Sunday, November 27th 2011 - 12:58PM :

Question and Answer session

Yao Qu, a student studying digital manga asked if I'd answer a few art questions for her school project and thought my replies might be of interest to OM Blog readers

Apart from Manga, what other type/s of digital media do you create? For example photo manipulation, web designing, animations etc.

- All of the above! I started drawing manga first, and then later digitizing it by scanning and adding colour tones with the computer. Once I had acquired a general understanding of using Photoshop, learning other related software types became easier and more accessible. Many of the tools in something like Photoshop are similar in animation programs like Flash, and there are even a few interface similarities with web tools like Dreamweaver.
It’s great how an initial love for manga art ended up enabling me to branch out into so many other areas of digital art and design. Had I not been so amazed by some of the digital manga artists on the internet when I was around 16, I may have stuck with traditional media for a lot longer and that could have had a negative impact on my future career plans now that we’re pretty much all living in a digital age.

Which software do you often use for your drawings? (Photoshop, PaintTool SAI etc.) What particular aspect(s) of this program do you like and dislike?

I use Photoshop for nearly everything and luckily it can do nearly everything I would want. It’s really difficult to learn if you’re new to design software, but well worth sticking with- it’s saved my butt so many times! I dabbled with Painter for a few hours but never got to grips with it and to be honest if you can do near enough everything with your favourite program- be that Photoshop or something else, then there’s not much point investing a lot of time mastering something totally new. Unless of course you just love experimenting and learning software I like it’s familiarity and although it’s complex, once understood, it can be a big help with my illustration work as well as photo editing, graphic and web design.

How would you rate this software? (1 Lowest - 10 highest)
Photoshop CS5– 9/10. I’ve been using it since version 4 which came out about 11 or 12 years ago and it’s matured into a great bit of kit.
If a newer version of this software is released, would you upgrade?
Yes. I usually update every couple of years. Sometimes the program’s interface changes a lot and it chucks a ton of new features at me- most of which I don’t need, but some are vital. Since version CS4 64bit I’ve been able to work on humongous 1GB+ files, which means great quality when printing large scale artwork.

What was your earliest inspiration for drawing Manga?

Check out the Info/Profile page on Organic Metal for lots of details on this

In your opinion do you think Manga has made a big impact on digital art? Especially digital painting? For example, I started drawing Manga traditionally on paper, and then due to other's influences I've moved onto digital art, I was then more aware of different types of art media and painting software and graphic tablets. Is this the same for you?

Yes, exactly the same for me. You only have to look at huge online art communities like Deviantart to see large percentages of manga style artists who make use of digital media and that in turn is influencing other young, aspiring artists.
Although manga is only part of a massive shift towards digital media over recent years. Loads of other styles are adopting a digital approach as it’s evident that artists can now produce amazing results in a fraction of the time I’d take to do it traditionally. I wonder if it’s more a case of technology having an impact on manga more so that the other way around

The End!

I've done several other little Q&A sessions over email, but must have deleted them otherwise I would have added them too. It's good for me to answer stuff like this and help formulate some opinions