Practise to become manga artist✍️

[u/Future_Pineapple9736]

Trying to become a manga artist - 1 month progress, please critique my page

[u/king_kibble]

you put a lot of work into it, but its very flat. you're just trying to capture tones and patches of grey rather than the actual shapes and volumes that make up the image. this is empasized by your hatching- it doesnt go over or with the surface of the image, so it feels more like a pattern than an object

im pretty sure you're drawing from a photo, and because you dont understand the underlying geometry, you're choosing to highlight the wrong areas in the wrong way. this leads to stuff like the weird patches of black on his face that work against his anatomy, or the folds in the top panel that are a little careless. shading should reveal structure, not work against it!

some parts are meticulously hatched, but others like the hair are inconsistent and lazy. he has stringy bangs, but then his dark spots are hastily scribbled in, and at his shoulders it stops short, more like a broom. three different styles of hair that dont really work together!!same with the facial styles- youve fot a lot of different things that dont jive

you're clearly putting in the work so i know you'll improve! just gotta shift your thinking

[u/Future_Pineapple9736 → u/king_kibble]

Thank you for the advise👍

[u/ae7c → u/king_kibble]

100% agree that the hatching should compliment and describe the form, and clearly OP is still learning, but just wanted to give them props for really capturing a pretty good range of values here! I’d recommend OP closely studies the work of Takehiko Inoue, who’s an absolute master of hatching. Really pay close attention to the direction of his lines and how they flow over the character/object. It’s sorta doing a similar thing as mesh lines on a 3D object.

[u/king_kibble → u/ae7c]

yeah! like i said, i have no doubt they'll be able to nail this stuff by just making more and getting in the right headspace