Which book should I study first to learn how to draw faces (+ anatomy a little bit)?

[Leannah]

I'll mainly be copying other people's art anyway as right now I don't want to draw my "own" art (no inspiration )
I already did the squares exercises to learn perspective and I planned to work on that for a bit, but I would also like to actually draw something.
EDIT: Question: Do you think that drawing a bunch of cubes in 3D on a daily/ weekly basis would help me tremendously? I drew really simple circles at some point—LOTS of them—and now I actually have trouble making egg-shaped circles because my circles are always really round.
EDIT bis: I just drew about 300 circles which were fairly round. Hopefully this will help me with drawing eyes.

Here are the books I have:
Volume 1, 2, 3, 4: Manga & Anime (by the author who wrote How to Draw Manga)
Volume 1, 2: How to Draw Manga

Books downloaded (I can't print pages right now since I need to buy a printer & scanner):
How to Draw Manga 1 thru 8, I also have the one about horror but it's in Japanese, and I think I may have volume 12 and the one on robots.

More How to Draw Manga volume 1

Yesterday, I had a look at the first Manga & Anime book and it seemed a bit difficult even if I LOVE the way the characters look.
Manga & Anime is definitely more my style because it's way cuter.

[Delphinus]

Can you draw realistically? If not, then you should probably start somewhere other than manga and/or anime. That's not what you want to hear, but I've seen several talented artists damaged or waylaid in their learning by focusing on a specific style to the exclusion of learning more general skills.

You probably shouldn't start with how to draw manga books. There are plenty of anatomy books you can find in art shops, and these will teach you how to draw things in realistic proportion. Someone once told me that you need to learn the rules before you break them; although I'm a writer, that seems to hold true for art as much as for literature. If you learn how to draw things in manga proportions, which are often 5-6 heads for an adult body as opposed to the more realistic 7-9 heads, then you'll have trouble learning why and how things are altered in particular styles such as manga and the effect of those alterations.

Sorry to sound like a drony art teacher, but that's the gospel truth. Draw realism. Print out pictures of naked people. Attend life drawing classes. Get your partner/spouse/friends/parents/grandparents/siblings to strip naked and draw them. Buy anatomy textbooks for art students (medical ones won't tell you what you want to know ) and sketch the human form from every possible angle. That way, you'll develop a sense of how the human body should look.

As for perspective, that's a fairly important but fortunately simple part of art to learn. Dozens of places online can teach you about 1-3 point perspective; for 4 and 5-point (curvilinear) perspective you might need to find specialist sources or check out some art/technical drawing classes near where you live.

I hope I helped.

[Leannah]

The How to Draw Manga books also deal with more realistic styles. Thanks for your advice, but I don't plan on becoming a professional mangaka
In three years top, I'll be done with college and I'll have a job. I won't earn $100,000/year but it doesn't matter because I'll do something that I like.
I'm just trying to improve my art for fun, really. I'm okay with working on more grueling stuff like anatomy, but I don't see myself drawing naked people. I'll probably focus on shapes like circles, lines and cubes until someone else replies to this thread.

I'll probably draw for 15 minutes a day tops since I'm going back to college. I don't want this time to go to waste. Obviously I'll draw more on weekends, so I plan on "practicing" during the week by coming up with some kind of "shapes" training of my own, which may include skecthing faces too.

During the weekend, I'd probably copy other people's art rather than draw my own as I don't feel confident enough yet.

I looked at your posts and I was disappointed because I didn't see any of your drawings. Did you post them somewhere?

[ram]

heck we could ever recommend something.
there's a thread here called recomend you favorite drawing books thread don't know if you herd of it.

also we have these collection of books review in this site as well
http://www.mangatutorials.com/tut/bookreviews.php

and btw.. del didn't go to to this site to draw in the first place so you can't see his drawings

edit:

The How to Draw Manga books also deal with more realistic styles.

indeed, a lot of people underestimate the how to draw manga books probably because they haven't explored most of them yet. I agreee there are some books out there that just teaches you anime style and nothing else, but not all of them are like that.
I had some books that there are entitled with "manga" and "anime" in them but teaches more about part of human and bone and muscles in them.

[Leannah]

Thanks a lot ramiel, checking the threads out right now.

[The_shaman]

Question, how much drawing from life do you do?

[Leannah]

I don't draw from life—I always use references though. I never draw something without a reference because I know it's really bad when you're a beginner.