areas of improvement

all of my job career choices need the same type of skills but some jobs have more then the others

anatomy
the first thing that i have to do is to improve and study human anatomy. this is extremely important for basicly every one of the occupations i have chosen.
i have to study all different poses and angles as all sorts of poses and angles are needed for manga to make it interesting.
i will also need to study hands and their anatomy. as these are the hardest parts in human anatomy

backgrounds
i also need to learn and improve on backgrounds. as a background is the most important part for an illustration. the character is also important but the background is the biggest part so its the most important part as it stands out more. also if the background lacks compared to the character it could let down the whole picture.
the best way for me to improve is to try and recreate a photo of a landscape.
backgrounds are also important in manga as they are used to set the scene of the story. some panels will just be background. but they are important to set the scene

expressions
another area that i will need to work on is facial expressions as these are really necessary to get the feel and emotion of the story across.
feelings are one of the most important parts of a manga as they help the readers become more attached to the character. 

narrative 
one of the things that i really have to is improve on my narrative skills as the dialogue for a story is also one of the most important things for a story. because you must be able to tell a story but make it sound interesting whilst making it easily understandable but also sticking to the type of language that would be used. for example if a story was set in the Victorian times then the dialogue should be in that time zone.

screen toning
there are some other less important skills that i have to improve on but i will still try to improve as they will add to the finished touch. this skill is screen toning.
i have already started touching this subject but it is very hard to do. as you don't want to add to much toning to the page as it may subtract from the character, and might make the page look to cluttered,
but if you don't put enough toning in then it will make the page look plain and boring.

storyboarding 
i will also have to try and improve on my story boarding skills. as theses are the most help full and important steps in creating a manga or comic. the story board helps you to plan out the story and to clean up any plot holes

course research

BA honours illustration 

the first course i would be interested in would be illustration.
this will help to improve the areas that i am week on.
there are 2 courses in the colege for illustration

each course teaches you to experiment with a range of materials. and helps you to develop your personal style .

http://www.plymouthart.ac.uk/prospectus/Degree-and-Honours/BA-Topup/BA-(Hons)-Illustration-(3-year)/ILFT1A1112

if you are coming from a foundation degree you will have automatic gain acceptance depending on weather you have passed the course or not. if you have a qualification of the same sort but from a different college. then entry will be dictated by interview.

FD illustration 

this course teaches you to create a personal style. and introduces you to a range of materials and techniques to create images. 


http://www.plymouthart.ac.uk/prospectus/Degree-and-Honours/Foundation-Degree/FD-Illustration/ILFH1A1213


for this course you are required to have a minimum of 5 GCSE's grade C or above
consisting of preferably an art GCSE

BA Honours design for games

design for games teaches students not only about how to create games but how the whole industry works. they teach you the whole design proses from paper to the 3d model

http://www.plymouthart.ac.uk/prospectus/Degree-and-Honours/BA-Topup/BA-(Hons)-Design-for-Games-(3-year)/DFFT1A1213


for this course you also are required to have a minimum of 5 GCSE's grade C or above
consisting of preferably an art GCSE

task one : gather relevant career and progression research which must include at least 3 occupational profiles

Comic book/OEL manga (original English manga) writer/artist


this job requires no official qualifications


there are many ways to make it into this business:


1.the first is to enter into a competition at a publishing company such as viz media or yen press.
and if it interests them they will then take you on and publish your story and depending on how popular it becomes you may be asked to do more


2. the second way in which you can show of your skills is by becoming an assistant for an already existing
mangaka and then working your way up through helping them and your talents may be recognised by a publisher.
unfortunately most western mangakas don't hire assistants as it is normally to expensive for them


3. if you already have a story planed out then you can make mock ups of each page for about one chapter
and then pitch the idea to the publishing company you would like to go with.


4. or the easiest but not necessarily best way is to post a web comic on a trust full website
and hope that your comic/manga gets viewed or seen by anyone working for a publishing company or
anyone that would recommend it to one.


the main skills that are involved in being a mangaka/comic book writer/artist are:
 .drawing skills
 .character design
 .world/concept design
 .story/plot development
 .hard worker
 .fast working


another very important asset that is needed/useful to have in this industry is the ability to compromise
as once you have an idea for a story and start to create it. you are given an editor that helps make your
story/picture layout, more interesting so it will sell


this job would require allot of my time if i thought about doing this as a full time occupation which i plan
to do in the future if i can make enough money off of it to keep me alive. you must be committed to drawing as it takes up pretty much all
all of your time if you were to do it professionally.


the information bellow is primarily based on the Japanese publishing companies but i would imagine all
of them being pretty much the same no mater were they are situated. but it may be different as the market for manga in
England is allot smaller then japan.




once you make your debut with your first story. they will then ask you to create 30 page one shots
for their companies monthly release. after releasing a couple one shots, if you are successful and they are interesting
then they will let you create bigger and longer stories consisting of 150 pages. if you are still successful then you are
then given the choice to start a series. (unfortunately i am unsure of this information as this may only apply to Japanese
publishing companies)


the best companies to approach to publish you manga are yen press and viz media as they are the most popular companies out there but it will probably prove to be extremely hard to publish to a big companies if you are unheard of or this is your first manga. so its better to approach companies like seven seas entertainment or eigoMANGA


i had gotten in contact with Madeleine Rosca an OEL mangaka who created "Hollow Feilds" , and asked her for advice on getting into this industry and to ask if she was open to employing assistants.
she said the following


"I don't currently employ assistants - some western mangaka do, but it's generally a little too expensive for us. Often a publisher will assign us someone to help with lettering or tones, but on my current project I'm toning myself (because I love to torture myself with work).

I can understand the frustration of trying to figure out how to get work in this industry, as it isn't the most transparent job on the planet. I had no idea how to get published and my first attempts were turned down. In the end a publisher emailed me with an offer of interest about my webcomic, which I hadn't even submitted as a proposal (that was Hollow Fields). At the moment, I believe the best way people get known is through webcomic work. I have friends who assisted on webcomics by doing colours or background work, and made a little money out of it too.

I have to say - at 17 you are still considered very young in this industry, and publishers often won't employ people before the age of 18. Experience counts for a lot! Also, because this job takes persistence and a bit of luck to break into, many people do more general work to make money, such as illustration and children's books, etc. Because of the internet, a good thing about our job is that we can live anywhere in the world and submit work online (I've never met my publisher in person!). "



yen press has a section were you can apply for jobs to either be an artist for a different manga or to purpose your own idea http://www.yenpress.com/about/  


viz media is also taking up people for internships in allot of areas http://www.viz.com/company/internships


illustration


this job also requires no offictial qualifications. the only thing it requires goes without saying.




.a tallent in drawing
.bing able to do what your client asks of you
.you should be able to draw backgrounds and a series of things as not all your jobs will be in your chosen style
.you should be able to meet deadlines (this one is common and nessisary for all jobs)
insperation we see throughout our life




character design


this job yet again requires no official qualifications to do. unfortunetly finding information for this choice in carear is next to imposible from what i have been searching for. there are no places that i have found that tell you the requirements to become a character designer but i would imagine that it is necisary for you to have allot of imagination for this job. you should be able to create a character based around a setting and personality/ description that is given to you.
this requires allot o pacients and imagination
you should be able to:
.create clothing designs
.create weapons sometimes if one is asked for
.be able to design a range of things like monsters, humans, animals
.do as the client whants you two


income 


i have been looking into the income of the jobs that i have chosen


for a mangaka/ OEL Mangaka the amount of income is unstable.
an interveiw with Ms. Yoshiko Chijiwa (a japanese mangaka)
said that basically she cant live on just making manga as the income is so unpredictable 



"I cannot possibly survive with only manga. Without a serialization, my income is irregular. I manage my budget by doing part-time lecturing at a speciality college for manga,"


$2,500 - $2,600 in US dollars


 after looking again for a while i had found the monthly income of a mangaka. unfortunately this was taken from how much a japanese mangaka gets but it would probably be the same.


the article that i got this information from also had a quote from an editor from an anonymous magazine about the income of a mangaka


"I think it varies from magazine to magazine, for example, a monthly magazine would be around 10,000 yen per page. So if one draws 25 pages in a month, then the manuscript fee for that month is roughly around 250,000 yen,"