PROFILE Name/Pen Name: Renata Brasil (Behind) Age: 25 Country: Brazil Favorite Manga:  Do I really have to choose only one? (laughs). It changes a lot as I discover new titles, but one that I never get tired of reading for sure would be Monster by Naoki Urasawa. Favorite Movie: Silent Hill and Shaun of the Dead. I love horror movies, they always make me feel alive and relaxed but I guess that only happens to me (laughs). Favorite Quote: “If you only do what you can do, you’ll never be better than what you are.” -Master Shifuo Entry Title: “Memories” Round: SMA17 “Moments of HASTE, RAGE, or SMILES” Award: Honorable Mention

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“The important thing is to convey what you want to the readers; your drawing will evolve with time and practice.”

  About SMA

• How does it feel to receive a SILENT MANGA AUDITION® award? It was a big surprise! When I saw that I was one of the winners I just couldn’t believe it, I was in shock and cried with happiness.

• What was the inspiration behind your awarded work? Well, my SMA16 work that received the SMA Editorial Award was inspired by my fear of dentists. For me it is simply terrifying to go to that doctor, so I wanted to represent my feelings on the pages. My SMA17 awarded work was basically inspired by a movie I watched on a Saturday night. I cried so much in the movie that I decided to try to transmit a little of what I felt through the manga.

• What challenges did you face while making your manga? How did you overcome them? You know the expression “No pain, no gain”? (laughs). It is the expression that sums up my whole journey to complete the work.  I have college in the morning and an internship in the afternoon, so I spent several nights planning the pages and trying to schedule myself to deliver on time. But many things happened along the way like my cat got sick and the deadline for my college assignment got shorter, so I had to call my sister to help me to deliver it on time. She also always accompanies me during the whole creation process, giving me opinions about the story, drawings, etc.  If it wasn’t for her supporting me all the time, maybe I wouldn’t have been able to deliver anything.

READ Behind’s SMA17 ENTRY HERE!

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  About your Manga

• How and when did you start making manga? Any advice for beginners? I have been drawing since I was a little girl, but when I was 8 years old I focused on learning the manga style and learning Japanese. At first it was because I wanted to read Japanese manga, but now I have fallen in love with it so much that I want to work with it in the future. From today it has been 17 years since I started. My advice is for everything you want to draw, look for a reference for when drawing it. You will never draw something well if you have never seen or observed it carefully.

• Do you draw your manga digitally or by hand? What are your go-to digital or analogue tools? Both. Usually I plan the characters and the story on paper because I find it easier and more enjoyable to draw on paper, then I pass the drawings to my tablet and finish all the outlines and effects to make it easier to send to the contest. At the moment I use the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 and the program I use is Clip Studio Paint.

• What was the first manga you picked up? It was Naruto, Vol 10. I remember I bought it because of the cover and when I read it I thought “Why is everything in black and white!? Where are the colors!? did they forget to color it by any chance!?” or something like that and then I started to get to know the world of manga. (laughs)

• Which manga changed your life? Also Naruto (laughs). I was a solitary child who was going through difficult problems and he rescued me from my loneliness and taught me to never give up and always believe that my future could be whatever I dreamt it to be.

• Which manga character do you most identify with? Why? I think I am a perfect mixture of Ciel Phantomhive from Black Butler and Sanji from ONE PIECE. Like Ciel I can be a bit rebellious, bossy, the person who always solves other people’s problems, my left eye has a cornea deficiency that makes me use eye patches many times a month, and I like afternoon tea and chocolate cake made by someone who is not me (in my case my sister, love you sis (laughs)). Like Sanji, my hands are very important to me so I do as many tasks as I can using only my feet.

• What kind of manga do you want to make next? I would like to draw something related to horror because I really like this genre and I haven’t done anything like this yet, which is a shame.

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  About You

• What do you do when you’re not making manga? How do you relax? When I am not drawing manga I am working on 2D animation, so basically I am always drawing because I am an animation major in college (laughs). But when I am not drawing I am studying Japanese to pass the JLPT N1. I’ve already got the N2 and I also play PS4 games a lot, especially shooting games and zombie games; I don’t know why but they relax me like horror movies.

• What industry do you work in (if manga making isn’t your primary job)? After college I would definitely be in an animation studio because it is something I love to do as well.

• Where do you see your manga career in 5 years time? For sure in Japan already publishing or starting to publish a work of mine. I know that I am not at the level of the professionals who have been doing this for years and that I still have a lot to learn yet, but I have a lot of willpower and a great focus when it comes to drawing for hours on end.

• What manga making advice would you give to your younger self if you could? Don’t be such a perfectionist with your own work. The important thing is to convey what you want to the readers; your drawing will evolve with time and practice.

• What advice would you give to people entering the SILENT MANGA AUDITION®? Sometimes the secret to getting a story to work is to see it from another angle. Doing what you are not used to will transform your stories and make you evolve faster.

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Thank you, Behind! We’re eagerly expecting your next manga masterpiece!

Get some inspiration by checking out the other AMAZING awarded works from SMA17!