Customer Reviews

The Art of Drawing Manga

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is terrible. Not just for the art, but for the fact that all of the artwork--including the cover--is copied. The main cover image is from a pinup poster from the Anime series, Noir. The only thing the artist changed were the colors and the hand, which was holding a gun in the original poster.

I don't see why anybody should support artists who rip off other people's hard work and dedication. When I saw this book on the shelves at the bookstore, I immediately recognized the design having seen the poster a week previously and pulling it back out to double check when I got home.

And why is this called "The Art of Drawing Manga," when this is drawn from Anime, and the 'teaching' in the book is all "How to Draw Anime," not manga? If the artists doesn't even know what 'manga' really is (how to draw sequential art, panel layout, build story, toning, speed line techniques, etc) then this book is far from informative. Take a life drawing class at a local community college. It's cheaper and more worth your time.

I've been drawing for almost 40 years and my style has changed over the years, but I had always leaned toward a Jack Kirby style of drawing. I am currently working on illustrating my first comic book; but I wanted to develop a faster method of drawing, so I started looking closely at Manga. I have read many drawing books, but "The Art of Drawing Manga" is one that I really like. One of my biggest trouble points was hands. This book showed me how do draw hands easily and quickly without having to burn eraser holes in my drawing pad trying to get them right. Now, I can draw hands that look great and with a lot more confidence thanks to this book!

My cousin's daughter who just started drawing for the first time in her life 2 years ago, now has become a fantastic artist thanks to this book! Her stuff looks just as good as any I've seen in any comic book!

The thing that I like about this book is that it instructs you on how to draw like a pro by illustrating the basics without all of the boring, detailed blah-blah about anatomy (although it is important to understand it). Although I understand the basics pretty well, it's always good to bone up on them from time to time. I think that this book has helped me to sharpen up my style a great deal. There are a lot of pros in the comic book business today who could probably use a little refresher course.

The book is divided into sections on differents points of drawing, inking and coloring. The illustration in this book is stunning!

I would highly recommend this book to any beginner seriously thinking of becoming an illustrator. I would also recommend this book to intermediate and even professional artists interested in improving their skills.

The book starts out with explanations of materials, stating advantages and disadvantages- Extremely useful for beginners to understand what to use (and WHY to use them) to create professional looking manga artwork.
Following on are informative and easy to understand methods to constructing anime heads and faces- probably the most important part of anime characters. Details such as eyes and mouths are explained to allow the reader to quickly get stuck into producing quality manga character faces, just like professionals!
I learned about simple ways to create full head-to-toe bodies later advancing onto character in action and finishing with a step by step process to how Ben created a finished comic page. Toward the end there are some fantastic examples of finished CG character designs.

This book is well presented and unlike similar How-To-Manga books, it TEACHES how to draw instead of SHOWING how it's drawn, plus this one's in full glossy color. Well worth the money.

Whilst this is not the best Manga drawing book I've bought, it's certainly doesn't deserve the scathing report by Rebecca Lynn. So he used someone else's art for the cover, I would assume he got permission to do so, and maybe she should rethink her statement about Manga and Anime. Manga is comic books, Anime is basically animated Manga.IMO Ben Krefta has tried to fit too much into 142 pages. There are much better books on the market to teach you to draw Manga. Hikaru Hayashi has some pretty good books in his How To Draw Manga series, and I like How to Draw Manga - Ben Dunn.Like some other reviewers, I thought the the pages on hands, eye's noses etc, were quite good, but the other subjects were too shallow. The article on colour and photoshop, for instance, doesn't even scratch the surface and was quite frankly a waste of paper. Colour is a very indepth subject, that requires a lot of study to get right, and Photoshop, takes a lifetime to learn. I bought the book for idea's,I liked some of the figures, and to that end, it suits me fine, and is welcome on my bookshelf. Oh and I forgot to mention, "all the art is copied", or words to that effect, by Ms Lynn. Ben pays tribute to two artists who contributed to his book, so all copies, I think not!

Now when looking at this book, do not be fooled by the cover!!! I sure was. This book is suppose to be the art of drawing manga, but to tell you the truth, this book looks more like crappy manga characters. This illustrations on how to draw the heads are very mis-shapen and poorly drawn. Do not buy this book! It is not very helpful to beginners, the only thing that is helpful in this book would be the eyes, mouth, and hands. If you need a book to show you how to draw correctly, I would recommend "Manga techniques character design for beginners vol 1 &4, and more how to draw manga vol 1 the basics of character drawing. I highly recommend those three books. They can help you with character expressions, eyes, and examples of hair styles. The books that I recommended does not have any nudity at all, so it is perfect for those who are offended by nudity. So all in all, do not buy the art of drawing manga!! It is a waste of money!!

Out of the four "how to" manga books I bought this one was by far the best. The only reason I didn't give it five stars was because some of the examples and guidelines still look a little americanized.
Even so, after twenty minutes I had great sketches with my first try. I highly recommend this for anyone trying to get started!

I have to say this is an excellent book. I've seen so many instructional art manuals during my time in this world, but this one is so much clearer. Most books tend to skip past their teaching methods, and leave the pupil confused, but Ben Krefta manages to excel in making things clear and detailed. If you can't learn a thing or two here, you are doomed. The line art inside is perfectly crisp, allowing for no misunderstanding. If you want to learn to draw Manga, or just want to improve your existing skills, then this is a great place to start!

Compared to some other manga books outt here, this is probably the best Western book. Not only do the drawings look like Japanese manga, but there's some handy PhotoShop tips. Definately for those wanting to get into the world of manga!^_^