Joanne Zhou
Search Press
14 June 2011/ ISBN 1844486885
How-To Books/Drawing
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Reviewed
by Rachel A Hyde
If you enjoy
reading manga and want to become a mangaka yourself then you need
to be able to draw these! Chibis are those cute characters that
are what many people think of when they think of manga, über-cute
and packed with personality. Learn how to distort the human figure
and create characters that are filled with individuality.
This book takes the step-by-step approach that Search Press does
so well and applies it to manga. Each of the cute characters is
drawn in five stages and working through these tutorials is a great
way to truly get the feel of manga. I found this to be the most
hands-on and user friendly book I have seen to date on this elusive
subject and it bears out the tenet that you need to copy from the
masters to reach your own style. Each chibi shows some aspect of
Japanese traditional and popular style, from ninjas and samurai
to gothic lolitas and kugurumin as well as western characters like
pixies, Santa, knight in armor and 20s flappers given a manga tweak.
There are sections on backgrounds, getting noticed, starting a strip
story and what media to choose. I was pleased to see that this included
the computer, and a look at different graphics programs. Of course
there are several pages devoted to how to get the look right with
proportion, expressions etc. and pretty much everything else you
can think of. I’ve seen fatter more expensive books that told
you less and certainly gave you less scope for practicing. This
one is staying on my keeper shelf; if you want to draw this type
of manga character then put this one on your wish-list.
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