Anyone read any of these books?

[NotQuiteInsane]

Hi,
I'm looking into buying a few books on drawing comics. My current skills are pretty basic (I've done a bit of technical drawing, and a few sketches here and there but nothing really worth publishing far-and-wide).

At the moment I've got these on my 'might order these from Amazon' list:

- How to draw manga #1: Compiling Characters
- How to draw manga #2: Compiling Techniques
- How to draw manga #3: Compiling Application and Practice
- How to Draw Manga: A Step-By-Step Guide (Katy Coope)
- How to Draw More Manga (Katy Coope)
- How to Draw Anime and Game Characters Vol.1 (Tadashi Ozawa)

Has anybody read any of these books? Opinions? Anything else I should look into buying? I've seen the 'recommended books' thread, but it seems a bit.. well, thin..

I'm not biased towards "must be manga-related" - just something to help me improve my drawing skills would be nice. Yes, I've seen the Polykarbon tutorials...

Thanks.

[Mercury Hat]

Hi,
I'm looking into buying a few books on drawing comics. My current skills are pretty basic (I've done a bit of technical drawing, and a few sketches here and there but nothing really worth publishing far-and-wide).

At the moment I've got these on my 'might order these from Amazon' list:

- How to draw manga #1: Compiling Characters
- How to draw manga #2: Compiling Techniques
- How to draw manga #3: Compiling Application and Practice
- How to Draw Manga: A Step-By-Step Guide (Katy Coope)
- How to Draw More Manga (Katy Coope)
- How to Draw Anime and Game Characters Vol.1 (Tadashi Ozawa)

Has anybody read any of these books? Opinions? Anything else I should look into buying? I've seen the 'recommended books' thread, but it seems a bit.. well, thin..

I'm not biased towards "must be manga-related" - just something to help me improve my drawing skills would be nice. Yes, I've seen the Polykarbon tutorials...

Thanks.

Steer clear of the "How to draw manga" books, especially the two by Katy Coope, the first of which was published when she was 16 and probably won't help anyone over 13. Go find anatomy books instead. It doesn't do anyone any good to try and ape a style before they even know how people are put together.

The ones I've used are:

http://placidchaos.com/AM/index.php?s=l ... mit=Search
This site has the Loomis books. I started with Figure Drawing for all It's Worth, and it's a good bookfor new artists. Easily lines out proportions and perspective in an easy to understand way.

Dynamic Anatomy, this is good for advanced anatomy such as musculature, tendons, ligaments.

Drawing Scenery: Landscapes and Seascapes is nice for natural backgrounds.

[Doublemint]

How to Draw Anime and Game Characters Vol.1 (Tadashi Ozawa)

It's been a while since I read it, but I remember good things about this one. It's a nice starting point for a beginner. I liked Vol.3 enough to buy a copy. The other volumes were less useful. General anatomy books are also good to have.

[Moonshadow]

I have the HTDM 1-3 that you mention, but I mostly keep them as a reference for really basic things, they aren't as useful as a lot of the other books in the series. I would skip over them for something more helpful.

Anatomy books are the best; of the HTDM books I'd recommend "bodies and anatomy" "male characters" "female characters" and "bishoujo around the world." All four of those books have a strong emphasis on real world anatomy that's broken down to be pretty straightforward and not intimidating to a newer artist.

For non-manga type books... offhand I know I have "anatomy for the artist" and "virtual pose 2" but I can't remember the other ones I have. Probably because I should have been in bed half an hour ago. ^^;;

(Oh, and I don't have Anime and Game 1, but 2 (expressing emotions) is one I've found really helpful. It's one of a few "expression chart" type resources I use when I can't get quite the look I'm going for.)

[Black Sparrow]

Learn to draw realistically first, THEN learn to draw manga. Trust me; it helps a LOT. Then, once you've developped your own realistic style, you can adapt it to manga without having to rely on cloning InuYasha or Sailor Moon.

[Shivafang]

I have to agree with Black Sparrow on this one, let me see if I can find the books I used to start with...

How to draw comics the Marvel way

This is a really good start and talks about everything from breaking down objects into 'primirive' shapes so they are easier to draw, and even drawing from perspective. This was one of my early favorite refferences for drawing. Even if you arn't drawing 'superheroes' it gives you a feel for form and structure that applies easily to Manga.

My recent favorite that I just picked up is
Anatomy for Fantasy Artists

It's also 'more detail' than you probably want for a comic (at least for me it was!) but it helps to understand the 'full figure' and then you can simplify from there.

A little less 'step by step' but a really good refference and even gives several examples of character design and 'poses' of the same character.

[Robin Pierce]

forget the How to draw manga books. Look for Andrew Loomis books. Some are online here: http://www.fineart.sk/index.php?cat=1 obviously not all safe for work. since it's anatomy.)

Sparrow's right. realism first, THEN manga. I did it the other way around and had to relearn quite a bit to scrap a few bad habits.

[NotQuiteInsane]

forget the How to draw manga books. Look for Andrew Loomis books. Some are online here: http://www.fineart.sk/index.php?cat=1 obviously not all safe for work. since it's anatomy.)

Sparrow's right. realism first, THEN manga. I did it the other way around and had to relearn quite a bit to scrap a few bad habits.

Sounds like a plan to me. Thanks for the suggestions guys.

[Laundromatcomics]

I'd recommend Drawing the Human Figure by Jack Hamm, which is a great reference for any part of the human body, as well as good examples of different methods for drawing things.

[KODAMA]

Dunno about the how to draw manga books since I've only seen their spines at the local bookstore, but if any of you happen to come across a book called "How to draw shoujo anime," please set it on fire. Not only are the images ugly (?!?! Shoujo relies heaviliy on prettiness! You can't have an ugly shoujo cartoon!!) but ignore basic anatomical rules (o_O uneven shoulders? Mismatching eyes? One leg is longer? get out of my sight!).


~o~ I think the best way to learn is to eyeball a drawing and draw it and keep drawing that way over and over, each time fixing another point that makes your drawing different from your reference. It may seem silly and also result in artwork you can't exactly sell or show off to too many people without seeming like a showoff, but it's a fast yet cheap way to learn.

[Fourth Floor]

Personally - and I mean this really is just my personal opinion being expressed here and nothing more - I would steer clear from how-to-draw books full stop. What's more, I would recommend rethinking your decision to draw in the manga style. Now, if you're a fan of manga and anime then by all means go with what looks good to you and what you will enjoy drawing.

However, bear in mind that a lot of cartoonists on the net whose skills maybe aren't as developed as they could be lean heavily on that style to the effect that if you told me that about 30% of them were drawn by the same person I would believe you. If your goal is fame and fortune, you might want to stand out from the crowd a little more. Otherwise, forget you ever read this paragraph.

I know this isn't going to score me many points with the manga crowd so I'll add that I don't draw in that stlye and you can, if you wish, chalk what I have to say up to personal bias.

On a more useful note, I haven't ever encountered a how-to-draw book that was of any use to me. I learnt to draw through 20 years of practice, copying/drawing upon the styles of my favourite artists and smushing them into my own style and (perhaps the most useful tip I have to offer) tracing cartoons out of a book. It gave me a good feel for the process of creating an image. I'd recommend trying that before shelling out for any style guides.

Do what comes naturally to you, draw the world the way you see it and good luck.

[NotQuiteInsane]

Personally - and I mean this really is just my personal opinion being expressed here and nothing more - I would steer clear from how-to-draw books full stop. What's more, I would recommend rethinking your decision to draw in the manga style. Now, if you're a fan of manga and anime then by all means go with what looks good to you and what you will enjoy drawing.

Actually, I was planning on using it as a crutch (so to speak), just until I develop my own style. It seems that's a bad idea, so I'll scratch that part of the plan.
I will admit to liking anime and manga in general (my favourite anime being Outlaw Star and manga being the Battle Angel Alita / GUNNM series) but most of the imitators don't do it right and it looks kinda.. well.. crap.

However, bear in mind that a lot of cartoonists on the net whose skills maybe aren't as developed as they could be lean heavily on that style to the effect that if you told me that about 30% of them were drawn by the same person I would believe you. If your goal is fame and fortune, you might want to stand out from the crowd a little more. Otherwise, forget you ever read this paragraph.

Heh, I don't want fortune. If I did, I'd be reading up on investment banking instead of computer science. If I wanted fame, I'd be reading up on acting or something like that, but I can't act to save my life. Even role-playing is pushing it..

On a more useful note, I haven't ever encountered a how-to-draw book that was of any use to me. I learnt to draw through 20 years of practice, copying/drawing upon the styles of my favourite artists and smushing them into my own style and (perhaps the most useful tip I have to offer) tracing cartoons out of a book. It gave me a good feel for the process of creating an image. I'd recommend trying that before shelling out for any style guides.

Do what comes naturally to you, draw the world the way you see it and good luck.

Oh, I will. Once I buy a new pencil. I stupidly left mine in my trouser pocket a few weeks ago, and it fell out on the train. Naturally I didn't realise until said train was a few dozen miles away... Oh well, it only cost me £5, so it's not that big a deal. It's just annoying is all.

[Fourth Floor]

I'm glad you've decided to scrap using manga as a crutch because you're right - there are a lot of crap imitators out there. What manga does - and what all cartoonists do - is look at phenomena in real life and create a simplified artistic-symbolic representation of those phenomena. It's like a code. Rather than just drawing photographically realistic pictures you pass everything you see through this filter before transferring it to the page.

Rather than imitating someone else's symbols you should make up your own. Best way to start is to observe things in real life and compare that to how various artists represent them on the page. The manga style is a good example and definitely worthy of close observation but it's by no means the only way.

Sorry to hear about the pencil. My pencils kept breaking so I ended up buying one that cost me £20! I hope to God I never leave it on a train. The things we do for love, eh?

[Allan_ecker]

Wait, did you just say you spent 20 pounds on a pencil? Whoa.

Anyway, we all love to hate How to Draw Manga and all, as it is pretty mass-press stuff and may be at least partially responsible for the 20 trillion online comics which seem to have been traced directly (and often, POORLY) from old manga mags, but I wouldn't call the instruction in them worthless.

I just wouldn't, you know, rely exclusively on them. Or any other book.

I've got a whole *cast* of "How to Draw X" books and frankly I learned something from each one of them. Feeding yourself a diet of ONLY HTDM would be a lot like eating nothing but granulated sugar: deadly. But as long as you never let yourself be *contained* by the instruction books you read, they can't hurt you. In fact they can help a lot, even as you learn enough to begin to say "hey, these guys are passing off a handfull of roughs as instruction! This book is useful as a throw-away reference, IF THAT!"

At my stage in the game, in fact, I go not to the How To books, but to the comics themselves. Sure, I read some How To's now and then, especially the one's Scott McCloud recommended in his MAGNIFICENT book Making Comics, but I look to the illustration of Sandman and Transmet for a lot of my ideas on how I should do things these days.

My advice: Limiting what you expose yourself to is the very worst way to limit what you DO. Look at EVERYTHING, good and bad, and make your own choices. Look for WHY something's been done as well as HOW.

Or, to use Scott McCloud's famous advice:

1: Learn from Everyone
2: Follow No One
3: Look for patterns
4: WORK LIKE HELL.

(For the reccord I only have the HTDM on perspective which actually is pretty helpful in that it hones in on some specific situations that may be a pain and provides some shortcuts and ideas. However Perspective! For Comic Book Artists by David Chelsea has way more good stuff, even if it is less accessable at first blush.)