Manga Artist Works Full-Time and Draws 30 Manga Pages a Month!!
Being a manga artist is already known to be an extremely demanding job. Now imagine balancing the production of a serialized manga with a full-time office job.
That is exactly what 45-year-old Japanese artist Yora Nangi has started doing. What impressed other artists the most was his speed: he says he can complete a page in just 2 to 3 hours, on average.
Nangi started taking his dream of becoming a professional manga artist more seriously about two years ago. After creating doujinshi and entering newcomer manga contests, he landed his first project with a publisher.
He is currently the illustrator for the manga adaptation of the light novel Sarariman Isekai de Meshi o Taberu (A Salaryman Eats in Another World).
Manga Artist Works Full-Time and Draws 30 Manga Pages a Month!!
According to Nangi, the secret isn’t simply finding more hours in the day. For him, the most important thing is reducing the amount of time needed to draw.
As part of his routine, he takes advantage of even small five-minute breaks to draw something. It might be nothing more than a single character, but these little moments help keep his work moving forward.
On weekdays, he usually draws for 1 to 2 hours a day. On weekends when he has no other plans, he can work for 6 to 8 hours.
With this routine, he manages to produce around 30 pages a month, even while maintaining a regular job
And there’s another impressive detail: he works completely alone and without assistants (at 45 years old!)
Nangi explained that his method for reducing production time is relatively simple: draw constantly so that his hand movements become faster during actual production.
He especially recommends Gesture Drawing, an exercise in which artists quickly draw human poses and movements.
The practice helps artists better understand character structure and movement, allowing the final artwork to be completed more quickly.
Of course, he isn’t always able to maintain the same pace. The artist himself revealed that family matters can sometimes prevent him from working for a week or even two.
Even so, his productivity has impressed many other artists.
One commenter pointed out how difficult it is to hold a full-time job while also working on a serialized manga. Another artist said they take around 4 to 5 hours to finish a page, making Nangi’s 2–3 hour average particularly impressive.
Others also pointed out that the manga artist’s own art style seems to have been developed in a way that favors speed.