Why? Progress and the Future.
Why did I start drawing?
Being forced to babysit Voluntarily spending time with my nieces, we whipped out some printer paper and pencils. Asked “how do I draw this” and when I couldn’t answer, I decided to learn how to draw.
But why are my nieces drawing? Why do I want to draw for them or show them how to draw? The short answer I came up for myself, is “for fun”, though this reason may prove detrimental for earning a living.
I hope to capture the fun of drawing and inspire my nieces to continue having fun drawing themselves. Hopefully you too will be entertained by my drawings and pick up the pencil yourself.
Why Anime/Manga style?
Because it will make me the cool uncle.
Jokes aside, I grew up with a mix of western cartoons and cartoons from Japan. However it was the cartoons from Japan that hooked me. It wasn’t the art style, my favorite goes to Ren and Stimpy, but the stories.
A few of the cartoons I watched as a child
The stories had so much variety to them. Last year I asked what my nieces was watching and they told me “Made in Abyss”. I thought, that looked cute, but the story was much deeper than I anticipated. From short comedies as “Skull-face bookseller Honda-san” to tear jerkers like “Violet Evergarden” the singular style seemed capable of being used to tell a wide variety of stories.
Progress
Starting from 2017, to starting formal education in 2018 to current year. There is still a large gap from where I am to where I want to be.
The future…
In Australia, manga and anime are still considered low brow and easy art by the vast majority. It is hard to break this negative stigmatism despite more companies starting to create their own anime inspired cartoons such “Castlevania” and manga books overtaking comic book sales in numbers.
I still have many ways to go before I reach a level comparable to Korean and Japanese illustrators but hopefully by then, there will be job opportunities within Australian companies that I can employ this style.
