Mark CrilleyMastering Manga with Mark Crilley: 30 Drawing Lessons from the Creator of Akiko

I found the images in this book extremely dull. Also the format is basically here's a face, one example; next page here a hand, one example; next page...There are just too few examples. Drawing advice is just common sense like how you usiall divide up a circle with lines to draw a face.The author would have better focused on something more narrow, like manga faces, then the author could have given more than just 1 male example, 1 female example.

This book for beginners is incredible!It doesn’t just show you manga, it shows you lots of examples to practice. Like perspective images in a scene, hands in different positions, eyes and emotions. He’s even put detailed information on doing chibi as well. The people that have given this a poor review really shouldn’t buy books. This is jam packed full of useful information that takes you far beyond manga

Not quite up to the expectations, its an okay book - but it is more of a follow along book rather than a how to draw book. there are some really useful reference pages on facial expression, hands etc, but there is a distinct lack of under lying construction work which will help apply what you have learned to other projects - its more of a here is a head, now draw the body,then the arms etc - there is no real help in placing markers to help understand how to then draw that character in different poses. To sum up this book would be more useful to someone who already has some idea on how to draw - it is not for the complete novice who has no idea how to draw, sure they can follow along and get good results as the information contained in the book is detailed enough, but it will not leave you with enough knowledge to create your own characters and poses easily.

I learnt of Mark Crilley from his videos on YouTube and was blown away by how good he was at illustrating characters on paper, plus the fact he was both a published author of his own manga and Mastering manga series was by far the most appealing beginner go to book for learning how to draw manga properly.It opens with a brief period on learning to draw eyes (a page is included detailing a lot of others eye illustration to emulate and develop your own take or twist on them, this is also included by similar pages on hair, hands, and feet) and followed immediately by drawing the entire face. It also details learning body proportions for all manners of possible characters and lessons on how to draw a fluent stride to create movement in the pages and the desired perspective to help make the drawing appear more lifelike.So far my drawings have benefited greatly from this book, as the basis of the face drawing facial placement can be transferred into fine art drawings, and bolstered my abilities in both art forms. I am working on integration between the two until I develop my own take or style on manga and illustration.This brilliant book is awarded 5 out of 5.

My 11 year old daughter is mad about manga and loves this book. She's learnt a lot about composition and shading. Her artwork is looking fab!