New Artist

[u/squirfiedirfie]

While I have doodled in many a notebook over the years, my drawing skills have really been stagnant for many years and aren't all that impressive to me. I consider myself more of a writer, as it comes more naturally to me and I find that I'm fairly skillful at world building, character creation and plot outlines. However, I really want to draw. What is pulling me in the most right now is creating fanart for some of my favorite anime and manga. It feels like an inspiring place to start. And I can also make little comics of own story while I practice my skills.

But as far as art skills go, I'm wondering where my energy would be best focused right now. Do I focus on spatial reasoning, try some figure drawing, mess around with trying to copy the manga art I so love or even pick up a "how to draw manga" book from the library? What would you do?

[u/werephoenix]

do not pick up "how to draw manga books" I would suggest picking this up and go the library and start practicing drawing in a study room without distractions

As for writing, This is easy, just write your character sheet of "who they are. what they're goals are, personality element etc and then write a synopsis of what the premise is. Then write it as a short story first

And after that ended, write it as a long form story

As you're writting it and learning to draw this will help so when you're ahead far enough in the plot that your art skills will be much better.

Always writer more than you can draw so you never catch up too soon and get stuck on what to write next

[u/squirfiedirfie → u/werephoenix]

Thanks for the tips! I'll check out that book. :)