The best How To Create Comics & Manga: Reddit reviews

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Funnily enough, the side of the brain we use to see things in our head is also the shittiest at drawing.

If you're interested in improving your skill I can't recommend Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain enough.

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: The Definitive, 4th Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1585429201/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_605eDbH573H1C

Edit: I know the left vs right brain thing is fake, what I meant is being able to visualize something in your head doesn't correlate to drawing skills until you train your brain to do it

I feel like anyone getting into animation would do well to intimately study comics.

At its heart, comics are about deciding which actions in the scene are most salient for the moment in time that a panel represents. This is very similar to plotting out keyframes. Animation is essentially just comics with like 10 billion more panels to fill in the rest of the movement.

Edit to add: Another fantastic book that kind of spans both realms is the book Framed Ink by artist Marcos Mateu-Mestre. Highly recommended!

I personally think the opposite. Photo realism is not "advanced". Painting impressionistically is not beginner either. What you need for impressionist painting comes off the back of photorealism. Copying a photo does not make you advanced. Infusing a photo with emotion and meaning makes you advanced. This painting is just that. And I love it. I am honestly tired seeing a photorealistic drawing and then clicking the comments just to see "Wow! I thought it was a photo" over and over again. Not to knock it, but this sort of work takes a different kind of skill. You need a handle (hah) on your brushwork and how you react to what you see. Difficult as fuck. Im still learning how to do this myself.

Learning "how to see" is definitely the cornerstone in becoming a better artist, though. That I agree with. Don't equate impressionism with not being able to do this. In my opinion they do it the best. I recommend anyone learning to pick up "drawing on the right side of the brain". Thats what personally helped me with getting things right. I used to draw photorealistic but I felt that it was an empty sort of exercise. Where do you go from there? Here. You go here. You express yourself.

Love the painting

It does, but you don't need to know all of that to draw from a still photo of a face. Instead of drawing a skull, muscles, skin, you break the picture down into shapes and lines and draw those instead. You don't need to know any of the anatomy because all the visual information you need to draw it is already there without any knowledge of how it works.

It's possible to go from not knowing how to draw to being able to draw a pretty good face in just a week if you can learn to do this, there are several books that teach it. This is the one most people will recommend you. From there you just practice getting more accurate and learn how to actually do it (physical techniques to shade, how to blend, etc.).

He's being a dick about it but what /u/curdledS8 is saying is 100% accurate -- knowing how to draw from a still photo really well doesn't mean shit if you don't know how to draw form, how perspective works, etc.. It's not that impressive if you think about it this way.

Animator here. I love this little animation! Your sister has a lot of natural talent! If you are looking to encourage and inspire her, THIS BOOK is the Bible for animators, and can help put her on a creative path that could include a future in animation! Tell her to keep at it; art as a career can be tough, but creativity is a lifelong companion that is always worth embracing.

Good self-help books are underappreciated. They can provide the push needed to us in critical moments of our lives, e.g. to overcome short-term pain / excessive risk-aversion when making an important decision, and let us change the fundamental frames / instill useful mantras into our lives, changing our trajectories significantly. These two self-help books definitely changed my life, providing both motivation and timeless advice:

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life by Scott Adams

Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odd by David Goggins

I recommend these to all my friends and everybody who read them so far loved them (note that for max effect probably best to space them out and to first read Adams and then Goggins a few months later).

The best resource I have found for learning how to draw/ progress in your skills is the book "drawing on the right side of the brain" here is an amazon link to the BOOK
But it's very easy to find this book online for free as well.
Other resources were weren't actually drawing books, but more of anatomy books. They are really helpful to teach you proportions, and shows you how the body is built up from bones to muscles, to skin etc...
I would avoid those "how to draw ___" books. They only teach you how to draw that one specific thing and its hard to transition that into drawing your own thing. The book I linked above does a good job of teaching you how to "see" what your drawing. So when you are drawing an eye, or an ear, it teaches you how to break down the subject into shapes and lines. A couple angled lines and squiggles are a lot easier to understand and draw than a full image of an eye/ ear.

Gonna share an older comment I wrote about this. This is just a guide; everyone learns differently so don't feel like you need to follow this exactly!

>Here's a rough outline of the basic steps to getting into animation:

>1. Research the animation basics. Specifically, study the 12 principles of animation. Buy/borrow a copy of the Animator's survival kit. This book was pretty much my only textbook at uni and is something industry professionals still reference today. (Don't worry, there are lots of pictures).

>2. Pick a type of animation you want to do. 2D (drawing on computer or paper), 3D (CG, like Pixar), or stop motion (real life objects/puppets). Look up what materials, software, and skills you need to start doing that type of animation.

>3. Obtain your materials/software and learn the basics of how to use them. (for example, flipping frames and onion skin for 2D, or manipulating a rig and the graph editor for 3D).

>4. Try your hand at simple, basic animation exercises. Otherwise you'll be trying to run before you can crawl. I recommend starting with the pendulum, then the bouncing ball, waving flag then the flour sack. Look up tutorials and ask for help/critique if you need it!

>5. Once you've got the hang of that, move onto stuff like head turns, walk cycles, object interaction, and weight shift. Keep looking for ways to improve your skills and get critique, if possible. Don't forget to have fun! Hope this helps!

I read somewhere that the reason that most adults draw like eleven-year-olds is that we are very self-critical during that age, and just stop drawing. Which means no practice and therefore no skill improvement.

If you really want to learn, there's a book which claims that anyone can learn to draw at least decently using their method.

(Sorry for imposing if you're not actually interested in drawing, I just thought I should mention it)

It's a lot more about skill than it is about talent. Practice practice practice.

The old book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain has extremely useful exercises that will help you learn to do the most important thing when learning to draw : draw what you see, not what you think you see.

For example, if you look closely at an eye there aren't many sharp lines, it's bumpy and folded and there's crazy texture to the irises. But when you draw what you think instead of what you see you get a very hieroglyphic looking almond shape with a colored circle inside it, and a black dot in the middle of that.

Anyway, that book can teach even beginners how to break away from that and net huge progress. But you have to practice, that's the part where it all falls down for most people.

You can do it. You can absolutely do it!

Check this book out. You will be able to draw really well before you are half way through the book.

It exists. I haven't read it, so I can't give any personal thoughts on it, but here you go.

​

https://www.amazon.com/Manga-Bible-Genesis-Revelation/dp/0385524315

Hi! here's a rough outline of the basic steps to getting into animation:

1. Research the animation basics. Specifically, study the 12 principles of animation. Buy/borrow a copy of the Animator's survival kit. This book was pretty much my only textbook at uni and is something industry professionals still reference today. (Don't worry, there are lots of pictures).

2. Pick a type of animation you want to do. 2D (drawing on computer or paper), 3D (CG, like Pixar), or stop motion (real life objects/puppets). Look up what materials, software, and skills you need to start doing that type of animation.

3. Obtain your materials/software and learn the basics of how to use them. (for example, flipping frames and onion skin for 2D, or manipulating a rig and the graph editor for 3D).

4. Try your hand at simple, basic animation exercises. Otherwise you'll be trying to run before you can crawl. I recommend starting with the pendulum, then the bouncing ball, waving flag then the flour sack. Look up tutorials and ask for help/critique if you need it!

5. Once you've got the hang of that, move onto stuff like head turns, walk cycles, object interaction, and weight shift. Keep looking for ways to improve your skills and get critique, if possible.

Don't forget to have fun! Hope this helps!

This book is fucking amazing for people new to drawing the human form. it goes over heads, perspectives, dynamic poses, etc.

If you don't mind spending a little money: How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way (Amazon Link) is an excellent resource. It suffers slightly from being "a little about a lot" but there is plenty to learn from it and it's entertaining & easy to read.

There also appears to be a Youtube video narrated by Stan Lee and John Buscema. I haven't seen this before today, but the drawings in the video are straight out of the book.

https://www.amazon.com.au/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284 this is the book that every course suggests to read. It's pretty much got all the principles you'll need . Other than that, there's some good tutorials on using blender 2D at the moment. Opentoonz tutorials are pretty good as well. Just set yourself a project . Like a storyboard, drawings and plans for a 2 minute music video . And then do it like a school project. No pressure to show it then do another one. It's all they did at my uni, and it was cheaper to stay home and learn online

For 2D animation, I think the first exercises are;

1. Character turnaround - an animation of your character from different angles so that it rotates
2. Ball bounce (with squash and stretch)
3. walk cycle

I'd really really recommend getting your hands on a copy of The Animator's Survival Kit . It's pretty much considered the animators bible, and I'm pretty sure there are PDFs out there if you can't afford it right now.

It goes into a lot of detail on keys and how they relate to timings specifically. In fact, pretty much everything in there shows the keys used and key poses, and how to achieve weight.

Alternatively, if it's mainly the 'illustrating' side of things you enjoy rather than the 'figuring out how to make things move gud' aspect then something else you might want to look into is motion graphics, and starting out with making some of your existing character illustrations move around a bit with After Effects.

Toon Boom Harmony is another software looking into if you get a chance - especially as you already have a grounding in 3D. From my understanding, it's the same workflow as 3D animation only with 2D rigs instead. I'm pretty sure shows such as The Amazing World of Gumball, Rick and Morty, Family Guy and The Simpsons use it - but it's far more common in industry these days than traditional (hand-drawn) animation.

first of all, you are insanely talented. animating characters with realistic proportions like these is super hard so great job!!

I do think some of your walkcycles still look a little rough though. If you would like to learn to improve them, consider buying the Animator's Survival Kit: https://www.amazon.nl/Animators-Survival-Kit-Principles-Classical/dp/086547897X/ref=asc_df_086547897X/?tag=nlshogostdde-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=430671742064&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7488386459259133356&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1010659&hvtargid=pla-395340047230&psc=1

Good luck with future projects!!

I read it many years ago, but it helped me to see differently, and so to draw better. It helps retrain your eyes to draw what you see, and to think about the spaces between things.

Now there are various versions of it. If you feel like checking it out, here it is.

Read up on the art form. Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, I think is a great place to start.

The next would be what sort of comic are you trying to write? A superhero comic? A four panel web comic? A manga? A graphic novel? All these have slightly different goals and conventions, knowing which one you want to work in helps focus what you want to do.

The next is work on drawing. Or learn to write for other mediums. Most people who have jobs writing for comics either started out doing their own or moved over from something else. Drawing also some also helps you understand what the artist is doing and will help you to write for that medium.

Just do it. Make a bad comic with bad writing and bad drawings. Then work to make it better. It amazes me how when you look at comics where people were just starting often have a spark of talent but not the fully realized craft, and then realize how much they learned by doing. The vast majority of people have to hone their craft. Just do it.

If you're already painting in photoshop, thats a great place to start animating!

Here's a great tutorial on workflow tips for animating in Photoshop, by a really talented animator named Alex Grigg: https://vimeo.com/80851591

I'd say play around for a bit just making things move around before getting into more technical animation training. Approach it like you would draw flip books in the corner of a textbook. Just make things move around and experiment. Once you've played around a bit, and gotten a feel for using photoshop to work across a timeline, I suggest checking out a book that is one of the standard textbooks for classical animation, "The Animator's Survival Toolkit," by Richard Williams (he was the animation director on "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"). You can find it on amazon here:

http://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Principles-Classical/dp/086547897X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427217884&sr=8-1&keywords=animators+survival+kit

Hope this helps!

Sorry, that probably did come across as more rude than helpful. I don't mean to discourage, more that you're just inexperienced. Google is your friend and just searching art fundamentals and picking a topic that's interesting or appealing to you probably will get you far at this point. At this point I'd experiment and try a bunch of different stuff rather than obsess over something specific. Here are a few topics that would be worth searching out:

Perspective (thinking about creating the illusion of a 3D object in a 2D space)

Value (understanding how to use light and dark to form objects and not just draw symbols)

Color theory (What are pleasing color palettes? More advanced: how does light affect color?)

Ask if you have more specific questions and you are 100% welcome to send me PMs if you want more detailed feedback and help, but this isn't really the place to ask for an art curriculum when you can find great resources on Amazon

EDIT: I'm a little worried that you're conceptualizing "ART" in the wrong way, from reading your reply. It's not like fundamentals are something you either have or you don't have, it's about growth and learning. But there's a foundation level that needs to be built first.

Your arms are moving on some nice arcs. But your legs are really poppy towards the end of the loop. The head seems to move at the same rate of the arms and it’s making it feel robotic. When humans run there’s an up and down motion of the whole body. Like so: walk cycle If you’ve don’t have the Animators Survial Kit by Richard Willams, I highly recommend buying it in some form. Amazon link to paperbackIt has all sorts of useful information.

overall its a solid start. you just need to brush up on the 12 principles of animation.

hope it helps!

Book recommendation that kind of answers your question in a very roundabout way

https://www.amazon.com/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still-ebook/dp/B00COOFBA4

> A combination of mediocre skills can make you surprisingly valuable

it is simply one indicator of a few you should use. among them, google (obv), your smart peers, professional opinions as well.

here's a book that taught me to not react with "i already know" kind of attitudes.

https://www.amazon.ca/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still-ebook/dp/B00COOFBA4

good luck man!

There's a lot of great resources on designing comics if you look around online. My personal introduction to a lot of this theory was Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics and Making Comics, two terrific books that are basically just nonfiction essays about the comics medium-- and of course, they're comics themselves.

My favorite major class was Compilers taught by Jan Prins. He still teaches it! COMP520. It's really fascinating to see how a program can take another program in a language like Java and translate it down to machine language.

My favorite non-major class I don't remember the name of but it was on graphic novels out of the English department. It was fascinating and the subject matter of the graphic novels selected was fantastic: Holocaust, Palestine, Systems, and then a great book on how graphic novels are made which I feel is one of the best visual communication books I've read by Scott McCloud: https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-McCloud/dp/006097625X

This really helped me when i learned animation.

https://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Principles-Classical/dp/086547897X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=animation&qid=1551911171&s=books&sr=1-1

I think what you're wanting is visual storytelling. I would recommend independent comic books, they're story boards that show generally what shot you're looking to move thru. Also try this book, it's almost like a for dummies starter. http://www.amazon.com/Framed-Ink-Drawing-Composition-Storytellers/dp/1933492953

Sure. There's a classic book on the subject called "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way" that goes into some detail on the body proportions relative to the head of the figure.

In short, while an ordinary person is between 6 and 7 "heads" high, Marvel heroes are more like 8 or even 9, depending, and their bodies are at least 3-4 "heads" wide (while normal people are more like 2.5). If you want to make someone look puny, make his head overly large relative to his body. Stocky? Make their head large, square, and their bodies wide.

Colors are important, but not I think as much as camera angles, subtle facial features, lighting, and posing. Anyone will look villainous with a light source below their face, yet look fine with the same light to one side or from the top. Try it with a flashlight.

There's a lot more in the book, and other books like it. The art of comics is more of a craft these days, since there are fairly specific rules, at least with the weekly comics stuff. Graphic novels are more inventive, but there I think there's a much wider variety of subject matter so it's not the same.