The Manga Artist's Workbook

by
Christopher Hart

Watson-Guptill, November 2009, 118 pp.
ISBN: 978-0-307-46270-1

Genre: Non-Fiction

Subgenre: Instructional / Drawing
Reviewed: 11/15/2009

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Excerpt

Synopsis

Over most of the graph paper is tracing paper that the artist can draw on and still see the model through the page. The book contains step-by-step instructions that will help an artist drawing proper proportions, expressions, costumes, and perspectives of manga characters. This book will help an artist master the fundamental proportions of the manga body and facial features, add detail to manga eyes so they sparkle and shine, develop hairstyles and costumes that make each character unique, and create expressive and dynamic characters.

The key to this book is taking your time while drawing and practice, practice, practice. By the time an aspiring artist finishes this book, they should be dramatically better at drawing any character.

This book contains the following sections:

• The Manga Head
  • Teen Girl
    • Front View
    • Profile
    • Three-Quarter View
    • "Up" Angle
    • "Down" Angle
  • Teen Boy
    • Front View
    • Profile
    • Three-Quarter View
    • "Up" Angle
    • "Down" Angle
• Manga Eyes
  • Eye Basics
    • Female Eyes
    • Male Eyes
  • Eye Styles
    • Shoujo Eyes
  • Eye Expressions
• Manga Hair
  • Girls
  • Boys
• The Manga Body
  • Teen Girl
    • Front View
    • Side View
    • Three-Quarter View
    • Three-Quarter Rear View
    • Rear View
  • Teen Boy
    • Front View
    • Side View
    • Three-Quarter View
    • Three-Quarter Rear View
    • Rear View
  • Natural Standing Poses
    • More Relaxed
    • Most Natural
    • One Foot Farther Away From Body
    • One Knee Bent, Hands Behind Body
    • One Knee Bent, Hands in Front of Body
• Hands
  • The Skeleton
  • Female Hands
  • Male Hands
• Clothing and Costumes
  • Schoolgirl
  • Schoolboy
  • Superchic
  • Magical Girls
• Creating Characters
  • Teen Fighting Girls
  • Classic Teen Hero
  • Fantasy Fighter

The Manga Artist's Workbook is a instructional book on how to draw human manga bodies by Christopher Hart.

Review

Wow! The Manga Artist's Workbook is the perfect book for anyone that wants to practice drawing manga characters. Not only are there lessons to be read and examples to be viewed, there is a lot of tracing and graph paper to practice on. My daughter, who is fourteen and loves to draw, is very excided to get her hands on this book.

Christopher Hart is a wonderful artist and knows how to show an aspiring artist how to learn how to draw. He steps the young artists through the hoops that will make them a better drawer. The most important part of this book is the tracing and graph paper. The aspiring manga artist can practice over and over again until they get it right.

Overall, The Manga Artist's Workbook by Christopher Hart is a wonderful instruction book for any young artist-want-to-be that needs to learn how to draw properly. If you don't learn how to drawn the human body the correct way, it will always look out of proportion, and nothing looks funnier than that.