Customer Reviews

Draw Your Own Manga: All the Basics (Draw Your Own Manga Series)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While this book has " All the Basics" in it's title, it still could be VERY useful to more mature artists. This book covers any kind of drawing tool you'd ever want: templates, rulers, inks,pencils,erasers, cutting tools, screen tone, mechanical pencils, tape, correction fluid, manuscript cards, light box tracer, manikins, tone tools, photo collections, manuscript paper, pen nibs, pen holders and much more. It tells you how to use them, and lots of tips. It has a section on Perspective, something VERY nifty. No "wrong" stuff, and has a section on drawing people,( of course ) which is pretty good. And 2 Interviews with manga artists Takao Yaguchi and Toru Fujisawa. The only reason I gave it a 4 is 'cause it could have had more variety. Dogs, cats, older people.

Overall, though, very good.

This book taught me so many things! Before I read this book, I thought I was going to have to make all those screentones myself! Boy, was I wrong! :D This book tells you what materials you'll need to write and draw your own manga, and describes them in great detail! However, I only gave this book 4 stars because...

-It doesn't describe how to draw people very well. If you've mastered that (which I haven't), the book's fine.
-It barely has any information on paneling.
-The first few pages are colored digitally. A bit ironic that there are pages colored digitally in a book that gives instructions on how to draw traditionally, don't you think?

Overall, if you're still a beginner, this book is not for you. But if you've gotten pretty good at drawing people and are ready to move on to publishing your own manga, buy this book immediately!

Tip for you all: Ignore page 73. It doesn't know what it's talking about.

This book spends far more time telling us what kind of materials are needed and where to buy them/how to use them, than it does "how" to draw manga. I want to learn what characteristics make a successful manga figure, not how to produce a manga comic book. I did not feel this book was very useful - there is only one useful page, for example, discussing eyes, and it simply has 4 sets of "boys' eyes" and 4 of "girls' eyes."

I don't consider this a "how to draw" book but rather a "how to get started making manga books with all the appropriate materials." Give me a black marker and some colored pencils and I'm happy. This book isn't worth it.

This book has excellent info on how to draw manga, especially for beginners. It's very acurate, and can show you many teqhniques to get started drawing manga. I absoulutely reccomend this book. It is absoulutely stunning, and the details are fantastic. Before I read it, my manga was, yes, terrible. But now, my manga has improved a lot more.

It was insightful, but not what I was hoping for. It did not go into detail of how to draw characters, so if you are a beginner, buy a different book that specifically addresses the issue of how to draw the people. This was more trying to get you started drawing a whole manga book-- backgrounds, comic boxes, and equipment.

If you want to start maiking your own manga you most buy this book. It tells you everything you need from toning and the kind of ink thats best the matirials that you need an bla bla bla. You get the idea.

All of you out there who would like to draw manga, and have a small to superb experience range, read this book! I bought it from a bookstore (Barnes&Noble), and found it extremely useful. I, although, was a beginner, back then, and found it difficult to comprehend what they said (a bit confusing). But, if you have that little bit of Manga Knowledge, pick it up!

Paying thirty dollars for both this book and the one after it - "Beyond the Basics"- is worth it. You will have everything you need to know.

This book is basically about materials, and though it's not how to draw the people, it is VERY helpful with the materials, techniques and skills you might otherwise be overlooking. It is written in a comic style, and so is easy and fun to follow, even at the parts that tend to get a bit complicated.

These and "Beyond the Basics" are the indispensable manga guide books.

This is a great book on drawing manga. The text is very basic and the Japanese names for tools are not included, but it is probably still the best book about drawing manga there is in English. I had to learn about the tools by reading websites in both English and Japanese. I have also had extensive art training in highschool and university and I still found the three books in this series to be very enjoyable. I highly recomend all three books in this series.

Let me start by saying that this book is very Inspiring to me because of the Interviews it has about Mr. Takao Yaguchi and Toru Fujisama's early beginning as manga artist. I have a few "how to draw manga" books but i gotta say that this book is by far the one that has motivated me to keep drawing Anime/manga.

This book is divided in 6 parts(chapters).
1.Interview
2.Draw your own Manga: All the basics
3.Lesson 1: Materials
4.Lesson 2: Drawing Characters
5.Lesson 3: special effects
6.Lesson 4: Background.
Part 2 tells u alot about materials and how to finish a draft while part#3 explains in more details all the materials you need and alot of variety you can and should use if you are serious about profesionaly final drafts. This chapter its very good because it gives u alot of insight on materials and how to take care of them!!!
Part#4 Drawing Characters is very good as well for a beginner. The only thing is that it focus only on the body proportion, the face/head position and the eyes, of course. Nothing about ears, hands, feet, clothe, chibis,fairies, dragons, etc.
Part#5 Special effects its all about what it says. Very good chapter and a lot of basic techniques to make your drawings look very cool.
Part#6 Background. This chapter is more about "Perspective". There is no how to draw a Beach, Forest, Sky or any fancy background.

Overall: Half of this book is informational and half Instructional. If you are looking for a book saturated with examples and exercises and how to draw body proportion from lots of angles, many eye style, ears, dragons, chibi, etc...This book ain't for you. I still love it and i will keep on using it and learning from it.