Manga Tutorials - Book Review

The Monster Book of Manga: Draw Like the Experts
by Estudio Joso, Fernando Casuas
Pages: 384
Publisher: Harper Collins Design (Jan 2006)
ISBN: 0060829931

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Read this book? Tell us what you thought of it! Send your review to rio[AT]mangatutorials[DOT]com. Make sure you include a reason why you like and/or dislike the book.

Book Review by Kei

The Monster Book of Manga is exactly as it's title states. This book is thick, as well as a bit heavy, full of useful information and tutorials. One of the best features of the book (as well as my favorite) is the variety of tutorials it gives. These tutorials range from your Everyday Schoolgirls, to Androids, Ronin Warriors, Ninja, Demonic Ghosts and Goblins, even the infamous Gothic Lolita style. Each category pays incredible attention to detail- pointing out different things and explaining to you why that item is suggested for the look. It also gives you a brief description and/or history of the style.

Having difficulty with digital artwork? No problem! The entire second half of the book is crammed with tips and tricks, as well as tutorials, for digitalizing your artwork using Adobe Photoshop CS (I personally use Photoshop 7...the controls are no different). It will teach you interesting tricks such as adding rain, perfectly shaped lightning bolts, and even digitally adding screen tones to your image. It shows the effects of each filter within the program as well.

This book is an excellent buy for it's price, however, is not recommended for the incredibly new art force. While tutorials start with the basic "stick figure" frame, beginners may find it aggrivating at how quickly each step transitions (IE: Step 1 is the stick figure frame, Step 2 will be basic shapes, and Step 3 will be a nearly completed image).

Book Review by Shammah M.:

I was at Borders looking for a good book. I noticed this big book and I was like I saw this on mangatutorials.com, must be good. I read the back which made it seem really good. I was excited when I got home and opened it up from it plastic wrapper. I was highly disappointed when I looked in the book. All it had where random pictures. On the back it said it will discuss how to draw girls, boys, monsters and so on. It did show some monsters but it didn't explain how to draw boys or girls. They only had step- by- step on how to draw certain types. Here are some they have; Cyber Girl, Pinup girl, and Static Movement. They have some useful ones like the shy school girl or the sporty type. But really, the friends one look like lez instead of friends! And all of the girls clothes has to be sexy! It can't be normal. Other than that some of the fantasy helped me and some tips were ok. Other than that, this book is awful. I would never recommend this to anyone unless they only want specific characters. Out of ten I give this a two.

Book Review by Timmy W.:

I've divided the review into the 6 following sections which are rated out of ten except skill.

Length: The best part about the book is being 384 pages long. It is the longest how to draw book I've ever seen. 10/10

Tutorials: The tutorials were extremely good with 6 pages per drawing. The book shows you summary- shape-anatomy-clothes-lighting and ink-color. There is also a very extensive photoshop tutorial. 9/10

Illustraions: The pictures were smooth and fully colored and very detailed though the style of the drawings changed from time to time. 9/10

Variety: The book has good variety with the tutorials divided into the following sections:
girls
fantasy
monsters
science fiction
music
samurai
drawing manga digitally
8/10

Value: Overall, the book's worth more then you payed for it. It's about 35 dollars with normal sized pages. 8/10

Skill level: The level of skill you should have is about amatuer to advance. I don't really recommend beginners since the drawings are very detailed

I would also like to say that there's some nudity in the book. Nothing serious, just a naked behind and lots of clevage. For that reason I would recommend it to anyone under 13.

Verdict: The monster book of manga has lots of vareity and length combined with lots of tutorials. I would recommend getting this book; it's definitely worth the money.

Final rating: 8.8/10 Excellent

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