Manga Studio 4 had a pretty decent library of textures and stock images to help the artist with an impending deadline, and MS 5 notches this up to 11.

The new perspective line are flexible and intuitive. Celsys have given the software a considerable overhaul, and its default layout now sits somewhere between the previous version of MS and Adobe Photoshop. My main personal gripe with Manga Studio 4’s interface is that it often felt cluttered and, for someone used to the Adobe Creative Suite, unintuitive. Perhaps Manga Studio 5’s most conspicuous new feature is the cleaner, more streamlined interface. For much of the illustrating I used a Wacom Cintiq in conjunction with a Wacom Bamboo. The two examples I’ve shown in this post are from a Doctor Who piece I’d planned, but will probably now never get round to finishing, as well as some character concepts from a webcomic project I’ve had floating about for several years, The Scribe.

So please, receive this post as not so much a review as an amateur’s opinions, from the perspective of someone who occasionally likes to sit down and draw what they “see”, but doesn’t get to do it nearly as much as they’d like to. I should probably take a moment to warn anyone who’s made it this far that, while I have a background in graphic design, my illustrative skills are limited at best. Smith Micro were kind enough to send me a copy of the latest iteration for review, and I’ll be providing a light overview of both the additions to 5 and my own thoughts on the software. Its contemporaries may attempt to offer Swiss Army Knife art packages, but Manga Studio’s progression hasn’t taken away from its singular purpose: it’s a program for comic artists, colourers, letterers and writers. While Manga Studio began as a highly focussed program focused entirely towards monochrome Japanese comic art, both the fourth iteration and this latest update have seen the software reinvent itself as a formidable art package for comic artists and illustrators of all formats, mediums and disciplines.

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