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Is It Easier To Draw Manga Digitally?

Digital manga drawing might be much simpler, but every artist has their own preferences.
Digital manga drawing might be much simpler, but every artist has their own preferences.

Mangas are Japanese comics or graphic novels, it sticks to a style that was developed in the late 19th century in Japan. While the term Manga in Japan refers to comics as well as cartooning, in other countries Manga is used to refer to the comics that originated and were published in Japan.

Manga used to be drawn by hand using black ink and G-pen, however, since technology has taken over the world. Manga can now be drawn digitallyin fact, most Manga artists find drawing Manga digitally much easier.

Furthermore, by the year 2007, the popularity of manga had grown significantly, especially in the international comics industry, and the digital world expanded with it, there’re hundreds of apps that can be used to draw Manga.

Manga artists mostly use Clip Studio Paint for mainly drawing, paneling, and layering the drawings. While Photoshop, PaintTool SAI, and Corel Painter are used for editing, coloring, formatting, and cleaning.

If you want to know how Manga is created digitally, keep on reading because we go through every step.

Do Manga artists use digital?

Manga artists can utilize traditional drawing methods, computer software, or even a combination of the two.
Manga artists can utilize traditional drawing methods, computer software, or even a combination of the two.

While the old Manga artists still prefer hand drawing, today’s artists find digitally drawing Manga efficient. However, some artists prefer both, for instance, they may do the inking and sketching on the paper, and do the rest of it digitally.

However, I would prefer only digital drawing, because once you’re done with inking, you don’t have to erase your draft using an eraser. All you’ll have to do for solid coloring (which includes painting in the black parts), is to select those parts and fill them with black. It’s evident enough that drawing digital manga is far more efficient as compared to hand-drawing them.

Manga is typically created in black-and-white as many artists believe that coloring could possibly lessen the impact of the artwork and also keep the printing costs low, although, full-color Manga does exist.

In addition, the most fun part about Manga is that if a manga series is popular enough, it can be turned into an animated series, so keep your fingers crossed.

In fact most animated series originated in Japan are based on manga, for example, KENGAN ASHURA and Blue Exorcist are two of the most famous Anime that are based on Manga.

However, are those Manga series drawn digitally or by hand? Well, keep reading to find out which ones are drawn digitally.

Is Demon Slayer drawn digitally?

A page from a comic
Demon Slayer may just be the most successful Manga series.

Demon Slayer is one of the extremely popular Manga series which is drawn by hand. However, while digital drawing can be better in some aspects, hand drawing will always be different and special.

The Demon Slayer has had quite a success since its launch, in fact, it was ranked 14th on the “Nationwide Bookstore Employees’ Recommended Comics of 2017“, a poll by an online bookstore known as Honya Club.

Furthermore, Demon Slayer was written as well as illustrated by Koyoharu Gotouge and was serialized in Shueisha’s shōnen Manga magazine called “Weekly Shōnen Jump” from February 15, 2016, to May 18, 2020.

While Demon Slayer may be created the old way (by hand), there’s no denying the fact that the storyline is a hit. It’s about a teenage boy named Tanjiro Kamado, who desires to become a Demon Slayer after his family was killed and his sister named Nezuko, becomes a demon.

As of February 2021, the Demon Slayer Manga had more than 150 million copies in circulation, which included the digital versions as well, which made Demon Slayer the ninth best-selling Manga series of all time.

Check out this video to see some amazing differences between Demon Slayer manga and anime:

https://youtu.be/7khLdzh_uX0
Did you spot those differences?

Now, you must think about how many Manga success Mangas were created by hand or digitally, so for that check out the table below:

Manga ArtistsManga SeriesDrawing Digitally or Traditionally
Hiro MashimaFairy TailBoth
Reiji MiyajimaRent A GirlfriendDigitally
Ishida SuiTokyo GhoulDigitally
Gege AkutamiJujutsu KaisenDigitally
Tite KuboBleachDigitally
Shun SaekiFood WarsDigitally
Hiroya OkuGantzBoth
Yoshitoshi AbeRobot 8Digitally
Yoshikazu HamadaKobayashi-san Chi
no Maid Dragon
Digitally
Ken AkamatsuLove Hina
Negima
Both
Reki KawaharaSword Art OnlineDigitally
Shinichi SakamotoKokou no Hito
Innocent
Both
Oda EiichirōOne PieceBoth
Shizuka YamaguchiTomodachi no
Suki na Hito
Digitally
Kohei HorikoshiMy Hiro
Academia
Digitally
Yusuke MurataOne-Punch ManBoth
Hirohiko ArakiJojo’s Bizarre
Adventure
Both
Tatsuki FujimotoChainsaw ManDigitally
List of Manga drawn digitally or by hand

What do Manga artists use to draw digitally?

Manga used to be drawn traditionally, meaning by hand, from drawing to filling the black ink into the specific spaces, everything used to be done by hand.

But times have changed, my friend, now manga artists get help from technology. Most artists use Wacom pen tablets or creative pen displays to draw manga.

If we talk about the actual drawing part, well manga artists use very specific tools for every specific aspect of Manga drawing.

While, Clip Studio Paint is used for drawing, paneling, and layering out the drawings, Photoshop, PaintTool SAI, and Corel Painter are used to edit, color, format, and clean.

Furthermore, many comic artists use G-pens and Mapping pens to draw, these pens are of a different kind, meaning you first dip it into the ink and scribble away.

There’s a myriad of this drawing software for comics including G-pen, Mapping pen, and turnip pen.

While G-pen can adjust its pen pressure conveniently which can be suitable for drawing thick lines, like outlines, Mapping pen tools don’t offer the same amenity, meaning it draws thin by default, which can be perfect for drawing details, such as hair or the inside of the eyes. Turnip pen tools, on the other hand, are able to draw softer lines as compared to G-pens.

Moreover, while traditional drawing has its own fun to it, digital drawing can be easier, less messy, and less time-consuming. You only need your two hands and every tool is already in the software, even if you mess up the lines after you’ve drawn them, you can fix them easily.

How many pages does Mangaka draw in a day?

While an experienced manga artist can draw more than one page a day, an inexperienced artist may take days to even get done with one page.
While an experienced manga artist can draw more than one page a day, an inexperienced artist may take days to even get done with one page.

It depends. If the Mangaka is professional and has been in this industry for a long period of time, they can go up to 18 pages in a week, so basically they can draw 2 and a half pages easily in a day.

However, if you’re someone who’s new to the manga world, it may take you days to even finish one page.

Let’s say the mangaka has a whole professional team (which includes drawing assistants, inkers, and coloring artists), they can draw up to more than 24 pages in a week.

One of the well-known and legendary comics artist named Jack Kirby, is quite popular for his ability to churn out up to 20 pages a week (however, I’m not sure if that also includes inking).

Back in the 1970s to 1980s, Filipino comic artists were supposed to complete around 8 pages in a week, which had to be fully inked. Although, nowadays, if an artist can produce a page that fast, it may shake up the planets as it’s incredibly rare unless they go with a simple and straightforward style or if they’re using digital tools.

If we talk about the commercial mangaka who works for weekly magazines like Jump or Sunday, they’re supposed to draw about 17 to 21 pages every week in order to meet deadlines for next week’s issue.

While it may sound too much, they don’t work alone. In fact, they have assistants for almost every aspect which includes inking, toning, backgrounds, and touch-ups. Furthermore, mangaka relies on their assistants for most of the non-essential details like parts of the characters’ costumes ( which sometimes include hair).

Conclusion

  • The first Manga is believed to come out in the year 1814, since then times have changed and the drawing process has changed.
  • While some Manga artists still draw by hand, others use software like G-Pen or Clip Studio Paint.
  • There are many software’s for almost every aspect of Manga drawing, for instance, artists may use Clip Studio Paint to draw and layer, and PaintTool SAI for editing and coloring.
  • Moreover, it depends on the Manga artists if he finds the digital way or the traditional way easier.
  • Most Manga artists prefer both, like they may draw by hand and then color digitally.
  • Despite the fact of how amazingly Demon Slayer is illustrated, it was drawn by hand.
  • If a manga artist is experienced he may only need a couple of hours to complete one page, however, if not then it may take some days to finish up a whole page.

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