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

~ (Author) "Everyone is catching mecha mania..." (more)
Key Phrases: giant robots, speed lines, character design, Fasa Studio, Heinz Schuller

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-Hart offers budding cartoonists a mix of basic instructions and savvy technical advice for creating a wide variety of generic giant robots, robotlike craft, cyborgs of both sexes, and bad-guy types ("Evil Scientist," "Corporate Villain," etc.), then posing them for maximum visual effect. Starting in the traditional way, with blocky geometric shapes, each figure proceeds through two or three stages to finished model, surrounded by pithy observations, comments, or general encouragement. In a tangentially relevant closing interview, Heinz Schuller, art director at Microsoft's Fasa Studio, delivers generalities about how to break into the field of digital-game design. Though Hart has little to say about drawing on screen rather than paper, his "can-do!" tone and cogent instructions, as well as the gallery of chiseled, heavily armed, hypercomplicated machines, will make this volume appealing to both casual browsers and serious young artists.
John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Reviewed with Christopher Hart's Kids Draw Anime.

Gr. 4-8. Granted, these aren't graphic novels, but they fit right in as many kids want to draw their own comics and create their own stories. By a familiar writer of how-to-draw books, these large-format paperbacks explain the basics of drawing in the style of anime (Japanese animated films) and manga (Japanese comics). Hart's enthusiastic approach energizes the texts, and both books are loaded with full-color illustrations that will surely attract readers. Kids, for the younger end of the audience range, moves quickly through the preliminaries of sketching "big-eye" characters' physical attributes, then goes on to demonstrate how to put figures in motion and, using a few successive drawings, how to create some typical characters. Kids who want detailed anime instructions will need to look elsewhere; those who just want some basics will find plenty here. Mech Mania, aimed at older readers with more art experience, focuses on the futuristic robots, vehicles, and weapons found in anime and manga scenes as well as in video games. From the blueprints for a spaceship to advice on showing characters in action or revealing a robot's mood through its posture, this dynamic book offers a useful mix of creative inspiration and practical advice. Hart ends with an informative interview with the art director of Microsoft's Fasa Studio. Slick, heavy paper, vibrant colors, and sharply defined lines in the finished illustrations add to the appeal and make these books sturdier than most paperbacks. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill; illustrated edition edition (November 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823030563
• ISBN-13: 978-0823030569
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #83,249 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #18 in	Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Manga > By Creator > Hart, Christopher
  #19 in	Books > Arts & Photography > Drawing > Specific Objects
  #22 in	Books > Children's Books > Arts & Music > Art > Cartooning

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ho-hum..., January 23, 2005

By	tongpakfu "Frothy Mecha fan" (Mid-Atlantic USA) - See all my reviews

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!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thorough, Detailed, and Would Satisfy ANY Anime-mecha fan!, October 31, 2002

By	Davide J Ivaldi "david7books" (Mishawaka, IN United States) - See all my reviews

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Priceless & Worthy of Praise!, January 26, 2003

By	donald (Kissimme, FL USA) - See all my reviews

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.