Ep.5: About Manga art and hard work with Asia Ladowska

Asia Ladowska is a designer & illustrator based in the UK.

Her Instagram page is full of amazing character designs inspired by Manga and mostly created by either pencils or Copic markers. She is constantly growing her Instagram following of almost 500k followers. She has been just featured in Anime and Manga magazine NEO.

Asia shares her drawing process videos with her YouTube followers and you can find full process videos on her Patreon page.

Art Side of Life Newsletter

Get in touch with Asia

• Instagram: ladowska
• Patreon: ladowska
• YouTube: Asia Ladowska
• DeviantArt: ladowska
• Facebook: ladowska

Key Takeaways

“Whatever you have to do tomorrow, do yesterday”

• Her ‘mentors’ were artists on Instagram, posting art every day and every day the drawings were better and better. She started to do the same, drawing every day and getting better every day!
• Her worst advice ever was not to draw Manga … every art school she went to, they discouraged her to do it, because Manga is flat …
• She just decided at some point to do only Manga. One day she had a bad day both at the university and at work and she started Instagram account dedicated to Manga only – small decision, but such a big change
• Every day she comes from work at 6-7pm and she just draws, even if she is tired, because nobody wants to hear excuses. It is relaxing for her and makes her happy.
• She decides to take on projects if they are fun to do. It’s her free time and she wants to spend it either by learning something new or by doing something fun
• Her most difficult time of her art career was when she signed a contract with an agent for 5 years. Be more careful by selecting agency so it is aligned with your vision and values.

Resources mentioned

Note: some of the resources below may be affiliate links, meaning I get paid a commission (at no extra cost to you) if you use that link to make a purchase.

• Art tools
  • Copic markers
  • Cintiq Pro 16 – high-end drawing tablet
  • CLIP Studio Paint (Manga studio) – better line support for comic style
• Software
  • PayPal – for processing online payments, you can attach client contracts to payments
• Inspiration
  • Studio Ghibli museum – don’t forget to book your tickets beforehand! They sell fast!
  • Hayao Miyazaki – the famous Studio Ghibli film director
  • Akihabara – Mandarake (Japan) – everything related to Manga

Thanks for Watching and Listening!

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Special thanks to Asia for joining me today. See you next time!

Art Side of Life Newsletter

All artworks by Asia Ladowska, used with permission