Customer Reviews

Manga Art: Easel-Does-It

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

 

 

I will admit that I am perhaps one of the worst artist out there.

My stick figures used to burst into flames, they were that bad.

But somewhere along the line I have gotten a bit better, but still no where close to being able to even do Disney characters or Flintstones-style even.

However I found and bought this book, it really is cheap, more so with the coupon for Borders I had, so it wasn't that much of a strain on my poor college student wallet.

This book goes through step by step on some of the very basics, human movements, how to draw a hand and body, a body equals the same as 7 heads on top of each other, perspective, even some basic color ideas that I would never think of.

Yes it gets quite hard at the end, and I can not do them at my current level, but I know I will someday. The simple head drawings and body sketches this book shows how to make will get me there.

I recomend this book to both starters and experts who do not know much about how to put action or that manga/anime look to their art.

After showing it to my art class, it will become a required book to have for future quarters as long as it remains easy to get.

Try it out, worth a look.

Far better then the drawing for idots book, but skilled enough to make the Hart "how to draw" books a nice fight.

man this book is crazy! it teaches you step by step how to make those dope techniques! every single page is colored. its the best "how to draw anime" book i've ever seen! and for this price!? you'll never find a deal this good. its a MUST HAVE book if you like to draw manga.

This easel-format book is the best manga drawing book I've looked through yet. I was disappointed with the "How to Draw Manga" series imported from Japan because most of the book was taken up by silly and far too degrading comic strips rather than manga instruction; Christopher Hart's series is more useful but a very American attempt to do a Japanese style. Ashe Raven's book spends most of its time on actual instruction, the style looks Japanese enough for me, (and there's no groping and sexually assaulting women for laughs in this book; it's less dehumanizing than some instruction books).

First let me say that this style really resembles Katy Coope style, which was fine by me, but some may not like that. Other than that it was OK, but I would rather have picked up The Complete Idiot's Guide to Drawing Manga, Illustrated instead. The Chapters are as follows:
Introduction 3
materials 5
basic techniques 9
gallery 21
projects 24


Ok. The front of this book shows you basic techniques like drawing people and perspective. But the part on drawing people is WAY too short and they don't even give enough expressions for you to look at. On the other hand the parts on perspective were well done and I give the artists a thumbs up for that. The rest of the book focuses on fun projects that teach drawing techniques such as drawing animals and mecha. It's a great book but I didn't learn anything at all from it that I didn't already learn from other how to draw books. I recommend it because the parts on perspective and designing a comic book page were helpful, NOT because of what it teaches about drawing people (nothing against the artists' stlye, but because it didn't SHOW enough.)
Sailor Moon rating chart:
My Rating: 3 stars
Manga Stlye Rating (does it look like manga): fair
Should You Buy It: Yes
Thumbs Up or Down: Middle
See ya!

See you later!