Kids Draw Manga [Paperback]

Christopher Hart (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up | Series: Kids Draw

The characters from manga-or Japanese comics-have begun to dominate the world of kids' cartoons and comics. Now kids can learn to draw their own manga-style characters with Kids Draw Manga, the newest addition to the Kids Draw series. Young artists will find a complete introduction to the basics of manga style, from the well-known shiny eye to manga-style noses, mouths, and body types. Pages of step-by-step drawings offer a diverse range of cool manga characters with appeal to both boys and girls, including a basic manga girl and boy, a schoolgirl, a mysterious swordsman, a hero knight, a flying robot soldier, and a laser fighter. More elaborate manga characters, like a spaceship commander and a dark-magic sorceress, are offered for kids who are either older or have worked through the book and are ready for the next level. As in all Kids Draw books, each dazzling spread is easy to follow, fun to look at, and guaranteed to charm a new generation of artists!




• The 10th book in the best-selling Kids Draw series

• Follows the success of Kids Draw Anime, which sold over 20,000 copies in one year

• Capitalizes on the manga craze for kids: from Sailor Moon to Yu-Gi-Oh!

• Author has sold more than 1.5 million books

• Packed with colorful, fun spreads

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 3 Up–Manga is one of the fastest growing mediums in the United States. Young people are nuts about it. This instructional drawing book is on a beginner's level and does not go into great depth on how to develop characters visually, but it does give good fundamental tips. It starts with the eyes as they are the telltale characteristic of the genre. Hart provides five to six steps for drawing boys, girls, robots, heroes, villains, and other characters and also shows how to draw different poses and action moves. The black-and-white illustrations are clear and easy to follow, but one will need to practice to get the right look. Completed drawings are in full color. The author's comments are entertaining and the images are sure to grab attention. Children will have a great time using this book to spark their own creative imaginations.–Joel Bangilan, Houston Public Library, TX
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Christopher Hart is the acclaimed author of countless illustration tutorials, including two best-selling art books, Manga Mania and Anime Mania. He lives in Connecticut.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill; 1st edition (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082302623X
• ISBN-13: 978-0823026234
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 0.2 x 13 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #404,792 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #44 in Books > Children's Books > Arts, Crafts & Music > Art > Cartooning

More About the Author

Thanks for taking a look at my books, and this "Author Bio." I'm a competent tennis player, who also enjoys playing computer chess while I'm watching TV at night (Hey, it prevents me from channel-surfing). I'm keenly interested in M-theory, although i have become skeptical of it of late, despite Brian's Green's full-body gushing... I love being with my family, and even my extremely evil dog, a Welsh Springer Spaniel named "Rusty." Oh, yes, he truly is that evil.

As for my work, I'm the author of many How-To-Draw books, published by Watson-Guptill,the art imprint of Random House. Thanks to a lot of the wonderful readers (and you know who you are!), I have sold over 3 million copies domestically, which have been translated into 20 languages worldwide.

I'm fortunate to also have had 26 of the Best-Selling art books in the country, according to Bookscan.(Bookscan is the publishing industry's rating system for books, which is owned by same company that does the Neislen TV ratings.)

I also have my own drawing show on the Comcast Network, called, "How To Draw Action Heroes With Chris Hart." It's on Comcast's "Activity TV." I hope you like my books, and find them a valuable adjunct to your own imagination.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for beginners, October 24, 2005

By 

S. Williams "Mother of 4" (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kids Draw Manga (Paperback)

I bought this book for my daughter who is 12, and she loves it. She said it has helped her learn how to draw Manga character arms, hands, and facial expressions better. It is easy to follow with lots of examples.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't delude yourself into thinking this is authentic., February 26, 2006

By 

Hayley "Von Hayley" (Where I want to, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kids Draw Manga (Paperback)

My sister had bought this book because she was interested in drawing manga a small bit. I flipped through the pages and found it very misleading for a "manga" instruction book.

First off, this isn't manga; though it may seem very stylistic and similar to the real thing it's not showing you how to draw manga, it's showing you how to draw American cartoons. The reason that it's not manga is that they pinpoints in the style of Japanese comics were missed a bit. The eyes were probably the worst aspect of this book being "fake", they were opaque circles with random shines within them--all style, no substance. The hairstyles did not show diversity, all spikey, while real anime/manga hairstyles had meaning to them or certain patterns. The sections on drawing character stereotypes were very pointless and long, considering that the author could have just written "here are the features of a [insert anime stereotype(s)]" insteading of having a detailed instruction that wasn't even necessary.

The best aspect of this book was the detailed instruction to drawing anatomy and proportions, not manga. That seemed to be the only somewhat useful part in the book.

Overall, this book receives about a 15% in grades, not good. If you're looking for an introduction to drawing MANGA, buy Katy Coope's book, but if you're looking for a simplified version of drawing anatomy and proportions, buy this--don't let "manga" in the title delude you into thinking that it is the real thing.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Manga, December 22, 2005

By 

Larry "Larry" (Fairfield, CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kids Draw Manga (Paperback)

Excellent book, excellent drawings, great instruction. Christopher Hart shows the development of his drawings in a clear, step by step fashion, allowing you to see his thought process. This is fun for the whole family.