Progress on My Manga (Skills)! | Liron’s Podcast Episode 109

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

Manga Aspirations & HUGE Challenges on The Way | Liron’s Podcast Episode 105

Today I want to share with you a new passion I started developing around MANGA!

I’ve been reading manga and watching anime for over a decade now, and somehow got back to a very old ambition of making my own.

In this episode I’m talking about my goals, what I’m currently doing and the challenges I’m facing.

Here’s a quick summary…!

What is my goal? – To create a one-shot manga chapter, from start to finish. These usually run at around 64 pages. I then want to get it published, probably in Japan.

This is a huge goal, by the way. Very few are good enough to get their works published.

Which brings me to the next point…

What am I currently doing? – To be good enough, I have a HUGE way to go, especially when it comes to drawing people in the manga style.

I have so much to learn in order to get to a publishable quality (should have made my manga in watercolor 😂).

What are the challenges? – The main one is definitely drawing people in the manga style. On the one hand, they are supposed to be somewhat realistic. Depending on the genre, you’ll see all sorts of different styles and approaches – some fairly realistic and others more cartoony.

But I do aim for a somewhat realistic style.

Then, on the other hand – it should LOOK LIKE MANGA. Not only do I need to practice realism, but also stylization and manga in particular.

To conclude, I have a long way to go, and this is definitely a long term process. I apologize if diving deeper on that takes some time away from other work, but I am doing my best to keep up with everything.

And I hope that in the future I’ll have something to show for it. And if you’re into manga – that’s perfect!

Thank you for your continued support.

You can reach out here:

TikTok – @Liron.Yan

YouTube – Liron Yanconsky Art

LinkedIn – Liron Yanconsky

Pinterest – Liron Yanconsky

Instagram – @LironYanIL

Twitter – @LironYan