How to Draw Manga: Pretty Girl Character

Rating:
Summary: I'm getting a new one to replace one I loaned.
Review: I found this book clear and useful and well organized. I come from a more classical figure-drawing background, and was very impressed with how this book shows levels of realism -- a development from a simplification of line thru to a full-blown manga style -- from the shapes and line weights of a slightly "cartoony" eye to examples of actual line forms used by manga artists to show the eye.

So many books of this kind become mere galleries where the author shows off completed works. This one does not make that mistake. It has samples, lots of them, organized by age, realism, angle; a regular grid of noses and chins and eye forms and levels of hair detail.

I believe this is a useful book for almost anyone trying to develop a manga "style" to their drawing. I think this would be useful for someone with limited drawing experience (the eye forms in particular, are quite reproducible).

But there is my caveat. The book gives the concept of contraposta a glancing blow; it uses perspective and foreshortening without mentioning them explicitly -- indeed, shows the strong figure-drawing skills of the author without mentioning that to get his results you will also need some understanding of skeletal structure, muscle forms, anatomic proportions, drapery folds, shadowing, etc.

Final word...this book belongs on the short shelve. It is not a stand-alone.

Rating:
Summary: I'm getting a new one to replace one I loaned.
Review: I found this book clear and useful and well organized. I come from a more classical figure-drawing background, and was very impressed with how this book shows levels of realism -- a development from a simplification of line thru to a full-blown manga style -- from the shapes and line weights of a slightly "cartoony" eye to examples of actual line forms used by manga artists to show the eye.

So many books of this kind become mere galleries where the author shows off completed works. This one does not make that mistake. It has samples, lots of them, organized by age, realism, angle; a regular grid of noses and chins and eye forms and levels of hair detail.

I believe this is a useful book for almost anyone trying to develop a manga "style" to their drawing. I think this would be useful for someone with limited drawing experience (the eye forms in particular, are quite reproducible).

But there is my caveat. The book gives the concept of contraposta a glancing blow; it uses perspective and foreshortening without mentioning them explicitly -- indeed, shows the strong figure-drawing skills of the author without mentioning that to get his results you will also need some understanding of skeletal structure, muscle forms, anatomic proportions, drapery folds, shadowing, etc.

Final word...this book belongs on the short shelve. It is not a stand-alone.

Rating:
Summary: very nice book
Review: Nice book with great details and step by step process.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: This book totally surprised me. I thought it'd be alright, but not as easy to grasp as some of the other books I'd ordered. I was wrong! This book is so much easier to understand than any other book I've looked at. It's amazing. Within glancing through it once, I already had a better idea of how to make my characters cuter. I was really impressed with the outcome, and the way it gave simple but understandable references to the drawings. When it says that the book contains some artistic nudity, it's not lying. Just a warning. However, the sections on how to draw faces (chinlines thankfully included!) were great and clear cut. I can't wait until the twin book (How to Draw Manga: Young Men, English Text) comes out. If it's as helpful as this one is, there will be no way you'll want to miss it!

Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: This book will have you drawing sumptuous female Manga characters within very reasonable practice effort. The emphasis of this book is to draw the characters the way that Mamga artists stylize their characters to bring out their cuter points. This book goes well with the How to Draw Manga: Bishoujo Pretty Girls volume. The techniques in both books work together to produce good results when drawing female characters. If you always wanted to know the "tricks of the trade" this book is a good book for your How-to-Draw library.

Rating:
Summary: If you want to draw manga girls this is for you.
Review: This book will have you drawing sumptuous female Manga characters within very reasonable practice effort. The emphasis of this book is to draw the characters the way that Mamga artists stylize their characters to bring out their cuter points. This book goes well with the How to Draw Manga: Bishoujo Pretty Girls volume. The techniques in both books work together to produce good results when drawing female characters. If you always wanted to know the "tricks of the trade" this book is a good book for your How-to-Draw library.