SMA MASTER CLASS, the future manga stars from SILENT MANGA AUDITION®. In this series of interviews we’ll uncover the secrets to their manga creations! This week we roundup the four week Indonesian feature with Maudy Nathania! She’s one of the few student MASTERCLASS members and part of the creative team Kalongzz! She was kind enough to tell us what school taught her about creating manga! Good Morning, Maudy!

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INTERVIEW WITH MAUDY NATHANIA 1. What’s your work space like?  Do you usually play music when your drawing? My workspace is in my bedroom. I like to work inside my room because I can concentrate better. I share my room with my sister, but I have my own table to work beside my sister’s workspace. Yes, I really like listening music when I’m work. It’s calming and helps me to think clearly while creating a story or drawing comic. I have my own music playlist but sometimes I listen to the radio. My playlist music consist of western pop music and instrumental music.   2. What kind of tools do you use and which is your favorite? Let us see it! Well, my most favorite tool is pencil for drawing or even making comic (for example my recent silent manga comic “Birdy”). Normally I use drawing pen for the outline, but I prefer pencil because I can create more smoother line and shading. Now that I’ve begin to use digital media to create comic, I switched my pencil to wacom pen tablet and use Manga Studio and Photoshop program.   3. Tell us about how you schedule your creations?  How long does it take for each step in the process?  Which step is you favorite and least favorite? First, I start thinking the story. I often think the ideas while I’m sketching since it’s more effective for me. Then if I get an idea, I develop it by making a storyboard in a separate piece of paper with a dialog on the side (I make little sketch because it’s faster and if there’s a mistake I can change it easily). When it settled, I move to Manga Studio and make a name which is more clearly and ready to outlined. After that, I turn the name into a final page of manga and finish it in Photoshop by adding the text. I enjoyed every single process, which sometimes make me create the manga too long.   4. Tell us about your preferences when creating manga! When drawing a manga, I start drawing the human first. I draw the face, then the hair, eyes, nose, mouth and continue to the body. I prefer drawing human rather than background. But still, making both of them is really hard so I’m still practicing. I often look for a reference from internet and books when drawing comics/practicing.   5. Tell us about your preferences for manga storytelling! For the panel layouts, I like the simple one. When drawing a manga, I always try to keep the paneling simple. I draw facial expression based of what I feel. I’m also learning how to make the facial expression from many books or manga. For the text in manga, I use Anime Ace font that my sister recommended. It’s like a standard font I often seen in comic book so I like to use it.   6. Where do you get ideas from? I can get ideas or inspiration from many ways, like when I‘m reading a book, playing games, or watching TV. When I’m doodling, I could get some ideas too. The ideas also can appear in the time when I got nothing to do. Sometimes when I’m about to sleep or waking up from sleep, I could suddenly got an idea. My experiences and the other’s has became inspiration for me as well.   7. Do you have any other skills or experiences that help you create manga? Because I’m currently studying in Faculty of Art and Design, I’ve got skill and experience from every assignments I get in there. For example I have learnt how to drawing human, animal, scenery, etc. Also, I learn to make a composition, layout, colour. All of it supports me when create a manga. I almost got into graphic design but there are a lot of competitive student.  But, my major is craft, where I learn something like textile making, how to make ceramic, cloth pattern, etc. Sometimes it’s more related to fashion and culture, so I learn about ours and others culture craft.   8. How is school treating you?  Do you talk about manga or share advice with your friends in school? The usual, same old assignment and exams. After winning smac, a lot of people in college approach me and asking a lot about smac, and they become interested to join the competition as well! i only discuss manga to chess xD I talk about advice a bit yes, cause i dont think i can give a lot, since im still learning as well, especially those who ask already know the basic for comic.   9. Do you have a favorite manga or creator that influenced your creative style? My favorite manga would be Yotsuba&! by Azuma Kiyohiko. I’m not sure if it’s influenced my art style or not, but I like the detail in his comic, especially the background. Also the story is so funny and creative. I also like Adachi Mitsuru-sensei’s works; the simplicity he used in panel layouts inspired me.     10. I heard your sister is a member of the manga creator duo CHESS.  Do you help each other when drawing manga and has she influenced your creative style? Yeah we like to help each other, like giving an advice for our own manga (she’s also help me in english). It’s so helpful since we have a same taste, same way of thinking in creating manga. I don’t know if she’s influenced my draw, peoples say that we do have a similar style but we don’t think so. But for the making of my manga, I think the way I listened to my sister’s advice can count as ‘influenced’, right?   11. Have you received any useful help or advice from the editor? Yes, I’ve received many advice from the editors at SMAC! especially when assembling my story ideas for the comic series. It was really helpful because I‘m still not confident enough in making comic and all I do is follow my instinct.  It’s like when I’m stuck, I just follow my heart, what I felt, not think. So, I really appreciate the help.   12. Are you planning any future projects?  What genre would you like to try attempt in the future? Yeah, maybe after I finish my college it will be easier for me to do it. The manga I made before are mostly for competition, and only oneshot. So i havent been working or made comic for myself.  xD Well, I like comedy and slice of life genre. I made a manga especially for coamix and i hope it get a nice respond so it can be published as series. The story is about a girl who lately feels that her mom change, rather change in the positive ways, she turns out weird. She decided to search a clue about her mother(why she change), and she find a big unusual egg.   13. What are the specific areas you focus on when creating a manga for SMA? I’m interested in drawing the characters (rather than setting).  So I always focus on drawing the gestures and facial expressions more than the background.   14. Are there any moments you felt, “I’m glad I entered this contest!”? When I became a member of the Master Class, because it’s really pushing me forward to become more productive in making manga.  I feel blessed that I can get the opportunity to publish my work. Maudy Nathania From Indonesia

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Thank you for your time Maudy senpai! Next time we talk, you might be teaching us about manga creation! We’re looking forwards to reading the a fun little slice-of-life story about an alien baby on earth! Are going to be the the next student in the Master Class? Enroll in the SILENT MANGA AUDITION® today and find out!