I have to get it out of my system.
Drawing in “manga” or “anime” style does not make you a worse artist.
Disregarding proper learning of art basics, anatomy, doing realistic studies “because I draw in manga/anime” style does make you a bad artist. But it doesn’t make you you a worse artist because you choose to draw in this style (whatever it might mean); if you don’t learn and practice basics of doing art you’re a bad artist - that means you also fail as manga/anime artist you aspire to be.
Learning basics is important whether you choose to draw/pain photorealism, cartoon, anime, Disney - style. Many people don’t realize this and try to learn while copying favorite artwork, with no judgment whether it’s good or has serious mistakes.
As there is a lot of fanart of manga and anime characters, somehow the opinion has appeared that drawings in style described as manga/anime are mostly crappy OR that drawing in the style is “easy”.
I’ve seen many artists that had very good grasp on realism try to draw something in “manga” style - whether to make fun of something or as a job for some advertisement aimed at young people - and in most cases the results looked very similar: the same simplified, generic style with no real manga feeling. People who made their living drawing different, “difficult” kinds of art could not draw “simple manga” character on a level that would be different from and average early-teen beginner.
Let me once for all make it clear: drawing a crappy, beginner manga IS slightly easier than drawing crappy beginner realism; partly because crappy manga will be recognised as crappy manga while crappy realism will be just a crappy drawing in unidentified style.
At the same time, drawing a good manga is as difficult as drawing in any other style. There is no shortcut, no magical means of avoiding learning drawing basics. I have no idea where this double-standard comes from.
And I should know when I say “double standard”.
