How To Draw Manga: Sketching Manga-Style Volume 1: Sketching As Composition Planning (How to Draw Manga (Graphic-Sha Numbered)) [Paperback]

Hiraku Hayashi (Author), Takehiko Matsumoto (Author), Kazuaki Morita (Author)

Book Description

Series: How to Draw Manga (Graphic-Sha Numbered) | Publication Date: May 22, 2007

This volume offers a brand-new "sketching to plan" tin can crammed full of sketching fundamentals for you to use when creating your own manga, as well as suggestions and ideas to help your artwork improve. This book is a brilliantly condensed can of artwork, jam-packed with a wide range of styles, ranging from renditions that are realistic without being slavishly naturalisitc to stylized "abstracted" and "exxagerated" renditions.

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Graphic-Sha Publishing (May 22, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4766117093
• ISBN-13: 978-4766117097
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #501,395 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great tool to start you off in the right direction., April 13, 2007

By 

Charsya Paul "Manga publisher/manga writer/ar... (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How To Draw Manga: Sketching Manga-Style Volume 1: Sketching As Composition Planning (How to Draw Manga (Graphic-Sha Numbered)) (Paperback)

I was really surprised when I was actually able to get this book in my hands!!! I waited so many months before I could order this book! Any way, this book is comprised from three different artists', Hikaru Hayashi, (my fav by the way) Takehiko Matsumoto, and Kazuaki Morita. These three artists' teamed up to compile a book with there own renditions of stetching manga. Basically this book is a giant rough sketch book showing you the basic shapes they used to get their art work to look the way it does. This is actually helpful in alot of ways. It is preparing you on how to do this so that you can have a idea on how to draw your own manga masterpieces. Toward the end of the book, they give examples of some of the artist's work and how to improve the color on the artwork.
The contents of this book includes:

Chapter one: Sketching while planning
Differences between standard
Sketching and Manga sketch frontline Part 1
Drawing a female character standing
Drawing a close-up of a female charcters face
A look at the Manga charcter standing
Drawing the figure in reverse
Manga sketching forms the foundation of planning

Chapter Two: The fundamental in sketching a face Manga style
The basics of sketching a face layout
(using circles and X's)
Reduction of the head rendered
Using a Circle and X layout
The steps in drawing a face
Drawing the same face
Darwing an assortment of faces
Ths basics in drawing the head
Conceiving of the head as a solid
The basics in drawing the head
The face's musculature, and expressions
Drawing facial expressions based on muscle movement

Chapter three: The fundamentals in drawing a figure manga style
The backbone forms the base of composition
The backbone travels the length of the torso
The backbone is the source of movement
Adding arms and legs after completing the torso
The steps in drawing a figure
Guideline defining the backbone from the front
Drawing a standing pose using
the bone and the axial line
Using the axial line to draw
A front view standing pose with presence
Standing poses and the center of gravity
Noting the spacing between the feet when drawing
The body's structure
Major body parts and their names
Muscles affecting the exterior contours
Distinguishing the genders
Figure drawing
Proportional differences
Makeup of the primary joints and movement
1. Basic neck structure and movement
2. Basic spine structure and torso movement
3. Basic shoulder and arm
connections and movement
4. Basic leg structure and movement
5. Basic hand and finger structure and maovement
6. Basic leg structure and movement

Chapter four: From sketching to design
The fundamentals of stylization
Character design techniques using stylization
Stylized face design
Stylized figure design
Techniques for designing distinctive characters
Thin and trim build
Powerful and muscular builds
Grotesquely muscular build
Slender female characters
Freindly super deformed (ultra stylized) characters
The reality behind key poses
Composition technique: Imagining a box
What constitutes a three deminsional figure
Placing A figure in a box
The steps in drawing a figure from a box
Techniques in dressing characters
The ABCs of drawing clothes
The reality behind dressing characters
Drawing dynamic poses
Cover character designing frontline
Coloring characters
Coloration improvement Techniques
The improved Palette
Improved finished artwork
Artists' discuss the true nature of manga sketching

All-in all this book rocks! It is the complete how to draw book I know. It is jam packed with hepful drafts to get you on the right track. This book is not for beginners though. I think this book would be suited for those more along the lines of intermediate to advance. This book is a must buy! Add it to your how to draw arsenal now!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Mid-Level Reference, October 20, 2007

By 

Peter Parker (Earth) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How To Draw Manga: Sketching Manga-Style Volume 1: Sketching As Composition Planning (How to Draw Manga (Graphic-Sha Numbered)) (Paperback)

This book covers a modern technique used by professional artists. If you have no drawing experience whatsoever, this might not be a good place to start. Those who have spent some time learning basic techniques and can produce basic figures could will definitely profit from this book.

The brilliant part is complete sets of images showing pros creating a new drawing from scratch, with detailed notes on each step. Given sufficient talent, you could eliminate some steps and duplicate what the artists are doing to finish drawings faster.

However, by skipping directly to what the pros apparently do now, the beginning artist misses the building blocks of learning that those same pros went through to get where they are today. Generally a beginning book starts with simple shapes, basic anatomy, perspective, etc. Mastery of fundamentals gives an artist the freedom and capability to create any character and pose.

The analogy to this is the first impressionist master painters. Every one of them was first trained as a classical painter. Picasso could paint in photographic realism if he wanted. His mastery of the fundamentals made his cubist work great.

If you have the basics already, this is a wonderful reference, and I would recommend it to beginners as well so long as they also get references that teach fundamentals.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great drawing book regardless of style., March 4, 2008

By 

Grant Beaudette (Missoula, MT United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How To Draw Manga: Sketching Manga-Style Volume 1: Sketching As Composition Planning (How to Draw Manga (Graphic-Sha Numbered)) (Paperback)

Over the years I've slowly put together a sizable library of these How to Draw Manga books without even realizing it.

That being said, I'll be the first to admit that the usefulness of some of these books is kind of hit or miss. But the Manga Sketching books are fantastic drawing resources regardless of whether you want to draw in a Manga style or not.

This book is really more grounded in basic figure drawing techniques than other How to Draw Manga books that are largely caged in by the conventions of Japanese comic art. It's also a heftier book at being almost 60 pages longer than some of the other books in the series.

A major section of the book is dedicated to a broad survey of human anatomy, and I would say it does a better job on the subject than many books that focus strictly on anatomy for artists. There's 9 pages dedicated to the head & neck alone. And all of the examples feature the body in motion, which is far more helpful in seeing how the body fits together than a bunch of stiff poses.

Much of the rest of the text is about design tips to solidify the body type you're shooting for or "enhancing a sense of presence" as the manga books often put it, which boils down to creating more interesting, dynamic poses.

Good figure drawing has many basic principles, no matter what style is laid on top of it. "Sketching Manga Style" is a fantastic resource to have around.