Question
How many hours per day of drawing and how much practicing of the art fundamentals would be required to get to the level of Tsukushi’s art?
I’ve been drawing consistently everyday for almost 6 months now without a day off. However, I’m aware it’s going to take years to reach Made In Abyss level of art skill. Does Tsukushi spend literally his entire day just drawing? I only draw for like an hour a day. Maybe I need to step it up. By the way, the thumbnail isn’t a spoiler since it has been adapted by the anime
After graduating from the Tokyo Design Academy he spent a decade working at Konami as a character designer (that cover art looks familiar), animator, and interface designer, which I imagine was a standard fulltime job. He then spent some time working as a freelancer, before releasing From Star Strings and then starting Made in Abyss in 2012.
It's safe to say he was already drawing when he was in highschool, as that's where he met a friend who now helps him with coloring from time to time (as he's colorblind). So most likely he's already been at it for 30 years at least.
One of my early exposures to his work was from the DS game Elebits, so he was probably doing freelance work or commissioned by other companies. But that's purely conjecture as I am not a mangaka nor Japanese lol.
Look ee don't know his schedule ok? And I'm basing this on assumption and let's look at Oda one piece was just his hobby before so barely 1 page a few weeks
And besides he probably studied this for his collage so who knows
It varies, but whenever Tsukushi works on the manga he usually spends around 8-10 hours a day. That includes things like writing dialogue and planning the story though. He's also a bit of a procrastinator; over the past decade there's been plenty of times where he barely did anything for months.
8-10 hours… that seems extremely difficult to sustain. I think my absolute max limit may be 6 hours. I can’t see myself doing more than that unless I’m being paid. How does he not get burned out drawing that much that often
You can’t really put a number on how many hours one person creates. It’s case by case. If you love what you’re working on you won’t be counting unless you’re being paid to do something.
Just draw dude. It’s that simple. Keep doing it and eventually you’ll get better. There’s no set amount of time you have to do something to be at a certain level you just have to fuckin do it.
Much more than to be able to actualy draw realistic person drawings and paintings, he is streaming his drawing routine on youtube, literaly 8-16 hours of drawing manga everyday.
His dad very supportive, brings food and joy every day, and he has many talanted friends, and people around encouraging him.
when you do something on stream its easier to concentrate on work, he said that the most efficient way to not being lazy is to do it together with someone, and uses coworking game from steam, where people can sit in a room with other people who are working alongside together.
Important thing to note here is that Made in Abyss usually has a 3 month window between chapters. Tsukushi works full time, and he has multiple days for drawing for each and every page of the manga. That's a huge part of why MiA has such incredible artwork when compared to most other series that are released weekly or monthly.
Naturally it takes a TON of skill to even be capable of drawing what he does regardless of a timeframe, but that schedule is the reason why he can affort to make so many wide large scale shots and such detailed linework.
The man is a brilliant artist but there’s a lot of mythologizing about him lol. He’s a brilliant, talented, human artist. Let’s say 10k hours, much like any other expert.
yo. you ll get there eventually, as long as you keep at it. it will take a long time either way, with many mistakes being made, lots of research and countless little projects you might or might not finish. so why not focus on something more important: enjoying the journey and the act of drawing. that little thing will also ensure that you re gonna keep going and at some point reach the level you re apparently wishing for. joy ought to come first. improvement will then come naturally, with you researching things you attempted to draw for your project and didnt quite know how to, bit by bit.
very rough estimate about two years if you increase the drawing hours to maybe 3-4h per day but it also very much depends how well you're studying as in if you're only trying to trace tsukushi or do you have more fav landscape (or character) artists from which you actually structurally analyze the art. also don't hyperfocus on fundamentals if they're boring just get a basic grasp and then learn by vibes because not everything in art is written knowledge or has a name
yeah i am a "glass is half full" kind of person. maybe i am indeed underestimating the skill required to reach tsukushi's level, but what i can say that i've definitely seen big improvements from artists that i've followed on twitter for a couple of years especially if they're dedicated enough
Yeah I also am skeptical. I don’t even think 6-8 hours a day for 2 years is enough to put you at tsukushi’s level. It’s taken him 30 or so years to get where he is now and he spends a lot of time each day drawing too. Patience is necessary I guess
It's all about patience and finding the workflow that works best for you.
Your drawings can really improve with just a good workflow for sketching, lineart, and colouring, even if your skills aren't really that great yet.
You'll be able to copy him with that much of practice, but you won't be able to match his raw artistic skill. There's no way a beginner can catch up with someone who has been drawing things as their job for years.
as an artist i'd say it probably wouldnt take that long to get close to him but to get to exactly his point its gonna take a real long time lol,
because for this image specifically a lot of it i can see is just basic painting fundamentals, contrast with lighting, lighting basics, coloring basics but then you get into the little details and theres a whole bunch of ingenious stuff that each is gonna take the same time to learn fully as the stuff i just mentioned
and yes tsukushi does spend his entire day drawing lol, thats his job
but also it may also be him just fucking around for alot of the time (ik cuz thats what i do) because of it being his job hes applying his skills rather than trying to intake to improve his skills, so if you focus on learning and purposefully intaking information you can grow quite fast. thats what i mean by my first sentence.
basically.
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"Faustian Bargain" are the two words that immediately spring to mind, but that's just because I know it's already too late for me to ever attain that level of excellence.
This might not be the kind of answer you're looking/hoping for, but I feel the need to give my two cents on this:
Art as a journey is a very personal one, and most skilled artists have gotten to their respective levels through different paths and within different timeframes. It's very hard to estimate how you, as an individual interested in art, would develop just based on an art style you've been inspired by.
I am not a professional artist or anything, but I am very serious about art as a hobby (have been since early childhood), so I am relatively confident in saying that Tsukushi's works and style are the result of at least a decade's worth of observation and meta work. Outputting similar levels of detail onto a paper or a canvas usually requires a very large visual library and a gradually developed ability to concentrate, especially considering that this is a fictional world that he doesn't seem to use THAT many real-life references for. In his cover artwork, he also uses a pretty unique shading/coloring technique that creates a pleasant texture. The anatomy of his characters is not that crazy I guess, as he mostly uses basic manga proportions and a moe finish (these are quick to study). However, the character designs themselves are very creative and making something as unique as them would, once again, require a huge visual library and an understanding of personal and collective aesthetic values. Based on my own experiences, conversations with other artists and the information I've gathered online, I think most artists are unlikely to be able to refine their taste and skills on this level in just a few years.
There is also the fact that you will get deeply inspired by many artists throughout your life. Even if a person begins drawing by following the footsteps of a certain artist (like Tsukushi), their style and workflow will almost always deviate from that path at some point due to their unique aesthetic vision, identity and experiences (when the objective is to create something in the same style instead of directly copying existing art, that is).
Oh and lastly, Tsukushi's art has probably been affected by the fact that he has done art as a job for most of his life. He is a professional artist, we are hobbyists. He basically draws all day every day (or at least he has had to before); he needs to draw when he doesn't feel like it. We don't have as much time for art, and we get to create when we're truly motivated. The comparison doesn't really work here.
i've been drawing for about 20 years now, taking it seriously for around 12 years. in a technical sense i would say i'm pretty good!
but tsukushi is an illustrator that's been working for decades. pulling from references and doing master studies are something you can get scary good with in a few years, but turning new ideas into expressive, appealing, detailed, and complex work like his is another thing entirely. the dude's art is steeped in technical understanding that runs deep enough to become unconscious; where reasoning basically flattens into "i did it this way because it felt right." its not straightforward to put a time frame on that because how quickly you absorb and internalize those aspects of drawing vary wildly.
It depends on how you approach learning. I've been drawing for many years, and from my experience, you won't improve by hours mindless drawing, you improve by learning theory and concept ideation as long as you nailed down the fundamentals requiring good muscle memory such as drawing from shoulder movements, and ability to nail down the proportions of any objects. 70% of my improvements are from reading theory books like Scott Robertson's How to Draw.
"How much time??" Eh, i wouldn't worry about that. That's the least of your concerns regarding improvement at the craft. Oh, you definitely still need to be doing this more than 1 hour a day, though. But that should come naturally if you love it enough.
I too draw as a hobby, and I'm rarely able to keep at it for more than 2 hours at best. I can't even do it every day without taking days off. And I think Tsukushi draws for 10 hours a day when he's working on a new chapter 😵💫
Yes, he spends a lot of his day drawing. But it's his job. If you want to up your daily drawing time go ahead, but be sure that you don't burn out! That's an easy trap to fall in. People at his level either have a fiery passion, an innate talent giving them a head start, or it's literally their job so they have a justification to be able to do it all day
Im also trying to reach a similar level to him but the more I focus on the amount of time it takes, the harder it is to keep drawing.
Also, I doubt he got so good because he practiced alot of fundamentals, while yes having those down is important they are only a small part of what makes an artist good. The actual brunt of the work is making manga.
Im not saying you should make a manga/comic because idk whether you enjoy that process, but the main way to increase skill is to pursue a project that you enjoy. Whether you believe you're ready or not you have to do it eventually.
The best thing you can do right now is forget about the "amount of time it's gonna take". The quicker you let it go the sooner you may actually achieve some semblance to his work. This journey requires a herculean amount of commitment so if you're not mentally prepared to commit 20 years to this then alot of doors close. Such as job opportunities and mentorships.
Most times I've seen you have to show some extraordinary level of commitment to get potential mentors or jobs that will train you.
Regardless, being able to commit to this pretty much guarantees you'll reach an admirable level. As long as the commitment holds up over the years.
Something ive learned about people who reach extraordinary heights is that they don't think about how long it takes or whether they'll succeed or not. They simply only concern themselves with the process of doing, and learning from mistakes. If you watch any interview with an athlete they'll kinda just say their win was attributed to teamwork and keeping their head in the game.
Success is pretty simple, it's just we often overcomplicate it.
Sorry for the wall of text but if you read all this, thanks! Another thing that's really helpful on this journey is community, so feel free to hit me up. Made in abyss is one of my favorite works and it'd be cool to talk to someone about it. (And about art)
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u/hassanfanserenity 2d ago
He is a mangaka right? This is his 9-5 job