Trying to draw a manga,

[Voll]

It seems everytime I start drawing my manga, five pages later my drawing style is completely different. I have to constantly start them over and its getting really, really annoying. No matter how much I try it seems to change- noticably.

So my question is what do you think I could do to keep my style constant? Is there some special thing you can do? Help! ;-;  

[Erebus Shadow]

the only thing I can thing of is using a light table. I have the same problem however the light table doesn't really work for me. I just focus on what I want to draw next and where its going to be, but even then its still 50/50  

[Kupocake]

Model sheets. They're the manga/comic artist's best friend.

Before you start on that first page of any comic or manga you'll be working on, draw out the characters on a piece of paper. Draw EVERY LITTLE DETAIL ABOUT that character. Show measurements of how far apart their eyes are, detailed analysis on how you shaped their eyes, the zipper design on their jacket, etc. Draw that character front, back, and sideways. Draw the basic emotions of your character (happy, sad, angry, annoyed, etc.).

Then start on your page. Keep the model sheets out for you to look at while you draw, and you don't have to "guesstimate" things about your characters, because you planned ahead. This should keep a rather cohesive look to your overall product.

---------------
There is a possibility that the reason why your style has been changing so much is because you don't work on the pages fast enough OR your drawing abilities are still much in development, and are learning because of your manga pages. In such a case, I suggest just keep on drawing your pages, and don't worry too much about the style. You will start seeing a good progress of how you draw, and it may be very uplifting. 3nodding  

[Voll]

Oh! Thats a great idea ^.^ thank you.
Yes, looking back at comics/mangas I did a few years ago is pretty funny. I guess Im kind of young so my style is "maturing" more and more =]

@_@ I would use a light table if I had one! Lol, im a bit to poor to get one though.

Thanks for the help guys!  

[arcane_halo]

Oh well, guess you dont need my help anymoar XD  

[Hoshii Koba]

How old are you? And if you really want to keep your style consistant... you can do what I did? (I'm gonna get shot for this)

I used to copy the works of my favourite artists and study their 'style', then interperate my favourite bits into my own... after a few years I kinda got the hang of it and started changing stuff... Years sounds like a horrid process but remember nobody (or at least rarely does someone) picks up a pencil and starts to draw brilliant, consistant work.

Personally, though light tables are brilliant for animating and certain areas of art, I wouldn't advice using them to keep a consistant style. What if you stop using the light table, or can't use it, one day? You realise that you NEED the light table for your art to look normal!

But it's up to you.  

[gongkat]

Model sheets are the best way to keep consistency with your characters style. Your style may vary a little more after the model sheets are done, but I don't think dramatically.

Light boxes are okay, but I don't personally use one. However some web comics illustrators I know uses one with great success.  

[Caliber Mengsk]

O-o I know this post hasn't been talked in for a while, but as towards the light table... If you don't mind a small one, and you have either a laptop or LCD screen, you can do something like open notepad, maximize it, and put like a piece of clear glass/plastic over it and use it as a light table. Only holds the size of one sheet of paper, but any widescreen 15 inch or larger will hold a standard 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper.

Just an Idea... I haven't done this except when I first started drawing, I used it as a way to trace (to start learning how others would draw stuff). It'll definately work with tracing paper, but I don't know if it's bright enough for two sheets of regular paper. Hope this helps some though.  

[mischievous_pixie]

Practice A LOTTT on your style. Make examples of your style and keep them in eye range when you're drawing on your manga.
And use guidelines like this:

Not only will it help with making cleaner figures, but it's also easier to draw the same over and over again this way.  

[qorter]

Hoshii Koba

How old are you? And if you really want to keep your style consistent... you can do what I did? (I'm gonna get shot for this)

I used to copy the works of my favorite artists and study their 'style', then interpret my favorite bits into my own... after a few years I kinda got the hang of it and started changing stuff... Years sounds like a horrid process but remember nobody (or at least rarely does someone) picks up a pencil and starts to draw brilliant, consistent work.

Personally, though light tables are brilliant for animating and certain areas of art, I wouldn't advice using them to keep a consistent style. What if you stop using the light table, or can't use it, one day? You realize that you NEED the light table for your art to look normal!

But it's up to you.

I totally agree with the whole 'pick your favorite artist and imitate their style' thing. When I first got serious about drawing, I kinda sucked....I got about 40 or so pages into my first comic and I looked back through it and saw how my style had changed. I think I restarted two times before I decided to figure out how I wanted to draw my characters. I'm not at home right now, but later today I'll upload a few pages to show you how weird the change can be.

But yeah, I'm ranting now, but just REALLY work on your style. I only do a page or so whenever I'm in the mood and, because I took the time to get better at drawing my characters, I've gotten good at keeping the character's appearance consistent.  

[RedSparrow]

qorter

Hoshii Koba

How old are you? And if you really want to keep your style consistent... you can do what I did? (I'm gonna get shot for this)

I used to copy the works of my favorite artists and study their 'style', then interpret my favorite bits into my own... after a few years I kinda got the hang of it and started changing stuff... Years sounds like a horrid process but remember nobody (or at least rarely does someone) picks up a pencil and starts to draw brilliant, consistent work.

Personally, though light tables are brilliant for animating and certain areas of art, I wouldn't advice using them to keep a consistent style. What if you stop using the light table, or can't use it, one day? You realize that you NEED the light table for your art to look normal!

But it's up to you.

I totally agree with the whole 'pick your favorite artist and imitate their style' thing. When I first got serious about drawing, I kinda sucked....I got about 40 or so pages into my first comic and I looked back through it and saw how my style had changed. I think I restarted two times before I decided to figure out how I wanted to draw my characters. I'm not at home right now, but later today I'll upload a few pages to show you how weird the change can be.

But yeah, I'm ranting now, but just REALLY work on your style. I only do a page or so whenever I'm in the mood and, because I took the time to get better at drawing my characters, I've gotten good at keeping the character's appearance consistent.

I disagree with this method. Although it is helpful to practice drawing someone elses characters, imitating someone's style isn't gonna help you become a good artist, it'll just make you into a clone of that artist.

I teach a class on manga making and there's a girl there that is drawing a comic and when I took a look at it, it looks like just a bunch swiped panels and characters from Bleach! This might be fine when you're starting out, but that's not what you wanna be if you're planning to continue this professionally.

If you want to be a good artist then the best way to start is DRAW PEOPLE REALISTICALLY. That means drawing from live models, like in art classes. Look up at your local colleges or art supply stores to see if there are live model drawing classes so you can practice your anatomy and proportions and hone those skills first. Because while anime might be loads of fun, it's no where near anatomically correct, and you should REALLY understand how the body works before you start making the eyes big and the mouth tiny and the hair huge, etc. If you want to be a versatile artist that can pick up any style, then I recommend this first, because all other styles of drawing people are just derivatives of basic human anatomy.  

[HyperActivity]

Hi, just poking in on the argument here....

Actually, carefully studying other people's art is rather rewarding. Masashi Kishimoto (you should know who this is) explained in his chapter bonuses that he spent hours learning from his favorite manga. He tried to make his 'own original manga' but soon realized that NO manga is truly original. Everyone somehow incorporates the tiniest things from other manga. And if you draw something enough, and really make it your own, it won't matter if you studied bleach to get it. I look at Black Cat and Cowboy BeBop manga myself for my stuff, and I'm not a look alike.  

[teh space cop]

Hoshii Koba

How old are you? And if you really want to keep your style consistant... you can do what I did? (I'm gonna get shot for this)

I used to copy the works of my favourite artists and study their 'style', then interperate my favourite bits into my own... after a few years I kinda got the hang of it and started changing stuff... Years sounds like a horrid process but remember nobody (or at least rarely does someone) picks up a pencil and starts to draw brilliant, consistant work.

Personally, though light tables are brilliant for animating and certain areas of art, I wouldn't advice using them to keep a consistant style. What if you stop using the light table, or can't use it, one day? You realise that you NEED the light table for your art to look normal!

But it's up to you.

I dont think thats bad, I always look at my favorite artist drawing if I have trouble learning how to drawa certain pose or fingers or something. Sometimes it's just easier for people to learn by seeing other people do it, nothing wrong with it biggrin
although if you COPY them and don't bother trying to create your own style thats a different thing.  

[Amaya Himura X Zero Kiryu]

Don't go fullout professional on all the pictures, like shade on some with intense emotion but not every singal figure. I have that problem to, I can't seem to draw the same picture twice, anyway try keeping a seperate picture of each character and refer to it while drawing. It works with me.