Review by Rio
The Manga Techniques collection of books are all short, 88 page editions that focus on certain topics. Volume 2 focuses on “advanced” techniques according to the title Manga Techniques: Drawing Manga for Advanced Learners. Personally, I wouldn’t call the content advanced but rather a continuation of the beginner’s level. All topics in the book are covered quickly and to the point. It’s more of a preliminary introduction than an in-depth book that focuses on one topic and one topic only. I will say that they do try to make it related to comics. For example, they cover perspective in one of the sections and they give examples of perspective use in a panel such as two people sitting in a room, a person running out of a door from the worms eye view, and even fitting a car into a panel to name a few.
Text is light in the book making it easy for those who either don’t like long winded descriptions or are younger readers. Unfortunately, there iare quite a number of typos in the book right from the get-go; “Taht” instead of “That”, “grarphics” instead of “graphics” and the occasional misuse of punctuation. It seemed like it was never proof-read which is disappointing. For anything you buy, you would at least expect it to be free from faults or defects.
The book is laid out clearly and concisely. You always know what they’re trying to teach you as there is usually a title at the top of each page. Reading the whole book will take an hour or less if you take your time. If you looked at the table of contents, you will note that the book covers topics normally not covered by other How to Draw Manga books namely the elderly and obese characters. In that sense, this book is fairer in representing all characters than normal.
The book has several contributors. The first tutorial is colored pages instructed by Yuzan Kumako. The main part of the book is from an unnamed artist whose drawing style looks like they’re from the How to Draw Manga line of books and the gallery at the end of the book is contributed by several artists who are fortunately named for your reference. As with most how-to drawing books, there is nudity present such as the typical presentation of a body – front, side, back view – sans certain gender anatomical details.
At the end of this book, there are four pages of manga paper that you can use. Unfortunately, it isn’t perforated so you will have to rip it out or at least bend your book and then use a utility knife to cut it free. The pages are tightly glued to the spine – good for people who like their book to last long but bad for those who want to use the manga paper in the back. Though the manga paper is quite a boon, it’s too bad one cannot photocopy it to make it last beyond the normal one-time usage.
Overall, I find the book akin to a quick summary guide. It runs down all types of topics and if you want more information, you will have to get another book. It’s very basic but the only reason you may want to pick this up is for the manga paper at the back of the book. Even then, as I said earlier, it’ll be hard for you to make copies of it since blue lines do not turn up when photocopied or even scanned. It’s up to you whether to pick this book up or not but unless you’re a bibliophile or just a plain avid manga drawing fan that wants anything how-to-draw-manga-related, you should pass on this book in my opinion.
Manga Techniques: Drawing Manga for Advanced Learners Vol. 2
by Deleter
ISBN#4889960910
color & b&w
88 pages
MSRP $12.99
Chapter 1 How to Draw Color Illustrations
Using Alcohol Based Markers (Neopiko)
How to Color with Neopiko
Coloring Rules
Drawing with CG
An Illustration that Uses CG
Computer and Peripheral Hardware
Coloring in Pencil Drawings with CG
Chapter 2 Drawing Characters
Different Views of the Face from Varying Camera Angles
Face Appears Differently from Different Camera Angles
Different Views of a face from Various Camera Angles
Body (Woman type)
Body (Man type)
Clothes
The Finer Points of Clothes Wrinkles
Using Perspective to Draw a Mob Scene
Drawing a Human Mob
Drawing Human Figures Using Perspective
Drawing Hairstyles
Arranging a Hairstyle
Black Hair (drawing in black and highlights)
Drawing Sub Characters
Old Woman
Points to Remember When Drawing Elderly People
Children
Obese People
Drawing Animals
Drawing Horses
Size Comparison
Humans and Animals
Drawing Dragons
Deformed Animals
Character Design Sheet
Chapter 3 Drawing Backgrounds with Perspective
One Point Perspective View of Boxes
One Point Perspective View of a Cylinder
One Point Perspective
Medieval Structures
Drawing Basics
Basics of Drawing
Two Point Perspective
Using Two Point Perspective to Draw a House
Two Point Perspective Inside a Room
Using Perspective Within Panels
Three Point Perspective
Using Three Point Perspective
Use it in These Situations
Perspectives that are Frequently Used in Manga
Non-Structural Backgrounds
Applying Tone
How to Make Clouds with Tone
Multilayered Clouds
Unwanted Mosaics
Using Multiple Layers of Tone
Tracing Illustrations
Drawing Speedlines in Tone
Uses
Drawing Shadows
Spotlight
Chapter 4 Rules of Manga Making
Character
Manuscript Paper
Cutting Off
Rules for Panel Creating
Comic Pages
An Example of the First Page of Manga
Manga Terminology
Art Gallery
