Following the success of Fantasy Workshop, the ImagineFX team turns to manga art for fantasy artists who want to progress to the next level. With reference to creative painting programs (including Photoshop, Illustrator, and Corel Painter), this must-have guide explains, with the aid of screen grabs, how to progress from basic “pencil” roughs to first-stage line art and finished color art. From creating characters, scenes, and close-ups to designing your own digital paintings using the most up-to-date techniques, Manga lays out the tools to do it all.
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149 reviews for Manga: The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Digital Painting Techniques (ImagineFX)
4.2out of 5
★★★★★
★★★★★
6
★★★★★
1
★★★★★
2
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★★★★★
Tiara –
I actually wanted to give this 4 1/2 stars, but I guess it’s not possible on this website. I ordered 3 books on the same day in hopes that it would help me get better at many different aspects of my art. Out of all of those books this was definitely my favorite. This is definitely a book for novice to expert manga artists. And in my opinion touched every aspect on every major area of manga. From reasons why manga eyes are drawn the way they are to composing your own manga/comic page.
I enjoyed the gallery area at the begining, but would have preferred some of those artworks have a tutorial/tips to go with it. All the tutorials/tips were great, but seemed pretty bland when it came to backgrounds. Don’t get me wrong, their art looked great and they’re all way better than me. But there were only a couple of images that didn’t have some kind of texture background. And even less went into detail about the background. By detail, I mean why place the character in that area/place/location, what kind of message are you trying to send, does the picture as a whole make sense? While a lot of the pictures were pretty, they were just that pretty. They didn’t really tell a story.
I was a little dispointed when I looked inside only to realise the cover image is not one of the images chosen to give tips, but quickly forgot about it when I continued flipping through the book. I chose not to include beginners in my comment, because most begginers lack basic or at least decent anatomy skills(not to say all the drawings in the book were anatomically correct) as well as an understanding of light, shadows, and color (although there is a “Manga for beginners” section at the front of the book) All of which can make or break an image. I feel this book could have been a little bit better with an area for color theory or atleast more of an insight as to why the featured artists chose the colors they chose. Although on pg. 73 one artist talks a little bit about complementary colors.
All in all it was a great book, that I don’t regret buying. I would definitely recommend this to others. I may even consider buying one of the next books.
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★★★★★
Kilyén Balázs –
At first sight, i was amazed by the quality of the product. The artwork and pictures are amazing even if you dont personally like manga-anime style.
For me it was a bit useless actually, but might come in handy later on. 1, It clearly assumes, you know a bit of digital painting, and know how to draw atleast a decent line art. 2, It does NOT detail how and what you should exacly do, but instead it describes how other (professional) artists do the process. 3, It assumes you are using Photoshop or Painter. 4, It does not detail manga and anime, but it does perfecly describe what is the differance, and what should you keep in mind to get the desired Manga ish feeling.
Considering, it was not for me, i still found a LOT of usefull things, and gained a lot of insight abaut the process i should know later on. So dont know how to digitally paint, or to draw, and want to learn form this…dont buy it. If you do know how to digitally paint, and draw, why would you buy it? So the whole product got me confused a bit, why does it even exist? In the end i assume it offers some decent tips to people who alredy nkow atleast something, and guides them to the path they should take.
Helpful(0)Unhelpful(0)You have already voted this
★★★★★
Athi –
Ce livre qui à pour sujet le Digital Painting sur le manga est juste sublime. Dans ce livre, on peut y retrouver les noms des artistes, page web où l’on peut aller voir toutes leurs autres oeuvres des artiste du livre, le pays d’où ils sont et leur adresse mail pour les contacter. Certaines partie du livres nous indique dans un anglais très compréhensible et pas vraiment soutenu quelques astuces et techniques pour par exemple faire les yeux ronds des personnages, nez etc… Je l’ai trouvé très instructif et intéressant, c’est 208 pages où on nous en mets pleins les yeux, un pur régal. De plus, le livre est très qualitatif. Pour tous les passionnés, je conseille de l’avoir précieusement entre les mains pour le lire et avoir le privilège de l’avoir dans sa bibliothèque.
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★★★★★
Parka –
Quizás un poco caro para lo poco que da. Éste libro se vende básicamente por la portada hecha por el gran artista Stanley Lau (Artgerm).
El libro se vende bajo la presida de ser “la última guía para ser un maestro en las técnicas del dibujo digital” y es cierto que podemos encontrar en su interior artistas como “Loish” o “Saejin Oh”, pero también hay mucho principiante.
Los tutoriales de los grandes autores son cortos y pobres (o directamente no los hay), y los tutoriales que son largos y detallados, los realizan en su mayoría los autores principiantes.
No quiero terminar sin dejar algo positivo, y es que al fin y al cabo, el libro sí es una recopilación de consejos de artistas y siempre es bueno conocer sus trucos.
Helpful(0)Unhelpful(0)You have already voted this
★★★★★
Vicente –
It’s a western art book, with very few pages dedicated to comic book art, and even less pages dedicated towards eastern Manga.
Not a single mention of greyscale pages, contrast or panel layout. Not a single Japanese native mangaka featured…afew oriental artists are featured but they all draw in a clearly western digital art style for movies and video games
Helpful(0)Unhelpful(0)You have already voted this
★★★★★
John Dandell –
This is an amazing art book with inspiring examples. Not quite step by step, but it wasn’t meant to be. Most books aren’t these days and you should find a real teacher if you are interested in drawing at all. But this book is cool! Details like how to paint latex convincingly give a small window into the artist’s mind. This book isn’t just one person with one style and that makes it valuable and fun. I picked this up because its a thick book with excellent examples that aren’t 90s anime stereotyped. This is a really attractive book that tries to show you the importance of detail in illustration. Any art book that has great illustrations that inspire you should be picked up. You can always open them up for reference and see what your drawings may be missing. I’m really glad I bought this.
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★★★★★
Chris D. –
Great book arrived the next day when I am expecting it to arrived for 7 more days…. Awesome book for both beginners and intermediate and Great Price too!!!
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★★★★★
MrWilson –
The media could not be loaded.
The contents of this book actually come from one of the special ‘How to Draw and Paint’ issues of Imaginefx magazine titled simply as Manga. It was popular and sold out but now you have the book. There aren’t much differences except for the layout since this is a square format book, and there’s no disc included.
This is not a starter guide to drawing manga so it’s not really for beginners. You’ll need basic knowledge on manga drawing, figure drawing essentially, if you want to get most out of the book.
The book covers, as the title suggest, digital painting techniques that are used for creating manga. You need to be able to draw first so that you have something to scan in before you can apply the techniques taught, stuff like adding colours and textures.
The first two tutorials feature quick tips to help make your drawings more manga-like. They are presented in a series of points, that you can sort of use as a checklist of ideas to think about when you’re drawing.
The other tutorials are workshops that present a step-by-step look at how the artists create their illustrations. The software used are Photoshop and Painter. Again, you should have some basic knowledge of those two software. That way, you can follow along what they are saying. The commentary is clear and also covers the artistic parts like using colours schemes, creating shadows, or creating some special effects like depth of field blur, glowing effects etc.
It’s an informative book where artists freely share their digital tricks and tips. The insight will probably come from discovering what you can do digitally.
Recommended to artists who are just past the beginner stage trying to pick up new digital drawing skills.
Here’s the list of contents: 1. Manga Gallery 2. Manga For Beginners – Get Under the Skin of Manga (Saejin Oh) – Essential Manga Tips (Joanna Zhou) – The Cherry Blossom Girl (Joanna Zhou) – Brush Up On Your Portrait Skills (Lois Van Baarle) 3. Character Creation – Paint a Dynamic Manga Character (Chester Ocampo) – The Greatest Waveracer (Michael Chomicki) – The Spear and the Spell (Chester Ocampo) 4. Manga Style – The Painted Princess (Hoang Nguyen) – She Dreams of Lilac (Joanna Zhou) – Mistress of the Elements (Aileen Strauch) – Flight of the Warriors (Sinad Jaruartjanapat) – The Music of Life and Death (Madeleine Rosca) 5. Fantasy and Sci-fi – The Way of the Warrior (Cris De Lara) – The Saga of the Scout (Michael Chang Ting Yu) – Create and Render a Robot Concept (Keith Thompson) – Mecha’s Heart (Saejin Oh) – The Girl and the Katana Guardian (Patipat Asavasena) 6. Comic Panels – Draw and Ink a Manga Comic Page (Joanna Zhou) – Create a Comic Ready For Print (Jamie Mckelvie)
(There are more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)
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★★★★★
Chris D. –
While there may be some good tips and trips in the book, the choice of some of the subjects is not appropriate for younger audiences. See the attached as a representative example…there are many more of that variety.
Helpful(0)Unhelpful(0)You have already voted this
★★★★★
Willie jimenez –
this was a great find… it really is a complete book with lots of examples on how to digitally paint or color in manga illustrations. also a lot of great artist contributed to the making of this book. each with their own style and techniques. it’s really fun to see how many different ways to do the same thing. it encourages you to try stuff out and see what works best for you. which is better then trying it just one way and it not working and you never try doing it again. which is the case for a lot of people when trying art after they become adults.
really basic and best for guys starting out but a must have. I feel if your gonna do digital painting you should do cartoon and anime style before you can move on to do more realistic illustrations later. also great book if your still trying to figure out what your style is.
Helpful(0)Unhelpful(0)You have already voted this
★★★★★
Justin R –
This is a very useful with a little bit of everything. It doesn’t dive too deep into any one particular topic but has all of the right elements to get the job done. It as items such as artist q&a’s and pro secrets, which are invaluable. A well written guide that has proved to be useful. Grade: ‘A’.
Tiara –
I actually wanted to give this 4 1/2 stars, but I guess it’s not possible on this website. I ordered 3 books on the same day in hopes that it would help me get better at many different aspects of my art. Out of all of those books this was definitely my favorite. This is definitely a book for novice to expert manga artists. And in my opinion touched every aspect on every major area of manga. From reasons why manga eyes are drawn the way they are to composing your own manga/comic page.
I enjoyed the gallery area at the begining, but would have preferred some of those artworks have a tutorial/tips to go with it. All the tutorials/tips were great, but seemed pretty bland when it came to backgrounds. Don’t get me wrong, their art looked great and they’re all way better than me. But there were only a couple of images that didn’t have some kind of texture background. And even less went into detail about the background. By detail, I mean why place the character in that area/place/location, what kind of message are you trying to send, does the picture as a whole make sense? While a lot of the pictures were pretty, they were just that pretty. They didn’t really tell a story.
I was a little dispointed when I looked inside only to realise the cover image is not one of the images chosen to give tips, but quickly forgot about it when I continued flipping through the book. I chose not to include beginners in my comment, because most begginers lack basic or at least decent anatomy skills(not to say all the drawings in the book were anatomically correct) as well as an understanding of light, shadows, and color (although there is a “Manga for beginners” section at the front of the book) All of which can make or break an image. I feel this book could have been a little bit better with an area for color theory or atleast more of an insight as to why the featured artists chose the colors they chose. Although on pg. 73 one artist talks a little bit about complementary colors.
All in all it was a great book, that I don’t regret buying. I would definitely recommend this to others. I may even consider buying one of the next books.
Kilyén Balázs –
At first sight, i was amazed by the quality of the product.
The artwork and pictures are amazing even if you dont personally like manga-anime style.
For me it was a bit useless actually, but might come in handy later on.
1, It clearly assumes, you know a bit of digital painting, and know how to draw atleast a decent line art.
2, It does NOT detail how and what you should exacly do, but instead it describes
how other (professional) artists do the process.
3, It assumes you are using Photoshop or Painter.
4, It does not detail manga and anime, but it does perfecly describe what is the differance, and
what should you keep in mind to get the desired Manga ish feeling.
Considering, it was not for me, i still found a LOT of usefull things, and gained a lot of insight abaut the process i should know later on.
So dont know how to digitally paint, or to draw, and want to learn form this…dont buy it. If you do know how to digitally paint, and draw, why would you buy it?
So the whole product got me confused a bit, why does it even exist? In the end i assume it offers some decent tips to people who alredy nkow atleast something, and guides them to the path they should take.
Athi –
Ce livre qui à pour sujet le Digital Painting sur le manga est juste sublime. Dans ce livre, on peut y retrouver les noms des artistes, page web où l’on peut aller voir toutes leurs autres oeuvres des artiste du livre, le pays d’où ils sont et leur adresse mail pour les contacter. Certaines partie du livres nous indique dans un anglais très compréhensible et pas vraiment soutenu quelques astuces et techniques pour par exemple faire les yeux ronds des personnages, nez etc… Je l’ai trouvé très instructif et intéressant, c’est 208 pages où on nous en mets pleins les yeux, un pur régal. De plus, le livre est très qualitatif. Pour tous les passionnés, je conseille de l’avoir précieusement entre les mains pour le lire et avoir le privilège de l’avoir dans sa bibliothèque.
Parka –
Quizás un poco caro para lo poco que da. Éste libro se vende básicamente por la portada hecha por el gran artista Stanley Lau (Artgerm).
El libro se vende bajo la presida de ser “la última guía para ser un maestro en las técnicas del dibujo digital” y es cierto que podemos encontrar en su interior artistas como “Loish” o “Saejin Oh”, pero también hay mucho principiante.
Los tutoriales de los grandes autores son cortos y pobres (o directamente no los hay), y los tutoriales que son largos y detallados, los realizan en su mayoría los autores principiantes.
No quiero terminar sin dejar algo positivo, y es que al fin y al cabo, el libro sí es una recopilación de consejos de artistas y siempre es bueno conocer sus trucos.
Vicente –
It’s a western art book, with very few pages dedicated to comic book art, and even less pages dedicated towards eastern Manga.
Not a single mention of greyscale pages, contrast or panel layout. Not a single Japanese native mangaka featured…afew oriental artists are featured but they all draw in a clearly western digital art style for movies and video games
John Dandell –
This is an amazing art book with inspiring examples. Not quite step by step, but it wasn’t meant to be. Most books aren’t these days and you should find a real teacher if you are interested in drawing at all. But this book is cool! Details like how to paint latex convincingly give a small window into the artist’s mind. This book isn’t just one person with one style and that makes it valuable and fun. I picked this up because its a thick book with excellent examples that aren’t 90s anime stereotyped. This is a really attractive book that tries to show you the importance of detail in illustration. Any art book that has great illustrations that inspire you should be picked up. You can always open them up for reference and see what your drawings may be missing. I’m really glad I bought this.
Chris D. –
Great book arrived the next day when I am expecting it to arrived for 7 more days…. Awesome book for both beginners and intermediate and Great Price too!!!
MrWilson –
The media could not be loaded.
The contents of this book actually come from one of the special ‘How to Draw and Paint’ issues of Imaginefx magazine titled simply as Manga. It was popular and sold out but now you have the book. There aren’t much differences except for the layout since this is a square format book, and there’s no disc included.
This is not a starter guide to drawing manga so it’s not really for beginners. You’ll need basic knowledge on manga drawing, figure drawing essentially, if you want to get most out of the book.
The book covers, as the title suggest, digital painting techniques that are used for creating manga. You need to be able to draw first so that you have something to scan in before you can apply the techniques taught, stuff like adding colours and textures.
The first two tutorials feature quick tips to help make your drawings more manga-like. They are presented in a series of points, that you can sort of use as a checklist of ideas to think about when you’re drawing.
The other tutorials are workshops that present a step-by-step look at how the artists create their illustrations. The software used are Photoshop and Painter. Again, you should have some basic knowledge of those two software. That way, you can follow along what they are saying. The commentary is clear and also covers the artistic parts like using colours schemes, creating shadows, or creating some special effects like depth of field blur, glowing effects etc.
It’s an informative book where artists freely share their digital tricks and tips. The insight will probably come from discovering what you can do digitally.
Recommended to artists who are just past the beginner stage trying to pick up new digital drawing skills.
Here’s the list of contents:
1. Manga Gallery
2. Manga For Beginners
– Get Under the Skin of Manga (Saejin Oh)
– Essential Manga Tips (Joanna Zhou)
– The Cherry Blossom Girl (Joanna Zhou)
– Brush Up On Your Portrait Skills (Lois Van Baarle)
3. Character Creation
– Paint a Dynamic Manga Character (Chester Ocampo)
– The Greatest Waveracer (Michael Chomicki)
– The Spear and the Spell (Chester Ocampo)
4. Manga Style
– The Painted Princess (Hoang Nguyen)
– She Dreams of Lilac (Joanna Zhou)
– Mistress of the Elements (Aileen Strauch)
– Flight of the Warriors (Sinad Jaruartjanapat)
– The Music of Life and Death (Madeleine Rosca)
5. Fantasy and Sci-fi
– The Way of the Warrior (Cris De Lara)
– The Saga of the Scout (Michael Chang Ting Yu)
– Create and Render a Robot Concept (Keith Thompson)
– Mecha’s Heart (Saejin Oh)
– The Girl and the Katana Guardian (Patipat Asavasena)
6. Comic Panels
– Draw and Ink a Manga Comic Page (Joanna Zhou)
– Create a Comic Ready For Print (Jamie Mckelvie)
(There are more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)
Chris D. –
While there may be some good tips and trips in the book, the choice of some of the subjects is not appropriate for younger audiences. See the attached as a representative example…there are many more of that variety.
Willie jimenez –
this was a great find… it really is a complete book with lots of examples on how to digitally paint or color in manga illustrations. also a lot of great artist contributed to the making of this book. each with their own style and techniques. it’s really fun to see how many different ways to do the same thing. it encourages you to try stuff out and see what works best for you. which is better then trying it just one way and it not working and you never try doing it again. which is the case for a lot of people when trying art after they become adults.
really basic and best for guys starting out but a must have. I feel if your gonna do digital painting you should do cartoon and anime style before you can move on to do more realistic illustrations later. also great book if your still trying to figure out what your style is.
Justin R –
This is a very useful with a little bit of everything. It doesn’t dive too deep into any one particular topic but has all of the right elements to get the job done. It as items such as artist q&a’s and pro secrets, which are invaluable. A well written guide that has proved to be useful. Grade: ‘A’.