Customer Reviews

How To Draw Manga Volume 42: Drawing Yaoi (How to Draw Manga) (v. 42)

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

 

 

I was very excited about this book, up until I received it in the mail.

Now, to start with, 'Yaoi' is used in the wrong context. Yaoi defines any manga that revolves around, obviously, gay men that holds little plot, and is mainly about the graphic sex scenes. I was under the impression that this book would at least go into anatomy or intimate scenes, and it barely does that. You get wear muscles go, and that's about it. It's also a good reference if you need help drawing hands or feet, clothing, and shoes, but as far as Yaoi goes? There's nothing in it, save for the ONE page of drawing kisses, which only has about two or three poorly drawn sketches on the page and does little to help at all.

You do get a few pages on 'Embracing' as the chapter is called. The book defines 'embracing' as an arm over the shoulder while the boy doing the embracing is pointing at some unknown object waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over there.

Basically, all this book does is give you a stereotype of how a gay man looks and dresses, with little insight to anything more then 'here's a man's body, we don't go into any detail on anything more', 'here's what his shoes look like', 'here's some hands', and 'oh, here's how to draw an arm over the shoulder.'

If you're looking to buy this book on the basis that you think it will give you anatomical insight, information on how to draw rocking sex scenes, how to draw kisses or anything at all intimate, or male anatomy, I don't recommend this book. It should be titled, 'How to Draw Pretty Boys' and nothing more.

I found in past searches trying to find this un-locatable book--it is actually named How to Draw Bishonen in Japanese. Which would explain the minimal boy on boy content--a small section on kisses where the two androgynous bald heads could easily be two girls. However, the anatomy and facial structure sections are vastly superior to "How to Draw Men". It's worth the buy--unless you know how to draw Bishonen all ready.

While I have found that this book is quite informative and lots of fun as far as drawing bishonen (aka "Attractive Men/Boys"), I was rather dissapointed in it's actual info information on drawing YAOI, which is what it was created for. There are only 3 actual pages that show two guys together, (which is the nature of yaoi) and they're just full of reference images, but little instruction... /:
All in all, if you want an excellent book on drawing pretty boys, and a cute bishonen-themed side-story, this is the book for you. But if you want to learn to draw two men together, you'd be better off with "How To Draw Manga: Drawing Bishonen", which features a LOT of yaoi, despite not being a book meant for it. Or even "How To Draw Manga: Portraying Couples", and I haven't yet purchased it, but Botan Yamada's "Let's Draw Yaoi!" looks promising.

Cheers!

Er.. It was a good book but It was how to draw male anatomy more than yaoi. Because it was "how to draw hands", "feet"(alot of feet for some reason O_o), and "clothes" and only had 2-3 pages of actual embracing poses and in the back you get a manga thingy used with the characters within the book.

What ever you do, don't by this book. I know the cover looks nice but that's all that's good about it. I bought this all excited to learn to draw some yummy yaoi but ended up horrible disappointed with it. Yaoi is boy on boy love, this has some tidbits of anatomy drawings and then some really old anime styles. so let this be a warning to the wise don't buy it. There's one book out there on this subject that is a lot better though even though it say Yaoi it's more towards shonen ai, you'll probably find this book towards the bottom with suggestions.

When I got this book, I was honestly expecting it to show me how to draw "yaoi"* (*for those who don't know what that means, you may want to look online).

To my disappointment, it really wasn't. Yes, there were a few positions of hugging, kissing, and holding hands...but, that's more "Shounen-ai" (Soft romance between two guys) and then random poses and how to draw hands...which is what you would have learned from "How To Draw Manga: Bodies and Emotions".

It's a nice book which shows how to draw pretty guys (Bishounen) even drawing male characters during different decades (60s style, 90s style, etc.)

For those who are seeking a 'drawing yaoi' book may want to look elsewhere.

Since there's already a book that actually teaches people how to draw hentai, there should be a book that actually teaches how to draw yaoi and one for yuri...somewhere, just not here, sadly.

This book is pretty fabulous, I wasn't seeking it for the yaoi either, but to expand my use of male form in cartooning. This book accomplishes that, and more~

It contains in depth construction tutorials on the youthful male figure, with great attention to hands and feet, with one of the "How to Draw" series better examples of under drawing and figure construction for proportion and foreshortening. An added bonus are a few guides on how to incorporate or depict interactions with objects in the hand, more elaborate clothing section, and a great amount of detail on shoes. The glove and glasses pages are nice, and overall the book is more about constructing a character's appearance and mannerisms for use driving a story. Also giving examples of how to utilize the same information in a broad range of graphic styles.

There is a cute little history lesson on stylization too, which is sort of fun.
If you were looking for something sexually explicit, this isn't the book for you, there is one diagram to show how licking should work (with ice cream) and one page showing how faces interact when kissing, but that is it besides the normal figures depicted in underwear you always see for anatomy lessons.


If you want a book on specific male romantic interactions there is photo reference and a tutorial on how to incorporate that in the Drawing Bishonen book that can get more explicit ~How To Draw Manga: Drawing Bishonen
If you are interested in yaoi for yaoi's sake, pick up both as a set.

I am so glad I bought this book. But not because of yaoi, to be honest I am really not a fan. I assumed this book would have a lot of male reference.... and it does, which will make drawing somewhat afemmine guys easier. If you want to buy it for the yaoi.... this will be a let down there is like two pages of yaoi and one of the pages are more like brotherly like interaction.

But good book none the less.

If you don't know, "yaoi" is basically softcore gay porn. If that is what you are interested in then you won't like this book. I have no idea why they call it "drawing yaoi" except for the few pages at the end they have. This book is mainly about drawing Bishonen, which in Japanese is literally translated to "beautiful youth boy." I just bought this book from borders today so I was able to look through it beforehand. I have been looking everywhere for the perfect how to draw manga book and I love this one. It teaches you proper skeletal structure, muscle placement, face design, clothes, and more. I'm not really interested in Yaoi at all so this book is perfect. Conclusion:

If you want Yaoi, don't get this book
If you want the perfect book on how to draw the male figure from head to toe. GET THIS BOOK!!!

Ignoring the inaccuracy of the title (it is mostly about how to draw individual attractive men rather than boy-on-boy lovers) this is a really good drawing resource. It covers mostly how to draw attractive men in a few styles commonly seen in anime and magna. Since it can be difficult to find good resources on drawing ATTRACTIVE males, I appreciate it.

I like this book because of the top-notch perspective figure drawing tutorials and excellent examples on drawing one of the most difficult things to capture right, the human hand. I'm looking forward to trying out this new approach to hand drawing and seeing if it will improve my style.

The How To Draw Couples book in the same series includes same sex and opposite sex couples as examples. That might solve some of the drawing dilemmas you might encounter drawing lovers and I would recommend that one over this if that is your end goal.