I’m going to make my own comics and manga. How can I get feedback without any online platforms at all? And only get advice in real life and mangaka contests worldwide?

[thetrivyadeabhb2]

Hi there, I’m going to make manga again. But I can’t do anything online, except if I want to publish manga in a manga competition and draw digitally. I’m so sorry I got upset before. It’s just that I’m not a good mangaka (with drawing or writing) and I’m bad at friendship and work relationships and people want to force me to doing something mainstream and normal to actual work (cooking job, retail store job, pet working job, etc), and when they do that you don’t nothing else and that’s the end of the story and that’s the only job you want period. And even worse I keep on being defensive, but I’m that way because I have a hard time with feedback no i don’t want any major changes to ruin my manga or comics that I make. I don’t know how to make manga and write manga and make it fun again, like enjoyable and not forced tor the sake of “finishing it now and I have to win this contest for the sake of getting money”. What can I do? Any advice?
Also did you know that I used to try to get into “learn to draw manga” YouTube channel? Someone has to know that YouTube channel right? and I didn’t get accepted for making a manga because of scheduling issues and it always has to happen at night, and I live in the USA. Japan and Learn to Draw Manga had always has to open its doors to editors and learning manga at night which is something I cannot do. They then canceled my meeting after I couldn’t got to the first meeting because I had to got to bed, I learned the truth the hard way. because I’m not worthy. What can I do, how can I be respectful and how can I be happy and enjoy making manga agin?! I have a hard time draw manga and understand kishotenketsu! And kishotenketsu is confusing so I don’t know how Japanese manga works!
Please help me because I really need it and people keep avoiding me. I felt devastated how no one sees my passion for liking manga which is why I decided to quit initially. Any tips? Ideas? Advice? Exercise and prompts?

[kyupol]

How to do it?
Just do it. Dont overthink. Adapt as things come along.
Let the chips fall where they may.

At least thats what I've done.

And here's my skill level when I started:

Here's a recent one:

[DiegoPalacios]

The most important skills you can develop to improve is to handle feedback and learning from your mistakes.

You will learn by doing and practicing, sitting on your thumbs won't give you knowledge through osmosis.

Figure what you wanna learn and search for how to develop that skill.

[Kelheor]

No one is becoming a good mangaka (or artist, or writer, or anything really) from the first try. Becoming good in something means that you have hundreds and thousands of trials before some point. It means a ton of sketches, a dozens of drafts, a lot of understanding of what you like to do and of what you are able to do.
Don't even tell people what you are doing, just do it first. Try drawing one page, it doesn't need to be anything complicated (a bird landing on a sakura branch; a girl changing from seifuku into a casual clothes; a boy buying and eating an ice cream).
I will tell you something right now - the chance of your first work ever winning anything is close to zero unless you are an established artist with a few years of drawing behind you. And even then - if it's your first comic, the chances are very slim.

I did my first real comic ever for the Jump+ competition. I put everything I had into it, my eyesight went down and my back got hurt and I never got any mention. After that someone made an unfortunate comment on one of my works and I broke down crying and I stopped drawing for some time and returned to comic making after a year or so. But the fact is that my comic was nowhere close to being a winner and now I know I had no chances.

So yes, you should not start drawing anything for money, because the fact is that getting money from comics is really hard even when you are really good, and it's even harder in a straight competition.
You also should never just rely on people to immediately see you and your art and like you and your art just because it is out there. I am sorry, but that's just not how it works - finding an audience is hard and many creators are struggling for years because of it.

That's why you draw for yourself. You draw because you like to draw, you draw for fun. You can look at other people's artworks and pick up references from them. You learn anatomy, you learn how to color, you learn poses, you research a lot of other things, including how to write your plots, but most importantly you need to like what you are doing. And you don't need any special Japanese schools for that either, you can pick up books and other courses if you are allowed to spend money on that, but a lot of materials are really available for free right now.

Now, while I assume you are a student, you enjoy your drawing, maybe apply to an art school or find other fellow artists in the neighborhood. Think about your OCs, make stupid sketches with them, draw colorful art of them, put them in stupid crazy poses and give them fantasy weapons and mythological pets or whatever you like. It's just as fun when it's not on the internet.

[NOOR_ASAKZ05]

Don't put too much pressure on yourself. Trust me, it's not the end of the world if you fail on your first attempt or if your first chapter is of poor quality (take me as an example). But I didn't give up, and you should too. You definitely love manga, so you should read manga to get visual inspiration to develop your drawing skills and also to learn how to write dialogue. I always advise you to practice drawing because it will nurture your talent. If you want to write great stories, you should learn by watching documentaries or specific stories to understand the style and method of storytelling, not by copying them. The most important point is to be confident in yourself and don't put too much pressure on yourself. If you don't succeed in the field of manga, you might succeed in another field. The world won't end if you lose a competition. I personally lost very embarrassingly. In any case, continue on your path, and I'm confident that you will achieve excellent success.

[lizardlullabye]

You can try asking people you trust in real life (like friends or family) to read your comic and ask for their thoughts on the comics or specific parts (like does cat look like a cat?)-- preferably ask those who will be honest without mockery.

They might not be able to give you specific advice for how to improve on how your comic-story is told (such as plot, panel layout, etc.), but they can share their perspective. This can be what they liked, disliked, or did not understand -- and from there, you can thank them for taking a look at your comic and figure out for yourself if whatever they shared is something is completely good as is or you would like to make better. You choose how you want to make your comic.

For example, feedback and possible response could be:

• Drawing of cat does not look like cat (ART), so maybe practice drawing cats to get better at drawing cats

• It is not clear why this character did this and that (STORY), however no changes to the story because not understanding the character's motive right now is part of the story. The storytelling is as planned.

• This joke is very funny (LIKE - different for each person), and that is wonderful the joke brighten up someone's day, even by a bit

• Some feedback you can take with a grain of salt or just ignore. Some might NOT be helpful, but it's up to you to figure that out!

On a side note, I had trouble reading your post above because the paragraphs are cluttered together and run-off to different topics, which made it harder for me (online) to figure out what to reply with for questions and feedback. This suggestion really only applies to writing: please put space between paragraphs and keep to one topic per paragraph. (And you may also decide this feedback for paragraphs is not for you, that's okay!)

[jwabeasley]

First, and I cannot stress this enough, you need to find a non-comics venue of income that can be your career. It can be anything as long as it has regular hours and leaves you with enough energy and time to draw. I don't know anyone who recommends comics as a career field right now. Even the best and most famous comic writers and artists right now are barely scraping by, most depend on a spouse's regular income or on non-creative income sources.

Second, It may be the case that you can draw comics and make some money doing so. However, I have never met anyone that makes enough money from just comics to afford a pleasant lifestyle. Further, if you make money or recognition your primary motivation for doing creative work like comics, the real results will never be enough to motivate you to continue.

I draw comics because I cannot NOT draw comics, somehow it always comes back. But it is a hobby, not my primary career. When I was younger, I thought comics or related fields would be the way I would earn a living, but I could not be more wrong about my likely prospects. I also did not know about some other career fields that are much better paid that I also enjoy and am passionate about. Doubtless there is a career field like that for you, too.

Third, the chances of a non-Japanese person succeeding in the already oversaturated Japanese comics market are extremely slim. Would a novice barista from Baltimore be able to successfully run a bubble tea shop in Taiwan? It's not impossible, it's just very difficult, and the kind of person that could succeed doing that would already possess the skills needed to succeed right where they are.

Indie comics are booming in the U.S. right now, build your skills right where you are. If wouldn't cost you anything to make a script from your favorite manga chapter and then draw it yourself without referencing the original artwork, just to see how you'd do. Inkers in training trace pencils from their favorite artists and do their own inks over them. For penciling, copy your favorite artist's work (without tracing) and take some drawing courses, which are usually inexpensive and available anywhere. Post your results and make friends online. A year or so of diligent practice will go far.

There are doubtless some in-person art groups that you could find to get the kind of critique you want. If nothing else, there are almost certainly anime/manga enthusiast groups who would provide that in person feedback you want, and I bet some of them draw, too.