How to Create Manga: Drawing Facial Expressions: The Ultimate Bible for Beginning Artists (With Over 1,250 Illustrations) (How to Create Manga Guides)

So I got this book along with “Drawing Manga Faces for Expressive Characters” (I couldn’t decide between the two, so I ordered both to find out which one is better). Here’s my synopsis…

“Draw Manga Faces for Expressive Characters” (NOT THIS BOOK):
– The beginning of this book briefly covers the basics for drawing faces (like proportions and whatnot) from different angles – including frontal view, side profile and three-quarter angles, as well as high and low angles. It also covers the different ways that people of varying age/gender combinations express basic emotions (for example, the way a 10-12 year old boy cries looks a little different from that of a teenage boy).
– The book also goes over different character types and the kinds of faces they typically make… Character types include anti-heroes, villains, kind-hearted characters, troublemakers, etc.
– The bulk of the book is then broken down into two sections: positive and negative facial expressions. Each page shows sketches of different facial expressions typically used by boys, girls, men and women for each emotion. **As someone else stated in another review, this book is just a reference for different facial expressions, and it will NOT help you discover your drawing “style”. This book is valuable to artists who already know how to draw manga and are looking for ways to make their characters more expressive.**
– After that, the author goes into detail about the process she uses to create fully-colored manga illustrations (sketching, line drawing, color, shading, etc).
– Yes, there are a couple of busty/risqué illustrations of females in the back, but honestly, anyone who actually watches anime or reads manga knows that this sort of stuff can be found there. So if you got this book for your kid who watches anime/reads manga, chances are they’ve already seen something like that at least once. Also, if you feel like women are being objectified with these images, keep in mind that this book was actually written/illustrated by a woman. If these pages really bother you, just rip them out.

“Drawing Facial Expressions” (THIS BOOK):
– This book is a little bit less straightforward, and is broken into three main sections: “Basic expressions”, “Facial expressions that add color and detail” and “Animated expressions”. I won’t go into detail about the latter two, but
“Basic expressions” covers “joy”, “sadness”, “dislike”, “anger”, “surprise” and “fear”, and shows the basic structure of the face for each emotion as well as the various expressions associated with them (such as smiling, enjoyment/delight and laughter for the “joy” emotion). “Facial expressions that add color and detail” covers things like romance, food and drink (like savoring a taste or eating something that tastes bad), and resting. “Animated expressions” shows more animated versions of both positive and negative emotions.
– Each expression is illustrated from different angles, and includes variations for each expression (such as “feeling fainthearted” or “unease” – found under the “fear” emotion). Some of the expressions include symbols and how to use them (such as the vein-popping mark on the forehead to show agitation) and more cartoon-y examples (like chibi-style characters).
– Throughout the book, the authors added “Discussion” sections, that go into more detail about specific things… Such as “Using the body to express emotion” and “The difference between smiling and laughing”, and even artistic techniques for digital illustrations like “Using the brush to draw background effects” and “Changing the shape of the brush”.
– This book shows great examples of different character styles (likely because this book was written/illustrated by more than just one person), and can help a beginning manga artist discover a drawing style that works for them.

The book is filled with expressions. I like it very much.

Ho acquistato questo prodotto per aiutarmi nel mio lavoro di illustratrice in stile manga/ anime. Un buon libro, al suo interno ho trovato un gran numero di espressioni facciali con esempi e indicazioni utili. Non ci sono solo le espressioni classiche come triste, arrabbiato, felice etc, ma anche tante altre particolari, con relative varianti, meno frequenti ma certamente utili da conoscere e imparare. Avrebbero potuto osare ancora di più e aggiungerne tante altre, ma tutto sommato ci si può accontentare. Prezzo molto economico rispetto ad altri libri simili e ampiamente meritato. Lo consiglio.

Our daughter and her friends love to create little magna drawings, and I must say some of it already looked quite good. But her creations after reading and using the book showed a marked improvement.
This book, with its black and white prints takes the budding artists into the art of face drawing and expressions. The book is full of examples and explains things in a straightforward and clear manner. There are very helpful expert tips as well.
It has no step-by-step instructions, however the book provides examples that the reader can then apply in their own creations.
Given the quality of advice and dept of instruction this is very good value for money for both beginners and more accomplished illustrators.

My 11 year old loves it and it’s very detailed with the facial expressions. Definitely worth the buy. She’s super into drawing people and herself and friends right now so this is perfect. I know some parents worry about the anime type nearly nude stuff that pops up in some drawing books. Not the case with this one. The closest comparison I can come up with is Pokémon and how their characters are drawn.

I compared several Manga drawing books & was impressed with the colors, categories & tips in this one the most.
Purchased as a gift for my teen son, he looked through it before continuing to open presents and was also impressed…asking me to get others in series for future gifts.

So much detail and information. Every emotion drawn out and with all types of characters as a reference