I'm looking for a good mangaka level artist [CLOSED]

[Hodge]

Sorry if you feel like I'm just unnecessarily butting in, however

I need a partner because while I can draw characters from the back, front, and side, I'm not at the caliber of a real artist that can draw real comics.

If you're having a hard time finding an artist, I don't see why you shouldn't aspire to do it yourself. Idk what "real" art and comics mean, but anyone can do comics. Personally, I didn't start taking digital art seriously until making my first comic. However, if you have in mind certain qualifications for an artist then it might be best to clarify those and really try to "sell" the story to potential artists. There's generally just more writers looking for artists than the other way around, hell even I still get writers sending me emails from an old r/comicbookcollabs (worth checking out btw) post from Dec. 2017.

But yeah, if you're expecting a legit "good mangaka" (which I am not btw), than I think finding a way to offer some monetary compensation is your best bet. And if you're confidant in your mysterious plan to get ad revenue, than it should be a worthwhile investment for such a large project.

[RiidDisBuk]

You have some good points. There are a lot of lacking info that should've been given to the start so that the artist who is reading it may or may not be intruiged. One thing I will counter to your point is that if I layed out too much info, ther is a chance that person may not be in the interest of reading too much and would just ignore it. That's why I left a short summary leaving the one reading it to come up with several questions that I'm confident in answering. That's why I made it this way. But I do see that you have a better point than I.

Yeah, I'm well aware of how much effort and time is put into drawing. One shots can even take up to a year should there be creative and a lot of time put into the story's structure (for a one shot anyway).

As for creative control, yes. There is a lot of that. I left a lot of side characters (protagonists and antagonists) with hardly any ideas except for their design and backstory. I left that for my worker to suggest ideas for those characters since I'm only one person trying to maintain an entire story. Despite the main characters are pretty well established, there is plenty of room for the ideas to be given to the characters and overall story in general.

Feedback is very well appreciated too. I value my criticisms as much as I value my appreciation. It's those key elements that can make a story flow well for a majority of audiences.

Overall, you have some good points. Next time I should approach it better. I'll try that template that you've given me to see how well things work. Thank you so much

[LortiaMJB]

You do understand that by saying you have given the side characters a design and backstory... You have officially destroyed the artistic freedom an artist has on that regard?

[RiidDisBuk]

Anyone is welcome to give their response/feedback. As a matter for fact, thank you for giving me yours

For your first sentence, I am actually practicing everyday on drawing out of life, people, animals, etc. It's just digital work is a bit out of the question for me since I'm also more of a writer than an artist. I do practice everyday as well to ensure that I draw my own characters and items in order for the first of my audience (which would be my artist) can give feedback and/or suggest a different idea.

Real "art" is just an average good artist. Just one who can display decent art for the audience to read every drawn panel w/o issues of art.

Monetary compensation is easily a part of this working relationship. We're talking about a 5-arc slow paced comic like that of shonen anime and manga (only adult rated), so money definitely has to come in for this.

I am actually decently confident that my plan will create an amazing investment. I have the strategy of donating money to my favorite youtubers displaying them a bit info about myself and why they should read this comic. I will even link it to my friends and my 250+ followers I have on a social media platfom. The reason why I says this works is because this comic consists the genres of Action, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and a bit of horror and adventure. I have no doubt that audiences would be interested in such a thing if they just hear anything about the genre. Many people do revolve around those kind of stories.

I don't know how you feel about this strategy, but I'm confident that this will work. I did put almost two years worth of structuring into this after all.

Any thoughts on this is greatly appreciated

[RiidDisBuk]

Someone decent overall actually. I do offer monetary compensation, but I do suppose it's my fault for not explicitially stating that xD... (I need to work on my introductions )

[RiidDisBuk]

You're probably right. However I do have a strategy of getting a large amount of audiences. The only question is how much can I maintain afterwards.

[spadesart]

idk if you've published with ad rev on here before, but i've been blasting my comic to my 4.6k followers on tumblr and 2k on deviantart for two years now and i only make $15 off it per year if i'm lucky, and about $25 through tips which by "professional art" standards could probably only commission you 1-10 pages depending on the artist. i'd work on setting up a joint patreon you could use to get more money or start putting together some sort of budget.

[RiidDisBuk]

I appreciate the idea. Thank you so much

[LortiaMJB]

So you're willing to pay those who may not even promote you and just take your money... Instead of paying someone who actually works for you?

[RiidDisBuk]

I don't recall ever saying it like that (quote me if I have).

I didn't really destroy the artistic freedom. I left room in fact. One of this story's genre's is fantasy. So practically anything can happen no matter how you look at it (i.e transformations, shapeshifting, etc). Of course, it would recieve given context as to how stuff like those awaken. So really, it satisfies both the perspecitves of my artist and myself.

[LortiaMJB]

I am actually decently confident that my plan will create an amazing investment. I have the strategy of donating money to my favorite youtubers displaying them a bit info about myself and why they should read this comic. I will even link it to my friends and my 250+ followers I have on a social media platfom.

Right here. While you are willing to pay youtubers, you are not willing to pay an artist up front. Even if your plan is solid, you'd lose more money than you would be making in that way.

[RiidDisBuk]

Oh, I see what you mean (I need to be specific xD).

Let's say in a donation I introduce myself a bit and give a link to the youtuber. If it's not the youtuber in general who takes interests, it's at least a portion of the thousands of fans who are interested in those type of comics. Given that I follow youtubers who cover manga and anime (if not watch or read), most of the youtuber's audiences will have some peaked interest in reading it.

If it happens it spread worldwide like mad, then it's all about how much we can maintain the audience. Maintaining the audience is within any author's or creator's goal. It's one of those reasons why I left room for my artist create of their own free will with approval with my own perspetive included in this too (considering I put two years worth of thought into it).

I plan opening a patreon, too. So it can go in any positive note.

[LortiaMJB]

You do know... That less than 0.0000000000000001% of any content on the internet becomes viral? Why would you even consider this an option if you're more certain to get publicity by paying an artist to get a good quality out there?

If you're so certain about your story, why not publish it as a novel first or start the comic to practice your own art? Go for Finished, Not Perfect. Show the world how proud you are of this thing you thought up and create for yourself instead of money on the backs of others. If you were to get an artist hired... He could have made the best thing ever himself but you cut him back because he was working his butt off working for someone who won't even pay for his efforts.

Actually get your own name out there first just like the rest of us. You're offending quite a lot of people here.

[Hodge]

Monetary compensation is easily a part of this working relationship. We're talking about a 5-arc slow paced comic like that of shonen anime and manga (only adult rated), so money definitely has to come in for this.

Ehhhhhh Idk man I've seen it go the other way. It's really not easy making money with comics, no matter the genre or type. Hell if you really want to gain a readership by genre might as well do a BL or high school romance (like I have a series of similar genre to yours and it gets so few subscribers on Line compared to my BL its crazy). My advice, being real here, is that if you want such a successful comic, your standard for "decent art" should be pretty high (it's kinda subjective but you get the idea). For now, save the money and pay for a good artist with experience and a style appealing to readers. That's what gets and maintain readers when it comes to visuals. I really can't stress enough how important it is to get a good artist if money is a goal. Cause really, without that I'd suggest just doing the art yourself as you'd be surprised how much you can improve while working on a comic.

As for advertising, I'd also suggest focusing within the manga/webtoon readership. Maybe instead of youtubers, try hitting up other action/sci-fi/etc. comic creators and ask them to advertise the comic, maybe do a cross promotion with them. Or maybe take the path of submitting it directly to a publisher like Lezhin or WebComics. This all was just a different approach worth considering, but I really suggest asking questions in this forum. I know you have already dedicated 2 years, but there's many here who have also spent a long time in comics and know what they are talking about.

[Daknight]

I read everything and I am still confuse. Are you paying the artist up front or it is with the hope of ad revenue? Ad revenue is worthless unless you have a million readers or something that generate enough ad traffic for it to be consider anything remotely enough for pay and even the top of the top don't reach this number O_O Patreon is a good start, but again you need to build an audience that is willing to pay which is not easy at all.

You also have quite the ambition, action is not easy and throw in fantasy and sci-fi and beside not being easy to draw or do it starts to head toward a small pool of readers. Slice of life, romance, BL and commentary comedy sstyle (this is what I call ones like Sarah's scribbles, As per usual, etc. I do this to difference from traditional comedy manga which are more niche than commentary ones) are the ones attract big audience if making money is what the goal ultimately is.

I highly recommend written down a better 'business' proposal for an artist. Cause imagine he makes arc 1, ad revenue doesn't reach much (or patreon) he might not stick around for arc 2, etc, etc.

[RiidDisBuk]

I'm aware that the internet is vast. I'm not certain, just confident. Novels were something I was going for in the first place, but I'm not the type of author who wants my readers to assume how my characters look like. I don't even remember saying that my comic is going to be the best thing ever b/c let's be honest... nothing is perfect. For the record I don't cut back anyone. If an artist were to be my artist, it's of their own choice and free will. And I never said I won't pay anyone for my efforts. We're takling about a 5-arc story. Monetary compensation and admiration is an artist's due respect for pushing themselves.

Now with all that said, would you really think I'm offending anyonne when all I am doing is just answering your questions and seeking for an artist like many are?

[Rosso]

i'm glad you're up for constructive criticism.
while your idea for advertising your project via YouTube donations is interesting in theory
i hope you realize no one actually looks at provided links/google up titles of webcomics at all?
especially if you're talking to, say, a gaming channel (who usually have high viewership per stream)

i would highly advice you this instead:

1. pay your artist upfront with that money. or at least pay them half before they start anything, and pay the rest when a page is completed.
2. unless you're a featured artist, or your name is merryweatherey, do not expect your series to catch any popularity at all, no matter how good you feel your work is. it takes years and a lot of effort to make any money out of webcomics. so don't count on ad revenue to pay your artist (and yourself!). maybe consider Patreon instead.
3. 50/50 is awfully unfair for the artist when all you have is a slow-paced 5-arc action packed premise and a protagonist & antagonist. Not only you expect them to draw everything, but you also need them to be character designer and plot out some story aspects as well (more or less an Editor on top of it)? that's a lot of work for 50/50 ad rev payment...

it's best to just set up a budget for this project see if you can reach a fair agreement with any potential artist. absolutely forget about ad revenue for the time being.

[RiidDisBuk]

I appreciate your concern. The youtuber I donate to are those that cover manga and anime alike. Since those type of people look for new stories to aspire to they would enjoy reading the story and review them. Not saying they will, but at least a portion of their hundreds of thousands of fans might.

50/50 is the safely assuming fair share. It's likely going to be 60/40 or even 70/30 (artist/me)

I do like your 3rd point. While I do indeed have a set of main protagonists and antagonists, I leave plenty of room for them to design a lot of other new characters to be antagonists/protagonists. This story's biggest emphasis (despite the huge set of story tellings) are action and fantasy. There is an infinite amount of room for them to come up with their own designs that may even affect the main protagonists/antagonists (ie shapeshifting or transformations).

This sort of idea leaves both the artist and myself a fair amount of satisfaction.

Once again, I appreciate your feedback. I'm ready to negoiate with any artist that have questions or problems to my idea of a working relationship.

[Rosso]

I leave plenty of room for them to design a lot of other new characters to be antagonists/protagonists.

the point is not artistic freedom, but the fact that you're asking the artist much more than what you're supposedly paying them for(in this case, just draw the comic). Artists charge separately for each character design. And Editors are paid separately as well (proofreading, plot discussions, dialogue, heck even putting down text on pages takes time and effort)

if i may be more honest, a long-term project like this with unclear payment prospect is best to be arranged with a friend, not strangers. there has to be a lot of trust between both parties to stay invested in this project for a long time.

if you can't have that option, consider a one-shot first, and see how it works? you'll have a much better chance at finding interested partners than a long-term project for the time being.

[RiidDisBuk]

I was thinking about a one shot to test the artist and I, definitely. I'm indeed well aware that I'm asking waaaaay to much of the artist as well. This is why I plan to give a huge summary that I will definitely intruige my artist. I've stated this to several people before. I'm not the best at introducing myself nor do I deserve the respect I'm seeking.

The way I put my introduction is like saying; I know this intro sucks, but hear me out. I should be intruiging from the start and I didn't live up to that well.

There is one person who is willing to hear me out, and I'm honestly humbled that they're willing to go into what I have to say. What I brought up after just doing that took them by major surprise.

It's not how it's supposed to work in the real world, but it's happened. And atm, it's happening with me.

Once again, thank you for your feedback and I will take them into consideration as time goes on