Girl to Grrrl Manga: How to Draw the Hottest Shoujo Manga

Most how-to books tell you how to do things in the style of the person writing the book. This one goes into detail over the different subsets of manga, and how to achieve each look. Anyone that thinks it all looks alike is mistaken! The author knows her history and her art genres :-) There's a lot of good solid advice in here, not just a bunch of tricks and shortcuts. You can create those yourself later, once you get the basics down. And that's what this is, a book of the basics. Each one of them can take up its own book, but this is a good overall base-covering primer on manga. And not just for advanced or professional artists. If your just starting out and want to start out right, you need reference books you are going to want to use and refer to over and over. I keep finding new things I didn't catch the last time I read it through. I'm glad I bought this (and the companion Manga Pro Superstar)

Excellent condition. My daughter loves the book and has learned lots of new things already!

Choosing the right "how-to" book is not easy. Some of them are so advanced that many beginners feel lost, not knowing when to start. Others are very theoretical and academic, with not so much practice and examples, and that may discourage someone who is beginning. And there are those that are just too basic that end up being not really useful. In my opinion, this book is just right for many different aspiring artists: from those beginners that are ready to give their first steps into manga drawing but are not sure how to begin, to those more advanced artists who will benefit of the useful tips about the craft given by someone with proven experience using the tips, advice and technique that is shown in the book. This book covers A LOT, going from basics to the finished product. So, for those interested in learning (or improving) their manga drawing abilities, I would definitely recommend this book, that gives solid and sound advice, and has really useful information to develop and improve our craft. In addition to this book, I recommend getting also the "Manga Pro Superstar workshop", also by Colleen Doran - that gives additional (and very useful information) to those interested in improving their art and storytelling abilities. Absolutely recommended!

This is a truly wonderful book about how to draw not just shoujo, but all, manga. It gives great guidelines for all styles, not just manga! It also has helpful techniques to get you started on manga. THe only bad thing is it doesn't give great instructions for inking. But if you want a beginning manga book, get it!