The Ampersand Project (Original Manga)

[Sterling]

So this is a manga drawn by me written with input from my friends.

This is a rough draft (like, sandpaper-toilet-paper rough), so I've still got to clean up a bit.
It's called The Ampersand Project for two reasons:

• In story, people are usually paired up as partners
• This is the first story I did where plot elements, characters, etc., are based on ideas from my friends.

Sorry for the text, my handwriting kinda sucks.
If anyone has questions about this, I'd be happy to answer!

[Sterling]

[Sterling]

[Sterling]

[crackers]

boring

[Sterling]

[Sterling]

[Sterling]

[Sterling]

[Sterling]

[Sterling]

[crackers]

aside from the generic character design and the generic humour this is pretty

generic

that being said, i'm still reading it, so keep it up

[rtil]

i'm seeing a lot of soul eater influence in this, which is fine, but try not to be too close to it.

you have a very tried and true set-up - straight man meets foil, buddy-cop type scenario. doing something refreshing with it will be the difficult part.

not sure i agree with the right-to-left reading since it is in english, but i get why you did it.

i would work harder on line fidelity, you're doing a lot of scratchy and fuzzy lines and it takes away from the form of your drawings. anatomically speaking you need a lot of practice, too. drawing the human form as much as you are helps, but make sure you are studying anatomy at the same time as well, and master each part of the body and how it connects.

[Sterling]

Thanks for the feedback! I'm still open to suggestions for story and stuff, so if you guys have any ideas, I'd be happy to know!

[Sterling]

Made a group pic of the bad guys

[zwimmy]

I like your backgrounds, they're very Kubo-esque

[crackers]

Iris has a cool design, I like his design. I'd perhaps add an eyelid, it looks a little barren up top

[ZekeySpaceyLizard]

Wow this is just....

Theres so many things.


I'm gonna give you a fun fact right now:

a) the skull and head of an anime character is actually very similar to an actual real person's skull / head with a few key things exaggerated

b) anime heads should not be an upside-down cone with a nose, hair, and eyes applied sketchily onto it

c) you don't understand basic forms. Your character's torsos are rounded rectangles. Your characters arms are noodles that bend (yet you try to draw elbow details for some reason). Your characters heads are triangles/cones.

Get these:



Or if you don't feel like that, go outside and sketch real people. Real things. Once you understand how a body works, you'll understand how cartoons and anime exaggerate particular qualities of the form to create recognizable designs. Anime isn't just BIG KAWAII EYES TINY MOUTH TRIANGLE NOSE. There's alot of scientific shit behind it and every time I see someone try to imitate an art style without actually knowing how to draw it always looks like your art.

And don't try to claim it's "your style" thats a bullshit thing to say and only people full of bullshit say shit like that. Are you full of bullshit? No. Learn anatomy. Every good artist, cartoonist, animator, even hentai artist understands anatomy first before trying to stylize the human body. It doesn't matter how famous they are. Every good anime director from Osamu Tezuka to Shinichiro Watanabe understood form and function of the human body before trying to find ways of finding ways to stylize it. Every artist learns by copying.

Go outside. Copy everything you see. Draw everything you see. Copy other artists. Try to understand WHAT makes their art tick. Try to understand WHY they do certain things. Why they make their lines do this or that. Once you make that connection, congrats. You understand 3D forms being drawn in a 2D plane and your art will improve a bazillion times. This is what anatomy teaches you. This is what drawing from real life teaches you. Depth.

Until you do that your art is always going to look like:





And while I'm trying really hard not to be rude right now but jesus fuck your monster designs are generic. Well all your designs are generic but your monsters are shamelessly so.
They look exactly like the HEARTLESS from Kingdom Hearts mixed a bit with the "BOMB" enemies from every Final Fantasy Game ever. Fun Fact: Almost everyone at SQUARE-ENIX are hacks and if you are trying to learn to draw cool creatures, do not take inspiration from them. That is not the path you want to go down.

You're welcome.

[crackers]

generic

[Sterling]

What would you guys suggest I do about that?
I really want to make this a good manga.