Drawing manga

Once upon a time, I'd admire every manga artist I saw... I bought many of the books from the HTDM-series - and they still stand on my bookshelves as a nostalgic memory - but time have past. With the years I gained knowledge, not only through my academies but also by realising there's good mang artists - and bad ones. Then there's the third type... The 'first glance' type.
The 'first glance' type is very difficult for beginners to recognise. It's the artist that have subtle flaws, invisible to the untrained eye. They can often be easily recognised as the people who have fans that will rage at anyone who dares to give any constructive critisism.
Beginners are also easily recognised the same way since they always mistake critism for jealousy. ^.^ So don't bother with them. I don't. :) And as a teacher I've seen my fair share. Once they stop the tough act they can start to improve, but not until they do.

Anyway! Back to the 'first glance' cases. :) I've noticed a lot of the artists in the HTDM-books are 'first glance' artists. The thing about these artists, is that they lack understanding of what they draw. Their knowledge about anatomy is lacking - usually because they learned to draw by using circles and boxes to gain shape - and the knowledge about human physics is also very slim.
Common mistakes are too long upper bodies, misshapen or misplaces breasts, jelly spines and impossible poses - such as the popular 'twist the spine until it breaks so we can see both breasts and bottom' pose. :)

Because the 'first glance' cases usually learned to draw backwards, by using circles or boxes or drawing off other artists' work, I generally press the matter of anatomy to my students. I don't allow excuses such as 'it's only a cartoon, it doesn't have to be realistic...' because I know that if you slack of...and don't study anatomy...your drawings will never evolve from 'first glance' to 'professional'.
I don't think any artist should settle and say they're 'good enough already', because there is no end to this road of the artist. You can never stop learning, or you will decline. :) But no matter how good you think you are, and no matter how much praise you get...
Never, ever lay off the basics, because it will show. ;)