Any tips for a Fan manga? DB

Any general discussion regarding fan-created works of the Dragon Ball franchise, including AMVs, fan-art, fan-fiction, etc.
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Any tips for a Fan manga? DB

Post by Captain Strawberry » Thu Jun 09, 2016 7:40 am

The manga that I want to make is a Dragon Ball Fantasy Adventure esque manga.
advice could be like what pens to use etc

just any tips that come to mind

I want to emulate Toyotaro's pacing of the Super Manga.
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Re: Any tips for a Fan manga? DB

Post by Scarz » Fri Jun 10, 2016 10:21 am

If you're going traditional, you can buy some pen nibs along with india ink. Micron and Zebra brush pens are also very ideal for traditional inking.

Aside from pens, any other specific questions you have? Are they all art related, like what materials to use? The more detailed you are the easier it'll be to give you some tips.

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Re: Any tips for a Fan manga? DB

Post by Captain Strawberry » Fri Jun 10, 2016 10:41 am

Scarz wrote:If you're going traditional, you can buy some pen nibs along with india ink. Micron and Zebra brush pens are also very ideal for traditional inking.

Aside from pens, any other specific questions you have? Are they all art related, like what materials to use? The more detailed you are the easier it'll be to give you some tips.
Thanks! It's sorta hard to think of questions.

What sort of paper should I use?

When drawing the draft. Do you just redraw it on different paper?

When drawing the actual thing, you actually have to ink the text instead of scanning it on the printer and putting the text from the PC?

I want to do like. Do like 20-25 pages per 2-4 weeks. How long would that take if I work on it if I did some reasonable work a week? Like 5-7 hours a week?

How long does 25 pages usually take for weekly or bi-weekly?

I don't think I can do background effects. Would people care if I can't do those?
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Re: Any tips for a Fan manga? DB

Post by Scarz » Fri Jun 10, 2016 11:22 am

Captain Strawberry wrote:What sort of paper should I use?


Canson bristol board paper. They do have manga paper (with non-photographic blue lines).
When drawing the draft. Do you just redraw it on different paper?


You can do one or two things. You can sketch a thumbnail of the pages on scrap paper, something really small. Then use the thumbnail as reference when drawing your comic page. Or you can take a light pencil, and roughly sketch out your comic on the page directly before adding in details or inks.
When drawing the actual thing, you actually have to ink the text instead of scanning it on the printer and putting the text from the PC?
Unless you have excellent penmanship and a nack for not making grammar or punctuation mistakes, I highly suggest adding text on the PC. Using programs like Adobe photopshop or Illustrator. If you can't afford either, then a simple free program like Paint.net will do.
I want to do like. Do like 20-25 pages per 2-4 weeks. How long would that take if I work on it if I did some reasonable work a week? Like 5-7 hours a week?
Whoa, take it easy there tiger. Unless you're used to drawing 20-25 pages in a month, I suggest taking it slow and setting realistic and easy goals for yourself. It takes me about an hour to sketch a full comic page, and another for inking. Things might take a little longer to complete, especially if you're a one man team. Next time you sketch and ink a page, set a timer. Take note on the average amount of time it took you to complete a page. Then base that on how man hours a week you can dedicate to your fan manga.
How long does 25 pages usually take for weekly or bi-weekly?
It depends on the artist. Honestly 25 pages a week or even bi-weekly is pretty demanding. An average comic artist can pencil 24 pgs in a month (maybe even a little more). I'm not sure what the average is for pro manga artist, but they usually have assistants.
I don't think I can do background effects. Would people care if I can't do those?
Sound effects to me are just as important as dialogue. You really want you're reader to be immersed you your comic. If there's an explosion in the bg but there's no sound effect, it might throw the reader off a bit. Try adding sound effects in programs like you would wither dialogue.

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Re: Any tips for a Fan manga? DB

Post by TheBritWriter » Fri Jun 10, 2016 5:49 pm

Captain Strawberry wrote: I want to do like. Do like 20-25 pages per 2-4 weeks. How long would that take if I work on it if I did some reasonable work a week? Like 5-7 hours a week?

How long does 25 pages usually take for weekly or bi-weekly?

I don't think I can do background effects. Would people care if I can't do those?
You need to care more about your vision and stick with it then think if people would care. If you are worried what you can't do then you'll never be creative, if your committed to the trade then you will get your own audience. Work with what your good at and build on from there, you have G-pens and other tools but don't go getting anything over the top in price just to work on a fan manga.

If your new to this then I'll say you'll be surprised at how slow paced your work will become, you have to have sketches, references, dialogue to plan out. As a rule of thumb I try not to go over six frames a page as quality decreases given your putting more into a smaller window.

It actually takes me a week to get drafts done like this:

Image

before applying colouring and different applications for the end result. Which is a 2-3 week process, but I have a proof viewer to see if it's done accordingly.

http://thebritwriter.deviantart.com/art ... -605175777

I suspect your fan manga will be dynamic and narrative, I suggest you try two pages a month, re-read your story, get someone to read it and look for any pitfalls. You will spend more time planning then drawing. If you did things at a weekly pace you may find yourself hitting a dead end wall. Take your time, once it's on the internet it'll be on the internet for another 10 years. If you want to impress then you only have one shot to get it right, so plan accordingly.

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Re: Any tips for a Fan manga? DB

Post by Captain Strawberry » Fri Jun 10, 2016 8:25 pm

Wow. I thought 20 pages like per month was pretty doable especially since DB's artstyle is simplistic. Maybe I'll aim for 15-17 pages within a month. Maybe I'll try to dedicate like 10-12 hours per week.

Ok. And by background effects I meant like:
those line thingies.
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Re: Any tips for a Fan manga? DB

Post by Malik_DBNA » Fri Jun 10, 2016 8:28 pm

I'd definitely set a more realistic page goal than 20-25 every two weeks.

I was doing Dragon Ball New Age full-time (8 hours a day) and am known to be quite fast at my craft, and I could still only do between 4-5 pages a week (7 on a good day). Unless you have a team of people helping you out (like Kishimoto or Toriyama sensei), you need to dial back on setting such a lofty goal to start.

On average, it takes me between 1-2 hours to pencil a full page. I pencil for four days (Monday-Thursday) to create a backlog of pages in case I feel sick or can't exactly make my quota for the week. By doing this, I can usually pump out between 12-15 penciled pages in four days. On Friday, I set the whole day aside for inking and editing. I can typically Ink my 4-5 pages in about 2 or so hours (I leave all heavy filling for digital editing), and the rest of that time is dedicated to scanning, editing, adding tones and speed lines, and lettering.

I developed this routine after hearing that its pretty much what Masashi Kishimoto goes through every week, except he spends close to 12-16 hours a day doing Naruto to meet his deadlines

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Re: Any tips for a Fan manga? DB

Post by Captain Strawberry » Fri Jun 10, 2016 8:56 pm

Would this level of art be acceptable for a manga? I never practised drawing much and before I draw this, it was the first time I drew in years. It took me an hour to draw this. If I practise, I think I can get it down in half an hour. I used two references so I kept looking back and forth.
Is it alright if I only read the Frieza arc, Cell arc and the Buu arc of the manga? I've never really read the manga before, I've watched kai and the original Dragon ball recently.
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Re: Any tips for a Fan manga? DB

Post by TheBritWriter » Sat Jun 11, 2016 1:39 am

Captain Strawberry wrote:Wow. I thought 20 pages like per month was pretty doable especially since DB's artstyle is simplistic. Maybe I'll aim for 15-17 pages within a month. Maybe I'll try to dedicate like 10-12 hours per week.

Ok. And by background effects I meant like:
those line thingies.
The art is more straight forward but I wouldn't describe it as simplistic given their are features such as posture, expression, direction character facing and telling a story on that page. There is also a discipline involved in doing this just Malik has done. You will find you won't have time to do other art if your going to stick to this

It's important to know that you are in control of the time of this project, you are not being paid for it so plan accordingly, and just turn up to art classes, if there are any in your area. Also keep reading not just DB manga but other manga look at the frames, word count and look at how you can model your work. If your going to trace be upfront about it as people will know.What level of art you think is good for the manga is down to you, only you can answer that it is your own work.

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Re: Any tips for a Fan manga? DB

Post by Captain Strawberry » Sat Jun 11, 2016 8:56 am

TheBritWriter wrote:
The art is more straight forward but I wouldn't describe it as simplistic given their are features such as posture, expression, direction character facing and telling a story on that page. There is also a discipline involved in doing this just Malik has done. You will find you won't have time to do other art if your going to stick to this

It's important to know that you are in control of the time of this project, you are not being paid for it so plan accordingly, and just turn up to art classes, if there are any in your area. Also keep reading not just DB manga but other manga look at the frames, word count and look at how you can model your work. If your going to trace be upfront about it as people will know.What level of art you think is good for the manga is down to you, only you can answer that it is your own work.[/quote]

Ok thanks. Just in case, I didn't trace. well I think so far is good enough especially if I put in the time.
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Re: Any tips for a Fan manga? DB

Post by Captain Strawberry » Tue Jun 14, 2016 10:34 pm

Been reading some of the manga, I've decided to do like 10-14 pages I guess bi-weekly+.

Would it be normal to have a dialogue assistant? Someone that would edit or revise the dialogue to make them sound like characters?
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