Kids Draw Manga (Hart, Christopher. Kids Draw.) 
asked by speed5599 on November 11, 2006 6:21 PM
The characters from manga-or Japanese comics-have begun to dominate the world of kids' cartoons and comics. Now kids can learn to draw their own manga-style characters with Kids Draw Manga, the newest addition to the Kids Draw series. Young artists will find a complete introduction to the basics of manga style, from the well-known shiny eye to manga-style noses, mouths, and body types. Pages of step-by-step drawings offer a diverse range of cool manga characters with appeal to both boys and girls, including a basic manga girl and boy, a schoolgirl, a mysterious swordsman, a hero knight, a flying robot soldier, and a laser fighter. More elaborate manga characters, like a spaceship commander and a dark-magic sorceress, are offered for kids who are either older or have worked through the book and are ready for the next level. As in all Kids Draw books, each dazzling spread is easy to follow, fun to look at, and guaranteed to charm a new generation of artists!
Reviews
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My sister had bought this book because she was interested in drawing manga a small bit. I flipped through the pages and found it very misleading for a "manga" instruction book.
First off, this isn't manga; though it may seem very stylistic and similar to the real thing it's not showing you how to draw manga, it's showing you how to draw American cartoons. The reason that it's not manga is that they pinpoints in the style of Japanese comics were missed a bit. The eyes were probably the worst aspect of this book being "fake", they were opaque circles with random shines within them--all style, no substance. The hairstyles did not show diversity, all spikey, while real anime/manga hairstyles had meaning to them or certain patterns. The sections on drawing character stereotypes were very pointless and long, considering that the author could have just written "here are the features of a [insert anime stereotype(s)]" insteading of having a detailed instruction that wasn't even necessary.
The best aspect of this book was the detailed instruction to drawing anatomy and proportions, not manga. That seemed to be the only somewhat useful part in the book.
Overall, this book receives about a 15% in grades, not good. If you're looking for an introduction to drawing MANGA, buy Katy Coope's book, but if you're looking for a simplified version of drawing anatomy and proportions, buy this--don't let "manga" in the title delude you into thinking that it is the real thing.
First off, this isn't manga; though it may seem very stylistic and similar to the real thing it's not showing you how to draw manga, it's showing you how to draw American cartoons. The reason that it's not manga is that they pinpoints in the style of Japanese comics were missed a bit. The eyes were probably the worst aspect of this book being "fake", they were opaque circles with random shines within them--all style, no substance. The hairstyles did not show diversity, all spikey, while real anime/manga hairstyles had meaning to them or certain patterns. The sections on drawing character stereotypes were very pointless and long, considering that the author could have just written "here are the features of a [insert anime stereotype(s)]" insteading of having a detailed instruction that wasn't even necessary.
The best aspect of this book was the detailed instruction to drawing anatomy and proportions, not manga. That seemed to be the only somewhat useful part in the book.
Overall, this book receives about a 15% in grades, not good. If you're looking for an introduction to drawing MANGA, buy Katy Coope's book, but if you're looking for a simplified version of drawing anatomy and proportions, buy this--don't let "manga" in the title delude you into thinking that it is the real thing.
reviewed by caramel on November 19, 2006 5:08 PM
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Excellent book, excellent drawings, great instruction. Christopher Hart shows the development of his drawings in a clear, step by step fashion, allowing you to see his thought process. This is fun for the whole family.
reviewed by runaway on November 21, 2006 6:18 AM