A little bit of a change of pace for tonights review, I am going to be putting forth some opinions on some manga design books published by HarperCollins Publishers Australia – In Australia (Obviously). As I am not going to profess to being a good manga artist, nor do I have an actual review system for these – I shall not be grading them. As well, if you are taking part in NaNoWriMo this year, then you may find the creativity in some of these books a good source of reference in designing your own character for your novel – especially in terms of the third book I will be mentioning. Because there is no special thanks column in this review, I would like to thank Harper Collins Publishers Australia for providing me with these three books.
The first two books I would like to mention are part of “The Monster Book of Manga” series, which is a set of five or six different books with varying categories of characters you can learn to design. Harper Collins were thankfully able to provide me with two of them which are described below:
The Monster Book of More Manga
The Monster Book of More Manga features step-by-step instructions for drawing and colouring more than 60 of todays most popular manga character. Including a wide array of images – from giant monsters to mechas, from villians to heroes. The Monster Book of More Manga provides any aspiring artist the direction they need to create their own cutting-edge style and to truly draw like the experts.
The Monster Book of Manga: Girls
The Monster Book of Manga: Girls includes more than fifty exercises that cover every female archetype in modern manga: the student, the gothic lolita, the athlete, the music idol, the warrior, the sci-fi heroine and many more. It pairs advenced illustration techniques with step-by-step instructions and features an original cast of girls, fierce and timeless enough to take the spotlight of any manga cartoon.
The other books in the series include:
- Monster Book of Manga: Boys – Generally the same concept as the Girls version, only with gender roles switched and different designs.
- The Monster Book of Manga: Fairies and Magical Creatures – Speaks for itself really and
- The Monster Book of Manga – A very mixed bag of stuff.
Whilst specifics will not be described about these – I assume that most of the comments will be relevant to these as well. Now to begin the review…. These two books focus on not so much teaching someone the basics of how to draw different facial expressions or how to draw a basic anatomy that can be adapted into any design you want, but provides example designs for different groups of characters, costumes, ages et cetera. The “Girls” version of the book is split up into several different categories such as “Everyday” which focuses on different age groups and lifestyles, “Magical Girls” which focuses on different styles of Magical Girls (DUH!) to ones for Seasons and Festivities and even different Fantasy style characters. The “More Manga” version doesn’t stereotype one gender but focuses more on characters that are suited to a “Fantasy” tale such as Heroes/Villians, Mythical Creatures and so forth and may prove to be helpful in any manga you are drawing or even developing a storyline.
Each of the two books contain three hundred and something pages worth of content, with around fifty to sixty examples in each. Each of the different concepts take up around four to five pages each and consist of different categories:
0. A Description – This description is generally self-explanatory from the title of the design you are drawing, however they contain advice that should help you come up with your own unique ideas.
1. Shape – From this point on they will be leading you through their own design, so this point is more about getting character proportions correct and setting the groundwork for the later designs.
2. Volume – The shape category generally has you doing lines whilst this generally converts those lines into shapes, and generating the basic body shape.
3. Anatomy – Actually converting those shapes into a real body structure.
4. Clothes – If you don’t know what this is – then there is a problem.
5. Ink and Lighting – Putting detail on the characters and getting shading and all that to make everything look pretty.
6. Finishing Touches – Colours and all the nooks and cranny’s that make a picture complete.
In terms of ease of following, I think it does a great job at explaining everything up until between 3 and four, where they go from a basic anatomy to fully clothed characters – and unless you are a decent designer, you might not be able to jump to this step if you are following the guides. However, on the plus side, there are annotations throughout both books that give you design hints for all six steps. In terms of actually using this book as a guide for drawing – I would suggest saving this until you have some competency, but if you are after a few ideas then this book should be for you.
In terms of book design, the pages are far from dull, with each page consisting of at least one image that progresses from a few lines to a full piece of manga art and are overall not badly designed to say the least. The character designs are varied and generally do not stay on the same group of characters for more then one or perhaps two designs at the most. Over the course of all the books (Don’t quote me on this as I only have two of them – I would say it should cover almost every normal concept you would need for designing your own manga. Build quality is actually very good. The pages are not tacky, and there are no quality issues throughout the book. However, and I believe it is only for my copy – the final pages in the book were slightly misaligned.
You can find information on The Monster Book of Manga Girls at this link HERE. I cannot find a link to the “More Manga” book, however the other books can be found under the Ikari Studio link on the Harper Collins Publishers Australia website HERE.
The third and final book I will be making a mention to is MangaMatrix by Hiroyoshi Tsukamoto. Thinking about this book more, it is less of a design book and more of an…. unlimited possibilities character and setting design book. Here is the official blurb from the back of the book:
MangaMatrix – Create Unique Characters Using the Japanese Matrix System -
Manga Matrix presents an easy grid method for mastering manga, an increasingly popular comic style. Using this unique Japanese system, artists can plot and cross-section elements on a matrix diagram to create an infinate number of oriignal characters, creatures and multiformed beasts. Angels, demons, dragons, monsters and robots are all included in this book, along with descriptions of costumes and personalities for each.
Instead of leading you by the hand in designing set characters from a book – this book refuses to hold your hand but gives you the tools to come up with a concept for a character that you can then get to designing. Through these 171 pages, you are taught how to come up with unique characters every time through a number of design matrix tables for everything from the characters outside appearance to clothing and to even the tiniest little detail that could make your character stand out. The three specific matrix’s shown in this book are the Form Matrix, Costume Matrix and the Personality Matrix.
Despite this not being a book specifically about learning how to draw, every page is filled with concepts for different things from ideas how to match a certain headpiece with a certain eye or mouth design to the different ways to implement wings on your character – all of which show how they used the matrix system to come up with the idea. Actually, most of the book shows off their own ideas on how to implement the matrix in your storyline/design with full character biographies to three full storyline concepts – one of which has a double sided foldout concept plan.
It is really a hard book to put into words without you actually reading it, however out of all three of the books – I would consider it my favourite. The design quality put into this book was superb with every page used effectively to put across the ideas. The build quality is appropriate, with every page in full colour and vibrant! A highly recommended read for those who struggle with concepts for both designing and writing (Hell, I was terrible at writing short stories in school – to the point where I was marked down because I went several thousand words over the limit and was deemed closer to a novel then a short story… but I digress) and should help you build either a simple or complex design.
You can find more information on Manga Matrix at this link HERE.
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