I enjoyed going through this and trying some of drawings. I liked the variety of characters and the organization of the book.

A great intermediate-level drawing book. Good mix of classic comic heroes and more modern manga designs.

Big School of Drawing Manga, Comics, and Fantasy: Book & Workbook
Rating: 3
Thank you Walter Foster Publishing for providing an e-copy through NetGalley.

Big School of Drawing Manga, Comics, and Fantasy is a detailed guide to the tools and techniques of creating comics and manga. Readers will learn the basics like line drawing, shading techniques, shapes, textures, perspective, and inking, before moving on to the four categories: Comics and Graphic Novels, Manga & More, Science Fiction & Visions of the Future, and Fascinating Fantasy. In each category, a 2-page (or longer) spread is dedicated to a certain archetype character, from hero and villain to comic relief and ninja. They can get pretty specific, and each page instructs you how to draw that exact character, from the initial shapes to detailed shading. The bulk of the book and workbook have these “How to draw ____ character” pages, and, overall, this type of teaching is not really helpful in how to draw comic books or manga. Aside from the basics, readers will only learn specific characters to draw and ways to draw them, but not how to draw characters from scratch/your imagination or character design in general. You also will not learn visual storytelling, composition, environment design, creature design, comic/manga page layout, gestures and poses, or anatomy (which is essential to drawing characters). Also, the book assumes that readers can draw complicated items like intricate clothing, weapons, and robots, which are not intuitive for beginners. The workbook is exactly just the main book - all text and images are roughly the same - but with a small space dedicated to practice drawing and not as many characters (so you only need the main book and a sketchbook, as the workbook doesn’t provide anything). Despite the cool characters and step-by-step instructions, the book is bare bones when it comes to variety and readers will have a hard time learning how to draw from these books.

Who Would I Recommend this to: Young artists who want to draw fun characters for practice.

Review Date: December 30, 2023

Some great ideas and a lot of wonderful projects and practice for developing your skill in drawing creatures and characters. I loved all the ideas for poses, clothing, how folds of frantic and armor should look in detail ,a Don ideas for using photoshop in different ways to create manga or comics or other art cartoonish and not. Great guide, super helpful.

This was such a cool book and concept. I've been looking for different books to elevate my drawing skills and this was just perfect. Easy to follow guide and instructions. Highly recommend. Thank you so much for allowing me to preview this book!

A super fun book for expanding your style and trying out new techniques. Theres step by step tutorials but also an encouragement to apply this to your own work and inspiration

This would be a great book for older children and teenagers wanting to learn how to draw manga and comics. There are quite detailed step-by-step instructions, and there are plenty of examples. A good book to get started with.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this free copy.

If you want drawing references in a variety of styles, this book is for you!
It offers step-by-step strategies to draw different characters and creatures from manga, sci-fi and fantasy, as well as some tips on shading, using Photoshop, etc.
Highly recommended particularly for people interested in adding some flair to their worldbuilding or roleplaying projects -- I can imagine my GM friends having a blast with it!

Another gem that I found in the Netgalley Read Now section! Are the tutorials a little advanced and going over my head as a newbie to drawing? Yes! Do I still love that this book exists and that I have it? Also yes! I love reading comics and manga and I've always been interested in how they're drawn. When my drawing skills have advanced a little more I'll definitely be coming back to this book!

Also this Artbook/Workbook was so interesting for me! At the moment I'm drawing more again and trying to get back into it and this book has actually helped me a lot! It is easy to understand and very clear

Thanks to NetGalley and the Walter Foster Creative team for for providing me the eARC!

It's the first time I see a volume that puts together three genres like comics, manga and fantasy. It's interesting to confront them and discover differences and similarities.
After the basic tools and techniques part each of them is treated in different sections; a brief introduction and a bunch of step-by-step tutorials for different characters, from the stylized body costruction to the finished artwork, usually in color.
While comics privileges dynamism, manga adds facial expression and body language. The fantasy section contains sci-fi characters, greek and scandinavian mythological creatures, monsters, medieval figures.

This how to is super easy to follow. It is thorough and clear. I followed some on my own and had fun, but I let one of my students try it out and saw great improvement in his art. I have high hopes for this book when I can get the physical copy and show my whole class.

This book will appeal to my high school students interested in creating their own manga, comics, and graphic novels, and I'll be purchasing for our library.

There's a lot packed in to this instructional book, but I'm not sure about the skill level appropriateness for the beginning artist. There are a few brief pages about tools and techniques at the start, but other foundational skills seem hidden within the character sections. The character tutorials appear challenging for those just starting to dabble in drawing, jumping from lines and circles to detailed costumes and weapons. There is a somewhat detailed Photoshop tutorial buried in the manga section. Some of the tips are very detailed and useful, like how to rig a ruler so you don't get ink bleed, but others border on simply motivational - keep practicing your strokes, or too general to be helpful - consider your light sources.

The book does not address characters with darker skin tone, non-traditional body types, or anything beyond historically typical representations of gendered bodies and clothing in manga and comics.

I have read a few books from this series and have enjoyed them quite well. I think it’s really good series that goes over a lot of basic knowledge to do with comic book writing and mangoes and I would highly recommend people who want to get into this industry. Do you want to learn more about drawing within this art style. I think it was really informative and highly recommend, although it is catered more towards people who are really new to the industry and not those who have been in the industry, a decade like myself.