20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
it'll take more than this book to be a good manga artist, April 17, 2005
This review is from: Manga Mania Shoujo: How to Draw the Charming and Romantic Characters of Japanese Comics (Paperback)
The author, in the introduction, calls this book "a complete and thorough guide to drawing the world of shoujo manga." I think that's a bit too optimistic, especially considering that it's only 143 pages. There are several helpful hints and tips in this book, but I think this book would be best if read in conjunction with other manga how-to books and plenty of actual manga. The book's various sections are: the basics (things like heads, profiles, hairstyles, bodies, etc.), poses, bishies, the magical girl style, other popular shoujo styles, cool clothes, and design details.
These sections sound great, but everthing is covered VERY briefly - the step-by-step instructions are very short and would probably be, at best, only marginally helpful for beginners. The best part about this book is the artwork, although, as one reviewer wrote, even that has its issues. Much of the artwork, although nicely colored, does not really look that good - it's nice, however, that the artwork varies in style, so that it doesn't appear that all manga art looks the same. Still, I think this book would've benefitted from using examples from actual manga and discussing how those examples reinforce the book's hints and tips. At the very least, "further reading" lists at the ends of each section might have been nice.
As with many how-to art books, this book seems to assume that its readers have some previous drawing knowledge, so I wouldn't recommend this book for absolute beginners, but if you've tried to draw manga characters and have been having problems, this book might help you out. Or it might not. While it covers quite a few drawing hints and tips, some of which I, for instance, found very helpful, there is an aweful lot it doesn't cover. If you can afford it, it might be good to get this book along with other "how to draw manga" (or even "how to draw") books, but if you can't, you might want to look for a more thorough book.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Shoujo Manga book., December 19, 2005
This review is from: Manga Mania Shoujo: How to Draw the Charming and Romantic Characters of Japanese Comics (Paperback)
Christopher Hart has written an excellent book. He captured the essence of Shoujo, its beauty, grace, and subtlety. This book contains a great deal of information that will help the beginning and advanced artist. It is also beautiful to look at. I personally loved the Magical Girl section as well as the Chibi section. His treatment of colors is top notch.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome, May 31, 2004
This review is from: Manga Mania Shoujo: How to Draw the Charming and Romantic Characters of Japanese Comics (Paperback)
This book gos over everything you need to know when drawing manga. It goes over hands, facial features, female AND male characters, diffrent hair types, bodys, Chibi, design detail, and a whole lot more. If you dont want to get a million books going into great detail with just one subject, then i suggest you get this book. It really helps with trying to create your own unique manga characters as well. I suggest you go out and get this book as soon as possible.
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