Not sure if this is the right place to post

Still pretty new here so sorry if this is the wrong place to post this. Anyway, recently I've decided I'd like to write/draw a manga and perhaps get into the industry. But the problem is - I cannot draw at all. I've tried but the result is pretty disastrous. So I'm writing here to see if any of you can give me some help. I've seen tutorials online and I've tried to copy what they do, yet it doesn't end well. I just want to know some stuff really - what part of a character should I start off drawing? (Head, body, legs etc). What is the best way to get the proportions right? I always end up with odd looking characters (arms too long, body too short etc). How do I draw hair? Anytime I try it's very messy. They are the main things I have problems with. I mean, the eyes are pretty hard but I think I've got them sussed out. Sorry for the wall of text, and sorry again if this is the wrong place to post.

First thing's first, I can see where you're having issues. You're making the same mistake that most anime/manga fans make when starting out. You're trying to learn how to draw a style before you've learned how to draw in general. Anime may have exaggerated facial features and body proportions, but the shapes and techniques that "become" the "anime aesthetic" are grounded in reality. And while tutorials about drawing anime, step-by-step, can be useful for someone already grounded in that reality, if you're having trouble with drawing basic proportions, hair, etc., then you're probably missing out on the fundamentals of drawing the human figure. I know this sounds strange at first, but the first thing I recommend doing before ANYTHING else is gesture drawing. That is, timed drawings of real human figures. 30 seconds sounds like a ridiculously short time to do it, but it's absolutely ESSENTIAL to drawing in the anime/manga aesthetic. I know of two good sources for practice. Posemaniacs.com is one. It's a site with a bunch of poses for male and female 3D models. If you go to http://www.posemaniacs.com/thirtysecond, you can start gesture drawing there. The other site is quickposes.com, particularly https://www.quickposes.com/en/gestures/timed. That page allows you to customize what photos show up. They're real photos, but work just the same as posemaniacs. "Okay, so what do I DO with these?" You take a pencil, colored pencil, or gel/micron pen and some paper or a sketchbook, and you draw whatever pops up, as complete as possible, in 30 seconds. That's all. Yes, your drawings will suck. But you're not making good drawings. You're practicing technique and memorizing form. Here are some tips: 1) Don't lift your pencil from the paper. 2) Don't even look at the paper. 3) Don't even try drawing for real. Just move the pencil around on the paper the way your brain tells you to. If it looks like a jumble of scribbles and not necessarily like a person, you're doing it right. 4) Focus on the basic body shape. Study what muscles and fat you see. Outline the head and torso and arms. 5) Do a MINIMUM of 10 or 20 a day, every day. That's 5-10 minutes of your day. You can do it. No excuses. I know it's frustrating to not be learning how to draw direct anime/manga, but you WILL learn how to draw better after a few days, weeks, months, and so on, and yes, you can and will use what you learn in drawing anime/manga. When I went to school in Japan, we did gesture drawing as a daily warm-up until the teacher told us to stop. I have to do some cleaning before bed, but I'll do some gesture drawing tonight for you to use as an example, okay? Try to get some done before I come back, if you see this post. You can put them here or just message me. No one is grading you, so don't feel pressured. =3

Hi sakurai, I'm no professional but i too am aspiring to complete a manga (well a webtoon). I recommend creating reference sheets for all your main charas. That way you'll be able to look back at them as refs for proportions and keep your charas consistent. For me personally i always start out with the head and proportion the body based off of the head. For instance most people will tell you the average person is going to be around 8 heads tall (or so i've been told) so you can use that as a starting ground. If your chara is meant to be taller/shorter you adjust how many heads tall they should be. Same with any other measurement like the shoulder width. It also helps to start off with guidelines like the one bellow, before fleshing out the details. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f5/9c/81/f59c81001495d456acc8167c425b5ee4.jpg looking at refs and tutorials online is always a good learning tool as well I wish you the best of luck with your manga! As long as you keep trying you are bound to get better ;3)b so dont give up

There are definitely other ways to use the 30-second drawing feature, but this is the most widely-appreciated way to start because you turn the contours and shape of the body and its muscles and how it moves into literal "muscle memory". When you eventually go into drawing characters based on shapes and measuring proportions, you'll just sorta... already know where everything goes. Of course, it won't be committed to memory after a day or two. You probably don't remember learning to tie your shoes, but you likely spent a few weeks, months, or even years (...in my case) trying. And do it EVERY DAY. Your brain deposits useless information when you sleep and dream. The more you do something, the less likely your brain will simply discard it after a day of practice.

On the note of consistency, there are some drills you can do for practice to get line and shape consistency when you draw. I'll save specifics for later, but in the end, you want to be doing active learning. Tutorials on how to do certain things are good, but the real meat comes in when you practice, and not just once. If you want to know specifics, think of it this way: If you like the way something is drawn, go take a sheet of paper and just... draw it. Over and over. From different angles. From the same angles. Forever. Or until you run out of paper. That's what a "drill" is. Right now, I'm working on consistent line curves. It's pretty basic, but I struggle with it, so I grabbed a notebook this week and in my slow time at my desk job, I just draw curved arches and try to trace them over and over and over again with my pen at a 90degree angle without straying too far from the line I'm tracing. Side note. I don't even remember what pose this was. Like, seriously, what the heck was I drawing?