but there are often times where creators look back on their old pages and fully admit they just weren't feeling it that day and made pages anyway that they think look like shit. Just keep making them, that's all that matters.

In my mind it's like the art version of camera fright. The feeling doesn't ever really go away, but after a while you have a more streamlined process and just get used to it.

>>7092567
sort of. i'm talking where that pattern happens at certain resolutions but not others, which doesn't seem to happen to the manga things I see. like if i upload on twitter, it looks fine in the thumbnail, but if you click the image to enhance, it wigs out

can it really be entirely due to setting it to 85 frequency?

>>7092725
>>7092684
Another reason (imo) to not release single page updates. Finish inking, then work on at least 2 more pages, then go back and look at the first. Catch some thing you may have missed

>>7092545
Sorry anon. I cant draw without a brace myself

>>7086979
>Go writing to avoid unpleasant business of art
>Now suffer unpleasant business of writing

>>7092780
prose is way easier than drawing

>>7092783
CHIRON: Thou hast undone our mother.
AARON: Villain, I have done thy mother.

>>7092272
I only really study when I need to know something. Focused, targeted studying gives me better outcomes when it comes to learning and improvement.

>>7091774
I noticed that if you have some settings ticked on for a specific text box, even if you tick it off it will still be on for the text box where it was applied. Other than that I don't know.

>>7092562
The issue isn't the dot density, it's just the dots themselves and for some reason computer screens don't like them.
compressing or putting them through a slight blur when shrinking the pages for web can eliminate the problem but I don't know how well it works for digital tones.

>>7092780
If you don't like creating things, you should probably find a different hobby

>>7092853
If its cowboy anon, its because he just looks at it as a job. I can see how that wouldn't be fun

zaam

>>7093012
ZAMN!

yo i how do i post my panels for my webtoon if i made them on clip studio?

>>7093012
What exactly is VAMing and ZAMing here?

>>7093012
Hey Anon, I know you didn‘t ask for feedback, so I hope this is fine: I think for the motion to read better, it should include the arc before they „fire“ the lantern. See picrel.

>>7093040
Nice touch, I will put it.
>I know you didn‘t ask for feedback
you are free to give any feedback, this is why I post here btw.

>>7093040
Another anon here, didn't realize altarusia girl was trying to fire off her lantern. I thought for some reason something was ricocheting. Yeah I agree, I think a greater "swing" effect would help.

>>7093040
like this?

>>7092134
My answers will be that there will be a guy with a shotgun that will shoot thought the heart, and will say "you are to blame, you give love a bad name

What kind of screentone will work for a redhead?

This kind of red
I have been trying with some screentones, but none left me satisfied

>>7093027
can someone please respond

>>7092730
That is moire, yes. You can do a few things to fix it/reduce the severity:
>check how it looks at the viewing resolution, tweaking the tone until it looks fine
>applying a light blur the canvas before exporting
>simply not using tones in the digital version, ie just using flat grays instead
Remember that in print manga, the fact that it's ink on paper introduces a sort of subtle natural "blur" from the slight ink bleed. I personal stick with the 2nd option in general for that reason.

>>7093012
Vam, zam thank you ma'am.

>>7093129
If I had to guess, I'd say you export them. Sorry dude, I haven't made webtoons.

>>7093079
Not that anon you were responding to hut that looks a lot better. Move the "z" in "zam" though, its getting in the way of the swing effect now.

>>7093129
I dunno either buy maybe check the Webtoon general
>>7073603

5/10 made. Let's go.
>>7093139
>"z" in "zam" though, its getting in the way of the swing effect now.
Got it

>>7093100
Good question, I just used dots cause I don't know any better. I'm hoping the freckles help sell that it's red

>>7093134
thanks, I'll start trying some blurring
>check how it looks at the viewing resolution
this is one of the issues, how do I know what that is, when i'm posting on multiple sites that all have their own thumbail or shrink to fit display sizes

>>7093197
>when i'm posting on multiple sites that all have their own thumbail or shrink to fit display sizes
In that case, you don't know what that is.

>>7093155
>that smile

Just knock some cold ones back with the boys(female) and play some fightan :)

>>7093293
>>7093294
They better be all guys!

>>7093293
Nice work anon! I do feel that middle girl's face is ever so slightly off and needs a tweak tho. Can't quite put my finger on it.

>>7093308
I know what you mean. It's the eye(s). No big deal.

>>7093293
left bitch is m fav

>>7093294
They never block low here, drive rush into creampie.

I want to write a series about girl who believes in supernatural and accuses another classmate of being something that isn't human. This results in her manipulating another boy from her school who is lonely using promises of companionship if he does what she wants. But I feel like it's fucking edgy and cringe despite I just want to talk about isolation and loneliness being used as a weapon. What do

>>7093474
You'll have to mix in some humor to even things out. Or start off soft, then go hard later.

I'm instantly reminded of that kid in Florida where the female cop pretended to be a student, then targeted the loneliest boy she could find, and talked him into buying weed for her.
Edgy can be done well if you're either a good writer, or a really terrible writer. Both work on dif levels

Thoughts on this finished page? Still learning how to ink and effectively use screentones so I'm just not sure about the look of this.

>>7093474
I feel like it‘s only edgy, if it is too surface level. I dunno, whether you have experience with this kinda thing, but imo, the interesting thing is: you kind of know that somebody is faking the companionship to manipulate you. But you could never admit that, because it‘s too shameful. It‘s intense and complex and horrible—but not edgy.

>>7093151
Nice! It really comes together, viewing all of them.
Maybe one more thing: the „camera“ is always on the same side except pg 1 panel 1 and pg 4 panel 2. Mirroring those might make the scene more spatially consistent.

>>7087788
>https://tapas.io/series/Rococos-Atelier/info
This is super good. Best I've seen on this board. Pages 1-5 look absolutely fantastic and there's plenty other pages of the same quality that I adore.
Though the artistic quality/style is inconsistent. Some differences are pretty jarring.
>picrel
In my opinion, if you fixed the style inconsistencies this would be a pretty saleable comic that could get published. It's great.

>>7092125
really nice work, fluid paneling too.

>>7093474
I would need more exposition to decide whether or not it's too edgy.
So, she suspects someone of being something supernatural, and then exploits a different student into helping her get to the bottom of it?

Simply changing her method of manipulation into something less serious would be a surefire way to make it less edgy, although it would sacrifice the story and especially the theme of loneliness you are going for.
Depending on how you plan to characterize her, you could introduce the main girl as a lighthearted, paranormal enthusiast who then takes her obsessions too far when she involves the boy. This way, the edginess isn't the main driving force in the story and so the story doesn't end up relying on it.

Part of me wants to make a masterlist of manga references, but I just have a bad tendency to not even think about saving pages when reading manga, or what to save. I never think about getting a 'standing against the door trying to stop something from getting inside' type of reference until I need it, and then even though I've surely seen that at least a few times, it's impossible to find.

>>7093739
>a 'standing against the door trying to stop something from getting inside' type of reference
???

>>7093745
Essentially something specific enough that while it's probably been done, it's not easily searchable, at least not drawn examples. I was trying to think of something off the top of my head. Obviously real references would work, but finding drawn examples can give a better ideas of how something can be conveyed, even if you don't want to copy it 1:1

>>7093509
You went a little over the top with the screentones imo. Especially the middle panel feels incredibly noisy. For lighting like that, maybe just paint it in? Dunno, maybe it's just me tho, I believe that screentones should be used sparingly anyway.

Other than that, I would work on the top right panel. The smoke he is blowing out doesn't feel right. It should have some body to it (the smoke in the other panels does, so why not here?) and it should shoot out in a more straight line. Blowing cig smoke can go pretty far..
Further, the lips could be communicating the smoke-blowing more, either being pursed or just more tense in general.

I do like the atmosphere though!

>>7093509
Definitely think you're approaching your values too much like a painting. You gotta simplify your tones and bring your inks into the toning more. By that I mean mixing hatching with a flat tone or a simple gradient tone to create variety in the values (example: Blame!), rather than piling different values of tone on top of each other like it's a grayscale painting that you just converted into tones.
The paneling isn't bad, so good job there. It's got a nice style, though the drawing needs work (but you know that).
Oh, and if you're gonna use tones, don't mix flat grays in there too like you did in the bottom panel. It's either tones or grays, not both. It generally looks terrible if you try to mix them.

>>7093782
>For lighting like that, maybe just paint it in?
I think that's what he did bro.

>>7093611
Nice bro.

>>7093834
Porn/Cowboy anon, in the upper left panel, I feel like the gyaru that's leaning on the bed is too big..... or the nerd boy is too small, even though he's hunching his body. Something about the relative dimensions seems slightly off. Gyaru on the right side of the same panel is cute tho.

>>7093509
Last panel looks good

>>7093568
>Though the artistic quality/style is inconsistent
I said the same thing >>7087255
At first I thought it was like because it was a flashback forward, but then he also then goes full screentones. I guess he's just seeing what's practical to make a full length manga

>>7093834
What program do you use to do the lettering?
Does the publisher have any rules or guidelines regarding typesetting?
Like what font you should use, the sizes, etc?

>>7093729
The baseline event is when she befriends a boy. Over time she introduces him to the supernatural world she believes in. Eventually, she tells the boy about their classmate she thinks is not human. Believing that her classmate is going to do evil she and the boy befriend their classmate. In the end, this results in them killing a classmate based on her beliefs in the supernatural and the boy's willingness to do anything but be alone. I want to leave it up to people reading to decide if this world is how she sees it or how everyone else sees it.

I personally don't want it to be edgy, just a death happens as a result of two bad mixtures of personalities and beliefs coming together.

>>7094013
>Believing that her classmate is going to do evil she and the boy befriend their classmate. In the end, this results in them killing a classmate based on her beliefs in the supernatural and the boy's willingness to do anything but be alone.
I rate this Slightly Edgy/10. Is the girl in the pic the girl you're going to draw?

>>7094019
Yeah, she is the main character I had thought about the design for a while and I think this is the one I would like to pursue as it just fits my personality.

>>7094013
I really like this premise, personally. There's a lot of potential for it to be heart wrenching. I say go for it.

>>7094013
Maybe think more about why they kill him? Like it‘s a huge thing to commit murder, you really need a believable set-up (plot-wise and emotion-wise).
Because if it‘s just „she thinks he is a monster and therefore wants to kill him“, it won‘t work. maybe look into cults that have killed people? The ways they spiral toward murder might be a good basis.

>>7094045
I take it you don't watch a lot of true crime. People do horrible shit because they just do. Slender man killers or Torey Adamcik and Brian Draper.

>>7094055
Not the anon you were talking to, but presumably the characters aren't psychopaths from the immediate get-go in the story, and people don't assume that every new character you meet in a story is "possible psycho murderer until proven otherwise" unless it's some kind of Mad Max-esque type of world.

>>7094055
Yeah, but that doesn't make for a good story.
>Lets murder this gurl because of the slenderman meme
I mean, it would make a for a good dark comedy because of how retarded those girls are.
What comes to mind are two good examples (both directed by Danny Devito oddly enough)
Drowing Mona, and Throw Mama from the Train.
They are about a murder, not for any great reason arguably, but they are done very well, with great characters, dark humor, and great writing

>>7094055
Wrong, there's always a motive except for specific small number of cases with true psychopaths and there's even reasons for that whether it be from traumatic brain injury or deformity or MKUltra experimentation etc

>>7094097
Of course, I am not going to disagree with that. It's >>7094120
Motive of personal beliefs is a fairly common reason why people murder. Regardless if it is delusional or factual. I think worrying about whether the motive is justified kind of breaks the whole point of the story. The story is focused on how far people go not to be lonely.
>>7094104
>Yeah, but that doesn't make for a good story.
But it's a more realistic aspect, people die all the time for no reason. The story isn't about who dies but about living in someone else's perceived reality from loneliness and following their beliefs no matter how wild is what the story is. Murder is just a consequence of that.

>>7094179
Two things: First, if „murder is just a consequence“, then why does it have to be murder? If it‘s about loneliness and you are worried about being too edgy, then why die on the hill of making the murder the center of the story?
Second, you keep talking about loneliness, but this only applies to the boy, right? So the girl has no drive in the story except being mentally ill. Maybe you should make the boy the protagonist and go a route like Oyasumi Punpun, where the girl is this enigmatic evil crashing into the boys life. THEN the whole loneliness theme would make more sense and you could get away with keeping her motives for murder vague.

>>7094191
That's already done, I am not interested in making another story who is obsessed with an insane girl. There is rarely a story from the point of view of someone delusional that is functional. I am not looking to change the story just looking to approach the story in a way that is not edgy. Also, punpun was insane not really the girl. Idk how you read that and drew that conclusion.

>>7094013
Okay, this seems like a step in the right direction, then. I was worried you were gonna go the route of "obviously malicious manipulator type" girl and simply have her prey on the vulnerability of the boy to have him do her bidding.

I think the key here would be whether the girl is intentional with her motives or not. If she was doing all of this simply to get their classmate killed because she is "le cunning manipulator character", then I would say no, because once again, the story would be relying on that edginess factor, due to being presented that way.
But if she's doing it under the genuine belief (for better or for worse) that she is saving mankind, then I could see you making this work.

>>7094208
Yes, that is her motive and her beliefs about supernatural are genuine. She is aware that other people think it is weird from a very young age so she keeps it to herself.

Sketch for the opening page. Anyone got any advice for the text placement, I can‘t find a solution that I like. The text is the first line of narration btw, so I wouldn‘t want it too big.

>>7094206
Fair enough, I haven‘t read punpun in like 10 years.
Maybe you should post a more fleshed out plot structure of the story, that might help in judging the edginess.

>>7094324
I have half a draft but I am reworking on aspects of it. I will post the full draft when done.

>>7094309
Why not just use the upper left corner for some words then the right of the tower for the rest? If its narration you don't even have to use a speech bubble which preserves the ambience of the page. It's simple but works.

>>7094326
I‘ll try upper left out, thanks!
The rest of the narration will have it‘s own page, because it sets up the theme and transitions into the story, so I wanna have the imagery to go along with that.

What‘s the deal with printing borders and uploading to sites like Tapas? Is it cut off at the same border that the print would be? Or are you better off just creating the pages without borders?

>>7094408
My pages always have print borders I toggle can toggle on and off kust to double check things. But when I upload to sites I just put in the entire image, no need to crop.

>>7094408
I have toggleable print borders on all my pages so I can double check where things are. However, I just upload the entire image at a smaller resolution for websites, no cropping needed.

>>7093870
Oh yeah, so she is. Thanks bro.

>>7093943
CSP.
No, pretty sure they redo it themselves. The lettering the author does is just temporary.
This font is just an okay looking one I found by googling for fonts, Noto Sans Japanese Regular.

>>7094408
For web publishing it doesn't matter, though you should still try to keep text away from the edge of the page simply because it's annoying to read when the text is too close to the edge.
Printing borders only really matter for printing.

putting ink to a draft that's been sitting around for months is a good feeling
it looks like shit but it feeds my soul

This is more a writing question. Do you all ever read a manga, and think "This author is very intentionally not doing X cliche/trope", and have it bother you? It's hard to think of an example off the top of my head. Sometimes it feels like an author is telling us that they aren't like other manga. And that can kinda hamper my enjoyment when reading. But at the same time, there are other manga that feel unique and don't do things the same as most manga, but don't give me that same negative feeling.

It's still too early for me to be worrying about that for my own writing, but I'm curious if anyone understands what I'm talking about, and how one might avoid it.

>>7094439
>>7094581
could you tell me what file setup you use? Just a normal DIN A5 or for example a comic preset in CSP? Huge thanks, I have no idea about any of this!

>>7088233
>get to the flash forward/back and it was much easier to read
i figure, yeah. the first chapter is pretty much vestige of the previous couple of reboots on this subject. I've developed a much better ideas of how I wanted to structure my story after that. Although it is still kind of bad.

>>7088236
I was being cheeky with it, I thought I was being unique for using Assassin (ASS) instead of Ninja (NIN) and Fighter (FGT) instead of Warrior (WAR). I kind of hope someone would point it out but people on twitter was too polite at the time.

>>7093568
>>7093936

I think it was pointed out before, but it took an unreasonably long time between my updates, and my taste and priorities often changes between when I finish pages. Many of those pages are also adaptation from previous iterations and re-arranged. Its kind of a mass. Comic pages and ideas across over 10 years have interspersed between chapter 1-4. I think chapter 5 will be the first chapter that actually made up of all brand new pages. Sometimes I work traditionally, sometimes I work all digital, depending on my circumstances because it changes a lot when those pages were being worked on. Although now I am pretty much all digital now because my personal computer is pretty much always available to me now when I had the time to work.

>>7094852
When I'm not using the publisher-specific format I'm just drawing on the default b4 600 dpi canvas with the default b4 trim. Yes, in CSP.

Almost got the whole intro sketched now.

>>7094928
>>7094929
Smug gyarus.... they need correction!

I want to make a little 4koma series or some other small project for the first time.
I was hoping to grind out enough fundamentals to already be "good at art" before trying to make something of my own but it seems I should be doing my own projects regardless of my skill level.
How can my /beg/ ass come up with a manga protagonist design?

>>7095319
>it seems I should be doing my own projects regardless of my skill level
Yes. If you try to grind fundies until you're magically "good enough" you will never start because you will never decide you are "good enough." Besides, if you're earnestly practicing while you draw little comics then your skill level should improve over time regardless (not that there's anything wrong with doing dedicated practice sessions on the side still, of course).

Kind of confused by what you mean by manga protagonist design though. Do you mean how to come up with just a simple appealing style? Because "manga protagonist" includes everyone from Ken from Fist of the North Star to the whatever-the-fuck-is-this-outfit of One Piece's characters.

>>7095330
I would argue a skill level where one is comfortable drawing the human figure is required.
If you're struggling on every page just to get a readable image taking 4 hours just on resting full body shots well you ain't going to get very far to begin with.
>>7095319
So what I would say practice until you're comfortable. Practice until you feel like you can get a character like you're writing a sentence and everything is consistent. imo consistency in manga is more important than the overall quality of the art. But of course symbol drawing chicken scratch scribbles aren't going to leave you with a good feeling.

>>7095330
simple yet appealing, for sure. all I really need to start is a cute character I can draw consistently in a couple different poses/expressions.
something like the one this guy uses is what I'd like to imitate. ultra simple, but it's not like I can come up with a style of my own.
at my skill level I can't really draw from memory or construct, only copy >>7087849

>>7087282
I take it you are the anon with the blood borne-esque theme.?

>>7095348
Frankly, that copy and memory drawing isn't too shabby. As long as you can draw a character in a variety of simple poses that don't take forever each time as >>7095347 has said, you can make a comic. Whether that comic is up to the standard you WANT is, of course, a whole other thing.

>>7094884
So help me out a little then, I tried to re-read your first couple chapters, and I would like some thing cleared up.
There are at least 4 stories going on here?
1. Rococo running/fighting from this beast on the radio with someone
2. Group of 4 girls with our main character (who isn't rococo)
3. A group of 2 bunny eared girls (who the 4 later meet up with)
4. But it turns out (some or all) this is actually being explained by another girl to a mangaka?
5. Another 2 people in a highrise, who dont want to alert the princess
6. Another group of 3 girls who are going to fight this giant monster thing
And this is all in the first 15 pages. If you could summarize what's going on, I would appreciate it, because I dont get comfortable until we are introduced to Vivian formally in the b&w chapter.
Also I wasn't aware you inked that, that makes me like your art even more

>>7095349
No, I'm doing a slice of life vigilante/hero thing.

Since the thread is about to reach bump limit i would like to post my first 11 pages so i would like to get feedback on my paneling, story, dialogue, ect

And i would like to get some tips on lineart, i have just done the character lineart, but the thing is that i didn't touch my wacom since 2022 until this last sunday and i have my fuck up hand so i wanna now how "acceptable" is my current lineart or digital art at all

>>7095583
Your art style's really starting to grow on me. I look forward to seeing how your comic pans out.

>>7095618
Go for it? I also intend to post my first 10 pages for feedback
>>7095627
Appreciate it.

>>7095618
>>7095644
Welps, here it goes

>>7095647

>>7095648

>>7095649

>>7095650

>>7095653

>>7095656

>>7095657

>>7095660

>>7095663

>>7095647
Left to right?

>>7095672
Yep

>>7095686
Well, it's not making sense left to right, so I'm going to read it right to left.

>>7095666
Ok, so here is my critique.
+Good Panel flow (right to left) I always knew what to read next
+Easy to read expressions. I could see the emotion the character was trying to convey
+Fairly easy to relate to subject. (feeling odd, anxious, etc)
+No text walls. It's broken up fairly well.
+Good variety of angles
-You need a proper translator. Fairly easy to see you're ESL
-Hands are not your strongpoint, keep practicing those.
-You mention "rebound girl". I had no clue any character was a girl, they both look like dudes.

Also, you have some pages that have 9 panels, normally this isn't ideal, but I think it might work for you because of how simple the format is.

>>7095656
>>7095657
>>7095660

You said you had only done the character lineart up until this point, what do you plan for backgrounding? Sorry to hear about your hand, what happened to it?

>>7095724
I'm sorry, i'm retard...
I should start using that hand trick to know which is which

>>7095736
>You mention "rebound girl". I had no clue any character was a girl, they both look like dudes.
It's not a girl, is just was his way of saying that he usually doesn't hang out with him when the other guy is dating

New thread can be located at

>>7095889
>>7095889
>>7095889
>>7095889
>>7095889

>>7095349
>anon with the blood borne
I miss that guy, he hasn't posted in a while

>>7092783
I wouldn't say easy, more like time efficient. Sure, you can type up a paragraph in about a minute (ignoring the edits and re-edits which take much longer.) Good prose is like watching a good movie. You can enjoy a movie and feel its effects, but unless you're a seasoned critic and know how movies are made you can't say why you like it beyond "Oh yea that character was cool." Its easy to fall into the trap of thinking writing is easier just because everyone can technically type a sentence, but in reality its an invisible art form.

How about anons I want to ask.
I'm studying Horikoshi's art and I want to ask you guys (even if you don't like his drawing style since it's a bit eccentric)
What makes you say "This is a Horikoshi style"
After studying it for a couple of months I made my notes
>He is very expressive with his hands
> The mouths are very large and their teeth are to some extent prominent (if you look closely you can even notice the gums)
> It has different types of eyes to communicate what the character is like (Redondos is good-natured, straight eyes for serious or evil characters and rectangular eyes for peculiar characters.
I really want to get Horikoshi's style