by =Robaato
EXPOSURE & GETTING BETTER AT WHAT YOU DO
I’m only going off of my own personal experiences talking about these few things. So take it with as many grains of salt as you can.
I’ve recently been asked questions like “How do I get people to see my work?”, “Why am I not receiving commission inquiries?”, “Why isn’t anyone following my work?”, “What can I do to get better?”. Often, and I answered it before, the answer is as simple as this:
Create.
Create, as in, DRAW. PAINT. RENDER. SCULPT. You have to do develop a tolerance (or the obvious definition: LOVE) for creating if you want exposure and to get better. You have to LOVE the drawing or illustration that you HATE how it came out in the end. You have to ask yourself after every piece, what could I have done to do that differently. And you have to do this frequently.
Some folks come on the scene, post once or twice a week, and expect an audience to flock your way. Even some have been on the site for years and expect it. This is not realistic. You have to develop an audience somewhat. You do that by drawing and posting and being social.
“WHAT TO DRAW? HOW MUCH?”
For me, what attracted folks to my work are female pinups and fanart. I don’t buy into the “fanart is selling out” because it’s not true. I also don’t buy into the “you just draw tits to get exposure” which isn’t true either. I’ve seen bad pieces of fanart. I’ve seen horrible, gratuitous drawings of tits. And they don’t get the exposure. So, a big fat NULL on that concept. These are just one or two of the ways of gaining an audience. Those kinda comments come from people I designate HATERZ. Draw what the heck you want.
Once you find your niché audience, then you expand on that by working towards creating different things. But of course, remember to draw what you want to draw, you want to keep it enjoyable for yourself. But again, you have to be regular and try to force yourself to excel harder on each consecutive piece or creation. Even if it’s just scribbly sketches, it’s something, and it’s a regular feed to your audience. The more people see, the more they fave, the more other people will jump in their galleries and see, and they fave/watch, and it’s a snowball effect from there on, given that you continue to be regular.
Remember that there will be people who will stop watching you because you’ve changed tastes in style or genre. You can’t please everyone. Not one person have yet to pull this feat off. JUST DRAW.
“B-BUT… MY SKETCHES ARE FUGLY!”
Sketches aren’t meant to be finished pieces of work. Trial and error runs. Sometimes, they end up looking really good. Some of them are meant to be fully finished pieces of work. No matter how they look, POST THEM! If you think a gallery of sketches will change a potential client’s perception in your skills, post them to a blog (BUT REMEMBER TO, AGAIN, BE REGULAR) so folks who are interested can see them. Because there will be interested people in a gallery chuck-full of experimental sketches.
I’M DOING COMMISSIONS. CAN I ASK A MORE POPULAR, EXPOSED ARTIST TO PIMP ME OUT?
Sure go on ahead. But that doesn’t mean you’ll get an instant flow of new clients. They’re not going to buy what they do not know. And they won’t know you. If you DO ask for help, make sure that you hold your weight on your end. Don’t come from under the rock, open commissions, ask an artist to help you, do the commissions you get, and get back under the rock. You won’t make it past the “come from under the rock” phase anyway.
You have to be pullin’ mad weight already and show it. Or else you won’t be taken that seriously.
“SO HOW DO I KNOW IF HAVE THE CHOPS?”
This is where confidence comes in. Confidence is the sum of all the aforementioned things to do: regularity and repetition. When you build up that consistent amount of content, people will then have no doubt that you can pull off what you can pull off. So when they ask to hire you, there’ll be no question in their mind that you won’t be able to (something I wish someone told me before that I had to realize for myself).
Also, don’t become stale. I’ve unwatched artists who at one point were doing awesome things at the skill level they were once at, but they haven’t advanced since. They get too comfortable and don’t bother to get better at all. I can’t condemn them for that, that’s their call. And I can’t condemn the people who continue to watch them, that’s their call. But settling down is something that I personally feel is “laziness”.
BE SOCIAL.
You’ll never get anywhere being a loner. You will have to meet and develop relationships with different artists and people you meet. That in itself requires effort. Don’t be scared to ask other artists for help. Truth be told, some may be very busy. But you’re not bothering them at all to shoot a quick note/comment with a question. Either they a) won’t get to answer it all, b) too busy to answer it, or c)answer it. You won’t be delegated as a weirdo or be the laughing stock of the internet if it happens. (Okay, you will, we’ll just make fun of you without you knowing.
I kid.)
BE HUMBLE.
Your way is not always the highway. Burger King may let you make your Whopper how you want it, but it can still be a nasty looking Whopper to someone else, or they could probably throw their two-cents on an ingredient that you don’t know about that you could try on your Whopper and it may BLOW YOUR MIIIIIND. Jus’ saying.
Don’t be stand-offish when someone brings up a valuable error that you could learn from. You can still give your reasoning to appear like you know it all (or just state a reason why you did it that way if you had one from the outset) but be courteous and remember that you’re imperfect… as it’s impossible to draw perfect things. That’s like having a lion draw a dog, but a lion can’t draw in the first place. Itth doesn’th maketh senseth.
Of course, I don’t know it all. I hope I didn’t come across that way in this post. But I’m only sharing the things I know that works or have worked for me.
So if there’s anything to remember from this lengthy post:REGULARITY: POST A LOT. ANYTHING, EVERYDAY!
Happy arting, folks.
This is just hot.
Can anybody tell me what issue/storyline this is from and where I can buy it? *______*
It’s the Loki graphic novel by marvel just type that into Google.
(via bizarrevolution)
Was commissioned by the ever-talented Brental Floss a year or so ago to create a poster celebrating all things Brental Floss: the man, the music, the video game references.
Please stop calling your work manga, and yourself mangaka.
Before I explain why I’m asking for this favor, I should tell you a bit about myself. Growing up I had a friend who was into comics, stuff like THE PUNISHER, VENOM, SPAWN, really grim dark stuff. When he took me to my first comic book store I was about 12 years old, and I wanted to read about rad cartoony kids like me having adventures, running away from home and searching for treasures armed with firecrackers, yoyos, and baseball bats. All I could find in the 90’s were super muscled old dudes, guns, grimdark, and then there were archie and sonic comics. Sonic comics were action cartoony so I bought those but they didn’t really hold my interest (loved the cartoon though). Anyway I gave up on comics, I drew them but I was always inspired by videogames which had the heros I liked. I was drawn to Megaman, Goonies, Mario Bros which all either had kid heros or bright poppy colors and cool art in the instruction booklets. I stayed influenced by videogames until middleschool. I remember seeing a cartoon (anime) called Unico when I was a about 4-5? on a rental, it blew my mind so bad I was sort of convinced it was just a dream and it didn’t really exist, every other cartoon was nothing like that. But I remember watching Sailormoon and DBZ on TV about middleschool-highschool and it once again blew my mind that type of animation really did exist. From there I started buying over priced anime VHS from suncoast (mostly ranma 1/2), started reading manga, going to conventions, cosplaying and my art even started emulating my favorite anime/mangas from there. Later on I even got published under Tokyopop and THEY called my work manga ( I didn’t agree, but who was I going to argue with when they were paying me to draw comics? ). So by all accounts I understand the “But no manga is different!” feeling and that’s my biggest issue.
-It shouldn’t be different.
People see are the way the industries are run. The most powerful comic publishers in America flood the market with superheros written for males in their 30s-40s. Japan’s powerful comic publishers…well take Shueisha for example, publish comics for all genders all ages, while story lines move at much faster rates. These industries are important because they are the spots where lively hood from making comics is more possible, and because their distribution is more powerful they effect the general public’s perception of comics. In Japan comics are made for everyone so almost everyone reads comics, in America comics are seen as a culture and less of a medium for everyone. This makes the lures to people like me with thoughts of going to Japan and being a mangaka, but that would not only be MORE difficult and also that wouldn’t help solve any of the problems we have in America. Instead of attempting to separate yourself from other comics artists, we should be working together to change the industry to our standards. With stuff like the internet, webcomics, kickstarter, apps, now more than ever it’s possible to change the world of comics into the world we want it to be. Personally I have no patience for people who superficially look down on others based on their art style, because they are annoyed by diversity which is the centerpiece of making comics a format that is acceptable to the general public. Everything you like from japan is accomplish-able in any other country and viceversa.
-People put too much importance on art style in a storytelling telling medium.
You can tell any story you like in any art style you like. Just to reiterate myself, manga isn’t a style, it’s not any more of a style than the words “movie” “newspaper” “tv show” “comic” Those perimeters are not specific enough to consider them styles, they are formats. Manga (comics from japan) do use symbolic features as part of the language there, but some do not. Some manga are drawn incredibly realistic (vagabond), some are cartoony and have more of those trademark symbols you recognize like big shiny eyes, or sweatdrops or whatever. If you use those symbols you’re only using superficial tools, these tools are useful in certain cases but they are hardly the heart of comics/manga which is STORYTELLING. So really the distinction most people see is superficial, what matters is the STORY.
-You don’t need that label of Manga / Mangaka and no one should be labeling you.
If you’re a comic artist and someone tried to tell you you don’t belong because of your art style? They are shallow and you shouldn’t waste your time with people like that. Don’t try to fit into what people want you to fit into, work to change things so what YOU prefer becomes the norm. Using the internet finding people who share your interests and will follow your work has been easier than ever. Yes you’ll go to publishers to show your portfolio, and even if you are skilled enough you will be snubbed based on your style. That is their short sighted mistake, in truth publishers don’t usually know what’s going to be good, they can only look at sales and say “oh if we put tits on the cover it sells more, so we should do that”. Punish them by being successful without them, make comics on your own, make a webcomic,and then if you’ve pulled followers on your own you’ll have more muscle to deal with publishers on your terms. If you are intent on working with a publisher keep searching until you can find a specific person from a publisher who will believe in you and support your work.
-Lastly although I hate to mention it, calling yourself a mangaka / manga artist unless you are from Japan makes people take you less seriously.
It shouldn’t really impact your decision to whether you do call yourself a mangaka / manga artist, but just know people are going to assume you are trying to be a special snowflake, that you’re not in the trenches with the rest of the comic artists, you’re above all that. But the fact is if you’re in America our comics industry and culture effects you, no matter how you try to separate yourself from the issue if you’re in a country and the people, economy, and culture all effect your success.
So worry less about your label and help change things so what you like doesn’t need to be distinguished from the rest of comics. Perhaps tell Deviant art to stop influencing youth to think otherwise through distinguishing galleries by “manga style” and “everything else”. Have them distinguish styles by Realistic, Cartoons, Isometric which are much better indicators of style. CHECK THE PYRAMID
(Source: natalia-romanoff, via crikeydave)
