Easy-to-Follow Lessons for Creating Your Own Characters

My daughter is really into anime series and loves to try to draw characters, so I thought this was perfect. I was right, she loves it, takes it with her everywhere she goes and draws instead of playing on her smartphone. Pretty good deal to me! I don't draw in it but I do draw pencil sketches myself, and I have to say it's a really nice little instructional book with clear, concise examples that guide you through drawing your characters and making them look (anime) realistic. Definitely recommended for the artsy anime fan :)

This is a much handier workbook than I though tit would be. It isn't for a beginning artist, but someone with basic drawing skills and understanding will benefit from it. I suggest purchasing additional tracing paper so you can use this book over and over again. My 13 year old (who is crazy about Manga) was super excited to receive it, but blew through the drawings quickly.

I purchased this book as a gift for my 13 year old daughter. She's very artistic, and draws a lot of this style, mainly freehand from her imagination. I figured this would be a nice tool for her. She loves it! It has helped her to master certain aspects that she'd had trouble with, and gives her a nice reference, she can go back and pull ideas from.

I purchased this "How To" book for my 11 year old daughters. They're really into manga and I figured that this book would help them with their art. I couldn't be happier because they absolutely love it. My only gripe is that it's not a full sized book but a pad. This is not a bad thing because it fits their little hands perfectly.
I just wish that it came in a bigger size because I want one for me. Oh well. I may buy another one and keep it for myself.

I ordered this for my 10 year old daughter for her birthday. She loved it. I gave it 4 stars because of the step by step tutorial that it goes through with them. THe only dislike is that there is not enough drawing space within the book.

I am a pretty advanced "artist" and what I liked about this book is that it has helpful tips that are good enough for the advanced artist but broken down enough that a beginner would be able to understand and follow the steps. It even provides tracing sheets so that you can trace over certain critical steps for practice. Certainly a must have for manga artists who are trying to pick up on new techniques or even polish old ones.

This is probably the best drawing instruction book I've purchased... and I purchase a lot. It gives you literally step-by-step instructions, and lets you trace someone else's drawings as part of the instruction process. I like it very much.

Of all the manga drawing books I purchased for my niece, this is the one she loves the most. It allows her to copy manga features and compare her drawing to her "goal" side by side. This workbook seems much more effective than the regular drawing books which allow no space to practice or draw. It breaks the features down much more as well, such as just the eyes, face shape only, etc. I highly recommend this book.

My daughter started of with a few different instructional books by Hart and this is one of them.
My daughter has stated that he has been the best so far.
After using these workbooks, her artistry was noticeably elevated to the next level.

I'm very satisfered with this workbook. It does teaches you how to draw and it also very fun because all the picture are cute and you want to draw them. It does give you about 6 blank pages to doodle :)
I would highly recomend it.
And all the other Christopher Hart books :)

This was such an aggravating book to use. The book gives you a picture and then expects you to know how to draw it. I'm not a beginner, but it was hard to use because there were no step-by-step instructions like the description said. I highly recommend not buying this book. It as a complete waste of money.

This "how to draw" book by Chris Hart isn't to bad at all...Being an artist and a fan of the Manga Style of drawing, I figured why not look into this book to see if there are any techniques I could pick up from this artist. Overall it didn't really do much for me, however this book could help someone just getting started that already has some basics down.

+Nice to look at.
+Is a bit different than other artist following the Manga Style
+Can be inspiring

-Not much of a "help mate" for a seasoned artist (personal opinion)

I haven't gotten the chance to try it out yet, but I looked through the pages and it looks like it will help me with getting a better grasp of drawing in the Manga style. I like the way the book is set up with explanations and guides to get you started and at the end of each lesson there are some extra graph pages so you can draw up some of your own designs once you complete the lesson.

I bought this for my niece, and she absolutely loved it. I rated it five stars, because it shows you how to draw so many different expressions of both genders. It's similar to many drawing books out there, but it's convenient because you have drawing paper in it, and it's a compact size.

The clear pages let you copy the sketches. I bought this book for my granddaughter who is a great cartoonist and particularly loves Manga art. She loves it. The workbook is jam packed with pages that cover every aspect.

Just get the product complete with no issues and it is great. It will be of great utility. Thanks!
I've been practicing the different drawing techniques and been improving every day. I recommend it.

This book was awesome. It has really high quality drawings, that are pretty good manga drawings. The book is made with a really high attention to quality. The coverage is only for the basic manga aspects. This book is definitely one of the best how to draw books.

TERRIBLE!! There are limited instructions for the step-by-step processes. All this book gives is a finished product to copy or three steps to a finished product without sufficient explanation as to how to draw each aspect of the drawing. A beginner needs more direction for how to draw the hair, face and clothing. This book only gives one type of eye to draw and it is very advanced with almost no instruction or explanation to accompany it. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS TO A BEGINNER.

I have studied drawing for about 5 years, in traditional art and anime/ manga.
I found that this book's cover is a tab desiving, giving the impresion that cover style art is what the lessons would be teaching.
Best parts:
-Emotions Section
The emotions section was very good and has a wider range of styles than the rest of the book. Sadly it was not every well explained of how to get that emotion, it was more or less just a picture with a label of the emotion over it.
-Hands Section
This section had great examples, though I found the instructions to complex and confusing.
-Eyes Section
Had great pictures and explained a tad more, but I still think there should have been some kind instruction.
-Outfits Section
This was probably the best part of this book and the explanation were good.
Worst Parts:
- Proportions
I found this not even some what helpful for learning how to draw in an anime/manga style. The instructions were pretty lacting, like the rest of the book. It would give you an example and then tell you to trace a figure below, though the tracing figure was in a totally different portion.{Their picture 5 heads high : Tracing picture 7 1/2 heads high}
- Explanations
This book lacks full explanations, figuring you can build over a stick figure to a final copy with out instructions.
-Tracing paper
Though this is a great idea, by drawing on the tracing paper it will leave pencil marks all over the example page.
-Not a how to draw feet
A lot of people have trouble drawing feet, so I wish this book went into more detail about drawing them.

Over all I find this book hard to learn from, since it lacks explanations. Though a lot of the example pictures are very well-drawn, it does not really teach you how to draw them. I find this book would be best for people who have aleast 3 years of drawing in anime style. This book is nice though and I have looked through the whole thing. I would say this book is not quite what I was thought it would be and is not worth buying really.

The Manga Artist's Workbook is a mix between a How-to-Draw
book and a Sketch Pad. It goes over head positions, eyes,
eye expressions, hair, body form, hands, clothing, and more.
In the midst of informing you on basics and essentials to
this style of drawing, it has tracing paper and graph paper
to help you learn the lining and spacing. Often times the
book gives you an example drawing and asks you to either
recreate it or recreate an aspect of the drawing on a
partially finished example. It has mini-lessons to complete
to help you to learn this type of drawing that are
comprehensible and fun.

Before I read this book, I didn't
know anything about Manga, and couldn't draw it. Now if I
use a picture of whoever I'm turning into a Manga sketch,
and this book as a reference, I can draw a half-decent
person. As I can't draw people whatsoever, this is as good
as I'm likely to get. I expected to learn how to draw a
happy person looking straight at me, aka. a basic character,
nothing special. But I learned different views, emotions,
and the whole deal! This book exceeded my expectations; it
was the best How-To-Draw book I've read.

Reviewed by a young adult student reviewer
Flamingnet Book Reviews
Teen books reviewed by teen reviewers

This is amazing. I have never drawn before so I had no idea what to with the pencil. This is workbook is unbelievably good. You start simple and it takes you step-by-step to more complex details and drawings. I loved it this very unique style to it where you have guidelines on the top page, like an facial expression and you have space on the bottom page to draw that. Basically, you have to copy whatever drawings are presented on the top page, but there are also empty pages where you can draw your own characters, poses and so on. I've learned a lot from this, this taught me how to draw manga eyes which I've been in love with since forever. I who had no experience, never drawn before have managed to draw incredibly shockingly beautiful and sparkling eyes. It's a great workbook for everyone!

In a different approach to his best selling Art books, Christopher Hart gives us "The Manga Artist's Workbook". The book includes step by step contruction techniques with tissue paper for budding artists to trace as well as grid paper for practise sketching.

Hart discusses (visually)facial expressions, proportions, poses, figure maneuvers, eyes, and hair styles. His art books cover these topics very well, but when you want to grab a pencil and draw, this book rocks.

Tim Lasiuta

Not really the best book. It's not exactly a "how to" book, as it is a "copy this image" kind of book. Like if you look at the eyes section, it's just you copying the examples of eyes. Most pages just have a small paragraph of text at the top, an example, with an empty page at the bottom and tracing papers to copy. Although I did like portion dedicated to stances and drawing a body, because it showed the joints as circles, as if you were looking at an artist model/figure/ mannequin.

My boyfriend absolutely loved it he's into drawing and he loves anime so for Valentine's Day I got him this with some supplies and he's really into it. It provides enough examples and detail to help the person go step through step. He really liked it !!!

I bought these for my 13 year old granddaughter because she loves to draw and is very interested in animae right now. She is doing great learning the different techniques! It was packed well and delivered quickly!