I was away for exams, and finally when exams arrived, I couldn’t keep up with the getting onto drawing. After which many things creeped up on me; where I broke up with my girlfriend, got stuck in a disillusion of how to pick myself up in life simply because I just do not know where to go.

After which, I pop into my email, and somebody send me through a comment asking me to keep up the good work. You know, such comments like this are morale boosters. They really pick you up well.

I did not want to have a 3 minute frenzy with my journey in manga. Actually I was so into it, I bought an Intuos 4 to pick up drawing, bought Adobe Creative Suite (Education version since I am a student), and even have Comic Studio with me. Besides I have invested in a manga teacher for lessons.

I have literally spent over a thousand bucks on this journey. However manga comic artists are all humans, and they sucuumb to pressure, people’s opinions, setbacks and disappointments.

So if you do want to be a manga artist, just know that you are not in the normal stream of what people are going through. The learning curve is tough, and the rewards seem far.

The learning curve is so tough, that as manga artist, you usually need to draw tendons and muscle groups well to be effective, know perspectives well, and you are not only an artist, but a script and a movie director all into one. The mountain of tasks to learn is as overwhelming now.

That’s life isn’t it?

Thank you for that comment of encouragement; and thanks Digital Strip for dropping me a message. I will take note, and will see how I can slowly salvage my manga journey.

Might even resort to stickman drawing to learn about perspectives, but hey, it is a start isn’t it?

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I know it has been ridiculously long since I had a new post, however there were some delays and I just had many assignments to clear recently.

I promised to share updates from my previous post, “Manga Journey update: I am recommended for a job!“, about a new mini job.

First off, my first post at Digital Strips is finally up! It is a review on a webmanga, by the name of Model Behaviour, and if you are interested, do take a look at the review.

A female friend of mine commented to me about the webmanga that it is good. So do check it out if you are interested!

And there were some miscommunication, as the wrong authority rights for its website were given to me, hence my first post was pending for review for a long while.

Also, I was busy with my assignments in school, so it was really difficult to focus properly as just a few days ago, I had only 7 hours of sleep for 2 days!

So please pardon me.

Other updates…

For now, I decided not to put up manga webcomic reviews on this site for DigitalStrips.

That’s because I really want to focus more on the journeys for an aspiring webcomic artist here, and not so much on giving news on webcomics like Digital Strips.

So for that, I might just point you to for updates on webmanga reviews or other news, unless I change the direction for Manga Journey.

About my job at Digital Strips, Daku the owner, wants me to post regularly, at least twice a week for their site.

And I will earn a little monetary incentive, however I don’t think its appropriate to release such details, so I won’t be able to say anything.

For now, I will be doing a little more research on other webcomics, especially for the manga genre. Expect even interviews for webcomic authors too!

And I will post up more on my journey when my busy schedule dies down.

Stay tuned for more updates!

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I just tried inking with my manga teacher from my previous lesson, and it is really alot of things to learn again!

Anyway, what I am introducing here is traditional manga inking, and not digital inking where you use digital tools like Manga Studio or Adobe Photoshop. I wanted to know inking from the traditional perspective before going into digital mode.

Seriously, after going through my inking lessons, learning how to create manga comics seems to be no end; but let me share with you my journey so that you are mentally prepared for it.

Manga Journey: Intro to Inking

According to my manga teacher, inking is supposed to be done only at the final stage of your drawing. There should be absolutely no corrections nor mistakes because the changes are irreversible.

In my previous post, “Manga tools and equipment part 1“, I shared about the tools needed for manga.

Right now for inking, we will be needing 3 things which I have described in the previous post..

First, you need a pen holder with a pen nib to ink with.

You will also need a bottle of ink. It’s Chinese caligraphy ink I supposed.

Finally, you need paper quality of 100 gsm, and that’s what people call “manga paper”. However, this paper is expensive, so I just used 80 gsm paper for demostration.

Process of inking

Supposed you already have a final piece of artwork ready to be inked, and you know that you are not going to add in anymore corrections.

First, this pen nib and pen holder is very traditional; it doesn’t have a tube of ink to feed ink into the pen nib.

Rather, we need to consistently dip the pen nib into the ink for awhile for the ink to be refilled.

What happens here? The capiliaries of the nib will be soaked with ink, and when you press the pen nib onto paper, the capiliaries will release the ink on to what you are drawing.

/*Click to enlarge the photo
I wonder you can see the capiliaries here, but at least you can see a giant hole on the pen nib, and a straight capiliary down in the middle. That’s where the ink will be contained.

Why do you need to know this? This means that while inking, you will run out of ink pretty quickly.

If you do not plan or strategize your inking process, your ink will run out half way while inking, and if it happens in the middle of a line, which is not at a cross-section or a joint, it will be a very obvious mistake because the previous line and the latter line will not match.

So there needs to be some practice even with inking.

Also, the ink tends to smudge the pages if we are too forceful, or if the pen nib is spoilt, or the paper quality is too low (lesser than 80 gsm).

/*Click on the photo to enlarge

If you observe the photo, the left side of my drawing has little smudges of ink and is darker than the right side.

Somehow too much ink came out of the pen nib while I was doing some practice, and the smudges occured.

Some tips to practice with inking

When I first got my inking set, my manga teacher have me test every of the pen nibs that I was given.

Why? That’s because:

1. There is usually a layer of wax to prevent the pen nibs from rusting within the pen nibs. Traditional manga artists generally use a lighter’s flame to melt it, but my teacher said it runs the risk of spoiling the pen nibs; she rather me keep using the pen nibs to remove the layer of wax.
2. To find a particular pen nib that I would prefer so that I can practice with it, so that my inking will be consistent.

However there is no doubt that I have to use every pen nib that I was given, because the smaller ones will cater to fine details while the bigger ones cater to large areas of mass.

Also, to practice, my manga teacher advised me to get those coloring books of manga comics, such as Naruto or Bleach, carbon copy it to paper, and practise inking.

Later on, when I am more proficient with inking, I will do it on my own artwork.

Final words for this post

Inking itself is an art, because it still requires the appropriate skill to create lines that are consistent, so that our final art piece will look consistent.

It will be a long journey before I can start producing comics, but I guess that makes the journey worthwhile.

That’s all for this post! Stay tuned for more updates on manga journey!

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series by Mizuki Kawashita

Ane Doki, a manga series that I have been following, just got axed by Shonen Jump!

It is said that the series was having bad ratings in Japan, and hence the publisher decided to axe this series.

That’s the world of manga in Japan; although you get to be very famous and your comic may never look like ending, like One Piece who has been running for more than 10 years, yet the downside of it is that your manga series can be easily axed when your comic isn’t favored by the community.

I am slightly disappointed that they didn’t continue with Ane Doki, which was getting interesting with the development.

Background of Ane Doki

Ane Doki is a harem romantic series by Mizuki Kawashita, who was the author of another romance manga series called Ichigo 100% (otherwise known as Strawberry 100%).

It revolves around a young 13 year old teenage boy, Kouta Ochiai, where suddenly he met a daring and mysterious high school freshman girl, Natsuki Hagiwara, who was 17.

Natsuki Hagiwara gatecrashed Kouta’s house, taking advantage at the fact that his father, seemingly the only kin of Kouta, was suddenly transfered to another place due to work.

She therefore stayed at Kouta’s house, apparently running away from home, but she remained mysteriously and avoided questions about her background and the reason of her running away from her.

Romance brewed between Kouta and Natsuki, as Natsuki was daring, beautiful, and always tried to maintain physical contact with Kouta.

Kouta, on the other hand, was just a 13 year old guy, and he was constantly frustrated and flustered over Natsuki’s behavior.

After which, more girls are added to the story, and the series ended at 26 chapters.

My opinions of Ane Doki

Ane Doki was fresh, but lacked realism at the start. The whole gatecrashing of a 17 year old beautiful girl at a 13 year old boy’s house really seemed unlikely.

Also, ahout a 17 years old girl, who is as beautiful as swimsuit models, would have developed feelings for a 13 year old boy just seemed too incredible.

However, I thought being manga, having some form of fantasy and ‘out of this world’ dreams can be intriguing, so I stayed with the manga series.

And I kind of liked a little as to how the story goes, and the mysteriousness around the female lead.

But since this manga series is featured in Shonen Jump, in Japan, and the community there didn’t rate it well, it was axed.

Final words for this post

Manga is a difficult industry, as it is really an unforgiving career. In Japan, they don’t really allow you to have a slow start.

And I do recommend taking a look at Ane Doki, although it is a short series. The artwork is really great, and there are some moments that are rather exciting.

That’s it for today’s post! Stay tuned for more updates on manga journey!

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from mr_shanab

In my previous post, Pencil sketching examples 2: how to draw manga tutorials, I shared about how you can use photo references to help you draw and improve on our artwork.

And one of the major assignments from my manga teacher was to look for photo references to aid me in my drawing.

While searching, I chanced upon some really good photo references resources that I am going to share with you about!

What is the advantage of having a good photo reference for drawing?

Before I begin sharing about comic photo reference resources, it will be good to share with you the benefits of references as good guides for drawing.

A good photo reference is important because you do not want to draw poses that are impossible for real humans to perform; unless you are making your characters as Luffy D. Monkey in One Piece.

Realism is very essential in manga comics, and if you put characters that are in poses which are impossible to perform, it is going to make your artwork look very bad.

Also, you want to draw people with good anatomy proportions.

A photo reference is a great guide for comparison, to allow to see whether your drawings are anatomically correct.

Lastly, you want to experiment with different perspectives in your artwork.

Manga is all about drawing in perspective, and how you want to relate your drawings to the reader in order to make your story telling fruitful.

/*Picture on the right from buddy_scalera, click to enlarge

Just like the photo on the right, you don’t want to always draw your characters in an upright position.

Experimenting with different perspective, like drawing your character as though you are looking up to her, has tremendous effects on your storytelling.

Therefore comic photo references are precious resources that every manga or comic artist should look into, especially if you are drawing people in your comics.

How to draw people: comic photo reference resources

Comic photo reference poses are really difficult to find online, simply because we don’t usually carry swords or guns and take pictures with them.

However, there is one comic artist by the name of Buddy Scalera, who apparently took photos of people with many poses and even with equipment!

/*Picture on the right from buddy_scalera, click to enlarge

Buddy Scalera made 3 albums of these photos, and is currently selling them as book on Amazon to aspiring comic artists who want good references in order to help in drawing.

I will just briefly share with you what does he have in store in these albums.

People and Poses

from buddy_scalera

In this book, he has many great photos that contain different poses and perspective for you to draw inspiration from.

/*Picture on the right from buddy_scalera, click to enlarge

Example on the right are poses and perspectives that you might want to try out in your drawings.

Especially photos that contains how the person holds a weapon, it is important to learn how to illustrate hands that are gripping a weapon.

Women and girls

from buddy_scalera

This book is dedicated to drawing women and girls, and he has even examples on actions, like women taking off clothes!

Don’t worry, the models are fully dressed from the beginning to the end.

from buddy_scalera

I particularly like the above pose and equipment for a girl.

In my opinion, it is great to have a girl who has a tough looking front for a comic.

Men and boys

from buddy_scalera

Last but not least, the men and boys have their own gallery as well!

from buddy_scalera

The above is a really cool photo and perspective to draw from.

It really show clearly the cool look of the person from these perspective. Maybe I should try drawing this out someday.

Final words for this post

There are many other sample pictures that I have, but I will try to load it up as a slideshow or something for you to browse on.

Meanwhile, you may just try to use these samples, and if you really like the photos, do consider purchasing the books for your own research.

That’s it for this post! Stay tuned for more updates on manga journey!

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from Creekside Artists

I was just offered a proposal by http://digitalstrips.com/ to be one of their Manga bloggers for their website!

And they are going to give me some money as an incentive or appreciation when I blog for them! However, nothing is decided by both parties yet so I can’t comment any more than this.

Yet I am truly overjoyed when my manga-journey blog is recognized!

What does this mean?

What is important is not the amount of money that I can get out of blogging, but what it truly important is that when you put your heart and soul onto your dreams, be in your own manga or webcomic journey, there will be others that will recognize you!

I hope this will encourage all those who are daring to do webcomics or manga as part of their vision.

You see, we start small, and then end it big. Too many of us are discouraged because the road seems tough and everything looks like chaos.

Like one of my beginning stickman art to practice the art of illustration, road are full of hurdles.

So it gets really tiring fast when noone is walking alongside with you in your journey.

However as long as you continue, even in the smallest steps, you are still progressing. Just don’t stop at any point!

A cord of three strands is not easily broken.

I am also going for Japanese lesson to learn how to speak and write Japanese, while going for manga classes.

However, there was once that I nearly gave up Japanese altogether, because I had to skip Japanese class to complete my university assignments.

And I held up the whole class because I couldn’t translate some English into Japanese. It was an embarrassing situation.

A classmate came up to me, encouraged me, and asked me to start a study group for Japanese together!

That really encouraged me altogether, and after awhile, during my holidays I was able to pick up again and continue my journey!

Now I wished I have someone to walk with me in my manga journey too.

And all that is hanging on with me is my manga teacher.

So if you have like minded friends who are into manga drawing, do form a “study group” together if possible. Otherwise, it’s easy to give up, as the lack of practice will dull our abilities.

Final words for this post.

I am still not due with my next assignment with my manga teacher, and hopefully I will be able to produce some drawing first before going through my inking lesson.

And I will let you know about the progress of this manga blogging job. I’m keeping my hopes up and I hope you are encouraged too!

That’s it for this post. Stay tuned for more updates on my manga journey!

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from Futuregirl_LeahRiley

Ever wondered what are the tools and equipment needed to create your very own paperback manga comic?

In this post I will be sharing about some of the tools that were given to me by my manga teacher in my previous lesson with her, and how it will help in creating my first manga comic.

Manga tools and equipment part 1

/*Click the photo to enlarge

As you can see above, these are the tools that my manga teacher has given me thus far. She forgot to bring brushes, tracing paper, and some other items that are needed to create my first paperback manga comic.

I will just introduce a little about these tools.

From the left, the set square and the coloring palette needs no introduction, as the former is usually found in mathematical instruments for measurements and the latter is used to contain the inks that are to be used for inking.

What really caught my eyes were the following tools.

/*Click on the photo on the right to enlarge

On the right photo, these are the inks that are used for inking.

Inking is the process of coloring for traditional black and white manga or comics.

Once the manga artist draws his artwork with pencil, inking will help to define his drawing lines to make the art look real.

I was pretty amazed that these inks were the same inks used for Chinese caligraphy, however my manga teacher told me that traditionally manga artists used these very inks for their manga comics too.

/*Click on the photo on the right to enlarge

On the right, this is the pen holder and pen nibs used for inking.

To use these tools, just attach a pen nib to the pen holder, and it will be the pen for you to use inking.

These pen holders aren’t very durable; after many uses the pen holder might not be able to secure the pen nibs tightly, and once that happens it is time to change a new pen holder.

The pen nibs look like caligraphy nibs that I have used in school. It is awhile since I have used such pens.

Just like normal caligraphy pen nibs, these pen nibs are fragile; any unnecessary pressure on it might split the nibs.

Also, they rust easily, so my manga teacher suggests for me to invest a little in sewing oil, and clean them right after every use.

Final words for this post

I have not been taught on how to use these tools yet, and as homework for my next lesson I am supposed to produce a full profile manga character artwork for inking.

So till then, I will reveal on the other manga tools and equipment when my manga teacher remembers to bring them, and I will share about how to use these tools to create your first manga comic paperback.

Stay tuned for more updates on my manga journey!

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from buddy_scalera

In a webcomics forum, I asked a question to find out if there are anyone who is already earning some money from their webcomics.

It is a valid question, because to me, the future of webcomics is really dependant on whether is it profitable or not.

Webcomics and money

The result is this, almost everyone who replied were not earning money directly from their webcomics; many of them claim that because people liked their artwork, they are offered jobs instead.

What are these jobs? Some of these are as follows:

• Drawing a cartoon for an ad, a postcard or a flyer.
• Design a mascot.
• Editors of some magazines, websites or business newsletters wanted to use some webcomics from the webcomic artist’s website.
• Designing special gifts for someone special.
• Drawing an illustration for a book.

Now these are just some of the jobs that I have come across; there may be others out there. As you can see, a webcomic artist do earn some money indirectly from their webcomics.

However, it has a bad effect, because webcomic artists spend less time on their webcomics and more time making money by drawing for other people instead.

Also, there are webcomic artists that earn directly from advertisements at their websites, but usually they only earn enough to buy themselves a cup of coffee and not enough to earn a living.

This is rather sad to me actually.

Is this statement true? “If you’re doing a webcomic for the money, you’re doing it for the wrong reason.”

Personally, I don’t believe in that statement.

A webcomic or a manga artist must make enough money to support a family and enjoy life, to produce a great storyline and artwork for people to enjoy.

Imagine having a working person that can only work on their comics or manga after their work.

He or she cannot focus in their passion for webcomics, as other responsibilties such as supporting the family and maintaining a livelihood.

As a result, they are prone to commit errors, some of which are listed in “How to start a webcomic: Top 10 mistakes to avoid“, and it destroys their readership.

That is why most people, especially parents, discourage and even forbid their loved ones from indulging in creating manga or webcomics, because it is impractical for life.

And they are not far from the truth.

There are so many people who think little about artists, just because drawing isn’t a very profitable trade for many people.

Hence, so many people give up on creating their own webcomics or manga, and who can blame them?

Does money destroy creativity and originality in webcomics or manga?

That’s some of the concerns that people have, because they fear that the motivation of money can kill creativity when webcomic artists are too focused on trying to please their audience or employers for money.

In my opinion, money does not necessarily destroy creativity and originality; it is down to different individual’s beliefs.

It is as good as saying, the rich is proud because he has alot of money, and the poor is humble because he has no money. That’s a sweeping statement which may not be necessarily true.

Some webcomic or manga artists are able to stand their ground in their creativity and originality, without bending towards money, while others may not be able to do it.

However, this is surely not a reason to discourage people from making money directly from webcomics. It is just down to different individual’s belief system.

Final words for this post

As I am doing my own manga journey, I will be looking at options of how I can make money from webcomics directly.

It is not because I am just money minded; its just that a good webcomic needs alot of time and devotion for quality and recognition.

And if I do come across anything substantial, I will try to share them to you.

So what do you think? “If you’re doing a webcomic for the money, you’re doing it for the wrong reason.” Share it at the comments below.

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from docpi

In this post, I am going to share about some of the resources that I used to help me improve in my manga drawing skills.

Most of my manga drawing skills do not come from these online resources, because I have a manga teacher which teaches me individually on how to draw.

And I will still suggest for you to get a manga teacher who can teach and help you draw well. It is important as online manga resources cannot help you keep track about your level of competence and improvement in your drawing skills.

However online manga resources are still important for exposure and information, and for this reason I would like to share with you some of these resources that I use.

How to draw manga tutorials resource: MangaTutorials.com

This is a screenshot by me, on the homepage of http://mangatutorials.com/.

Basically, if you have been searching for manga tutorials on Google, you will undoubtedly find this page.

It has one of the most complete manga tutorials that I have found; from the basics of becoming a manga artist, all the way to publishing your first manga comics; it truly is a near complete guide.

They also have a forum for this website as well!

What I love about MangaTutorials.com

Looks are deceiving, as MangaTutorials.com really covers a whole lot of subjects that you wouldn’t know about.

There is even a list on publishers you might want to engage if you want to print your first comic book! And really, there is too much to talk about it here.

The most fascinating subject for me is the tutorial on how to use the Manga Studio software.

If you do not know what is Manga Studio, it is a simple software which allows you to create comics easily. It has in-built panels, helps you in creating your storyline, and much more!

And as I am looking to produce black and white webcomics, Manga Studio is a great tool!

I haven’t found a great tutorial on Manga Studio online, and I am glad that there is a step-by-step series on how to use Manga Studio.

What I do not like about MangaTutorials.com

Although it covers many subjects, it does not have video tutorials for demostrations and you are left to learn by reading the words while looking at the pictures for examples.

Besides, I personally find that they are not detailed enough in their manga tutorials. After having personal coaching from a manga teacher, I felt that there are still many details in drawing that have yet to be covered.

So basically, it is really difficult for someone to learn from these manga tutorials, and if you do not like to read, probably MangaTutorials.com isn’t for you.

However, it isn’t easy to come up with manga tutorials anyway, and drawing isn’t an easy subject to teach, so I doubt that there are many better websites than MangaTutorials.com which could teach well.

Also, the information they have there is so overwhelming, your head will feel heavy after reading all those information.

How to benefit from MangaTutorials.com

1. Join their forum, post up your artwork and let them critique your abilities.

The community in their forum is good, so in most cases you won’t be left feeling condemned after others critiqued your work.

2. Read their manga tutorials slowly, otherwise you will choke from all the information.

3. If you need information other than drawing tutorials, like how to apply toning, or if you want to look for publishers and other information, this is a very good place to search from.

4. They have activities like drawing competitions and all sorts, so it helps you practice your drawing skills while you can have fun!

Well, the above is not exhaustive, but I guess I made my point that MangaTutorials.com is a website worth checking out.

Final words for this post

If you have any other comic, manga or other webcomic resources that you want to share, let me know in the comments box, and I will do up a post or review on it.

I hope this will help you in your journey to become a manga, a comic or a webcomic artist.

Stay tuned for more updates on Manga Journey!

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from City Eyes

I have yet to explain my disappearance for almost 2 weeks from the beginning of December before my previous post, and I thought I should be giving some insight of my personal struggles as an aspiring webcomic or manga artist.

I realized that I have not been giving personal details of myself concerning my manga journey, and it’s about time to let you know what are they, so that you can identify with me.

Struggles as an aspiring webcomic artist: 16 December 2009

My university exams were on the 6th and the 9th of December respectively, but that was no reason for me not to update Manga Journey.

This is because, if you noticed BoyfriendGiftIdeas.org, you will find that I have been updating that blog in the midst of my exams.

Why is that so?

Before my exams, I had major assignments due, such as a group assignment on programming a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game on tanks, and doing other individual assignments such as video and sound engineering.

It had been a really difficult period, and I have constantly stayed up all night at my friend’s place for consecutive days to finish our assignments.

And so I have not been meeting my manga teacher for lessons either, as I also do not have the time to finish my manga art homework.

Therefore in mid-November, I was a little out of practice with drawing manga, and hence lost some of my drive to update Manga Journey.

Not to mention I was also out of ideas to know what I should be updating Manga Journey about.

Disappointments led to more disappointments

This blog has been a little difficult to maintain.

I have been looking for a free Wordpress theme blog that allows readers to read easily, while allowing me to input some of my mini webcomics up.

However due to my lack of knowledge and experience on Wordpress themes, I have been moving this blog from theme to theme, and I ended up frustrated for my lack of options available.

And I have resorted to ComicPress, but it didn’t really satisfy my needs, and soon I reverted back to the original theme where I first begun.

Afterwards, my RSS feeds wouldn’t work well, and I ended up having more disappointments on trying to fix this Wordpress theme instead. (And it’s still not fixed, I will still have to get a better blog theme.)

If you get the drift, I was just so disappointed with my manga journey, that I didn’t even dare to look at my visitors statistics of my blog for weeks.

Light at the other side of the tunnel

During that time, Artpatient took hold of one of my blog posts, “How to start a webcomic: Top 10 mistakes to avoid“, and post it up in his blog.

Immediately that day I had 200 visitors!

I knew in my heart that these 200 visitors are just going to be temporal, so although I was pleasantly surprised, I wasn’t confident about the consistency with the number of visitors.

However, there are some comments that start to spring up in my blog in a language that I do not understand.

In my ignorance, I thought it was spam, and I deleted it. (I am really sorry if I deleted your comments if you wrote here in a foreign language, as I only know English and Chinese as my primary languages.)

It turned out that the language was in Hebrew, and immediately another surprise sprung up.

And I ranked for Israel, which means visitors from Israel kept coming to my blog. I really am encouraged about it.

My alexa ranking isn’t at all fantastic, but I also got page rank 1 for my blog. And I thought it was an encouragement for the effort that I put it.

So for the disapperance of my 2 weeks, and for those readers who faithfully came for updates, I really am sorry.

Final words for this post

To sum it all, this manga journey blog literally kept me going, and I am resuming my manga lessons with my teacher very soon.

I was a little rusty in drawing after being out of practice for weeks, but it will soon pass.

If you have any discouragement about starting your own manga journey, don’t worry, you are not alone.

That’s all for this post. Stay tuned for more updates on manga journey!

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