Manga Mania: Chibi and Furry Characters: How to Draw the Adorable Mini-characters and Cool Cat-girls of Japanese Comics [Paperback]

Christopher Hart (Author)

Book Description

Series: Manga Mania | Publication Date: January 1, 2006

Everyone loves chibi, the newest, hottest manga style out of Asia. Chibis—characters that range from hypercute miniature people to bizarrely sexy furry characters—come in all varieties, all roles, including chibi teenagers, faeries, schoolgirls, nurses, mermaids, devils, angels, and everything in between. Now Christopher Hart, the world's best-selling author of cartoon and drawing titles, shows readers exactly how to draw chibis, infusing them with personality and creating authentic costumes for them. Cute chibi-style monsters (small yet powerful), appealing cat-girls (humanlike, but with feline traits), superdeformed manga/chibi characters (used to make funny wisecracks)—every type of chibi character is shown here in crystal clear, step-by-step drawings. Manga Mania Chibi and Furry Characters will get every manga fan in on the chibi fun.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5 Up For those not familiar with chibi, this is an exaggerated form of manga illustration that squashes the big-eyed characters down for a greater intensity of cuteness. Hart does an excellent job of introducing the concept and of explaining how the drawing technique for this particular style varies from normal manga, and why. Also included are a further exaggerated and simplified form of characters often used for making asides and a section devoted to drawing characters that are varying degrees of feline and human mix. Creative examples are given for all categories, with much potential for sparking the imagination. This volume is a good supplement to more basic manga drawing books that may be in most collections. Dawn Rutherford, King County Library System, Bellevue, WA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Christopher Hart is the world’s best-selling author of cartoon and drawing titles, with more than two million books sold.
He lives in Connecticut with his family.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill (January 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823029778
• ISBN-13: 978-0823029778
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.4 x 10.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #75,111 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #65 in Books > Arts & Photography > Drawing > Cartooning
  • #76 in Books > Arts & Photography > Study & Teaching

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

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for artists' of all age groups!, January 4, 2007

By 

Charsya Paul "Manga publisher/manga writer/ar... (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Manga Mania: Chibi and Furry Characters: How to Draw the Adorable Mini-characters and Cool Cat-girls of Japanese Comics (Paperback)

Chistopher Hart has truly out done himself with this book,as well as his other book fantasy worlds. In this book, Hart gives you examples of teaching you how to draw chibi characters as well as telling you what makes a chibi a chibi. A great thing about this book is that they have a large section of how to draw a variety of cat girls!!! That was my most favorite part! I really enjoyed this book alot, and as a bonus I will give you the run down of what to expect in the book....

Chibi basics
What makes a chibi a chibi?
The chibi head
Drawing the chibi head step by step
Full figures: Standard manag versus chibi
Turn any character into a chibi
Personality pointers
The chibi size size chart
Drawing the chibi face and body step by step
full body views

Chibi characters and costumes
Costumes
Mischevious chibis!
Making eye contact
Girl costumes and popular japanese roles
Stupid chibis!
Regular chibis versus super small chibis
Super small chibis
Fantasy chibis: Angels, fairies, and princesses

Chibi Expressions, emotions, and attitudes
Emotions
body language with special effects
Magical effects

Chibi cat girls and furry characters
Furry-style ears
Chibi cat-girls:full figures
Boxing cats
Chibi cat girl types
In-space adventures

Standard-size cat girls
Standard-size cat girls: the basics
Drawing the cat-girls head step by step
Drawing the cat-girl versus human head
drawing cat-girl bodies step by step
From tame to wild
Cat-girl hand and foot markings
Cat-girl prsonalities
Cat-girl poses
Cat-girl scenes
Foreshortening
A world of cat girls!

Chibi and magical creatures
Standard monsters versus chibi monsters
Creating chibi monsters from basic shapes
Creating chibi monsters from inanimate objects
Pterodactyl chibi monsters
Chibi monsters with magical powers
Magicalchibis without owners

Super stylized chibis
Little lady
Super stylized chibi boy
Super stylized chibi cat girl
Super stylized chibi rabbit girl
Chibi trouble maker
Witch in training
Little angel
Wishing on a star
Candy girl
Serious student
Chibi hero fighter
Tropical girl

The rest of the pictures are basically sample images showing you that you can use a chibi in certain scenes of regular sized characters, like when they are emabarrassed or mad. The chibi form of that person shows great expression, as well as hillarity. Plus chibis are ultra cute! This book is a perfect add on to any how to draw collection. I definitely recommend this book to any artist, whether beginner or intermediate, this book is extremely helpful. A must buy!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome and Helpful BOOK!!!!, March 18, 2007

By 

Meher Darakshan - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Manga Mania: Chibi and Furry Characters: How to Draw the Adorable Mini-characters and Cool Cat-girls of Japanese Comics (Paperback)

OMG! This was the best how-to book i have ever READ!!!!! It is so thorough. I could draw everything, and it came out near perfection. My friends loved, I loved, and heck, my GRANDFATHER loved it! He thought it was really, really good, in terms of teaching you how to draw! I loved it, and recommend it to everyone! The book shows you step by step how to draw cat-girls (beautiful) and cute tropical girl/chibi/cat-girl and other adorable creatures. It teaches you when to use super-deformed characters, and uses cute drawings (eg, questionable little angel (my fave!) to enable you to use different, effective techniques! This is chock-full of great things!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Chibi-fied, October 22, 2009

By 

J. Sherman "The Critic" (New York, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Manga Mania: Chibi and Furry Characters: How to Draw the Adorable Mini-characters and Cool Cat-girls of Japanese Comics (Paperback)

Christopher Hart's "Manga Mania" series continues with a how-to on creating supe-deformed characters, anthromorphic catgirls and furry characters. While Hart covers the creation chibis from the ground up, some experience with figure drawing is recommended for the catgirl section. And some of Hart's sample drawings, while unexpectedly good, don't exactly meet fanboy standards. But if you want to draw super-cute characters like the pros do, that's what this book--and practice--is for.

This book contains no offensive content.