As an artist, what do you think of current status of Manga/Anime "art"?

[JuanMena]

I was never good at it despite my many attempts to learn the basics but no matter how much I tried I never was able to grasp Anime/Manga "art" at all.

Now I'm old and even though I haven't drawn anything for a long time (maybe almost for an entire year?) I don't think I'll try my hand at it. Maybe I will, but I would never be suffering or attempting something serious with the "style".

My personal experience and failure with Anime/Manga "art" does not mean I despise it. I can appreciate good drawn Anime/Manga art when it's done correctly:


And I even admit that I've been heavily influenced by amazing 90s Japanese artists:

Shinkiro: Love his realistic color rendering. Still baffles me his masterful use of color.

Akiman: Love the way he exaggerated proportions of hands and feet in his illustrations.

Bengus: Probably the most recognized artist of the bunch. Love the way he simplified anatomy.

Nishimura: Love her sketchy and yet clean style. Her use of proportion are top notch.

Edayan: He managed to blend 80s anime with modern twists. His poses are very dynamic even with standing characters.

Ikeno: Probably my fave of the bunch alongside Shinkiro.

Kojima: If you know Castlevania, then you've seen her work. I see a lot of Erotism in her work, which is something I've been interested since I took drawing seriously.

Everytime (when/if) I draw, I spend couple hours looking at their work and other great contemporary Comic artists such as Jim Lee, Alvin Lee, Frank Cho and Alex Ross to "get in the mood", get a bit of inspiration and sometimes use as reference for inking/linework or even coloring.

That said, I've always seen this tendency from young learning "artists" to draw Anime/Manga style almost exclusively even when they lack the very basic knowledge and/or understanding of drawing, let alone more advanced stuff that only continuous practice, experience, knowledge and studies brings.

I personally think that Anime/Manga art is so low quality nowadays that it's acquired an awful status in terms of appreciation and execution almost borderline mediocre, which is why it's being drawn so frequently by inexperienced "artists"... because it's easy to draw when you don't know how.

How do you feel about the current state of Anime/Manga "art" as an artist? Do you think it'll grow out of fashion someday? Or will it get better over time?

Edit: Ew, forgot that Furry "art" and Fursonas exists. Disgusting.

 

[Rolfie]

lots of artists nowadays with stylistic choices that are anime-esque or even more cartoonish in general still can have great experience in painting, so i think it's not going to disappear, at the very least not overnight. it feels very standard by now.

i think it is true that many inexperienced artists gravitate towards drawing things in an anime kind of style, but that doesn't really correlate to whether or not it's easy. in fact, it's clearly not very easy to get right if you can tell that a lot of inexperienced artists draw that way lol.
also, why does that even matter? many of those people will improve, and contribute their own twists to an already incredibly broad category of art style.

art isn't always about "continuous" studying either. that's how people get burnt out. in which case, less people contribute to any direction of contemporary art, no matter if you think that direction to be "good" or "bad".

your view on this seems pretty negative, maybe you would better express that in artwork rather than a GBAtemp post.

 

[plasturion]

I agree, there's so many inspiring anime characters back in '80 and '90. It was so fresh and well done, nowadays is nothing similar. Since then a lot has changed, even animation is completly at loss. It looks maybe smooth but aside of natural. Also characters had better geometry or style concept some time ago than nowadays. Anime and manga became too much independent from the source. It flown a bit too much into a modern art and it's slowly year by year loosing a form. I remember Miyazaki don't like it too, in some interview he said nowaday animators can't observe people anymore. I still appratiate old techics that was used we can admire at World Master Piece Theather or WMP Fairy Tales.

 

[Spring_Spring]

I like making crappy bad furry art for fun without any consideration of how correct or good or whatever it is, or how much it resembles something famous and well-known or anything like that.

Life is already extremely serious. It's important to have some fun outlets and not try to make those serious too.

 

[JuanMena]

I like making crappy bad furry art for fun without any consideration of how correct or good or whatever it is, or how much it resembles something famous and well-known or anything like that.

Life is already extremely serious. It's important to have some fun outlets and not try to make those serious too.

 

[Spring_Spring]

All that stuff you think looks good, its too "good" for me, so corporate, so trying to impress.

 

[JuanMena]

All that stuff you think looks good, its too "good" for me, so corporate, so trying to impress.

Trying to impress? Professional artists are just trying to impress? The fuck?

 

[BlueFox gui]

there are so many amazing inspirations out there, i thnk this is why my style is not consistent, every time i see something different i want to try it, now when it comes to manga stuff, im not really a mangoid, i can't read, i like when the drawings move on screen, but i was looking at images from the my hero academia manga and it looks so well done, but it might not be every modern manga, and bro what u mean furry bad, the furry bitches pay my bills

 

[Spring_Spring]

Trying to impress? Professional artists are just trying to impress? The fuck?

It's better to not be so "professional" about everything.

 

[x65943]

Modern anime and animation in general relies too heavily on CGI and lots most of its charm

As far as art in general, realism peaked hundreds of years ago, and died with the photograph - now art is about creating impossible images

Surrealism is still my favorite

 

[Jayro]

I like it, but I really think they should either pull up in full color for the price we pay, or have better grays along. There's not enough gray in them for the most part, or it's shaded gray hella bad using diffusion.might be an ink/toner saver, but I don't care.