CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Well, I am trying to draw anime, do you guys have any suggestions on what would be a good Anime Drawing book? thanks for the help!!
GOD BLESS YOU!!!:thumb:

Hrmm... could try putting in how-to-draw anime on your library catalog. I've seen a few, but I could never really get the hang of their directions. I usually use manga as a reference to stare at while I draw. Helps to get the proportions and eyes right.

Well if you just want something to trace or copy over, and arn't ultra sensitive on content the manga university and how to draw manga series have some helpful information in them. For more serious development I sugget Understanding and Making Comics, both by Scott McCloud, and some non anime books on drawing clothing and anatomy.

The absolutely most useful book I've found is "Drawing the Human Head" by Burne Hogarth. After that, the Scott McCloud books have been very informative. I just bought a book called "Perspective for Comic Book Artists" that has a lot of detailed explanations, and looks like it will be useful, but I haven't had it long enough to know how well it will be for me.

The various anime/manga specific books haven't been very useful, to my mind, with the exception of some content-specific books such as the 'How to Draw Manga' book on military equipment.

I'm sorry, but Chris Hart books make me sad. I know this because I own one of his books. If you want to learn how to draw outdated anime born from strange misconceptions, then, go ahead.

What I suggest you do is first get down the basics of anatomy, like, how long legs are in proportion to the rest of the body or the placement of parts on the face or how big the head should be. I've seen good anime artists make the sad mistake of drawing their heads too big or the placement of the eye in some weird skewed place.

I first drew anime by copying my favorite artists' styles, but I only started understanding why people looked the way they did by actually studying anatomy. After that, no longer were my heads weirdly shaped nor my eyes in weird places. You have to realize that you're not just drawing a line because other good anime artists do too, but that line has a specific purpose. Am I too confusing? Let me provide an example:

I might as well cover some other common anime mistakes. I'm not pointing anyone out, this are just some things I've seen far too often.

1. Does anyone's head naturally curve outward like that? Anyone? No? I don't know why, but sometimes people draw anime characters with their face bent outward, like some unnatural corner.

2. That eye is way too far to the edge of the face. The only time the eye should be there if the head is in profile or is nearing profile.

3. See the curve? It's meant to be a cheek, because I assume, anime characters have cheeks. Nobody's cheek is meshed in with their eye. Lots of people just haphazardly draw the frame for the face, not even mapping out what goes where, and it all ends up scrunched in the forehead, or cheek or something.

4. Lots of people also don't seem to realize we have round heads. Except for mine.

5. They also let the ears go where ever they want.

Man, I can't believe what this escalated into. XD

Anyway, forgo the books! This site is the most helpful:

http://www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/

Baka Neko is not. I'm sorry.

The preferable path is to learn the basics of realism first. There are basic principles inherent to drawing in general that are important for drawing in any style for you to learn before specializing. That's what I intend to do.

.rai//

Harts books have a lot of anatomy issues (odd angles, awkward designs, ultra steriotypical charachter work with little variation), and dictate a rather specific (and stylized) style of drawing rather than allowing for more detailed illustration work. They can form a very quick and dirty base level of drawing anime styled charachters. I started out with two of his books, but switched pretty quickly to the How to Draw manga books, then to Hogarths dynamic illustration books and references from life and life drawing classes. I still occasionally reference how to draw manga books... but I never look at my Hart books, except for non art related just-because-I have-them looking. I also find it ... fusterating... that the hart books do a rather iffy job on anatomical basics.

Rai has the best path down in my opinion, first learning how to draw reality, then abstracting it to a more manga-esque form. Its not the path that I followed... but its more likely than not the best one, since I didn't improve at my drawings until I started drawing from life.

Sapphira wrote:Lol. I see your point, take it easy^^ Ok, so u don't think Mr Hart's a good artist, haha fine Well, it's not like his books taught me exactly how to draw anime, I just learned that from watching anime and reading manga itself.
But his books also explained things like perspective, anatomy and poses, and that's the point where I found them useful
But your detailed explanation of how to draw anime was very interesting. You must be talented

I guess to that extent, yeah, you could learn some, but I feel there are books better suited to that. I just found the styles in the book to be kind of lame. ^^; I like going to DeviantArt to check out the anime styles there; I've developed my style though it.

I wasn't aiming the criticism rant at you. C: Sorry if it seemed that way! I just seemed to go off on a tangent.

Puguni wrote:I'm sorry, but Chris Hart books make me sad. I know this because I own one of his books. If you want to learn how to draw outdated anime born from strange misconceptions, then, go ahead.

What I suggest you do is first get down the basics of anatomy, like, how long legs are in proportion to the rest of the body or the placement of parts on the face or how big the head should be. I've seen good anime artists make the sad mistake of drawing their heads too big or the placement of the eye in some weird skewed place.

I first drew anime by copying my favorite artists' styles, but I only started understanding why people looked the way they did by actually studying anatomy. After that, no longer were my heads weirdly shaped nor my eyes in weird places. You have to realize that you're not just drawing a line because other good anime artists do too, but that line has a specific purpose. Am I too confusing? Let me provide an example:

I might as well cover some other common anime mistakes. I'm not pointing anyone out, this are just some things I've seen far too often.

1. Does anyone's head naturally curve outward like that? Anyone? No? I don't know why, but sometimes people draw anime characters with their face bent outward, like some unnatural corner.

2. That eye is way too far to the edge of the face. The only time the eye should be there if the head is in profile or is nearing profile.

3. See the curve? It's meant to be a cheek, because I assume, anime characters have cheeks. Nobody's cheek is meshed in with their eye. Lots of people just haphazardly draw the frame for the face, not even mapping out what goes where, and it all ends up scrunched in the forehead, or cheek or something.

4. Lots of people also don't seem to realize we have round heads. Except for mine.

5. They also let the ears go where ever they want.

Man, I can't believe what this escalated into. XD

Anyway, forgo the books! This site is the most helpful:

http://www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/

Baka Neko is not. I'm sorry.

Not everyone will conform to your idea of what is right in anime. That's a lesson you should start learning early...like now. Every artist has their own unique style of drawing. And you must be a "professional" and a "perfectionist" to notice every single mistake that every artist has in their work? You should write your own book...oh wait you don't have one now do you?

If someone uses a certain book to guide them in the direction they feel they need to accomplish what they are looking for is one thing. But, don't bash other people's uses of references just because it didn't help you. With that said...

I tend to use everything I have as material to study when drawing, that includes:

1) Older comics and manga books plus, "How to Draw Manga", "Drawing manga made easy", "Manga University" etc
2) magazines of all kinds...especially gaming magazines
3) sporting magazines, and or sports cards and the Sports Day in the newspaper.
4) anime box art for inspiration.
5) Anatomy books are good as well. No particular author or title.
6) real life is a good reference as well.

If you're serious about wanting to do anime or manga 12praiseGOD, you can probably look up what your favorite artists use as well. Don't limit yourself to one thing or another, the only thing that really matters is practicing as much as you can.

thanks guys for the tips,
GOD BLESS YOU!!!