Customer Reviews

Manga for the Beginner Chibis: Everything You Need to Start Drawing the Super-Cute Characters of Japanese Comics

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Have you ever gotten a drawing book, hoping you could learn how to draw some fun things, and then you saw the pictures inside just weren't very good, nothing you would actually want to draw?

Manga for the Beginner Chibis: Everything You Need to Start Drawing the Super-Cute Characters of Japanese Comics is NOT that kind of book at all! It is chock-full of very professional and super cute drawings, ones that you'd actually want to learn how to draw. If you want to learn more about basic drawing techniques for chibis, or even if you just like to draw cute things -- this book is perfect for you! It is a full-scale drawing book with slick, glossy pages and tons of informative illustrations and explanations, written by acclaimed artist, Christopher Hart, and published by Watson-Guptill.

Chibis are the mini emo characters in manga; the normally-drawn characters often revert to chibi status when they feel strong emotions. The author tells us that chibis are not only fun to draw, but they're easy to draw, too! Author Christopher Hart includes lots of tips, including the very important proportions of chibis, as well as the difference between the shoujo and the shonen styles. There are all kinds of characters throughout the book with instructions for how to draw them, beginning with simple shapes and lines, then adding more detail, and finally, finished in full color.

His animal chibis are absolutely adorable and I loved the section on Anthros, when a human and animal meld together, like fox boy or bunny girl. He even makes chibi robots, which are really creative (and cute!).

The beautiful chibi fairies have a little different eye shape, and are so stunning, like the lovely snow fairy. There are many characters in the book, which are shown in different scenarios, to help you see how to pose and have them interact with other characters. He even shows you how to put them in action by sequencing several moves together.

Manga for the Beginner Chibis: Everything You Need to Start Drawing the Super-Cute Characters of Japanese Comics is fun to simply browse through it and look at all the little cuties -- just look at the sweetie on the cover for an example! My teenage daughter saw the book, flipped through it once, and immediately asked if we could go out and buy her a new sketchbook right away! We loved Manga for the Beginner Chibis: Everything You Need to Start Drawing the Super-Cute Characters of Japanese Comics! Highly recommended!

Flipping through the book, made us fall in love with the Chibis. Book is filled with dozens (hundreds?) of different Chibis accompanied with a description of what's unique to the specific character and of course the easy steps to bring out this uniqueness.
The author has an amazing ability to point out the uniqueness of the each Chibi Character and demonstrate in just a few easy steps how to make it happen on the paper.
These techniques, tips and the way Hart views the a cartoon character constructive not only for Chibis but with all Manga characters.
In short, this is a magnificent book.

I personally love manga and Japanese anime, but I am just a beginner. My mom got this for me, and I drew at least 4 drawings the day i first got it! It teaches you everything. i started at the beginning of the book and tried the basics, and kept going. When i got ahead of the basics, i basically just copied, and it was a little hard, but once i got the hang of it, I got pretty good at it, partly because i already love drawing. Just copying the pictures teaches you a lot. The book goes in order, from sketching the face and a little body, to a professional manga chibi figure.

The whole book basically just shows you little tips and lessons (that personally worked for me, but don't know if it will for any of you) and then lets you go on your own, but those simple things actually really help. Other than how the book works, it's such a cute book; for example: it'll show you a regular manga girl or boy in any mood, and then it will show you a chibi version of the picture, and sometimes it will make you laugh because the chibi version will always be exaggerated, but that's one of the things i love about it. It also shows how to draw different and simple ways to draw chibi and regular manga hands. Of course there is so much more.

I have some other Christopher Hart books, and i think this is one of his best books yet. i recommend this book to all Japanese anime, manga or chibi lovers.

I gave this book to a friend of mine who has a daughter who loves to draw and she loved it. There are so many cool things in this book, it will keep you entertained for hours.

This is quite possibly one of the best "How To" books for chibi characters that I've seen. The steps are broken down precisely, and he gives a very wide range of examples & tips. The direction dialog is very simple, & witty, which makes the learning process quite fun as well. It's one of many great Chris Hart drawing guides that one should have, who's looking to develop their skills with different drawing styles.

I purchased this and another book for my daughter and she is absolutely delighted with them. When she found out that I had purchased them for her as a Christmas present, she couldn't...and didn't wait..she open her present right there and then..so much for the surprise element...
She is a big fan of drawing and she tells me that this is the best she has seen. She says that it takes you step by step and allows you to get great results. Judging from her recent drawings I can see improvement in her efforts. She definitely spends more time drawing and enjoying it very much and was extremely happy and excited when they arrived, so if you decide to buy it and get even a fourth of the happiness that my finicky teenage daughter got from this purchase, it is money well spent I say.

I recently purchased this for my 10 year old daughter who is very interested in learning to draw Japanese type cartoon characters. She loves this book and uses it all the time! It's layout is well done, very accessible for a young student and she loves this book. Her drawings are coming along very nicely too. It's a great book and we are glad we purchased it! She wants the other versions for older looking characters and we will definitely purchase them when the time comes.

This book is stuffed with full-color illustrations of just about every kind of chibi you could imagine, from goth boys to bunny girls to robots to animals. There are many good drawing tips, especially on clothing and motion. If you're looking for examples, inspiration and advice on drawing chibis, this is a good book for you. My main complaint is that I don't really think this is "for the beginner." Many of the figures are drawn in only two or three steps, which is way too fast for a beginner to learn the fundamentals of drawing unless you are just tracing. Also the final products are always in full color, but there are no lessons on coloring, not with ink or markers or computer. I don't see how a beginner could possibly end up creating these full color final products without getting help elsewhere. I would also recommend Xtreme Art (tm) Ultimate Book of Trace-and-Draw Manga if you're a true beginner and need to start with tracing, or The Practical Encyclopedia of Manga: Learn to Draw Manga Step by Step with More than 1500 Illustrations. (Practical Enyclopaedia of) if you want an explanation of how to color.

Okay, this book is a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e! The book starts out with simplified, very basic drawings to get you going. Later on you get to try your hand at drawing fairies, a mermaid, samurai, magical girls (always a classic), and a bunch more!
Not as good though, was the section on how to draw chibi animals. They don't even look like manga at all! they are very american-ized. However, since most of the book is on how to draw chibi people, this book is still definitely worth buying.

I hope this review helped!

I really enjoyed this book. It was just as cute and educating as I hoped and expected it to be.