Customer Reviews

Mecha Mania: How to Draw Warrior Robots, Cool Spaceships, and Military Vehicles (Christopher Hart Titles)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There are lots of "how-to-draw" robots/mecha books. IMHO this book simply follows the formula of breaking down the title subject into component simple shapes and embellishing with more detail. This is the formula of most how-to-draw books. It's fine to include this if your "mecha how-to" book has more about drawing aspects unique to mecha.

An astute earlier reviewer pointed out that Hart drew none of the examples in the book. How can he discuss a thought and design process that he didn't even contribute to in his own book?!? The art in the book is rarely inspired and in many cases rendered by artists who don't appear particularly interested in mecha.

To its credit, it's fun to read some of the text. Younger readers may enjoy the book as it may be helpful to beginning artists. The best pictures are from the Fasa interview in the back.

For those who want something more advanced, I'd recommend the excellent books by Sherard Jackson of Antarctic Press. He briefly covers the beginning steps of drawing mecha, but gives a meatier discussion on the unique aspects of drawing anime machines. The art definitely has a higher "coolness" quotient and he drew his own pictures!

In my opinion, when Mr. Hart sat down to write this book, he took into account the beginner and expert simultaneously. The book introduces and thoroughly explains elements of design, armor, weaponry, accessorizing and detailing various types of mecha including transforming mecha (and what amazed me is how his talent at illustrating allows him to illustrate the styles we see in Macross, Gundam, etc. without stepping on any copyright landmines...) He also takes a step back and explains how to show motion, observation perspective / vanishing point techniques, stance etc. so that the younger (or beginning) illustrator will not get lost either.

And yes, for those of you who aren't "purists" you will get healthy doses of how-to's on fighter ships and females with bio-armor, but the book is easily 80% mecha which is why I bought it.

I wrote a "fan letter" to Mr. Hart asking him to explain the coloring techniques used in the book. To my surprise, I received a personal response from him within 3 weeks that explained the pencil and line drawings were by hand, and the color illustrations were computer rendered.

I personally own many magazines, catalogs, and other "how-to" books published overseas. Needless to say, the color illustrations in this book are superb, and readily compare to those illustrations seen over the years in Hobby Japan and Movic Design Series which are, of course, in Japanese.

Bottom line, it's well-written and professionally done. Get this book if you like mecha and want to develop your skills illustrating them.

D.I.

Ever since I have seen mecha like in the Gundam Universes and Robotech. I have searched the for tutorials for them online. To my dismay though, there are practically non-existent. Using the best search engine, I've only found a couple decent ones, but even those only give you 1-2 examples worth.Luckily since then, I have come across this book and was finally able to purchase it. After going through this book, I can finally say that my search is finally over, this is a priceless book, showing you all aspects of the mecha genre you will ever need. From showing you the basics of shading, the three dimensional objects you will need to create mechs, and etc. He even added how to show motion and perspective and provides you with a little helpful advice along the way. There is even a page where he gives you a brief history of the evolution of mecha through the decades.Ultimately, the decision is yours, but if you are wise, you will go with this must have book for those who want to learn this style of drawing. It is well worth the money, for resources on this are rare. The next book on mecha im going to check out is, how to draw manga: giant robots, becuase if you want to learn how to draw them like me, get all the resources you can on mecha.

I liked it pretty well. But I think it falls into the category "this is how you draw something. period." books. I think it should show you different kinds of guns for mecha, different joint types, head types, torso types, armor types, leg types, weapons in general types, shield types, jet pack/wing types and stuff. I don't think that there is enough things to inspire the mind for drawing original mecha. Instead, it tells you how to draw some limited robot examples.
So why did I give it a 4 if I'm being so negative?! Because as soon as I had merely READ it, without drawing any of the examples, was a ton better at drawing mecha. It also has some things to think about while drawing mecha that will help your drawings quit a bit. It has a little about special effects, which was nice. It tells you how to draw female cyborgs, which I thought most of which was garbage. It did have an interview with some guy from the creators of MechWarrior, which was pretty good. The book is worth the money, I think.

What is the point of this book? Each of the drawings gives just three steps, and the beginning step is very complex--there is no help in figuring out what basic shapes go into it, and it seems like the only thing you can do is copy exactly what the author has done. I wanted something that would teach me to draw this type of character, and instead I just got a book showing off the author's drawings. If it is supposed to be just a showcase, it should be called that--don't try to fool people into thinking it is a way to learn anything.

I think this book is great for just starting out drawing mecha. It's to the point and a great pillar to start from. Much of what was in the book I had already figured out for myself, but seeing that someone else who has been doing this for awhile does the same thing reaffirmed for me the important starting point. I recommend this to anyone interested in drawing, sculpting, designing, or building model mecha. Great book for learning the basic mechanics and shaping of mecha. Great stuff.

There are several sections that are helpful when drawing robots. Design styles and other elements of character creation are minimal. Good starting point for drawing Mecha!

I bought a book in the Mecha Mania series on how to draw warrior Robots and spaceships for a grandchild for Christmas.This book is wonderful for either an adult or a child who wants to draw the new anamie cartoons. The step by step drawings showing how to use basic shapes to make incredible robots and spaceships allow anyone to explore their creativity.

I BOUGHT SEVERAL OF THESE TYPES OF SKETCH BOOKS FOR MY SON. HE IS TAKING ART IN SCHOOL AND HE LOVES THE HELP THE BOOKS GIVE HIM IN HIS DRAWINGS. HE HAS LEARNED ALOT FROM THE BOOKS ALONE. WE ARE VERY PLEASED!!

This is a great approach to Mecha. It covers all the themes of Mecha and the artwork is instructional and entertaining at the same time. Definitely a must buy for any fan of Mecha.