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In this episode I want to share with you my MANGA creation journey, the progress I’ve made so far and where I’m headed.
So let’s jump into it!
Some Background on My Manga Project
A few months back I rekindled my manga fire, and in particular a desire rose for me to create one.
I’ve been reading manga for many years now, and love this genre. I grew up on many anime series too, before even knowing what manga was.
So inevitably, manga raises strong emotions of nostalgia with me, as well as a strong creative desire.
And so I decided that now is a good time to start planning out creating my own manga.
Jumping head-First Into Manga
I got started by writing a few quick stories, then taking one of them and starting to draw a draft for it (what you call a “name”).
In the process, I realized just how much more I have to learn, and decided to take a step back, and work on some other things.
Digital Manga Tools & Techniques
I plan on doing this entire project digitally, as it makes SO MUCH more sense. I also recently bought the Huion Kamvas Pro 16, and planned on using it for that purpose.
As I was working on my first story, I slowly realized how I have SO MUCH to learn when it comes to the DIGITAL tools, with the main one being Clip Studio.
This software is AMAZING for making manga, comics and illustrations.
So I started doing studies of mangas and illustrations I love and admire, to get the ropes of clip studio – drawing with different tools, screen-tones, effects and so on.
The newest project I created was translating a scene from The Witcher TV series into a manga page. You can see some of the result at the top of the page, but here’s the full page (read from right to left like a traditional manga).
I’m especially proud of the 2nd panel, which is the result of my researching what an old crossbow’s trigger looks like, and my hand used as reference.
Drawing Manga People
The next challenge I encountered, that also made me want to take a step back is drawing people.
The challenge here is twofold – there’s the aspect of drawing relatively accurate (and often detailed) anatomy, and then there’s translating it into the manga style.
This is why you saw me sketching LOADS of figures recently. I’ve been turning real people into manga characters, but more often reconstructing and drawing manga characters with the anatomical knowledge I gained (so instead of just drawing what I see, I actually built the anatomy of the character, layer by layer, and only then add clothings.
Here are some examples of figures & manga figures.
As you can see, Naruto and Bleach had a serious impact on me 😉
Writing a Story is HARD
THIS. It’s the biggest challenge I’ve had so far. I’m so new to creating a setting, plot, characters, dialog etc.
It’s simply hard for me to imagine my characters coming to life, and acting on their own.
But I assume that’s just how it is when getting started, and I’m pretty sure it will improve with practice.
I already dove really deep on one or two stories, fleshing out the world, plot overview and characters, but I sometimes feel like it’s TOO MUCH for the point I’m at, lacking any experience in actually drawing and creating a manga!
Which brings me to my next point…
Where I’m At Now With Manga
My goal for the next 2 months is to come up with many short / quick stories, and create few pages of them. I mean really short – 1-2 page long stories, scenes and scenarios.
I want to practice the entire process, and drop the perfectionism of writing down EVERY single detail of the story.
I want to get accustomed to creating simple characters, drawing facial expressions, working on panel arrangements and so on.
I think it will be a very useful step, as a preparation for writing a slightly longer and more serious story.
And I hope this process will interest you too! As I will share some of it.
Thank you for tuning in! 😊🙏🏼
And as always, here’s where to find me online:
TikTok – @Liron.Yan
YouTube – Liron Yanconsky Art
LinkedIn – Liron Yanconsky
Pinterest – Liron Yanconsky
Instagram – @LironYanIL
Twitter – @LironYan
— Liron
