ImagineFX Workshop: Manga Art [Paperback]

The contents of this book actually come from one of the special 'How to Draw and Paint' issues of Imaginefx magazine titled simply as Manga. It was popular and sold out but now you have the book. There aren't much differences except for the layout since this is a square format book, and there's no disc included.

This is not a starter guide to drawing manga so it's not really for beginners. You'll need basic knowledge on manga drawing, figure drawing essentially, if you want to get most out of the book.

The book covers, as the title suggest, digital painting techniques that are used for creating manga. You need to be able to draw first so that you have something to scan in before you can apply the techniques taught, stuff like adding colours and textures.

The first two tutorials feature quick tips to help make your drawings more manga-like. They are presented in a series of points, that you can sort of use as a checklist of ideas to think about when you're drawing.

The other tutorials are workshops that present a step-by-step look at how the artists create their illustrations. The software used are Photoshop and Painter. Again, you should have some basic knowledge of those two software. That way, you can follow along what they are saying. The commentary is clear and also covers the artistic parts like using colours schemes, creating shadows, or creating some special effects like depth of field blur, glowing effects etc.

It's an informative book where artists freely share their digital tricks and tips. The insight will probably come from discovering what you can do digitally.

Recommended to artists who are just past the beginner stage trying to pick up new digital drawing skills.

Here's the list of contents:
1. Manga Gallery
2. Manga For Beginners
- Get Under the Skin of Manga (Saejin Oh)
- Essential Manga Tips (Joanna Zhou)
- The Cherry Blossom Girl (Joanna Zhou)
- Brush Up On Your Portrait Skills (Lois Van Baarle)
3. Character Creation
- Paint a Dynamic Manga Character (Chester Ocampo)
- The Greatest Waveracer (Michael Chomicki)
- The Spear and the Spell (Chester Ocampo)
4. Manga Style
- The Painted Princess (Hoang Nguyen)
- She Dreams of Lilac (Joanna Zhou)
- Mistress of the Elements (Aileen Strauch)
- Flight of the Warriors (Sinad Jaruartjanapat)
- The Music of Life and Death (Madeleine Rosca)
5. Fantasy and Sci-fi
- The Way of the Warrior (Cris De Lara)
- The Saga of the Scout (Michael Chang Ting Yu)
- Create and Render a Robot Concept (Keith Thompson)
- Mecha's Heart (Saejin Oh)
- The Girl and the Katana Guardian (Patipat Asavasena)
6. Comic Panels
- Draw and Ink a Manga Comic Page (Joanna Zhou)
- Create a Comic Ready For Print (Jamie Mckelvie)

(There are more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

I did really like this book, didn't really know what I was expecting but took a chance. Has some good pictures for ideas and inspiration and some good notes inside on styles and methods but I think if you really looked you'd probably find better books with more in than this one. Just one person's opinion though. The cover is a little bit deceiving as it kind of gives the impression that there will be lots of detailed pictures as beautifully done as this one but most are much more basic, depends on your style I suppose. Good little buy though.

Brilliant reference book if you're looking for something that doesn't just show off the usual Manga style artwork, but shows lots of different inspirational ideas and galleries to give your Manga drawing and painting a serious boost. Beautifully presented and lusciously illustrated.