Review by Rio
Manga Techniques Vol. 6 Tone Techniques for Beginners covers in-depth what couldn’t be completely covered in the previous volume How to Draw Japanese Manga. Like it’s predecessor, the book is also in reverse meaning you will have to read from right-to-left and start at the “back” of the book. And if you guessed it, yes, volume 6 also reads like a manga though with the subject covered, it is more of a blend between reading comics and reading the usual instructions found in how-to books.
The narrators are two new characters named – wait, they have no names! I’ll just call them Boy-kun and Girl-chan. Much like the previous volume, the student and teacher dynamic is in full play with your typical jokes and chibification. This makes this volume a lot easier to read since it is part comic and not full-on instructional. At 88 pages, it’s a light read taking you about an hour or so to go through. It’s not a bad book for the younger audiences and with no nudity present, a safe bet for any concerned parent.
Illustrations and instructions were by Rio Sugiyama allowing a consistent style throughout. There are parts of the book that throws a lot of information to you like the prologue but the rest of the book is easy to read with it’s comic format and clean layout. There weren’t any grammatical errors or sentence problems that I saw and I thought the text placement within the balloons where done better this time around too!
As you go through some very informative info through a mix of manga and how-to’s, the book ends with a step-by-step toning instruction of a mermaid underwater. The last part of the book also shares some sample pages of characters you can tone for practice and about four pages of manga manuscript paper. Like all the others, there’s no perforation for the manga paper so you will have to cut it out with a utility knife. You can also leave the pages intact if you’d rather not deface the book. With the blue lines, it’s a shame that it couldn’t be xeroxed. That would’ve made it the best investment ever.
All in all, [i]Tone Techniques for Beginners[/i] is a useful book for those who are interested in learning how to tone. At a low price of $13USD, it’s not a bad investment too. For those wondering about it, although the book covers the use of real tones, you can definitely come out knowing a few tricks on how to use tones on your digital work. It’s chock full of info such as stacking, correct angles to erase tones, and the percentages that should be used on your work so it will print out visibly and correctly once published. Not bad at all in my opinion!
Manga Techqniques Vol. 6 Tone Techniques for Beginners
by Deleter
ISBN #4889961356
88 pages
b&w
MSRP $12.99
What’s a Tone?
Chapter 1 How to Apply Tones
Tools: Introduction and Explanation
Basic Tone Application
Applying Tone at a 45 Degree Angle
Making Shadows
Use Pattern Tone
Chapter 2 Scraping Tones
Tools: Introduction and Explanation
How to Scrape Tone
Scraping to Make Clouds
Express the Moon
Chapter 3 Stacking Tones
Stacking Tones
These Examples Show the Difference Between Dot Tones on Manuscript Paper and in the Printing
Stacking Pattern and Dot Tones
Stacking Gradation Tones
Chapter 4 Various Uses of Tone
Example Usage of Dot Tone
Mood Tones
Examples of Gradation Tone Use
Tone Use in Manga
Chapter 5 Summary
Procedure for Using Tone to Complete an Illustration
Appendix
Sample Images for Practice
