How to Develop Your Own Manga Style

Co-authored by Kathy Leader

Last Updated: December 15, 2022 Approved

If you're new to the world of manga, you may believe that every mangaka draws in a similar fashion — large eyes, triangular noses and pointed chins often come to mind when someone says "manga". However, if you're more familiar with manga, you'll know that every prominent mangaka's art style has its own unique flair and charm that distinguishes it from the art of others. If you're serious about manga, specifically, and comics in general, it's important to develop your own style.

Steps

1
Learn how to draw in a realistic way. Manga, as an art style, is simply a simplistic, exaggerated version of realism - developing your own style is simply a matter of which proportions to change and which details to forget. If you don't know how to draw realism, then you don't really know what you're exaggerating or why.
2
Study and compare the styles of successful manga. Find out the genre and target audience of the manga that you're studying, and compare the styles of those which have a similar genre and target audience. With that in mind, try to figure out why the artist has decided to exaggerate and simplify certain features, and why those styles are popular amongst their target audience. The manga that you are studying do not necessarily need to be manga that you like - only manga that's popular amongst others.
- To develop your own style, avoiding copying other artists. Instead, learn from their techniques and experiment using your own style as much as possible. Try new materials, new subject matter, different compositions and varied colors.
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3
Keep in mind what you enjoy drawing and what you find difficult or time-consuming. Whilst you shouldn't use this as an excuse to neglect improvement, a style that simplifies or even removes certain hard-to-draw features may prove to be an advantage to you.
4
Understand your own genre and target audience. As you should have figured out from step 2, realism won't win you any points in a child's comedy, but it will if you're making an adult's horror manga. Acceptable levels of detail and exaggeration will vary between audience and genre.
5
Leave room for characterisation. The more you simplify, the more difficult it will be for the appearances of your characters to vary without going to extreme measures. Physical features are important for distinguishing your characters and also for characterisation, so ensure that your style doesn't require everybody to have the same face.
6
Work out the degree of realism in the writing of the manga you're drawing for. For example, nobody will mind surreal elements if you're writing a zany fantasy manga, but outlandish appearances will strain your readers' suspension of disbelief in a realistic manga.
7
Practice! The more you practice drawing, the more your style will develop. This is probably the most important step. You need to tune your style before you go on to make any actual manga, otherwise stylistic inconsistencies (from where you've changed your mind) will start cropping up - and your readers will definitely notice if your style undergoes drastic changes, even if it's gradual.
- Push your own style further by drawing different versions.

Community Q&A

Question

So my style doesn't have to be perfect or like other people's work? If I draw something for my own series, and it looks different, that's fine and a good thing, right?

Katie Kun

Community Answer

Yeah. No one's style of manga is the same. Different is good. Your manga just has to be expressive and realistic.
Question

What can I do if I'm really slow and I need to copy?

TheRocketCat

Community Answer

Just take your time! Making a manga/graphic novel takes awhile but it's really fun if you enjoy it. There's nothing wrong with copying until you get the hang of it.
Question

How do I start making my characters from scratch?

Community Answer

First, you can start by the base, start off by choosing a gender for your character and then choose the body shape. For example, if you want your character to be skinny then do a skinny body type. Also, you can choose whether your character will be human or another creature. After that choose the details, such as how you want the hair, eyes, clothes, ears, etc. Once you've done that you should have a character!