Customer Reviews

How to Draw Manga: Mech. Drawing (How to Draw Manga) (v. 32)

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

 

 

What I liked best about this edition is 1) how Yamakami shows you how to illustrate the materials of plastic, chrome, glass, and rubber and 2) how he illustrates a variety of normal vehicles and shows you how to modify and transform them into something else better. For example, turning a race car into a hovercraft auto.

Not just mobile suit mecha armor, this book covers your average mecha from cars, planes, helicoptors, and motorcycles. I would suggest you start with Hayashi's Giant Robot book and follow that up with this edition for those interested in drawing mecha.

This book was great for showing various textures such as chrome, glass, plastic and rubber.

Not only can you apply these things to mecha, per se, but it can also be applied towards houses, buildings, fences, etc...
This was the first book in the series I ever bought, and I must say I have not been disappointed. It gives a lot of useful tips on how to draw cars and helicopters and shows you the basic of "showing speed."

If you look closely at the cover, you'll see that it incorporates everything the book talks about, except for speed lines, but it shows all the textures and detailing.
I liked how it showed that by adding a few straight lines and details, you could turn anything into mecha.

That being said, another thing I'll comment on is how much I've improved my drawings. Before I considered about textures, my drawings looked plain and "dead," but with the stuff about textures, they look alive and ready to battle it out with the next villain that comes their way. My villain characters are also as good, they look truly evil as well.

I'll break it down like this; the book goes over several mechanical things. Cars, Planes, Helicopters, and Mechas. ( note there is nothing really on boats and only several pages on Mechas). It also goes over the main textures of mechanical objects. After reading the book and then drawing you can really feel an improvement. Now I feel it is much simpler to draw easier subjects such as people. The only downside I feel is that it really doesnt go into depth on guns. There is about 4 pages total on guns. Half of which is on Mecha's guns.( dont buy this book if you want to learn about drawing guns). Overall the book is a very helpfull refrence, it is probably not for begginer drawers though. I recomdend it strongly for anyone who wants to improve in their area of drawing.

Being mechanical drawing challenged, I found this book helpful and informative on drawing different kinds of vehicles, and piecing together various mechanical elements. I think the idea of the book is "If you know how the object is pieced together and how it works, ultimately it is easier to draw." That being said, I think the only thing that could of improved the book would be more instruction on drawing mecha; like examples on various types of mecha, and ideas on creating your own mecha. Other than that minor detail, I enjoyed the book, and recommend it to anyone who wants to learn how to draw cars, motorcycles, planes, etc., and also learn how they are built.

Nothing much to be said here, since the other reviewers have hit the nail on the head. My fav section is towards the end, where the author showcases MECHA art, including the classic good/evil giant robots. His design themes are modern, and even without violating copyrights of popular anime series like Gundam, you still get to see intricate designs that will guide you in drafting your own stuff. Plus the section with sci fi weapons, for giant MECHA robots, is excellent.

BTW this is not really a "beginner's book"; you need to at least be able to draw, before you can flow with the authors guiding tips. He does break it down, but you need to be hand with your pencil, so that you can keep up with him.

Lots of mechanical stuff in this book. It even shows you how to draw a variety of compact MECHA-armor. Perspective and alternate views on jets, rockets, cars, and even motorcycles are covered in this one. Great book for traditional comic/manga artists!

This is one of the best mecha drawing books I have come acroos and I recommand that this go into the library of every manga artist or aspiring artist. The book covers basic forms and how to build them into mecha designs piece by piece.It also shows various types of shading and shading used to make mecha look realistic to the veiwer.

3-1/2 stars. With a highly attractive cover, I couldn't resist buying it. It's actually well-made, but the interior isn't quite as interesting to me. Mechanical objects of all kinds are depicted: metal, plastic, glass & rubber; vehicles, weapons, armor & robots. Since my main interest is in mechs & robots, especially ones that transform, this book has limited use for me. Great vehicles- not many mech-robots.

I recently bought three books on robots. A brief comparison:

1. How to Draw Manga- Mech Drawing. 3-1/2 stars. Great looking cover; the interior art is professional as well. Some drawings are truly excellent, but many are a bit plain looking. It covers the artistic rendering of mechanical vehicles & items of all types, and not just robots. With very little information on transforming mechs, it's still above average overall.

2. How To Draw Manga- Giant Robots. 5 stars. Phenomenal details for all kinds of robots. It's my favorite book of the 3. It has very little on robots that transform, which is too bad, but few books can match the incredibly detailed instruction here with such a wide variety of designs. It's a visually attractive, well organized effort.

3. Let's Draw Manga- Transforming Robots. 4 stars. The best book of the 3 in dealing with actual transformations. It shows actual photos of toys, and then plenty of pictures detailing the transforming process. The drawing quality is a little rough but still professional. Better drawing quality would've made this a 5-star book.

As you can see, each book has its strengths & weaknesses. And each is entirely black & white- no color drawings inside. All 3 are worth getting, if you can find a decent price.