How to make a manga without drawing
Four real ways to make a manga when you cannot draw: write for an artist, storyboard with stick figures, pose 3D models, or use an AI tool. What each one costs you.
You can make a manga without drawing it yourself. Published manga does it all the time: one person writes and another person draws. You need a finished story and one of the four methods below.
Manga has always had writers who do not draw
Many well-known series come from a writer and an artist. Tsugumi Ohba wrote Death Note and Bakuman, and Takeshi Obata drew them. ONE drew One-Punch Man as a rough webcomic, and Yusuke Murata redrew it for publication.
The writer's work is the story, the page plan and the dialogue. It gives the artist a clear foundation. If you can write a scene, you can do it.
Method 1: write a script and work with an artist
Write the story as a script, page by page and panel by panel. Then find an artist and agree on a price for each page.
- Good: a human artist can interpret the story and solve visual problems with you.
- Hard: it costs money for every page, and one chapter takes weeks.
- Do first: pay for one test page before you agree on a chapter.
Our guide shows how to write a manga script, with a template.
Method 2: storyboard with stick figures
Japanese artists call the rough storyboard a "name". It shows the panels, the position of each person and the dialogue. It does not need good drawing. Circles and stick figures are enough.
- Good: it is free, and it proves that your story works as pages.
- Hard: it is a plan and not a finished manga.
- Do first: print blank pages with the manga panel layout maker and fill them in pencil.
Method 3: pose 3D models and trace them
Drawing programs such as Clip Studio Paint include 3D figures that you can pose. You set the pose and the camera, and then you draw lines over the figure. Some artists use photographs in the same way.
- Good: a posed model gives a reference for proportions and perspective.
- Hard: faces, hair and clothes still need your hand, and every page takes hours.
Method 4: use an AI tool
AI tools draw panels from text. They are fast, and the single images often look good. The known problem is consistency. A character's face, hair or coat can change from one panel to the next, and a story needs the same person on every page.
- Good: tools can produce a first draft quickly.
- Hard: you must check every page for faces and details that changed.
- Ask of any tool: does the same character look the same on page 1 and on page 20?
About Konyomi: we build a tool of this kind. You paste a story. Kon finds the characters, draws each one once, and then uses those drawings as the reference for every page. Konyomi is not open yet, so you cannot make a chapter with it today.
Which method to choose
| Method | Money | Time for a first draft | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Script and artist | High | Weeks | Finished pages |
| Stick-figure storyboard | None | Days | A plan |
| 3D models | Low | Weeks | Finished pages, with practice |
| AI tool | Low | Hours | Finished pages, after checks |
The table gives rough planning classes, not measured benchmarks. Costs and completion time differ by artist, project and tool.
Every method starts with the same step: a finished story. Paste yours into the manga length estimator to see how many pages it needs.
Common questions
Can I make a manga if I can't draw?
Yes. You can write the script and work with an artist, storyboard with stick figures, trace posed 3D models, or use an AI tool. Many published manga have a writer who does not draw.
Do manga writers draw their own manga?
Some do, and some do not. Death Note was written by Tsugumi Ohba and drawn by Takeshi Obata. One-Punch Man was created by ONE and redrawn by Yusuke Murata.
What is a manga name?
A name is the rough storyboard of a manga chapter. It shows the panels, where each person stands and the dialogue. It can be drawn with stick figures.
Sources
Konyomi turns a written story into manga, with the same faces on every page. It opens soon.
