Another Review at MyShelf.Com

Super-Cute Chibis To Draw & Paint
Joanne Zhou

Search Press
14 June 2011/ ISBN 1844486885
How-To Books/Drawing
Amazon US || UK

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.

 
Reviewed 2011
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