Customer Reviews

How To Draw Manga: Illustrating Battles

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I started taking martial arts a couple of years ago just to help my cartoon characters learn to fight in a realistic way... this book can save you a couple steps (and dollars!)

Beautiful pictures, very helpful, but I would not recommend this as a "how to draw" book for beginners... it's not good with 'step by step' stuff. If you can already draw, and want to figure out how to lay out 'speed lines' and dynamic action scenes, then this is a very good book for you!

This book has shown me many moves I already know, but it puts it in an artists perspective, something my martial arts teacher lacks... It also has many other things I didn't know, it covers many styles of fighting.

Being a Japanese release, it also has a big "Girls in Sailor School Uniforms Fighting" chapter, very helpful if you are drawing girls fighting in Sailor School uniforms.(?!) You have to love Manga to have an appreciation for that... heehee.

In short, you don't have to sign up for Martial Arts lessons to learn how to draw realistic fighting scenes... this book WILL help. (I will continue to take my classes though!)

The other books in this series are wonderful, as well, I can't wait for them to release more!

This is by no means a beginners book. You'll want to start with the "Compiling Characters" book to start. By the time you have the basic techniques down, then this book will help. The four star rating is a bit misleading, let me tell you why. The art in the book is great. It does a great job in showing you how to make fight scenes look dynamic. How different styles of hitting are used in comedic and hard-boiled action. But as si the problem with earlier translated versions, sometimes the language comes off as stiff. It reads as if you're listening to a stereotype Japanese speaking "engrish". As a result sometimes the descriptions aren't as good as the should be. Other than that this is another great book to add to your "How to Draw" collection.

This book is one of a large series of books, and is not for beginners. It doesn't provide a step-by-step guide for drawing, and if you are a beginner I suggest searching for the first three books in the series. The guidelines and pictures provided in the book are very helpful, however. It covers many different forms of fighting, how to show a character dodging or being hit, jumping, tired or defeated characters, and an entire section devoted to fighting girls in sailor suits. Be warned, there is a bit of nudity to provide outlines for the characters, but it is fairly mild. The translation can be a bit choppy in placed, which is why I gave it four stars, but the illustrations are very helpful. Check it out if you want to draw manga!

This book is great! It has pictures and scenes worth it all. Although this book is great, you need to be a pretty experienced drawer. And what i mean is you have to have experience with drawing characters and their details. Like hair, and eyes, and the way there body is shaped. The book does not include how to draw a character. Just battle positions. But it sure is a great book for all your favorite fighting needs

This book is great for anyone trying to figure out just how the body looks durring a fight. I have found it not only useful in drawing comics but also using it for drawing realistic fight illustrations.

I agree that it is not for the beginner, but anyone with a little experience drawing anatomy from books or life will be able to get a lot out of this book. It covers the physics of fighting very well in the actions of the attacker and the reactions of the one being attacked.

I found the school girl fighting part amusing, although if I were a guy I probably would have spent more time in that section of the book. :)

I feel that this is better book than Hart's manga how to book because it really gets in to the physics and the perspective instead of just spending one or two pages on these subjects as Hart's book does.

Maybe I'm a bit biased but I don't really draw a lot of fight scenes. However having this book I do know it instructs about all forms of battle scenes and about how the characters respond to attacks from an opponent (all things that make the drawing more believable). There is a section on doing the ever-popular "Seifuku" (Japanese school uniform) battles (the key is in the movement of the skirt). I still recommend this book, particular for people who want to draw lots of battle scenes.

More then anything, this book is a reference to various battle moves from major battles to the lesser slap scenes. Hayashi gives a lot of examples from different perspectives, angles, and methods of doing the same attack like punches, kicks, throws, and even dodging. He even covered bruises, rips, getting up, and crouches.

The examples are practically all hand-to-hand combat. If you're into weapons, you could use the examples and substitute it for weapons but visually, you'll probably have a harder time putting it together.

This book is more for the experienced artist who is already familiar with anatomy and as mentioned earlier, this book is for reference. It doesn't provide you with any step-by-step instructions, just pointers.

This is the sort of reference book made for people who already have a grasp of human body drawing basics. This is made more to build up from those basics, to show you what a body in action looks like. It also gives a lot of Japanese names for things (like mukoozune -- kicking someone in the shins). For a nice touch, not every scene depicted is totally serious appearing; there are several little goofy looking action scenes, true to the anime nature. A good buy for the beginning artist who wishes to build their skills.

This book has everything you need to make your manga battle scenes great! It has awesome pictures, filled with speed lines, super-kicks, mega-punches,and girls in sailor suits!(yea!!) The only real problem with this book is that it doesn't tell you how to illustrate the battles. It just gives tons of examples to go by. But, other than that it's really cool!

This book is a lot oof help to those who can't quite get down the body formations of battle scenes. I myself needed a lot of help and this book helped out a lot. Took quite a while to get it shipped to me, but it was worth it!