Xtreme Art Ultimate Book of Trace-and-Draw Manga

I am a crafter, not a drawer. In fact, I am not very good at drawing at all. This book though, had me drawing fun manga characters in no time; and, while you can easily trace the characters the illustrations and directions are so great I was able to draw them freehand!

We see the word 'Manga' all over the place, but do you really know what it means? Author Christopher Hart explains what they are in this book's introduction section. Basically, manga is the Japanese word for comics, and it is a popular style of cartooning mainly known for the huge eyes of the characters.

This book starts out by teaching you how to make a large variety of manga people. It explains techniques for drawing heads, eyes, and other body parts and then it provides step-by-step illustrations you can use to draw or trace more than 20 specific characters.

Part two of this book introduces different techniques for drawing manga chibi characters. While manga people are more realistically proportioned (other than the eyes), chibi's are shorter, rounder, and cuter characters. Again, the author shares more than 20 specific characters.

In the final section of this book, Christopher Hart teaches you how to draw manga monsters. While the 20+ manga monster characters this book teaches you to draw are adorable, they might not all be friendly! The nice thing about drawing these characters yourself is that you can decide which monsters are good and which are evil.

With the popularity of manga these days, this book will surely be a hit for older kids and even some adults.