5 Steps To Start A Career As A Manga Artist

Do you love manga and you can't even imagine a job for you that doesn't deal with mangas? If it's so, welcome to this page for all the manga-obsessed people out there who aim to start a career in this field.

Becoming a manga artist is actually one of the most typical dreams for all the kids and young adults who love reading mangas. But the fact is that not every one of them takes the manga job enough seriously. It's not only about drawing characters or writing stories. It's much more. So, the first step for you is to define your idea of career and see if the manga artists' world meets your expectations.

We want to help you with the following simple and practical guide to becoming a manga artist in today's marketplace.

How Can You Seriously Make Money?

Although you may be very young now and you have a pretty idealistic vision of what working as a manga artist is, you must understand that this kind of job is pretty demanding. First of all, you should figure out the way you can make money from your passion for mangas.

At the beginning of your job experiences, you will certainly get an unrelated job. Don't worry: it doesn't mean that you will do that job forever! It simply means that you will gain work experience while drawing your mangas in your free time. The most important thing is that you won't stop drawing and writing mangas. During the preparation of your first manga, you won't see a money influx at all. It's hard to tell you, but it's how hard every artist's journey normally is. Again, it doesn't mean that it's going to be like that forever.

Once you get your first manga published, you should start considering yourself as a "performer". So, your manga production should go on, regardless of how successful your first work was. It's for this reason that most manga artists produce their works in sets, so they can grab the readers' attention sooner or later.

Practical Guidelines To Becoming A Manga Artist

If you are determined to become the next greatest manga artist of all time, get our simple and handy list of steps to move:

Define your niche
Becoming a manga artist means that you have a clue about what kind of manga you want to produce. If you want to define your niche better, just make research around to see what type of manga fits your skills. Keep in mind that the main manga types are: shonen (manga for boys), shojo (manga for girls), seinen (manga for men), josei (manga for women), and kodomo (manga for children).
Join a community
Probably, you already know that there's a lively community surrounding the world of manga. You should enter that community to expand your contacts and personal interactions with other readers or producers. You may share opinions, experience, you may learn a lot from getting involved in manga-related conversations with passionate people like you. Reddit is one of the largest manga communities that you may want to join as a beginner. On this platform, you will get feedback and you can also help others follow in your footsteps to become a manga artist.
Drawing equipment
If you want to draw professional-looking manga, you'd better get the right drawing equipment. Manga is hand-drawn but you still need several drawing and shading instruments, like fill-nib pens and fine pens. These instruments may vary according to the specific type of manga that you want to focus on. For a general view of the needed instruments, you may check this page. Keep in mind that you can buy your manga drawing equipment online as well as at local specialist shops.
Drawing lessons
You have to gain the exact style for drawing mangas. You can start by imitating the manga that you have at home, but at some point, you have to take specific lessons or even an online course to learn the basic graphics as well as many other drawing techniques that only professional artists know.
First work experiences
There are many ways to get started as a manga artist. Consider that it will be harder if you live in a place where mangas aren't a large interest. Anyway, make your research online and see what opportunities you can catch in your area. Also, understand that competition is always very hard in this field, so get ready to use all of your talent and skills to outstanding among potential competitors.

The bottom line is that you have to be extremely creative and original when drawing your characters and writing your stories. Don't let any possible recruiters or collaborators suspect that you are merely imitating someone else's work. Success for manga artists is always connected with their level of creativity.