Shojo Fashion Manga Art School: How to Draw Cool Looks and Characters

The cover of this book is very deceiving. At first glance you'd think it was a typical how-to book, but it's honestly a lot more than that. I'm an experienced artist so that should be kept in mind during my review. Without further ado, let's get started.Before I get into the contents of the book itself, I'm going to do a small review on the art style. This isn't your "typical manga style" It's very unique and really fun to look at. While it might not be everyone's cup of tea, it doesn't affect how this book can teach you.The first couple pages go over basic art supplies. It's a basic beginning to any how-to book, but this artist shows you that you don't really need any big fancy equipment to draw well. That's something that I wish a lot more books would tell you, beginning artists tend to be overwhelmed by supplies or are misled to think that better supplies make you a better artist (which is not true). This artist goes over general art supplies such as pencils, pens, recommended erasers and paper, as well as brush pens.There are then two pages on line weight which despite being such a small section has lots of nice little tips that would REALLY help out a beginning artist and even remind some of us more experienced artists.Following those two pages is yet another two pages with this particular artist's basic digital coloring process. A nice little addition, but not particularly an important part of this book. It felt a little like filler to me, but if nothing else, it's a cute pose reference.Now we start getting into the actual meat of the book. It starts to loosely go over basic human anatomy (the differences between males and females, legs, hands, feet, a small body type comparison, a bit of posing, some perspective)Then it moves on to how to draw faces, eyes, noses, mouths and ears. Then it goes over some basic expressions and their progressions. It then goes through adding hair (with a nice little braid tutorial) and some different hair colors. All very nice little bits to help add some more personality to your characters. However, this isn't what the book is about (as you can tell by the title).Now at page 59 we start on what makes this book very unique, clothing. It starts out by teaching you about various fabric types including: stiff fabric, draping fabric, silks, short fur, long fur, corduroy, leather, vinyl, and rubber. While this isn't a big section, it does give useful tips on how to make fabric look different with the strokes of a pen or pencil. Something that any artist can learn from. It then goes over different styles of shirts, sweaters, sweatshirts, coats, and blazers. While these aren't step-by-step, they do make for good references and the artist gives little tips along the way. There's then a small step-by-step of quilted and puffy fabric that even more experienced artists can learn from.The book now moves onto different styles of pants, shorts, skirts, and swimwear. There aren't many step-by-steps here either, but plenty of tips and references. We then move onto frilly and formal dresses (with a thrown in guide on lace that anyone can follow). Dresses are only touched on in this book, BUT in the second book there's a lot more (I'll be reviewing that book as well.)We now move onto accessories such as hats, gloves, mittens, scarves, socks, slippers, sandals, sneakers, heels, and boots. A really nice part is that the shoes actually have step-by-step instructions. Feet and shoes are really difficult for beginning artists, and even experienced artists such as myself can struggle with these. The little tips and tricks included are very helpful. It goes over purses, bags, jewelry, and glasses next. There's even a page on drawing umbrellas (which are seen all the time in manga.)By now we're on page 99, and nearing the end of the book. This last section goes over a few basic "stereotypical" school kids. It's a cute little addition that teaches you how to add some differences between your characters. In this section there are also a couple step-by-step guides on drawing these characters interacting. The last few pages of the book go over some perspective with backgrounds and some nice little tips on making scenes to put your now fashionable characters in.Final Words-This is a really fantastic book overall with plenty of great tips and absolutely amazing references. The art style is unique, and I love it, if it puts you off though, DON'T WORRY. The style does NOT hinder your ability to learn what this book is really trying to teach you.While I do think a beginner would benefit from this book, it will NOT teach you how to draw human bodies for the most part. Start out with something more general that will break down human anatomy for you, then move onto this book to help make your characters more unique and fashionable.This book does have a bit more female fashion than male fashion, but overall it's nothing that should turn you away from it. If you're the kind of person that struggles with giving your characters different and unique clothing, this book will help you 100%. It does not include a section for undergarments however.I easily recommend this book for anyone's collection.

*If you have Prime, you can borrow this book so you can read through it before you purchase!*This book is well written, and has a slightly humorous bent to it. It is suitable for any level of artist, including young beginners who are looking to master the basics of drawing the human form. There are many areas covered, such as how to draw feet, hands and other parts with better accuracy and detail. Basic descriptions of why those details matter are also covered in the book. A lot of great examples are given, such as the fundamental parts of how to make any scene or character really come alive. It encourages drawing better perspective to get more realism, as well as breaking down the scene to each section in order to make all of the details to scale. However, if you want a step by step set of instructions for everything, this book does not really offer them.It displays well on the Kindle Touch, but looks best in a larger format, such as a tablet. For those who like to use these books as a reference, a tablet can make it easier to zoom in on a section, or see it in finer detail (or in color) when working on a particular character or scene. I have also tested it on the Kindle W/Keyboard series and it looks just "ok" - a little more dim than the Kindle Touch.Other Notes:The book is not terribly long, but is not as short as some of the other Manga books I have read, making it a good value for the money. That said, I do not think I would have purchased it as a paperback, but the Kindle price is just right.

I received this order relatively fast from Amazon, very happy with that. Love the book over all, glad they let you preview a few pages on this site - it was really what pulled me in to buy the book.Love the character designs in this book, very modern and not so 80's like most How-To mangas from Japan (so many just seem a little dated). I really enjoyed the artist's personal style.The only complaint I have about this book is that there are not many ideas for guys. Sure I know, a girl's wardrobe is far more extensive than the average guys wardrobe, but I was hoping for some ideas for modern guy clothing anyway. Everything from examples of the hair to accessories where based on things you could draw for females. I just felt that aspect of the book was a little unbalanced. As a female, I want to draw good looking guys to go with my stylish girls!Other than that the examples are really great, and the walk through of manga anatomy with quick explanations were wonderful. I was considering giving this one a 4-star rating, but despite my one complaint, I love everything about this book. So 5-stars it is - I would definitely recommend. Right after I flipped through the book I got out a sketch book and jotted down some ideas - that is a good how-to book in my opinion; it makes you excited to draw.

Make sure this book is on your shelf! If you want to learn to draw a diverse cast of character, then this book is a necessity. For me, there's not much in here that I haven't already learned in six years of drawing manga, but it serves as a fantastic reference book.It teaches about styles without skimping on any detail or explanation and covers a wide range of subjects (along with it's sequel, Year 2), and if I'd owned this book earlier on in my years, I think I'd have made several jumps in ability with speed.Irene doesn't limit herself to 'pretty white girls' like a lot of 'how-to' books do, and this book along with its sequel, restored my faith in how-to books. You will be shown people of all ethnicities, heights and weights, both men and women, girls and boys and between the two books, you'll be taught about kid's pyjamas, wedding clothes, MEN'S formal wear (rare find!) and plus-sized people!

It's an excellent tutorial book and idea source for even for clothing line students to learn about how to draw clothes. I wish I had this, the sequal and How to Draw Manga series's clothing tutorial books when I was studying. They would have been very helpful in clothing desing and product design class to give tips and to show how to draw drapes and stuff and how to give texture on diffrent types of materials.

I bought this as a Christmas present for my 10 year old grand-daughter and it was an instant hit - she just loves it. She finds it easy to understand and it has whetted her appetite for more - I am now looking at equipment to help with her drawing and painting of the manga characters. Brilliant book!

Really like the book, would have liked more instructions on some drawing examples but it’s a great book overall. It has loads of ideas of clothes and is well written and easy to understand!

Usually, tutorial books are full of wiyabu/oktaku style art that you never see in actual published manga and don't actually educate you in drawing as a whole. THIS book not only has applicable art, it's SHOUJO art, which is very important for a fangirl like me ;). It's easy to use, versatile, and is just generally awesomesauce. If you're looking to get a shoujo, girly looking art out of your drawing, this will deffo help you on your way xxx