Customer Reviews

How To Draw Manga

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

If your children are in any way serious about being good at drawing manga - or drawing, period - this is NOT the book to buy for them. I can only assume books like this come about because some clueless publisher has a 13 year old daughter who "draws anime", because this is not up to what any sane person would consider publishable "how-to-draw" book standards. Anatomy? Not important here, not even stylized anatomy. Proportions? What are these "pro-por-ti-ons" you speak of? This book sure doesn't know. It disturbs me that so many how-to-draw manga books are illustrated by people who, frankly, need one of these books themselves. Don't doom your children to hours of failure and frustration.

This book is absolutely awful. Look elsewhere.

Okay, this book, is just awful. The characters are just TOO demented, and you do not draw blush lines on every expression of a character. There's a reason why it's called BLUSH lines.
Next, this book lies. In manga, color pencils are NOT the main untencil for coloring. Geez, don't tell people incorrect things.
And so, today, I watch my "How to Draw Manga" Collect dust on the shelves. Serves that book right. Don't waste your money, people. ._.''

There are only two American artists in the profession that are great at mastering the japanese style of manga and Katy Coope is not one of them. If you are serious of wanting to draw manga or you want to learn the correct technique of drawing manga then I suggest you focus more on the Japanese "How To Draw Manga" books. Don't go in a panic...they are not in Japanese but in English. So I would look up "How To Draw Manga" or go to howtodrawmanga.com for better books than this because this book is a BIG diappointment to maga and anime.

This is a SCHOLASTIC version intended for young anime/manga aspirants. It does an okay job going through the basics of drawing characters, then adds a little about setting and a couple pages about art supplies. Looking at it in terms of it being aimed at young kids, it works pretty well: the author patiently goes through the steps of drawing heads, adding expressions, buidling bodies, but doesn't bog down in the true technical details which might swamp a novice or young reader (like tones, and advanced technique).

Her own illustrations are all done in colored pencil, which lacks the glossy completeness of paints. Keep in mind though that this is a kids book; thus they are more likely to have colored pencils or crayons to use. And they won't be so intimidated by all those pretty professionally done illustrations which so few people tend to point out are actually done by TEAMS of people: penciller, inker, colorist, etc. By sticking to pencils alone, she shows what a person on their own can do. And her pencils are pretty good as it is.

In the end, I own a number of how-to-draw books and for the price I'm definitely glad I added this one to the collection. Her discussion (breifly) of short little "chibi" characters alone added a new dimension to what I'd already known. The only reason I didn't rate it as five stars (*****) is I tend to be conservative; most of the time I blow over high rating reveiws because they are usually stuff and nonsense. Not to mention this isn't a perfect book for anyone, although I enjoyed it.

With the craze for manga in America comes the rush of American artists trying to cash in...

...sadly, this is an ample example.

Parents and friends, if you know anyone who is serious about drawing in the manga style, do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT get them any manga drawing books WRITTEN BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR. NEVER, EVER DO THIS! PLEASE! I've got about four crappy books, this one included, from my dad that are absolute garbage.

There are PLENTY of books that would be perfect to beginners or experts of the manga style. Might I suggest, instead, the "How to Draw Anime and Game Characters" series? They were published in both English and Japanese and are illustrated by a talented Japanese artist who knows what he is doing. Very good books for beginners and also those already familiar with the style.

Please reconsider buying this product for anyone serious about manga or anime. It is totally not worth it...

This is THE single worst "How to Draw Manga" book I have ever seen. This girl is my age, and gets props for getting herself published, but, speaking as a fellow artist, I certainly hope that after the publication of this book she pursued further artistic training, because her own abilities as put forth in this book are sadly lacking. She demonstrates how to draw "anatomy" but fails to implement good Manga-style anatomy into her own demonstration images. While I can understand using the over-simplification of the style for young readers, it would be far better to start out learning the style from someone who offers a more accurate example of the art style.

I think this book would be better titled "How NOT to draw Manga". If you are an aspiring artist looking for solid tips on how to draw the manga style, don't bother with this book.

Far be it from me to discount a teenager's preferred doodling style, because lord knows I used to draw like this when I was 15 and just getting into the Japanese anime and comics scene. But when the teenager deigns to tell others that his or her "style" is the correct way to draw it becomes a bit of a problem to me. Manga is popular, for sure, but there is no more a certain particular way to draw Japanese comics than there is a certain particular way to draw American comics. All it is is stylization of the human form, but if you're going to stylize something it's really better to know how to draw the real thing first. Learning a "style" is not going to help anyone develop their artistic skills if they are serious about it. I'd recommend that any young people who are interested in comics and manga and seriously want to try to become a better artist to learn to draw the human figure from observation, or at least from really good books on the subject (there are a multitude of good choices available from amazon, just search for "figure drawing"). It's also important to learn perspective in order to create a believable space for your figures to live in. Once you have a rudimentary grasp on anatomy, you can begin to apply stylizations to your characters and they will look alive and full of personality, not just like cookie-cutter examples of "manga."

Was a shut in with no talent. Until i read this book And Now I sell more manga in japan than anyone thanks HOW TO DRAW MANGA. I now Have hot Wife and Gaijin who throw me money.

Why would you buy this over other books?

You could easily buy an actual Japanese How to Draw Manga book series (a lot of books are compiled and drawn by actual artists, e.g. How To Draw Manga Volume 8 or any of the other books with that same graphic title), but you would have to hate someone to buy them something like this. Or this has to be a gag gift of some form.

This isn't teaching you how to draw anything -- rather it's a compilation of bad art and technique. Just don't.

This book has been out since i was in public school and now i'm in College..by the cover even you can tell this is a bad buy. The book is a pamphlet, barely showing anything and the style is horrid.
if you want to buy a real manga teaching series, check out the how to draw manga!

2/5
for old memories sake