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markcrilley — What to Put in a How-To-Draw-Manga Book?
Published: 2012-02-24 13:56:07 +0000 UTC; Views: 26531; Favourites: 217; Downloads: 497
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If you want a quick overview of what's in Mastering Manga so as to know what I did and didn't cover in it, watch this video, which covers the main sections pretty thoroughly:[link]
Thanks for leaving your comments-- I look forward to reading them!
If you would like to order Mastering Manga, it is available right now:
At bn.com: [link]
And Amazon: [link]
And other online stores as well, of course. It is due in actual bookstores March 8th. Thanks so much for your support!
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Comments: 534
i dont know if it was covered in mastering manga, but a section devoted to drawing sideviews of characters on their hands and knees would be very helpful.
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Hey Mark!
I've been watching your Youtube videos for about two years and am hoping to become a comics artist in the future myself! Your videos are very helpful and I've learned a lot from watching them.
I didn't know you had a book out on drawing manga, I'll have to look into getting it! Even so, one thing I keep looking for in "how to draw" books is more information on how to panel comic pages. As a rising manga writer myself, that's one of the biggest struggles I have and it'd be great to see how another artist does it.
For example, how do you make a page look interesting and make sure the reader's eye goes where you want it to? Do you figure out all the major points on a page first (such as introducing a character or plot point, etc.) and when do you start to figure out where the balance of light and dark on a page comes in?
Also, if you're working with a long or multi-volume sort of story... Do you write the whole script first, or go scene by scene? How do you decide what goes into one volume and what gets held back?
And somewhat related to that, I'm also curious about how you go about pitching a comic idea. How do you do that? Do you have to hook the publisher's interests with a very small amount of information? If so, how'd you decide what to tell them about Miki Falls and Brody's Ghost?
I realize some of this is more advanced stuff, but if you decide to include a mix of beginner and advanced topics I've noticed that there aren't a lot of books anywhere that deal with stuff like that and it'd be really helpful.
Thanks for taking the time to read this! I appreciate it, and good luck with your works!
Best wishes~
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Hello Mark! I love your work and books. I have bought all of them and think that all of them are awesome.
What I would like to see expanded a bit more is the chibi section because I saw that you included some step-by-step how to draw, angry chibi for example but I wanted a lot more of them to see variety. I would also like a section on how to draw manga hair because I have trouble when it comes to that in my drawings.
Another thing I would really like you to include is not about drawing but about the process of making mangas or comic books. I'd like to see at least a double page of the process from start to finish. For example, please include the sketches, drawings, ink stage and possibly detailing it on the computer with applications (photoshop). If you were to do that, could you please include an explanation on how you get your book noticed and how it gets published and such.
Thank you! I hope you take my ideas into consideration! Good luck on the 2nd book!
All the best.
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I'd like to see fighting to be a bit more expanded also hair styles in different perspective as in tied up hair
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Something I find true for many of the manga how-to-draw books I've seen (which is not that many but whatever) is that there are lots of example poses but not much detail on how to actually draw them. Even if there aren't any written instructions, just if the steps were shown I think that would be fantastic. Like ~SceneQueen7 said, step-by-step on hands and feet would be amazing! Another thing, it would be great to see a section on how to do shading and highlights on hair/features, that's something I have lots of trouble with and would love to have step-by-step instructions for!
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I think the Angles of the face could have more angles, like pointed dow, pointed up, pointed down 3/4 view, ect. And maybe little more detail on how to daw clothing folds, if it's possible because it's really hard. But i can't think of much else... Mastering Manga was pretty broad and covered alotta topics.
Maybe a more advanced book that goes deeper into some topics. I would like to see an advanced book.
So yeah. Lol.
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That is a tricky question, since there is so much you can put into a how-to book. But I definitely agree with people who want to know how to place characters in an environment. I was even thinking about suggesting that before I read through some of the comments.
And maybe character interactions with each other as well?
And generally character development? Like, how to develop a character's drawing based on his/her personality, or life situations. Hmmm... Not sure if that really makes sense.
Definitely common clothing of manga would be incredibly helpful. I never know what to make my people wear.
Maybe age progression of the same character? I already requested this of a video. But it might be useful in a book too. Like seeing the same exact character grow from a baby to an old age.
But character interaction would probably be a big one. Considering the placement of the characters to each other and their surroundings. So that seems to be a popular trend to have in book 2. And you can even go into more perspective there. Like if there was a city street full of people, that would have a lot to do with perspective. And that same environment can be used for crowded schools or super markets too.
But I really like the idea of reference pages. That is really cool. Like you said, it's part of the job!
If I think of anything else, I will post. You are truly amazing, and I like to call you my manga teacher. ^^ Take care!!
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how about a chapter thingy about how to make characters like if you where going to make a page for your character you wold have gender, name, like ,dislikes and your character . and i can't quite figure out how to organize something like that. could you help please?ps. i love your art
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I have been going through Mastering Manga and want to thank you for your work on such a great resource. I remember one of my drawing books from college stated that if you can draw the human body you can draw anything. I do have to say I have been practicing drawing using Mastering Manga and drawing the human figure in various poses has been quite a challenge. I have also followed your videos to supplement more figure drawing practice. I think adding additional poses and perspectives would be helpful. For example I have some of the How to Draw Manga books as well and they use a cylinder as a guide to draw overhead views of characters. You also had a video on two point perspective where you talked about using guide lines out to the vanishing points to draw a character with their back against a wall in perspective. Another one to include would be a lesson on foreshortening.
Another one to consider would be lighting techniques. For example the How to Draw Manga series volume talks about using etching with a knife or sand eraser to depict flashes of light or waves on water. How to achieve halo affects on lights would be another interesting topic. Further topics in this area might be depicting metal texture and reflections on glass and metal. Just some of the things I would be interesting in seeing. Thanks again for all your hard work and for sharing with us...
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I think that if you expanded on how to draw hands and feet, that would be wonderful. Hands and feet are very difficult for many people, and I'm certain that a section expanding on it would be greatly appreciated.
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i would say hats, animals, glasses, body, portions, and how to draw people holding hands are me struggles
YAY!!!!! ANOTHER BOOK!!!!!
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I have an Idea for either a tutorial, or a section in a book. Fireworks.
I have tried (and failed) to draw fireworks for fourth of July requests/commissions and New years Requests/commissions
So that would be Great to see!
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Everybody always says about how to draw traditionally... but since I got my tablet... I want to draw digitally. And I bet much others want this too. Some people write books about digitally but only a few pages.
And also I want to know how to draw hands and feet better. A step by step thing.
And how to draw other things besides humans such as objects or even household pets would be great.
Overall I think your book hit the nail with the hammer. I just think you need another for other things that you could not have fit into one book.
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I'm not sure if anyone has said this before, but I would like to have some more detailed instructions on how to draw hands and feet as well as hair and clothing. Another that would be nice to have in the second book is on how to draw plants, animals, vehicles, and more detailed instructions on how to draw the body proportions if that isn't too much to ask.
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i think it would be great if you could include of how to draw weatherd surfaces or backgrounds also i think that there should be a balance for beginers and the more advanced ^^ hope this helps
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I would like more on panel design and how to layout the pages so it looks good together
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I would like something about creating Magical girls!
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I would love more realistic styles, different ethnicities, and hair from short thick locks, to choppy layered, to millions of tight little curls, to African style mini-braids covering the whole head, to intricate braids, to frizzy hair, to messy hair, to tight wavy hair that are not curls, to crimped hair, to every kind under the rainbow. There are a lot of tutorials on short and long straight hair, and wavy hair, and long curls but not much on the rest.
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Can you please do more realistic anime styles, different ethnicity and characteristics, and hair! Here are some examples of hair I would love for you to do if you could! [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] These are just a few but there are many I would like to know.
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I would love a book with more advanced techniques! I love stylized, and traditional manga styles but is there anyway you could work in more realistic type anime? It is what my brother wants for his book. If you could have some stuff on how to draw different ethnicity, please do! And more than anything else right now I would love it if you did some less touched upon hair styles. Here are some examples of hair that I would like, which will be continued into a second message if I can.
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
To be continued!
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Like what vulpix15 said, I could use some help drawing animals (especially cats and birds)
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I have trouble doing animels in an anime/manga style though I haven't gotton the mastering manga (though I plan to) I still think it would help alot ^^
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In your first book, there's a few fighting poses and stuff and It would be great to have some refenreces pages for wounds and stuff like that related to fights
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I would have to say 9 out of 10 how-to-draw-manga books leave out transportation like motorcycles, bikes, or just regular old cars. I personally would like to see how to draw a motorcycle de-complicated(because every time I look at a guide to draw a motorcycle I get confused by the third step)
Another thing is animals. Most books either make them super cutesy or super realistic, but neither of them can work in all kinds of stories. Most of the animals they use aren't the kind that are easy to slip in, like saying it's a pet or something.
Sorry if this wasted a little bit of time by reading this and seeing someone else talked about the same things, but thanks for reading it anyways!
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I would personally have to agree with some of my fellow commenters and say that "Mastering Manga" has been a true blessing to me in my pursuit of being a better mangaka. I'd really like to thank YOU for creating such a sophisticate/simple to understand/helpful book that makes drawing actually a joy.
If you'd like suggestions... I'd probably would like to see some helpful tips on shading. Like for just the pencil and not necessarily for colored pages. The folds for the clothes are very helpful, so could you maybe add like more types of clothing? Hats/gloves/scarfs? I'd personally like to learn actual kanji characters. What about a page or two for the more popular "sound effect" symbols? I think it'd make my pages a little more like real manga.
Thanks again for your videos and books. God bless!
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Hey Mark!
I think that a book on how to create comics would be an excellent followup! Something that focuses on arranging panels, developing stories and characters, and some tips on creating the overall mood. Lessons on how to draw expressive and interesting body poses and camera angles would be great too.
Thank you for giving your fans an opportunity to submit suggestions! Your last book was incredibly helpful and I am looking forward to your next one!
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Maybe things like different affects different kinds of shading might give? Like shoft shading tends to show warmth and hard shading is usually very dramatic?
Also, maybe different positions of looking at things? like... looking at a person from above, below, ect? And maybe also for heads? Like: Head looking down, up, toward the left, the right?
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I am a happy owner of Mastering Manga and i love it!
but what i would like to see is more hands. like for example: what is looks like to have your fingers laced together with someones fingers. and maybe what it looks like to have a persons hands cupping a persons face. 
oohh and maybe a section just on the muscles for males and females. (saw your muscle video. just amazing.)
>< and maybe a section on animals... and shape-shifters... like cats(including the wild cats... not all of them though.), dogs(including wolves)
>.< i'm sorry about the randomness of this. (
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I loved the first one and found it very helpful!!! 
...I don't know the first book was magnificent already! It was simply a perfect tool to help me improve my skills (and probably many others) and it's not like you can make a book covering every single little thing, so I say go for it and try to help with whatever most fans want help with~
one last thing, for people who don't know about your channel that stumbled upon this book, why not put the url to your youtue channel for extra help?
I hope this helps, because you surely have helped me
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i know in your first book you didnt like doing the hole death sword thing but can you do more magical poses with fire\water etc or just more fighting poses
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I think you should put a section in on drawing characters in profile and three quarter view...like their whole body's...I really struggle with that, and how to place limbs in different positions.
Btw, I LOVED YOUR LAST BOOK!
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I loved your Mastering Manga book and I have thoroughly enjoyed working through the exercises. I think that a natural progression for your next book, would be to show how to do different positions and angles of view.
Many thanks for all your hard work.
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I thought I made a post, but I guess I didn't. Anyways.
I got the book and I liked it, but I think it (I loved how you talked about different ages and body types as that is usually something we don't see in manga/drawing books) would be nice if you can expand on subjects like clothing (not just wrinkles but different styles), hair, anatomy, poses (single/group and couples for variety), scenes and backgrounds and perspective. Hair, anatomy and perspective is some of the hardest stuff to learn, so more on those can be really helpful. 
Maybe you can go into coloring and shading more.
I have to say that the first book came in handy. The height characters and how to draw the body helped me with a character design sheet and the perspective helped me a bit as well. Hardest part is drawing characters in birds eye and worms eye view.
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I kind of wished that you could do more tutorials on things like the bodies, maybe like the body in 3/4 view, because that is something I struggle with.
In response to your most recent video, "How to Draw Chest Muscles", you should/could do some pages on muscles or anatomy, for both girls and boys. I liked the pages that had like 50 hands and feet, but I kind of wished that you could actually do a tutorial on the basics of drawing a hand or foot.
Maybe you could also do some clothing/fashion designs, because when I look through my art, the same outfits appear in a lot of them. :/
And for people that don't watch your Youtube, you could maybe put in some stuff that you cover in your videos, like your hoodie tutorials, chibi tutorials, landscape tutorials, and so on and so forth.
As far as your first book went, I actually really like it. I have it sitting right here next to me at this very moment.
It comes in handy A LOT when I am trying to work through an art block, or when I just don't know when to draw, I'll pull it out. As far as the content, it was very helpful. I liked that you went the extra mile and showed how to draw some bigger people and children. I learned a lot from the perspective drawing, and I impressed a lot of my friends by drawing some pretty cool landscapes, though I'm not very good at it.
Sorry for all of my blabbing, but when I saw that you might be making a new How-To book, I was really excited!! 
Your tutorials are very helpful and informative. I hope you continue making your books and videos for years to come Mr. Mark Crilley!
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1) Probably expand on different styles. Whilst the style in the original was very effective, it only detailed one style and didn't leave for much variety.
2) Possibly things like Mecha, Monsters or Kenonomimi? They are recognised classics in manga and would go a long way with the fantasy/sci-fi enthusiasts. Some techniques like shading weren't covered so that would be a huge help.
3) Personally, I would want beginners. But bearing in mind that there is more people at an advanced stage, I will say to aim for a 50-50. Or have the best of both worlds for the reader and do one half of the book with the basics and divide the other half for advanced readers. Of course this means more work, but you are the author/artist so it is you that has the final say.
4)I have seen the first book, and as well as it being informative and helpful, it was a damn good read for an instruction book.
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I have mastering manga, it is very good. I think a little more on action poses and perspective poses would be great, like characters stretching an arm toward the viewer or 'looking down' onto the character (not just the head).
Maybe a step by step on characters from a reverse pose or poses that show their back or their upper body turned in one direction of another.
Shading (lighting and texture), particularly on the hair, would be nice. The more simple vs the realistic gradient like shading, highlights, lowlights etc.
Maybe a small mention/advice on how to make your characters unique would be nice too. A lot of the times i look at mine or another person's drawings, and think...hey its generic anime girl. Like what kind of elements can you change to give them pop or personality beyond hair style (like jewelery, tattoos, hair pieces, scars, etc), or even in their manner/bearing.
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i think you could put more work on how to draw positions
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Hmm, since now, you have done two Hoodie videos...maybe them? Or types of hats? Thank you :3
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In the second book, I would really like some more foot and hand views. The ones you had in the first book were awesome~! But, I really wanted to see the basics for setting up your own hand pose / foot pose and all.
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Hey, Mr Crilley!
I bought my Mastering Manga couple months ago and thought Amazon.com wouldnt send to my country; so I sent to my mother's friends in Canada. Well, they look like they're quite busy, because they couldnt send me my book yet. I'm really anxious
Anyway, I've been trying to draw following different artist's steps, to find my way on how to draw, to find my style. I'm quite good with Oda-sensei style, so I passed to the newest Rumiko Takahashi's manga - InuYasha. She uses different tecnics to show degradee colors. I mean, when she wants something dark, she uses a lot of little dots instead of just inking lighter. I would like to see this different way of inking.
Also, she uses that straight lines to show movement. I'd like to see that too, how to show that something is moving, is attacking, etc. Also I'd love nature and background elements, like rain, forest, rivers (I have a problem drawing water)...
I think you can be always ballanced. I am a fan of shonen and I'd also like a advanced book, but there's people that enjoy the shojo and need the basics yet. So, yeah, balance.
Sorry for long post or something that's already in the first book.
Thanks for everything, Mark-sensei!!
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I haven't got the other book yet, but I would like to see:
1.the use of different manga/comic frames & effects.
2.real life anatomy compared to manga anatomy with detail.
3.environments & landscapes.
4.animals & mythical creatures.
5.advanced poses & character models.
6.textures & wrinkles in clothes & other materials beside clothes.
If you already got it in the other book don't worry about it that much. All I want is an advanced version of it if you did.
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I liked the first book a lot, but there were a couple things... Sorry if I'm not answering every question, or in order:
1) I would've liked to see a bigger section on clothes. You show wrinkles and stuff pretty well in your videos, but I'd like to see a more in depth look at different types of fabrics.
2) A more detailed section on backgrounds and environments would be cool. I remember seeing the section showing a finished page of Brody's Ghost, after all the steps, and I thought "Wow, I want to learn how to draw the kind of detailed backgrounds like this one". It was really impressive.
3) I felt like there wasn't enough emphasis on how to draw hair, especially long/really long hair. There was a few pages showing hairstyles, but not enough going through how to make them.
4) I feel like the next book should be a little more advanced, but not too much. Mostly just adding even more detail. The different types of people seemed a little plain to me (which I understand because there has to be a starting point) but maybe a focus on general body types and ages with more of a focus on poses and positioning would be nice.
I liked Mastering Manga a lot, don't get me wrong. I'll buy the second book if it gets made, but I feel like there could be a little more detail.
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oooh! I would soooo buy this! I love the first one 0_0
maybe you could go more in depth with hairstyle tips, or making noise? Or maybe even the proportion styles?
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More on different body types! You did large and skinny, but not curvy, or how he body differs if you're short or tall. My favourite pages were the 30 common manga poses, as they're great reference. Maybe some more?
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I haven't read the book yet, but I would love to see a tutorial on how to draw characters with musical instruments. Particularly the violin, flute, and guitar.
C:
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In the second book maybe you could put in a bit more of how you do perspectives, and how to put your character in it.
And maybe some different styles in clothing, such as the steampunk video you did
But these are just minor suggestions, I'm sure you will make a great book anyway
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Well, I don't have your book, but now that I've seen this I'd love to go see if I can find it in my library. I guess I'll just answer the last question, then.
I think the thing most difficult to me is the way clothes move. Cover the different fabrics and materials, what wrinkles are always there, and your tips on draping and clutched clothing. And I'm sure you've covered this part, but an ear in detail?
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I haven't been following too closely with what's been suggested/requested... But maybe a section on animals and creatures would be interesting to see.
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Answer to questions considered. (sorry if I'm doing this like a list e_e lol )
1st: Maybe the segments about poses and facial expressions would be nice.
2: how to draw facial hair/big beards(something like that xD) and dynamic poses would be awesome!
3: Not really much to improve in this excellent book lol, but maybe someone out there wants a step by step on how to draw out those classic 30 poses?
4: A balance of two is always great
5: Well maybe I should omit this question, since I have your book lol But, I say go over drawing eyeglasses. I saw the video on that one but it would be nice to have it in the next book too
Hope to see this new book soon!
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