Review by Booklist Review
Hart's exhaustive drawing guides, which have already covered aspects of adventure, fantasy, cartooning and manga, branch out into the wildly popular romance manga in this new concentrated but complete effort. Chapters cover everything from expressions and scene staging to character interplay and eyes (one of manga's trademarks). Hart includes advice on basic draftsmanship (differentiating between your standard angry eyebrow and your intensely furious eyebrow) as well as more conceptual concerns (how choosing your camera angle determines the mood of your picture), providing readers with ample material to produce their own story. The explanations are necessarily brief to accommodate so much material, but they still remain accessible and precise. The diagrams are generally three-step schematics, which suffice for more basic lessons, but amateur artists may be a bit frustrated by the details left out from more complex pieces. Nevertheless, this overview of art production in a specialized genre is as thorough, and fun, as readers can hope to find.--Karp, Jesse Copyright 2008 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 6 Up-This crisply illustrated work aims to give aspiring cartoonists the basics of drawing as well as some of the trademark stylistic elements of the increasingly popular shojo style of romance manga. This work starts off with the basics of figure drawing, character design, and facial expressions for both female and male characters; special care is given to explain the details of creating those luminous eyes so popular in Japanese comics. Movement and perspective are given a brief explanation, and the chibi style of humorous facial expression is explained as well. Basics on creating costuming for characters (especially the famous schoolgirl uniform) are included; tips are also given for creating the popular "magical girl" characters a la Sailor Moon. The bishies of the title certainly aren't forgotten, and care is given to explain and depict some of the most common male characters. Advice on creating romantic and humorous scenarios, staging, and more essential elements of cartooning round off the work, along with a useful list of popular Japanese male and female names and some basic Japanese written characters commonly used in sound effects. Although not for advanced artists, this is nonetheless a wonderful introduction to the shojo style. A great first choice for creating a cartooning/drawing collection.-Dave Inabnitt, Brooklyn Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
