Hi! I wanna become a manga artist! Help?

[r4]

This might be a little off-topic    since it's more about starting from zero than sharing finished art, but this community feels like the perfect place to ask—everyone seems so supportive and talented.

For years I've loved manga—the storytelling, the expressive characters, the dynamic panels, everything. I've always dreamed of creating my own, but I never really took the leap. Lately, though, the urge has gotten too strong to ignore. I even bought a Wacom One last year specifically to start learning digital drawing, but it's been sitting there collecting dust because I honestly have no idea where to begin. Zero fundamentals, no real traditional art background, nothing. Actually I used to be a very talented artist as a kid and I do know already how to sort of draw in manga style, but I need a lot of practice. I feel like such a beginner compared to most people here who are already so gifted.

Right now, most of my creative output is video editing—I make story-driven videos using clip art, AI-generated images, stock footage, that kind of thing. I have made character models - It's been fun, but it's starting to feel hollow. I miss the feeling of actually making something with my own hands (or stylus, I guess). I have two full story ideas swirling around in my head, complete with characters I've been fleshing out—personalities, backstories, even some rough AI-generated reference images I've been using as placeholders. I would love nothing more than to learn how to draw them properly, give them real expressions and life, and eventually turn those stories into comics or webtoons.

So, I'm reaching out to ask: does anyone have recommendations for where a total beginner like me can actually learn manga-style art? Not just random YouTube tutorials (I've tried, and it's overwhelming), but structured resources, courses, books, or anything that worked for you when you were starting out. And more importantly, are there any active, welcoming communities—preferably Discord servers—where beginners can learn, share WIPs, get feedback, and grow together? I want a place that's supportive and not too intimidating, where I can connect with others who are also learning or even aspiring to go pro someday. I've searched around a lot, but I keep landing on Reddit subs or Facebook groups, and I'm really hoping for something more real-time and close-knit like a Discord. No corporate stuff, just genuine artist communities. Trust me, I have done my searching this morning before posting and I have come up empty handed besides reddit and corporate websites.

I know this is a lot to ask, and I really appreciate anyone taking the time to read this or point me in the right direction. Maybe I'll even start sharing some of my progress here if I get rolling—would love to become part of this community for real.
Thanks so much in advance! 🙏 Also, I am definitely going to be taking part here! I hope that I can share a blend of web site making, my character modeling, video editing and merge both of these things. I am not sure yet!

[Corrupted Unicorn]

Excuse me for starting off with the kind of response your typical manga-hating art teacher would give you (it'll get better later on, I promise!), but you need art fundamentals if you want to make anything. They're the foundations for a reason, and they'll do you good whether you want to paint realistic portraits and landscapes, draw manga or draw Looney Tunes.

It's called foundations for a reason. Without them, at best, you risk trapping yourself with what you already know and not knowing how to branch out to other things. At worst, you'll just learn a few graphic symbols or shortcuts to draw "manga" but without understanding it, which will be the drawing equivalent of sprinkling "arigato" and "konichiwa" and "kawaii" on your regular speech. There's this nice quote by Richard Williams on the Animator's Survival Kit that says the following:

Epitaph of an Unfortunate Artist

He found a formula for drawing comic rabbits:
this formula for drawing comic rabbits paid,
so in the end he could not change the tragic habits
this formula for drawing comic rabbits made.

...With that said, it is also a bad extreme to just focus on training the fundamentals without drawing what you actually like. So how do you bridge the gap?

Time ago I researched how to get better at the fundamentals, and after trudging through articles, websites, random snippets of advice and yes, Youtube tutorials  ( ) I found something that's been working for me so far. Let me share it with you.

Alex Huneycutt's Internet Curriculum for the Solo Artist

This is basically a PDF document where a person has already done the heavy lifting of Google-fu for you. It's a compilation of online links and resources (some of them paid, but most of them all free!) on how to learn and practice art fundamentals, and not only that, it's arranged in the form of a school semester of sorts, so you know where to start and what to do next.

I'm using this as my roadmap to guide my art learning. If you're curious about where I am at now, I made it up to block 7 since last year but I stepped back because I want to complete lessons at Drawabox (currently at the start of 2).

This is not instant. This is going to take you a long time. Maybe even more than the estimated 2 years that says there. But it's so, so, so worth it if you love art and want to see your art skills develop to the best of your ability.

...Remember when I said you shouldn't put off manga until you've mastered the fundamentals? Because that's also part of learning.

(Drawabox Lesson 0, Part 3 - Changing Your Mindset and the 50% Rule)

You can and you should try your hand at manga even if you're not good at it yet. It'll help you round up developing your art skills, and on top of that, it'll prove to yourself that you can, indeed, make the things you've always wanted to make. And it'll help you with the way you deal with imperfection, mistakes, and the nagging fear of never being good enough. All of these are valuable lessons and you get them by drawing the things you like!!!

So yeah I don't have specific manga resources because that's not my area of interest, but I do like art in general and I think at least I can point you on some directions regarding the fundamentals. I hope it helped. I also encourage to search stuff up yourself, even if search engines are wack nowadays. Yes, there's a lot of content out there that won't speak to you, but by being interested in what you want to make and looking up things related to it (and especially about the process that goes when making them!), you will eventually find gold.

I literally found the link above by searching up specific art fundamentals and hitting up every result on the first search page. For my actual interest, animation, I've found books, I found blogs, I've found courses by a former Disney animator. You'll probably find a lot of manga resources, and maybe you'll find a lot of them to be bad, but you'll have to discern, judge, keep what works for you, and discard what doesn't. Hell, I keep one book from the infamous Christopher Hart, and that's because despite everything, he has one insight about 2000's cartoons that I never considered and clicked something in my mind!

Don't limit yourself - if something from another area of art interests you, grab that too, and figure how to incorporate it to your art later.

With all of this said, I wish you good luck! Art is fascinating and huge and intimidating, but it's also immensely rewarding at a personal level     

Sincerely,

Someone who thought would never make music videos up until the start of this week.

[kringle]

these are all great resources but something to keep in mind for manga specifically is that it's also important to develop your skills as a writer. the author of mob psycho 100 is not the best artist in the world but his manga is incredibly popular because of how strong his character writing is.

i've never written a novel or anything before, so i can't recommend anything on the LITERAL writing front, but a good way to learn pacing in the comic medium is doing newspaper-strip style stuff where it's 4 panels and you just gotta, like. make something.

while they are not exactly tutorials, i'd really recommend watching the manben series on youtube, it's the author of 21st century boys Naoki Urasawa interviewing other popular manga artists, so you can really see into their process and how they think.