Mastering Manga with Mark Crilley: 30 drawing lessons from the creator of Akiko

Like most people, I discovered Mark Crilley from his excellent tutorials on Youtube. I had high expectations of this book because I know he’s a great teacher, but I wasn’t sure how it would compare with the videos. You’re probably wondering what you get from buying a book that the Youtube videos don’t show for free. I’ve watched lots of Mark Crilley’s tutorials, but there’s something special about seeing the drawing printed on the page in front of me, there as a reference. If you wanted to, you could trace drawings for practice. The book also allows you to go at your own pace, which may take much longer than a ten-minute video can allow for. I think the book works well on its own or in combination with the videos.

The book is divided into three chapters: Heads and Faces, Proportions and Poses, and Setting the Scene. The bulk of the book is made up of step-by-step guides for drawing specific character types. Adults, teens, kids and toddlers are covered, as well as chibis. The written instructions give tips about showing the gender, age and personality of the characters. One thing that sets this book apart is that several pages are devoted to portraying fuller-figured characters, something that I haven’t seen much in other manga how-to books.

There are also more advanced tutorials for kissing poses and drawing a martial arts scene, as well as thorough instruction for drawing folds and wrinkles in clothing. Some of the most useful content is towards the end. There’s information about inking drawings, laying out panels and adding speech bubbles and sound effects. One of the most interesting parts is a page showing Mark Crilley’s process in creating a manga page from start to finish.

Quite a few page spreads feature a large number of small drawings, for example 101 manga eyes or 50 ways to draw hands. These are good for reference and include some pointers, but there are some that would be worth expanding into a full step-by-step tutorial. I’d love a whole book based on the 20 classic poses! Perspective and backgrounds are covered in the third chapter, and this is another area that I wouldn’t mind seeing expanded. The tutorials cover the technicalities of perspective, but they don’t show much about how to work characters into these settings. I would also have liked to see more discussion of shading and color. Everything included in the book is great and it’s absolutely packed with helpful information on every page, but I do think the author has even more to offer and I’d love it if this turned out to be the first part of a series.

One final note: There’s no nudity in this book; all figures are drawn either fully clothed or wearing simple underclothes. Busty vixens and muscle men are notably absent. There’s no gore, the content is very family-friendly. This book would be an appropriate gift for adolescents interested in drawing manga. However, the detailed level of instruction would probably be too difficult for young children.

Don’t let the title fool you. This is an art book first, ‘how to draw’ manga-style book second.

This book as a TON of useful information that other manga drawing series lack ranging from Art 101 topics like perspective and scale to basic anatomy. Even if you are not a complete newbie it serves as a nice refreasher course and reminder, all while keeping its manga slant. Beyond the educational values of the early lessons it also has great referance material ranging from various emotions, folds in clothing, hands, feet, and even various age groups/character archtypes.

It is a great educational resource and is presented in a very fun Japanese-inspired manner. I have a collection of maybe 20 ‘how to draw’ books , including a 12 book series on how to draw in a manga style specifically. If I could only recommend one book it would have to be this one. Plus if this book is not enough for you be sure to check out Mark Crilley’s YouTube channel for additional instruction.

I’ve been a fan of Mr. Crilley’s work for some time. My Daughter loved his work Miki Falls, and I have to admit I enjoyed it, too. I have to say without reservation, Mr. Crilley’s book is better that 95% of what’s out there. He’s also one of the few artists who actually has recognizable work when it comes to comics, manga and graphic novels. I think the only other one I’m aware of is the Shojo Fashion Manga Art School by Irene Flores (She’s one of the artists for Windstorm’s Welcome to Tranquility.)

I’m sure more than a few of us might have purchased other Manga how-tos from author’s like Christopher Hart and been extremely disappointed at the quality of the artwork. I didn’t get a sense of anything like that with this book. First of all, he’s not trying to mimic anyone else’s style. The drawings are done more so to illustrate technique then they are to look like someone else’s work. I think he purposefully kept it that way so that people can use his lessons to develop their own style. He keeps the depictions simple and consistent throughout the book. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking at page five or page eighty five, all of the pictures are done by the same artist and its a good thing. One of the chief drawbacks of those other manga books is that they ricochet back and forth from one artistic style to another, confusing anyone who’s trying to develop because instead of concentrating on one style, they’re trying to do ten different anime styles. In addition, Mr. Crilley does an excellent job of giving little tips that are truly useful like the way he suggests laying out the hair when drawing.

I hope that he makes a few more of these kinds of books. There were some things I would have liked to have seen covered that he didn’t. Mostly, I wonder if he uses any tricks in particular to manage consistent proportions between characters. I wish that someone would touch on things like perhaps laying out facial expressions that concentrates more on maintaining consistency for one character, rather than illustrating a hundred different faces. All in all, though. I think this is one of the better guides to Manga for us beginners.

I wish other books took these kinds of things into account. As it stands now, I keep two books in my bag next to my sketch pad. This is one of them, the other is the one I mentioned by Ms. Flores.

I love drawing. I am only ten years old, so it might not be all realistic, but Mark Crilley has shown me some amazing drawing skills, and I once drew a picture that looked like real manga because of him. This book is something you should get if you love manga!

Mastering Manga, by the somewhat famous youtube phenomenon, Mark Crilley, is the perfect book to purchase for anyone wanting to learn how to draw manga. It starts with some starter tutorials going into how faces are drawn, about body prorportions, hands and feets. Although these tutorials are very much aimed at beginners they can also help people who are more skilled or familliar with drawing manga. A few things that distinguish this tutorial book from others is f.ex. that Mark Crilley has made whole pages of drawings of hands and feet in different positions and situations, hairstyles, eyes, bodyposition (f.ex. sitting or sleeping), face expressions and so much more which one can simply look up and get inspired or educated by. Another unique thing about this book, is that Mark Crilley also shows how to draw elderly and middleaged people, children and (how it is kindly written in the book) fuller-figured characters besides the skinny teenage looking characters which are generally widespread in manga. Other really great features about this book includes chibis, clothes and clothe wrinkles, perspective and scenes, inking, and even about manga layout. To be honest, when I bought this book, I fell in love with it as soon as I began drawing after I had read a chapter. It has helped me immensely, although I wouldn’t call myself a beginner. I’d recommend this book to anyone who wants to draw, who is drawing and need some help or who just needs to look up how to draw a hand in a specific situation. (Fun fact, Mark Crilley, the author and illustrator of this book, states that he does that himself sometimes). Mastering Manga with Mark Crilley: 30 drawing lessons from the creator of Akiko

I don’t know Mark Crilley personally, but I feel like I do. He seems to be a genuine nice person aside from a great artist. That has little to do with his teaching ability, but I like to support nice people.

After watching his very popular how-to videos on Youtube (how I found Mark’s work) I started looking for more substantial material in the form of books. I don’t have a Kindle device, but I do buy loads of books in Kindle, to use with iPad/iPhone and Mac. So I bought his book.

It’s just as I expected, it’s a great book with loads of techniques and reference materials to use and is as good as his youtube videos, but I do miss his upbeat comments in his very recognizable voice, which I find very funny and lightens the videos a lot – I mean, it’s a video of a guy drawing… .

The videos are, of course, much clearer on how the drawings come together, and the book will point you in the right direction but not tell you the end of the story. I like that about Mark, he will try as hard as he can, not to interfere with your “developing” style. He doesn’t want us to “copy” him but to develop as artists and this really comes through in the book. You may not think you’re developing a style, when you can’t even draw a simple straight line, but you are. He’s very aware of that, even if we’re not.

It’s about process, it’s about the tool that you need, that eventually – with loads of practice – will make you better.

He also comes across as a humble guy. He will tell you that he finds some techniques difficult. He will tell you that drawing hands is difficult, therefore there is no substitute for practice. Same with hairs, proportions, faces, eyes… It’s 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration. He will not mask this.

All the tools are there, lots of coverage on all manga styles, including chibi, which I absolutely love.

Buy the book, already…

Buy the physical copy, the kindle version is lacking, mark crilley is amazing! check out his youtube tutorials, they are really great!!

When I received this book, I had high expectations. I’d read several of Mark’s graphic novels and seen numerous Youtube videos, enough to make me a solid fan; so, it was with confidence in the excellence of what I was about to read that I opened the glossy, richly-illustrated cover.

I was still unprepared for the awesome sight!

I started screaming for joy when I reached the page of hand reference drawings, and was struck dumb when I saw the clothing folds section. Mark outdid himself with the broad spectrum of delightful and dynamic poses, facial expressions, and more.

My favorite parts were probably:

The explanation of perspective for drawing backgrounds, including 1, 2, and 3 point perspective
The hair, hand, foot, and clothing fold studies
The couple kissing (Why is it there isn’t ever romance in a clean drawing book?)
The full-figured characters (I am not full-figured at all, but I get sick of the stick-thin, unrealistic figures portrayed in Manga. Mark Crilley definitely does not follow that mold and I tip my hat to his including this realistic and respectful section)

This book is clean. It is not filled with full-figured women in provocative poses and little to no clothing. I would recommend it for people of all ages, from young children up to the oldest adult! Yay!!

As far as difficulty goes, I have been drawing manga for about five years, and have outgrown many drawing books. This book provides a challenge, but takes on a casual and encouraging air that would allow even the newest artist to easily learn the ropes of this art style.

In all, I was extraordinarily pleased with the book. Buy it! You won’t be disappointed! And while you’re at it, get his Miki Falls series (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) and delve into Brody’s Ghost; they’re both great manga. Thank you Mark!!

I’ve had this book for less then an hour just reading it help me get the grasp of things unlike many other how to draw manga books. I’ve spent a little time practicing drawing many different eyes and its been helpful making my eyes look more manga like and aligned well. Its hard to tell the slight mistakes I made.

I’ve followed Mark Crilley on youtube for the longest and his tutorials have always helped me improve my art and keeps me interested in drawing. I recommend this book to any manga style artist not even just manga those who wish to draw anime instead it would gladly help you improve. Also checkout his youtube channel if you have never heard of him.