Messages

1

Welcome Center / Re: New Artist

« on: Today at 01:51:51 AM »

welcome to the forum!
if you keep practising you will definitely improve, and fanart is a good way to stay focused while you are learning.
But drawing your own characters and art is also something very important!

I'm a man but still better at drawing women ehehehe

I'm also working on my writing skills at the moment as I want to be a manga/comic writer too

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General Manga writer discussions / Re: Am I overthinking social media?

« on: Today at 01:48:20 AM »

I think everyone's points well summarise the issues with social media but as you all say it is a very useful tool these days for creators, so I'll have to get used to it sooner or later.

I think I will not start straight away, all the same, and focus on actually getting my art to the level I want (at least the initial level). that way I can be more focused and then once my art is better I can focus on dealing with social media with the confidence my art quality is what I want.

@Coryn

my first instinct is to tell you to forget about it, but the reality is that social media is THE way people interact with creatives these days.

That probably sums up my opinion and dilemma at the same time.

keep it strictly professional and one sided. Don't get into fights, don't go down rabbit holes.

Yeah definitely, I think I'm only going to view it in a professional sense, similar to how I do my YouTube and DeviantArt, although both are barely touched.

If I could post to multiple places at once that would certainly be useful to save some time.

@NO1SEY

not personal ones, that way you engage with people more as a "content creator" and keep a level of separation, which hopefully sidesteps a lot of the worst parts about social media sites.

Yeah I'll definitely want to avoid personal conflicts, not just for the emotional drain but time-wise too.

And copy/pasting is something I'm getting a little more into, I sometimes posted YouTube speedpaints of my DeviantArt works and copy/pasted a bit of the comments, so probably just do more of that.

@evand498
yeah it's much better to meet up with friends face to face if you can, it's far better than any other communication. I'm hoping to use social media to promote myself as an artist, not to keep in touch with friends.

@MK
that's not a bad point, although the issue is not really the content I generate but the attitude I have towards social media and the way I plan to be using it.
For a while I did an illustration a day, for about 3 months, and posted it online, but I found it draining to deal with.

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General Manga writer discussions / Am I overthinking social media?

« on: April 12, 2021, 02:35:58 PM »

Ok so the answer is most definitely yes, I'm sure.

I think the issue is that I'm not a heavy social media user to begin with, so I've always viewed social media platforms as something I would be more engaged with once I started to become more professional (producing proper illustrations and manga), and something that I would use "professionally" only, so just posting high level stuff and not sketches, or rambling posts like I do here.

But I'm starting to think that it's something I should already be starting to use, to engage with art and writing communities more and get a bit of a following with what I'm doing already, sketches and whatnot. Basically not just posting my sketches and doodles on MR, but on other places as well.

I think because I've always viewed this forum community as a place to chill out and learn with others, I've always felt a lot more at ease expressing myself here than on other platforms, in fact I dont even have a Twitter or Instagram etc.

A second problem is that I view social media as a large drain on art and writing time that could be spent on projects, so really I want to become a hermit until I'm massively good and then "post on ALL the platforms!", kinda thing.

Not really sure what I'm having an issue with but just wanted to get it of my chest, maybe someone understands (0-0;)

4

Music / Re: The Manimal's Music

« on: April 12, 2021, 05:58:04 AM »

Ah yeah I figured some of those were in-jokes, I think that does make it harder for an "outsider" to get into it because obviously they dont get the jokes :P

It's funny that you mention "Gelgoog Tactics" because to me that was a filler song I didn't care about but you never know what other people will like!

It might be that you were less tense singing it because you didn't care too much for it, I know my art loosens up a lot when I don't care about what I'm working on. Sometimes when we want to do a good job, we focus so hard that we distract ourselves from actually being able to do good. paradoxical isn't it.


RE: Rosie Posie
I liked the extra voices parts, it added a lot of depth to the song.
also nice lyrics.

and a huge by the way,
I was playing around with some of my mum's reel to reel tapes of songs she had recorded and I swear I did a massive double take on one of the songs, I could have sworn it was you for like a whole minute, the voice, music, lyrics, song style, everything.
anyway here it is, maybe you know it or not :P

CACTUS WORLD NEWS - Worlds Apart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuKYaX5jHEg

As an interesting point I notice the drums in your songs are always quite quiet compared to this song, I wonder if you made them louder it would help to give more depth to the music. just guessing here.
As a second to that your guitar is always louder (stands out), which explains why for ages I've been getting country song vibes from your pieces but I couldn't put my finger on it.

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General Discussion / Re: Which Manga Art Styles Inspire You?

« on: April 12, 2021, 04:29:16 AM »

@MK wow!
I had seen the anime but I've never read the manga! partly because I didn't particularly like the story, but it looks like artistically it's got a lot to offer!

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General Discussion / Re: Thoughts on the Webtoon vertical format?

« on: April 12, 2021, 04:28:27 AM »

yeah I thought so too, maybe it's just I think it feels shorter somehow :P

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General Manga writer discussions / Re: Things that have made me a better writer.

« on: April 12, 2021, 04:27:27 AM »

And, if you find any really interesting things out from your favourite works please do share - I find other peoples' commentary often as interesting as the piece that they are analysing!

This is starting to sound like an analysis workshop ehehehe
I think actually writing out our observations can help in forming a more solid understanding rather than just thinking it in our heads as we look at it, and it also gives a reference of things that we have observed/things we want to try ourselves, to quickly glance back at. That's given me a couple of ideas actually.

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Welcome Center / Re: Self introduce! Check out if you have time

« on: April 11, 2021, 02:42:45 PM »

welcome back!
Steins;Gate is one of my favourite animes too!!

looks like you've got a lot of stories! we'd love to hear about them :)

9

General Discussion / Re: Which Manga Art Styles Inspire You?

« on: April 11, 2021, 02:14:04 PM »

"Inspiration" is quite the buzzword when it comes to me...it depends partly on how I interpret the word as to how I would answer it.

In terms of the fluffy feeling of "wanting to draw my own manga", almost anything I read that is half decent makes me think "what am I doing reading all this manga when I could be drawing my own....", and so it inspires me to get going with my own work.

As for particular art styles inspiring me...I would take that to mean styles that I really like, or really would like to draw as good as in my own work.
That breaks down into a couple of sections:
-Face/Body proportions
-Composition
-Backgrounds
and these can break down again and again into subsets like hair/eyes/hands etc.

Ao no Exorcist is a good example because I really like the backgrounds in it, but I don't like the face or body style.

Spoiler

D-Frag! I like the composition, as it is a comedy manga, but the face style doesn't interest me

Spoiler

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, I like the face style but not the composition or backgrounds too much

Spoiler

Really there is a lot to learn from pretty much any manga artist that is better than you even if, as you say, their art style is very different from your own. The better you get an analysing people's work the more you can learn from them.

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General Discussion / Re: Thoughts on the Webtoon vertical format?

« on: April 11, 2021, 02:01:19 PM »

I really dont like the scrolling format, it makes it very slow to read pages (panels, I guess) compared to jumping manga pages with a click or button press.

as for the vertical format on it's own....I can't say I like it, mostly because I'm comparing it to a manga and imagining how it would work in a real life book form. Also it's hard to explain but it sort of feels that most that I read in the vertical format are skimping on the workload, somehow, maybe like making it look larger with the white spaces, that sort of thing. I can't help but think "I could have done that" with a lot of them, compared to manga which is a lot more complex. So that makes it sound that I'm just being grudgy, whatever :P

I still have manhua that I really like to read but the format gives a negative bias to anything I read before I even start.

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General Manga writer discussions / Re: Things that have made me a better writer.

« on: April 11, 2021, 01:55:51 PM »

This feedback thing is something I'm definitely trying to get more into these days as I'm learning what makes good writing.
I'm planning to go through a bit of the Canon and give my feedback, killing two birds with one stone there hopefully.

It definitely does help to have a friend or two to properly bounce things off of, not just superficial "it sounds good" but properly in depth. As it happens a friend of a friend does an online meet-up that's almost the beginnings of writers trying to give each other in-depth feedback, which I pop in on occasionally :P

I find that it's annoying when people don't have the same level as committment as you. I've been there on both sides so I can totally understand and respect when people just dont have the time to give feedback (that they said they would) and whatnot but all the same it can make it annoying when you dont get something that you were expecting, it can throw you a bit off-kilter.

I definitely want to get into more in depth analyses of my favourite works (mostly manga) to really break apart and learn how they did things. It requires a certain level of skill to know how to analyse properly which is an interesting dilemma when you're not good enough to even see how to get better.

And also I think it takes a lot of time to seriously break down another person work fully to understand it in depth. I dont  think very long about even my own work so I could probably use a bit more effort in that regard :P

12

Welcome Center / Re: amateur artist here

« on: April 11, 2021, 01:47:30 PM »

cute animations
makes me want to try my hand at it, but yes, it does take a massive amount of time :P

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Manga Art Gallery / Re: Daisetsu's works

« on: April 11, 2021, 01:46:50 PM »

wow great piece!
love all the lighting and effects you've got going on, they all add to making a really interesting piece.
for some reason the cross necklace stands out as being really realistic looking for some reason, maybe the highlighting on the edges makes it pop more perhaps.
great skulls.
the shading on the dress is really good and realistic too!
good job!

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break Room / Re: The Gunpla Thread

« on: April 11, 2021, 01:44:53 PM »

nice work!
makes me want to draw mecha when I see these detailed models!

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Manga Art Gallery / Re: Some arts I've did when I was bored.

« on: April 11, 2021, 01:43:22 PM »

very nice, keep it up!

did I read somewhere else that you're going to try and draw some manga? how's that going?
(if it wasn't you then no worries)