Shojo Fashion Manga Art School: How to Draw Cool Looks and Characters

Make sure this book is on your shelf! If you want to learn to draw a diverse cast of character, then this book is a necessity. For me, there’s not much in here that I haven’t already learned in six years of drawing manga, but it serves as a fantastic reference book.

It teaches about styles without skimping on any detail or explanation and covers a wide range of subjects (along with it’s sequel, Year 2), and if I’d owned this book earlier on in my years, I think I’d have made several jumps in ability with speed.

Irene doesn’t limit herself to ‘pretty white girls’ like a lot of ‘how-to’ books do, and this book along with its sequel, restored my faith in how-to books. You will be shown people of all ethnicities, heights and weights, both men and women, girls and boys and between the two books, you’ll be taught about kid’s pyjamas, wedding clothes, MEN’S formal wear (rare find!) and plus-sized people!

I am not really a fan of the Manga look, apart from a couple of exceptions, but this book interested me with its approach to drawing clothing. In my own illustrations clothing is something that I find tricky to draw realistically but this book is one of the best guides to doing so that I have seen.
The first section of the book features drawing bodies, heads and faces- all in the manga style- so to be honest I wasn’t really interested in this section. However I had a read through and the step by step tutorials seemed to be very informative and covered quite a bit of ground including facial expressions.
The following section on drawing clothes was what I was most interested in and it didn’t disappoint. It began with looking at different types of fabric and materials and explained the best way to draw them. As the section progressed it went into further detail on as many different types of clothing as I could think of including skirts, sweaters, shirts, jeans and coats. These were interspersed with mini tutorials on things like drawing ruffled skirts and quilted fabric. As well as the extensive range of clothing there were also lessons on drawing many different kinds of accessories.
The back end of the book gives you a few double page spreads of different types of manga characters and what to outfit them in giving you a chance to put all the previous lessons learned into practice. The final section demonstrates how to set a scene for your characters to live in and covers perspective and adding props.

Overall a very good book and not necessarily limited to fans of the Manga genre

This is a beautiful book! Apart from the clear descriptions of the basics, it stands out for the detailed and super creative designs for items of clothing and the great choices of colours.

It took a little time to get here but was very happy with what I got. Thanks!

I bought this as a Christmas present for my 10 year old grand-daughter and it was an instant hit – she just loves it. She finds it easy to understand and it has whetted her appetite for more – I am now looking at equipment to help with her drawing and painting of the manga characters. Brilliant book!

The cover of this book is very deceiving. At first glance you’d think it was a typical how-to book, but it’s honestly a lot more than that. I’m an experienced artist so that should be kept in mind during my review. Without further ado, let’s get started.

Before I get into the contents of the book itself, I’m going to do a small review on the art style. This isn’t your “typical manga style” It’s very unique and really fun to look at. While it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, it doesn’t affect how this book can teach you.

The first couple pages go over basic art supplies. It’s a basic beginning to any how-to book, but this artist shows you that you don’t really need any big fancy equipment to draw well. That’s something that I wish a lot more books would tell you, beginning artists tend to be overwhelmed by supplies or are misled to think that better supplies make you a better artist (which is not true). This artist goes over general art supplies such as pencils, pens, recommended erasers and paper, as well as brush pens.

There are then two pages on line weight which despite being such a small section has lots of nice little tips that would REALLY help out a beginning artist and even remind some of us more experienced artists.

Following those two pages is yet another two pages with this particular artist’s basic digital coloring process. A nice little addition, but not particularly an important part of this book. It felt a little like filler to me, but if nothing else, it’s a cute pose reference.

Now we start getting into the actual meat of the book. It starts to loosely go over basic human anatomy (the differences between males and females, legs, hands, feet, a small body type comparison, a bit of posing, some perspective)
Then it moves on to how to draw faces, eyes, noses, mouths and ears. Then it goes over some basic expressions and their progressions. It then goes through adding hair (with a nice little braid tutorial) and some different hair colors. All very nice little bits to help add some more personality to your characters. However, this isn’t what the book is about (as you can tell by the title).

Now at page 59 we start on what makes this book very unique, clothing. It starts out by teaching you about various fabric types including: stiff fabric, draping fabric, silks, short fur, long fur, corduroy, leather, vinyl, and rubber. While this isn’t a big section, it does give useful tips on how to make fabric look different with the strokes of a pen or pencil. Something that any artist can learn from. It then goes over different styles of shirts, sweaters, sweatshirts, coats, and blazers. While these aren’t step-by-step, they do make for good references and the artist gives little tips along the way. There’s then a small step-by-step of quilted and puffy fabric that even more experienced artists can learn from.

The book now moves onto different styles of pants, shorts, skirts, and swimwear. There aren’t many step-by-steps here either, but plenty of tips and references. We then move onto frilly and formal dresses (with a thrown in guide on lace that anyone can follow). Dresses are only touched on in this book, BUT in the second book there’s a lot more (I’ll be reviewing that book as well.)

We now move onto accessories such as hats, gloves, mittens, scarves, socks, slippers, sandals, sneakers, heels, and boots. A really nice part is that the shoes actually have step-by-step instructions. Feet and shoes are really difficult for beginning artists, and even experienced artists such as myself can struggle with these. The little tips and tricks included are very helpful. It goes over purses, bags, jewelry, and glasses next. There’s even a page on drawing umbrellas (which are seen all the time in manga.)

By now we’re on page 99, and nearing the end of the book. This last section goes over a few basic “stereotypical” school kids. It’s a cute little addition that teaches you how to add some differences between your characters. In this section there are also a couple step-by-step guides on drawing these characters interacting. The last few pages of the book go over some perspective with backgrounds and some nice little tips on making scenes to put your now fashionable characters in.

Final Words-
This is a really fantastic book overall with plenty of great tips and absolutely amazing references. The art style is unique, and I love it, if it puts you off though, DON’T WORRY. The style does NOT hinder your ability to learn what this book is really trying to teach you.

While I do think a beginner would benefit from this book, it will NOT teach you how to draw human bodies for the most part. Start out with something more general that will break down human anatomy for you, then move onto this book to help make your characters more unique and fashionable.

This book does have a bit more female fashion than male fashion, but overall it’s nothing that should turn you away from it. If you’re the kind of person that struggles with giving your characters different and unique clothing, this book will help you 100%. It does not include a section for undergarments however.

I easily recommend this book for anyone’s collection.

Usually, tutorial books are full of wiyabu/oktaku style art that you never see in actual published manga and don’t actually educate you in drawing as a whole. THIS book not only has applicable art, it’s SHOUJO art, which is very important for a fangirl like me ;). It’s easy to use, versatile, and is just generally awesomesauce. If you’re looking to get a shoujo, girly looking art out of your drawing, this will deffo help you on your way xxx