My main goal for this one shot study was to show a basic story line without any dialogue. I was able to show that at a beginner and basic level. However, my art work looked amateurish given I’m a beginner. I was able to implement my learning studies with construction and simplification of an object.
As a beginner manga artist, I felt scared and nervous about showing these two pages since I felt like I was not at a good enough level to create manga. However, I had to put that nagging voice to rest by committing to my story board drawings and not fixing any mistakes. My thought process was to commit to this rough draft in order to learn about what I was struggling with and build those skills. After my analysis of these panels, I found three crucial weaknesses to work on:
- Figure construction and proportions
This is the clearest issue. The seated character on page 1 (top page), the standing figures, shoulders, necks, arms, and heads aren’t consistently constructed as 3D masses yet. Some bodies become more like symbols/outlines than volumes. I also didn’t know how to get that last panel right where the character is walking at night in the city which combined perspective and figure proportion.
2. Perspective and character occupying space
The restaurant is understandable as a restaurant, but the tables, chairs, walls, windows, counters and figures don’t consistently share a perspective system. The seated figure is the most revealing example: the chair, table and person don’t quite feel like they’re sitting on the same floor plane. The character doesn’t look like he’s occupying a 3D space with people.
3. head/face construction and consistency
My main character in this one shot changes noticeably between panels because the head is often being drawn as an outline with facial features added afterward. The front-facing faces especially flatten out. I was unable to get a consistent head based on where the character was sitting at the restaurant. I left out details on his face since I was not able to draw facial features evenly.
My Study Routine Going Forward
Rather than only drawing manga pages repeatedly and hoping that I improve, I want to combine structured fundamentals practice with actual manga creation. I will be continuing through three resources: Armand Cassagne’s Guide de l’Alphabet du Dessin, the Drawabox course, and the Proko youtube catalogue. Each one approaches drawing fundamentals from a slightly different direction.
Cassagne will be my observation and measurement practice. I’ll use the exercises discussed in his book to improve my ability to judge proportions, angles, shapes, and eventually draw objects and environments more accurately from observation. This will allow me to draw more proportionate objects based on classic atelier instruction.
Drawabox will be my construction and spatial-reasoning practice. I’ve already worked extensively with lines, ellipses and boxes, including completing the 250 Box Challenge. Going forward, I want to become better at constructing objects from simple three-dimensional forms rather than copying their outlines.
Last but not least, I will be using Proko to learn more about figure drawing. Right now I’m working on mannequinization, which consists of simplifying the body into manageable three-dimensional forms while paying attention to gesture and proportion. My first manga pages showed me that this is something I especially need to improve.
But I don’t want to wait until I’ve “mastered” these fundamentals before making another manga one shot attempt. Instead, I’ll alternate between studying and applying what I’ve learned. Essentially, I will be using this active learning approach:
Study → Practice → Manga → Review → Identify weaknesses → Targeted study → Next manga
My first two completed pages are essentially my baseline. After another period of fundamentals practice, I’ll make another short manga and compare the results. Instead of expecting each new comic to look professional, I’m going to use each one to test whether the things I’m studying are actually transferring into my artwork.
My goal for this journey isn’t for Manga #002 to suddenly be good. The goal is for each new manga to be better than the one before it. But beyond technical improvement, I eventually want to create original stories that give the reader something to feel, think about, or reflect on.
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