10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Manga Madness, March 31, 2007
This review is from: Manga Madness (Paperback)
I'll start off by saying this: don't be deceived by the cartoony cover. It's actually probably the best HTDM (How to Draw Manga) book I own. It teaches you everything from the origin of manga, to backgrounds, different coloring methods, chibis, robots, comics, and, of course, the basics of drawing characters.
Pages 6-7 cover the tools of drawing manga. It explains what kind of paper you need (size and such), what kind of pencils are best, what kind of eraser is best, and much more.
Page 8 explains anime/manga related terms, and even the origin of manga itself. The terms covered are anime, bishoujo, bishounen, chibi, doujinshi, kawaii, manga, otaku, RPG, shoujo, and shounen.
Page 9 gives illustrations of the eight step process the pros use to create manga. They include brainstorming, writing the script and drawing a rough layout, penciling (which, as a side note, I found was misspelled in the book), lettering, inking, lettering, erasing, coloring, and (finally) publishing.
Page 10 discusses the basic elements of manga style. This has a quick explanation of how hair, mouths, and noses or manga characters differ from that of standard American comic books.
Page 11 tells the origin and differences of shounen and shoujo. In case you didn't know, shoujo (as quoted from page 8)"refers to comics aimed at young males", and shoujo "refers to comics aimed at young girls".
Pages 12-15 point out some basic elements of heroes and villains. The heroes include "the dashing hero", "the magical girl", "the rebellious hero", "the big guy", "the kid", and "the mascot". The villains include "the big bad", "the evil queen", "the fallen hero", and "mindless goons".
Pages 16-17 basically explain that everything drawn is a collection of basic shapes. It also gives you a few examples of three-dimensional figures.
Page 18 is very helpful. It explains about light sources, and how shadows work.
Page 19 discusses and gives examples of the difference between soft shading and cel shading.
Pages 20-21 show the difference between coloring in markers, colored pencils, watercolors, acrylic on acetate, and computer coloring. I found these two pages to be quite helpful.
Pages 22-23 cover manga eyes. It shows the difference between male and female eyes, and shows you the steps of drawing both. Personally, I wish they had more examples on faces instead of simply drawn directly onto the page.
Pages 24-25 explain hair styles. These pages are incredibly informative! It gives you a color chart that includes several colors and what the typical personality is for its wearer (for example, blue = youthful, energetic, cool and introverted; red = energetic, good fighter, outspoken, stubborn and strong-willed.) and a picture of several styles and the typical personality of its wearer (long, straight hair: Traditional and down-to-earth; spiky: Energetic and youthful; ponytails: Cute, energetic, and a little ditzy.)
Pages 26-31 demonstrate how to draw faces facing forward, to the side, and even a three-quarter view.
Pages 32-33 have a list of emotions and a small example. The list is large and includes twenty-one emotions. They are pleased, laughing, happy, joyous, embarrassed, confused, sleepy, sly, pouting, bored, annoyed, angry, enraged, shocked, terrified, worried, crying, bawling, blubbering, yawning, and smug.
Pages 34-36 break down proportions for the adult male and female, the teenaged male and female, the young female and male, the chibi male and female, and one super-deformed female. I was quite pleased to see children who weren't chibis. Most How-To-Draw books only include how to draw chibi children. And best of all, no nudity!
Pages 37-38 explain a little bit about poses. This section is very short compared to most HTDM and quite uninformative.
Page 39 also isn't very helpful. It explains a bit about foreshortening.
Page 40 gives fantastic demonstrations of hands, as well as a great measurement tip.
Page 41 is great for drawing feet. It shows a few different poses, and even a foot in a high heel shoe.
Pages 42-43 focus on clothing. Page 42 centers on the flow and detail of clothing; while page 43 reminds you of the manga-specific clothing, such as kimonos, samurai armor, and the oh-so popular school uniforms. This page also has an example of two styles of uniforms for both girls and boys. I find myself referring to this section often.
Pages 44-85 include an example of many different characters as well as some tips and characteristics. The characters include the mischievous chibi, dashing hero, magical girl, rebellious hero, the kid (shounen), girls (shoujo), the big guy, the mascot, fallen hero, evil queen, the big bad, mindless goons, unstoppable fiend, fantasy warrior, elf princess warrior, martial artists, cat girl, android boy, Victorian rose (bishoujo), school girl (bishoujo), Victorian gentleman (bishounen), hipster student, skate girl (shounen youth), cyberpunk kid (shounen youth), space hero, space pirate, mecha, humanoid robot, and the crab robot. Most of them include a drawing in both colored pencil and computer colored.
Pages 86-87 give some interesting tips on martial art moves and battles.
Pages 88-89 remind you to consider the weight of weapons in your drawings. For being the weapons section, it isn't elaborate as most HTDM.
Pages 90-93 show examples of different actions and explains some important details such as what a character does when he/she jumps.
Pages 94-97 aren't necessarily for beginners. These pages are very, very helpful for hard core manga artists. These two pages cover the basics of linear perspective, and drawing figure in perspective. They go into amazing detail and explanation.
Pages 90-105 list some very helpful tips of drawing backgrounds and such. The examples include city buildings, the fantasy castle, the space station, and the traditional Japanese home.
Pages 106-113 show you how to draw vehicles. In order, the examples included are a jumbo jet (simple sketch only), old car (simple sketch only), sporty car, flying car, sky cycle, good-guy space fighter, pirate space fighter, good-guy spaceship, and pirate spaceship.
Pages 114-121 are about the design of a manga page. Now, the comics aren't good at all, but the pointers are. This includes the basic elements of a manga page (basically defining and giving examples of speed lines, bold lettering, narrative captions, and such), planning a comic page (teaching smooth transition of text), designing dynamic panels (different "camera" angles), basic panel shots (mostly different panel sizes), and pacing and panel flow (great tips on how to set up an interesting and sensible panel).
Page 122 defines the different kinds of word balloons and shows some lettering options.
Page 123 discusses sound effects. This page also includes sound effects in both English and Japanese. This page is also great to refer to when you'd like to see the meaning of a Japanese sound effect while reading manga.
Page 124 covers features commonly found in manga, such as speed lines, the big head yell, and falling cherry blossoms.
And finally...
Page 126 summarizes "the business of making manga". This covers six steps of drawing manga professionally.
Step One: Know your strength and weaknesses
Step Two: Meet people and get feedback
Step Three: Promote your work
Step Four: Be persistent
Step Five: Keep Learning
Step Six: Stick with it
Thanks for reading my (incredibly long) review!
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