A Good "How To Draw Manga" Book?

M

Mohawk52

Thousand Master
Hello.
I searched back 10 pages but couldn't find an existing thread for this.

Can anyone suggest a good "How To" book for my budding young wannabe mangaka daughter? I've seen a few at Amazon but I've also read that they aren't very good. We've seen the instructions in NEO, but to be frank they are a bit vague. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanking you in advance. :)
 
I've got this one and think it's quite good:
http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/6348 ... oduct.html

(i got it cheaper from a discount bookshop so not sure if you'd think it being worth the full price)

It's by one of the Sweatdrop guys and has lots of illustrations from various artists. (if you don't know who that is then they're a group of UK manga artists - http://www.sweatdrop.com/)

It has a big focus on the computer side of things (Photoshop etc.) which is good for making layouts, neatening lines/colours etc.. But if you want a book which descibes proportions and perspectives then this one isn't really suitable. Beginners books are mostly the same, so long as they consider anatomy and proportions in some constructive way you should be fine.

A normal artist's anatomy book wouldn't be so different to be honest a you still need to build a general drawing ability anyway. This way allows you can use it to create your own style instead of forcing a 'manga' look which everyone else is using.

(also a good way to start at the very beginning is just to copy a few pages of your favourite manga out just to get the right feel down)

Hope some of that info helps. ^^;
 
Thanks for that link to a computer based drawing programme, I'll keep that for future reference. I think your suggestion about a normal artist anatomy guide is very good and would be something more useful for her. She's showing signs of good talent in drawing facial features, eyes, nose, mouth. hair, ears, etc. but the rest of an anatomy is still a bit of a challange. I believe it would be best for her to master the pencil, before transfering to a mouse though. Thanks for that very useful info.

Anyone else?
 
Something like this would most probably be good. The book includes all the basics including advice on storytelling and backgrounds, plus the set comes with basic things to create manga.
I've got quite a few of the books in this series and they are all very good, theres one to suit whatever your need is. I've got one for male characters, female characters, bodies and anatomy etc. Each book in the series is very detailed.
Theres also another short series called How to Draw Anime & Game Characters This is a shorter series, so not quite as detailed as the other books. But i believe they are very good for the basics.

It does also depend upon your daughters age. If she is quite young you might want to try a book by Christopher Hart, which are quite good, though a little basic, and in a clearly more western style.

Hope thats some help :)
 
Ah, I had seen this on Amazon but wasn't sure it was a good one for a beginner as the rating reviews mostly said it would make a good reference for those already experienced artists. But thanks for adding it here.
 
All books are good, but you should try for your own style, or look at images and draw certain parts of the face/body several times over. Cheaper as well.

There are a few online How To Draw sources i think.
 
Ah, so many "How to drw manga" books... gotta be careful with them, a friend of mine brought quite a few, and most turned out to be crap.

Based off this column (scroll to the bottom), this is the book to get.
 
Ramadahl said:
Based off this column (scroll to the bottom), this is the book to get.
Click to expand...
Oh god I've got that book - it's a work of genius! :D

Really funny and rips apart any kind of manga cliche going... just don't expect to learn much from it. :lol: A bit old now, but it's still not too hard to pick up online.
 
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