The Art of Drawing Manga

Allow me to give a bit of background about myself (feel free to skip the first paragraph). Art, and in particular drawing, has been a hobby of mine all my life, and I have been watching anime ever since Pokémon first made its debut on our TV screens when I was a kid. Recently I've been getting into anime (and manga) much more and have dabbled in drawing some of my own and with the help of youtube (big shout out to Mark Crilley and his fantastic channel!). I decided to look for a book which could give me additional insights into the style of art and how to better approach it, so I ordered this book and here we are.The book arrived earlier today, and I've spent a fair amount of time looking through it all. Clearly a lot of effort has gone into it, and it feels very well put together. There are a lot of really useful tips in here, and the conversational style of the author is very easy to get along with.Unfortunately, however, the style of drawing in this book is not what I would call 'typical' of the Manga I am used to, and indeed, was expecting when I ordered this book. Ben Krefta has his own unique way of drawing manga, and where I feel I was let down was the front cover. I 'judged the book by its cover' before deciding to make the purchase, and feel as though the style of manga depicted inside the book is actually pretty different from the girl on the front cover, who is more 'typical' looking (in a manga sense).I would say that his manga fits into the 'pseudo-manga' category he himself talks about in the introduction. It looks very western influenced. I especially think that the noses, jaws and chins (especially from a profile or slightly turned away view) are particularly different to what I would call 'the norm' of manga.I hope this has informed your decision, and I am aware I dwelled on the negatives rather a lot, but really do be aware that he does give some really useful advice and tips in the book too. If you see a seller which is offering it for a cheap price I'd say it's worth the purchase just for last sections which give tips and advice on photoshop, colours etc.

This book defiantly set me back a bit as wasn't expecting too much from it at first when I bought it. As I bought several different books and this one wasn't the one that I thought I would learn from the most in the sense of How To Draw. (Well what Can I say I was wrong lol) I rate the book 5 Star.To begin with and as one might expect the book starts with how to do the basic's then goes into how to do more complex tasks such as drawing body's faces and things such as equipment and other more complex tests. Quite easy to pick up the style of drawing from this book defiantly good book for beginners and I defiantly recommend this book for any manga or anime drawer advanced or beginner level. 5 Star all the way.

For me, this is the first manga book i'v bought, being led by other reviews. And i cant say how great this books is. it gives easy step-by-step pictures and explanations to guide you through your work and gives you an idea on how to create your own work. this book tells you how to create effective character movement as well as showing how to emphasise emotions and body language and shows you how to create actions like juming, running, falling etc.truthfully, i cant love this book enough. ooh and great delivery too. i ordered with free super saver delivery, estimated for the next week. do you how long it took to come? ONE DAY. i ordered yesterday and it came today, although it was estimated for the 29th december. Amazon, i love you

Bought this for my 12 year old who is interested in Manga, it's an ideal beginners book as it takes you through each section in clear, easy to follow steps. It covers everything from faces to figures to clothes, how to position the figures and clothes to suggest action and movement and has a section on photoshop. The best of this type of book by far and at an extremely affordable price.

Bought this for my autistic daughter who previously loved copying manga characters.Since receiving this book she is now creating her own characters instead of just copying others, which is exactly what we wanted. She's hardly without it now.

Very useful

Great book for someone just starting to draw manga, this book has really helped my son, he is over the moon

Bought for my daughter who loves it.