Review Detail

This book is advertised as an introduction to manga drawing for boys and girls. And there are certainly some very useful and helpful things in this book for beginning artists. Careful instruction on how to combine shapes to draw people and instructive passages on the art of shading or how to effectively use markers are some examples of what works well in this book.

What worked less well was the second half of the book which showed us how to turn our drawings into manga characters. There was an assumption of skill level that definitely surpassed beginners in my opinion. Perhaps a budding artist who practices hard on the beginning section will have more success on the second half of the book than I did. I will say that the author is very careful to give plenty of instruction on how the shape of the eyes and mouth can indicate a character's mood and on what different body language communicates about a character. I just didn't find those sections as easy to follow with my own efforts.

Doubtless someone with more talent or experience will have a different outcome! I think this book, with it's thorough instruction, art supplies, and drawing pad, would appeal to the kid who loves to draw or who is drawn to anime and manga.