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Why? Why do you want to be a manga artist? Is it because itfll be tons of fun drawing all day, youfll have tons of fans and be rich and famous? Not to mention your manga will be turned into an anime that will be super cool!!
Drawing manga is very hard, demanding work. You have to make strict deadlines, sometimes weekly or monthly depending on what your publisher allows. On average you would probably need to produce at least 30 completed pages in a month( penciled, inked and toned. ) As well as cover designs and any other bonus materials your publisher may request. Your output needs to be of consistent quality too. Your editors may annoy the hell out of you asking for numerous revisions, that you still have to complete in the given deadline. You most likely wonft have time to go shopping at the mall and hang out with friends. ( CLAMP only has one day off a month! Thatfs 12 free days a year, my friends, ~ but of course this is CLAMP wefre talking about) Unfortunately the pay of a manga artist isnft very high ( unless you have one of the top series out there ), especially if you are outside of Japan ( like the U.S. ) You could make more working at McDonalds flipping burgers. If you canft live with meager to zero amounts of spending money, you most likely would have to find a part time job as well. Maybe in time this will change, but are you willing to work for such low pay? A lot of artists in Japan have assistants to help them complete their work before deadlines, so unless you know some people who have the skill and you can count on ( that you will also have to pay ), youfll be doing it all by yourself. As for being famous, there are huuuundreds of manga artists in Japan trying to make it that youfve never even heard of~ so what makes you think youfre so much better?
Do you have the skill? Just because you can draw characters that look somewhat manga styled doesnft mean you have what it takescYET. Even with a good story, if your art is poor, no one is going to want to read it ( Having poor art is different from having a simple style ). For me, the art is the first thing I judge, before I even get to the story. If the art is poor, I donft even bother with it. And Ifm not going to think that maybe with time their art will get better, nope, itfs the first look that you have to be able to hook someone in.
Why would I want to read your story? Is it in any way unique? Even if it has influences, the way a story is told is what makes it unique. Personally, I think a non-Japanese with a story set in Japan with Japanese characters at school or something like that is a pretty lame. Itfs been done to death people! To me thatfs just a fan copying, not someone whofs serious. There are tons of countries out there, tons of different cultures to explore..Japan isnft the only one!! Take the time to do some research.
Ifve read over many forums where people say they desperately want to be a mangakac but they canft because they donft know Japanese and canft get into any of those nifty manga schoolsc. Uhmmc what? How does that stop you from drawing? Those manga schools may be able to teach you some cool techniques, but theyfre not going to automatically make you good. That comes from you. It comes from hours of practice a day, every day without giving up. You may think your work looks horrible at times, but you just have to keep going. Study everything you can.
Also, If I hear one more13 year old saying that they gseriouslyh have the best art and story in the world and have what it takes to be published, Ifm going to scream. Itfs good to be confident, but not over confident. Just because it looks good to you, doesnft mean its professional quality. Show your work to others and get their opinion. Take criticism graciously. If you are showing someone your work with the attitude that youfre the best and expecting them to tell you so, then you need a time out. Sitting there defending your work or making excuses is really not a good thing to do either. If youfre hoping to get a great response, then you should be showing your best, not something you did on the bus ride home.If you have a great sketch, feel free to share it with others, but donft expect to get the same response as fully completed illustration might.
If you live in the U.S. I strongly suggest submitting to an American publisher. ( even if you are not in the U.S. you can submit to a company like Tokyopop - they do have an office in Japan after all, so if your work is something they think Japanese readers would like, they may just translate it )
A lot of people seem to think they can hop on over to Japan and become a manga artist, but thatfs completely false. The laws Japan has on allowing foreigners to work there are very strict. If you want to work in Japan, you might have better luck as an English teacher. Japan has no shortage of wannabe pro manga artists, so there is no need for them to go through all the trouble to hire a foreigner.
Even if you could ( being better than CLAMP and all the other famous manga artists out there! to do so ), you would really need to know the language fluently, because basic Japanese isnft going to work well in manga. Just like if you are a horrible writer in English, no one is going to want to read it. Also, if youfre not Japanese and didnft grow up there, you donft know the culture like a Japanese person would, so you probably canft really write a story from their perspective that caters to a Japanese reader.
Just deal with the fact that you arenft Japanese and enjoy drawing. LOL~
Herefs some things you can try that might help you with drawing
Take some manga pages that you like and print them outc There are plenty of scans online that you can find.
Now, try replicating the page of manga. If you have a light board, trace the page, yes I said trace. If it looks good, then try inking itc after youfve done that, take a look at the original manga page and your own. Can you see the difference? If you cannot produce a decent copy, when you have it right in front of you and are even tracing itc. Then how will you be able to make something of your own from scratch that will be able to compare in quality? So keep practicing until you can see yours gradually begin to look more refined and closer to the original. Ifm not saying you neeeed to copy detail for detail, your style may be completely different as well, but there is a difference between quality and style.
Having the grighth tools doesnft mean youfre going to magically be able to draw manga either.
Using the same tools and materials as your favorite mangaka doesnft mean that their skill flies into your body and you can now draw like them.
Ok, that's all from me for now... if you read that and you are still not discouraged, than I say go for it X3~!
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