I assume by “illustrator” you mean 2D. I only ask because this guy did a 3D hentai : http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=124611&highlight=hentai
You could take these two passions (manga and Maya) and create something fairly unique. BTW, the work on your site is pretty good. I like how you fill up a picture frame – you vary the perspective from one picture to another.
i guess all i can tell u is never give up and be stubborn as a mule, u got to break all ur limits, when drawing mangw think outside of the box, manga gives u more freedom then an american style comic, cause by definition it goes into more subjects, learning to draw the characters is basicaly easy, makin them eyecapturing andsolving their deeply imprinted psychic problems now that is the real trick, benkyo benkyo benkyo, think things through from many angles and always remember that the life of a manga character lies in ur mind and it better be a twisted place. now as i said learning to draw them is relatively easy, it took me two months to get from zero to here
so just dont give up!!
nebezial - I think that’s a bit too much of generalization. The visual style and the actual storytelling are two different things. There are plenty of anime/manga with cliched, trite, and meritless stories, and on the other hand, there are some very profound and moving stories in American/European comics and animation. The visual language of any established style comes with their own limitations. To be a good comic creator, you must understand the idiosycrasies of these styles, their advantages and shortcomings, and then do something unique that is your own, drawing from the good of each, while trying to remedy the faults of each as well.
i know that but the thing is that in manga there is more of, how to put it , phylosophic freedom, they seem to be more openminded to exploration, dont get me wrong i adore the american style, in the end it all depends on who is making the comic, there are crap and great stuff in both areas. what i wantd to imply is the mere fact that manga is in many cases ,and this i dont think is denyable, ijntelectuualy superior, but then dont get me wrong i can also name works of american authors who can kick most of mangakes asses, in the end it depends on the story:D
oh and i so agree, combining the best of each is the best way to go, it just takes an eye to see the good and smash the bad:D
CG wi
I don’t agree with that. I grew up with manga and anime since 1972. I’ve been into Japanese stuff all of my life. There are some severe shortcomings in the Japanese pop culture just the same as there are in western pop culture. The level of forced homogenization in Japan is so intense, you can cut that social pressure with a knife. Individualism is frowned upon in Japan, that’s why you see so many people drawing in the exact same anime/manga style, and rehashing the same premise, character design, character personalities…etc over and over and over. There is just as much garbage, if not more, published in Japan. As a westerner, you only get to see what is filtered here through the western publishers who picked the titles that they think the western audience will respond well to, and could be translated without much difficulty (some titles with tons of Japanese culture -specific slangs/jokes gets passed on, because western audiences just won’t get it, or they simply can’t be translated properly at all). That’s not even 1/100th of what gets published in Japan. While manga does have a much wider range of topics, ranging from sports, romance, drama, mystery, homosexuality, action, crime, historical, erotica…etc, that in itself isn’t a guarantee for quality. There are some gems in western comics that have no equivalent in Japan–stuff like Love and Rockets, Cerebus, Sandman (and all the Vertigo titles), much of the small-press/underground stuff published by Kitchen Sink, Fantagraphics, Caliber, Top Shelf…etc. There are some wonderful works in western graphic novels with serious literary intensity that I’ve never seen the Japanese being able to touch–stuff like Signal to Noise, Blood, Moonshadow, and a whole bunch of European graphic novels.
On the other hand, I’ve never seen any western comic books/graphic novels that can touch some of my favorite Japanese works either, from the moving dramas by Kitagawa Sho, to epic sci-fi like Appleseed, to political thrillers like Sanctuary.
There are wonderful works on both sides of the pacific. No one is “better.” They’re just different.
u r correct about that. it would appear that were being stuffed with filtered stuff. BUT, that is also a bad thing cause there are comics that aint considered comercial enough to hit western market… pity.they are often some of the best stuff i read…ah well. i do agree with ur opinion:)
I was wondering the same thing as well, who else here is an anime artist.
So yeah I’m an anime artist aswell, well not a full anime artist since I like to do sci-fi paintings as well. My anime style is cell shading 
Interesting conversation nebezial and lunatique. You both have some good points. I think, philosophically speaking, that it’s hard to say one is deeper than the other. To westerners, manga may appear more thought provoking because they draw on a background vastly separated by western background, therefore come up with ideas that may never occur to a westerner. And vice versa.
I think manga and anime is more socially acceptable in Japan and appeals to a wider cross section of the population, so there is a lot more of it being published which may account for the amount of bad stuff in print. In the west, most people seem to think this stuff is only for kids, geeks and those who won’t admit it (LOL), so maybe publishers there probably aren’t so desperate to get more out and can reject the garbage (if this is the case, how do we account for the rubbish that does get printed in the west!?). Also, I think American comics are just as repetitive as manga, not much variation in character design or style… however, as with manga, there are refreshing exceptions.
The deciding factor for me is the backgrounds. Manga and Anime often have a beautiful watercolourish look that comics and cartoons just don’t add upto. I have yet to see an American or European animation film that is as mature and moving, as visually beautiful and with character movements and expressions as intricate as Grave of the Fireflies.
Lunatique:- I am DYING to read the Sandman series that you mention!! I hear they’re really good. I’ve stood in book shops gazing at them many times, but they are very expensive in Australia. About $40 to $50 (Australian) per graphic novel and there is something like a dozen to get. One day I will tread that path. Gotta decide whether to get that or Battle Angel Alita first. Alita is cheaper.
I’m an anime artist (not a very good one, but still 
) and I hope to be a professional illustrator someday. I live in Holland and it’s very hard to get your hands on some decent manga/anime here (and no, Pokémon or “de bende van vijf” -don’t know the english name- do not count), let alone study it. I have to import most of my stuff from Belgium sobs
I’m not going to give up though, I’m currently studying (warning: my english only gets worse from here 
) for Grafical Designer, and this is my last year. After this, I’ll try to get a job, make some money and try to get into art school. The only thing that worries me, besides my short attention span (“If I want to finish this piece, I’m going to need a few reference photos and maybe even some…OOH!!! A STAR TREK WEBSITE!!!” forgets all about drawing and franticly starts downloading pictures of Icheb :drool: ), is how to learn the “tricks of the trade”. I’ve heard that in Dutch artschools, you learn about making art but nothing about the business. I know that no one is perfect (except the Borg maybe…quickly glances at her new Icheb pics one last time ) and that I’m bound to make some mistakes, but I don’t want to be ripped of more than nessecairy. Am I still making any sense here? 
That much is true enough, although not entirely. The art teachers at my school enjoy kid’s cartoon styles greatly, but when I showed them some of my anime works, they scoffed, called it a fad (as lunatique stated, it’s been in the US since the '70’s. Starblazers, hehe), and were really very cold about it. It made me very upset; instead of being complimentary that I taught myself to draw in a style I enjoy, they were picking on what style I chose. If I’d done something more American, they wouldn’t have been so hard headed. But that’s just an example that I’ve had.
And yes, it’s true that there are a lot of anime/anthro artists on that site; part of the reason behind that is that it’s the only online art community that so far accepts said styles openly. But there’s still a lot of bias against them; for instance, there are many fetish photos (good pictures, mind, but a lot of them) that are made into Daily Deviations. I know of several anime/anthro artists who have had deviations removed for nudity, and then banned when they questioned why. It’s not fair to DA or to the anime artists there to peg that for what it’s known. There’s also a lot of great photography, pixel art, and a great deal of wonderful fantasy works (paintings and 3d). Granted there are a lot of problems with the site (it’s huge, why wouldn’t there be?) but I still enjoy it a lot.
(if anyone’s interested, my DA is here: http://polarischan.deviantart.com Be kind. ^^; )
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=315372
i am going to be damned if i dont get my anime fan-art into a prestiguous art gallery ;) but you have to know the language. also i went to a fancy art school so i have the right credentials. well, we will see how it goes, wish me luck guys :) seriously though, there are a number of fine artists who are popular in a certain scene, like the techno-y offshoot of lowbrow, that use a lot of anime imagery in their work. along the lines of some of the better deviant art stuff but they get it shown in galleries. nara, fo example.
[http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:g06r1JCby4pwiM:http://www.icaphila.org/news/images/Nara.jpg](http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:g06r1JCby4pwiM:http://www.icaphila.org/news/images/Nara.jpg)
or grafitti artists that have crossed over into the fine art world and use anime style characters, check out giant robot magazine www.giantrobot.com etc
but i think your standard crappy anime fan art that suffers from a lack of basic artistic skills is just as crappy as everyone else. good composition, form, etc is good regardless of if its depicting an anime character or what, imo.
I :love:anime.
But sadly, there is no school where I live that will teach me the secret techniques of anime or manga. So I just read and try to learn from Christopher Hart books and those How to Draw Manga books.
I dream of becoming a bishoujo or yaoi doujinshi artist someday! And also cosplaying as Chii (from Chobits) in my city’s annual anime convention (nothin’ wrong for a guy to cosplay as Chii, right?).
Otakus of cgtalk unite!
Here’s a sample of my best work so far.
thats probably because many schools simply dont teach the japanese style for all the reasons already stated in this thread. I remember after i got into my Animation course, they said that some applicants (we had to submit drawing from descriptions they provide us with) were turned down simply because they drew in an anime style. ‘japan has all the animators they could need already’, they would say.
What most western manga artists doesn’t realize is that many of the great manga masters doesn’t draw manga because it’s their ONLY style, but because of it’s a style they like and can make a living on making.
What most western self proclamed 'anime/manga artists" dont realise Anime Artists in Japan learn to draw professionaly the same exact freaking way we do here in America. They start their classes with REALISM. You cant expect to represent the human form in a pleasing manner without knowing what it realy looks like from top to bottom, inside and out. Many anime obsessed self proclamed ‘anime/manga artists’ fail to recognise this, so they go about copying all they can, rather than actualy doing their homework.
The only real USEFULL Information in the official How to Draw Manga series, is all about the techical and work aspects of it. You arent going to learn -HOW TO DRAW- from it, trust me. Drawing and characterisation should be your OWN creation, not someone elses. All those tutorials from “BakaNeko” and " The Online Manga University" same thing, DONT USE THEM TO LEARN HOW TO DRAW. Doodle and whatnot, sure, but start wth life drawing, then use skeletal systems or objects to set up your characters. You’ll notice a dramatic change in your character work, how it feels, how solid it is in an environment.
I still hate myself for having to sell those dang books to naive kids who didnt know any better back at my old retail job. I tried talking them out of it though, as much as a salesperson could, it rarely ever worked. Ah well, less competition for me I guess.
much agreed. the popular artists are such for a reason. (although a lot of stuff gets attention for exceptional CG skills when the actual image is…well, compositionally crappy, or because it’s an image of a character someone likes.) ive become increasing picky about what I favorite.
again, much agreed. the reasons behind their sucess is that they have a flexibility in what they can do, not only in style, I think, but in medium. a lot of artists are using digital toning techniques and the like, but there are still quite a few that maintain all-ink styles in their creating process (and that is hard to do, let me tell you. and very very messy.)
on one final note:
…I am so…<i>so</i> sorry. I had his first book and…it really didnt help me at all. If you’re looking for help, online sites are better, or the “How To Draw” series. Imo.:shrug:
Yes, you need to understand and study traditional art, learn proportions, form, light etc. from there one can develop there own style, which to me is better then just trying to copy someone else style.