Customer Reviews

How To Draw Manga Volume 36: Animals (How to Draw Manga (Graphic-Sha Numbered))

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As it is hard enough for me to draw humans, I am really happy to finally have a reference book that provides general guidelines on how to draw manga animals. All in all this is a great reference book that includes both domestic and wild animals.

The first part of the book deals with animal anatomy and shows how an animal drawing can be simplified to look "manga-esque".
Chapter 2 has domestic animals and pets (focus here is on dogs and cats) and shows them from different angles as well as different emotional body positions and facial expressions. The author (Hikaru Hayashi) even remembered to show how the pets can be held by their owners.
Part three deals with wild animals like rhinoceroses and koalas and the last chapter with birds.

The following is a list of all the animals reviewed in this book (besides cats and dogs, most of these animals receive 2 pages):

CHAPTER 2: Pets & other familiar animals
Dogs, Cats, Ferrets, Chipmunks, Rabbits, Prairie Dogs, Meerkats, Hedgehogs, Skunks, Hamsters, Horses, Donkeys, Cattle/Bison, Sheep, Goats, Pigs, Frogs, Snakes, Lizards/Geckos, Iguanas/Chameleons, Alligators/Crocodiles, Crayfish/Scorpions, Crabs, Turtles

CHAPTER 3: Wild Animals
Gorillas, Orangutans, Chimpanzees, Japanese Macaques, Lions, Tigers, Spotted big cats, Wolves, Bears, Polar Bears, Zebras, Giraffes, Hippos, Elephants, Rhinos, Wild Boars, Deer, Camels, Kangaroos, Koalas, Pandas, Raccoons, Lesser Panda, Foxes, Raccoon Dogs, Flying Squirrels, Armadillos, Anteaters/Sloths, Otters, Sea Lions/Seals, Dolphins/Orcas/Whales, Sharks/Rays, Octupuses/Squid/Blowfish, Jellyfish

CHAPTER 4: Birds
Songbirds, Crows, Chickens, Waterfowl, Raptors, Seagulls, Penguins, Tropical Fish/Goldfish (I have no idea why these two are included with the birds)

This is a great reference book for drawing animals (especially if your character has pets). I think it was well worth my $14.

This book helped me out in many ways. I had never quite mastered anything save drawing cats like watermelons with whiskers (my own Grumpy looks like a watermelon in a catsuit, so he's not much of a model!) or easy-peasy snakes. I'm still no master of drawing animals, but now people recognise them! Now I get, 'Nice dog!' instead of 'Um... dog?' As with all How to Draw Manga books it assumes you know which end of the pencil hits to paper, and treats you like an intelligent human being with some skills. Your end result follows the efforts you put in.

I've been waiting a long time for this book to come out, and the wait was worth it. This book has helped me with drawing animals (duh), and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning how also. It shows in detail different positions and views of animals, and the anatomy(structure) of a good few of them. In short: "This book kicks booty."

For those of us who struggle from time to time with drawing animals, especially if the animal is sitting or standing a certain way then this is a great book to buy. Another book from the brilliant Hikaru Hayashi, he shows you some steps of drawing the animals with the use of shapes to start off with so that you can give the animal form. He also give you examples of each animal from different angles, as well as their routines. The only bad thing about this book would be that he doesn't give you detail throughout the whole entire book. Only the the first couple of pages start you off with shapes. I would definately recommend this book for those who already know how to draw to some extent and above. I do not recommend it for beginners. The only nude picture in this book would be of a woman holding her cat, but her back is facing towards you, so it really isn't a big deal at all. This book is far from tasteless.

This book waa really helpful. It has a lot of pictures that makes up for its lack of information. It includes a lot of different animals from the simple hamster to the complexity of the orangatang and the lion.

It is broken down into four main sections. The first section includes basic information. While the other three include the actual animals.

The Second section has most household animals but also a few exotic ones such as meerkats. The first few pages are mostly dogs and then it goes into cats. I believe that these are the animals that the author goes into most detail. But for each animal it has a number of different poses and includes a look inside their mouths which I find helpful when drawing bite marks.

The third section includes wild animals and also becomes more difficult. It gives a huge variety but the sections become increasingly smaller. And the last chapter labeled birds is very small and has a lot of detail but seems very crammed to the point where you can become confused. This section also includes one page of fish, angel fish and goldfish, which was pretty upsetting. They could have included a lot more bony fish and on more than one page.

If you need written instuctions on how to draw an animal, this is not the book for you. But if you can look a step by step drawn instructions then you should do fine and will find it very helpful.

For a couple of months, I had been checking back on amazon everyday to try and find this book at a reasonable price. Finally, I found HTDM Animals for only $25 dollars, though it was only in "acceptable" condition. I was still pleased, thinking that I would finally get to own the book that I was trying so hard to find. Unfortunately, for unknown reasons, the seller canceled my order and I never received the book. I was devastated, and started on my search for the millionth time on all the online shopping websites I could find to try and locate this book for sale at a reasonable price. I tried to find it in other languages, but they were sold out or high-priced as well. With no luck, I then began to email all the sellers online who had used copies of this book (for 80$+), asking if they would lower the price down to $30 for me. They obviously either denied my request or ignored me, but it was worth a shot.

This story actually has a really happy ending though. I was on a website that sold new/used items located in my local area. And guess what? One guy actually had all the HTDM books for sale, in BRAND NEW condition for only $7 a book! Oh man, I was so happy.

Anyways, this was one of the books that I bought off of him (obviously). This book is amazing and exactly what I was hoping for!

If you are not good at drawing animals, or would just need a reference, this is for you! Its really sad that this book is so expensive. I hope that if you are like me and are searching everywhere for this book, you don't give up! You will find it, and your patience will be rewarded.

I'm glad to see thay made a book on how to draw animals i am especialy happy to see they show how to draw ferrets and other animals u realy don't think abou drawing.

ok, this book is one of the BETTER BOOKS in the HTDM series (the male book is pretty good too) and it does have a nice variety of animals in it, like giraffes, camels, tapirs, birds (tho not many *frown*) etc...it WILL NOT show step by step, so beginners beware...it just provides basics, and it kinda expects you to be able to take methods and put them to use in drawing animals...

out of all the books i own and have seen, this is probably one of the only books that is realy useful...it actualy teaches you something, in which others do not, b/c all manga books in this series have naked girls in them (disturbing...so utterly disturbing...everytime i see the HTDM female book, i feel like im going to lose my lunch)...tho wat DID get to me is even tho this book is SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TO TEACH YOU TO DRAW ANIMALS, IT STILL MANAGES TO STICK A FEW UNCLOTHED WOMEN IN THE CAT SECTION...my response, as you can guess, was "wat...the...crap?"...i thought it was animals only, not humans! geez! that aside, the book helps w/ geting the animal proportions down right, and differences between some species and genders...

one of the only books you should get if you like manga...most others are useless, and a big waste of money...the ones you should also consider when learning to draw are listed below:
Tadashi Ozawa's 5 Volume collection "HTDM: Anime and Game Characters" (they have the pretty colorful covers...they teach u how to draw different types of characters, expressions, and actions both daily and battle)
HTDM Bodies and Anatomy (female nudity, males r covered...just get it for the muscle structure)
HTDM Male Characters (nudity curiously omitted...*raises eyes b/c all others make sure "body parts" on women are very detailed*)
HTDM Animals (but you already knew about this one *laugh*)

I WAS SO LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING THIS BOOK. JUST RECENTLY STARTED DRAWING MANGA AND ANIME, AND LOVING IT. THIS BOOK IS GREAT FOR THE VARIETY OF ANIMAL IT COVERS, BUT I REALLY FAIL TO SEE HOW THEY ARE MANGA ANIMALS. I HAVE MANY BOOKS ON DRAWING ANIMALS, AND COULD HAVE JUST ADDED MANGA "EYES" TO THEM AND SAVED MY MONEY. LOTS OF PICTURES BUT LACKS INSTRUCTIONS.