Draw Manga Faces for Expressive Characters: Learn to Draw More Than 900 Faces

So I got this book along with the “Drawing Facial Expressions” book from the “How to Create Manga” series (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” (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” (NOT 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.

I bought this cause I wanted to learn how to draw different facial expressions than the ones I usually draw in this helps a lot I’m still learning😊

Okay, this is a review from a digital comic artist's perspective. First of all, I am a self-taught mangaka (manga artist) living here in Japan. I bought this because I need a good reference book for facial expressions.For those who didnt know, this book was originally Japanese, but I am not a Japanese reader/speaker so I was so grateful they had this book translated to English. It's now Easier to understand.The size of the book was larger than I expected, which is a big PLUS for me.Theres a lot of example pictures shown for each expressions. Even different expressions for different age group (baby to elderly) were shown here. I learn a lot from this book. I always have this beside me, when I work on my comics on everyday basis.PS: There are colored illustrations at the back with a little bit sexualize poses BUT STILL SHOWS DIFFERENTFACIAL EXPRESSIONS. If you are easily offended on those pictures, then good luck to you. This is a translated Japanese book and this is part of the manga culture, so bear with it.All in all, whether you are a beginner, or an advance manga artist like me, I highly recommend having this baby to be part of your learning tools in drawing. As for me, I can't draw my comics without this by my side.

The media could not be loaded. Wow! Like one of the best expression books out there. Even if you are not looking to draw Anime, this expression book is super helpful. I am a professional artist and when drawing expressive people there is only so much of looking at my face in the mirror I can take, to try to capture the right expression. 😄Each page is filled with expressions and it is broken out by category so it’s easier to find the facial expression you are looking for. The book was much thicker than I expected it to be. Most how to draw books are a little thinner, so great value for your money.The one con is that at the end of the book there are some full color painting style illustrations of girls in provocative poses. Doesn’t fit with the rest of the book at all, so clearly someone wasn’t thinking right when they added those in there. I simply pulled out my handy exacto knife, cut those pages out and tossed them. Now the book is perfect. ☺️

I think this is an infinitely better 'how to draw manga' book than the typical one, and I particularly like that it's by an actual Japanese artist. There are so many 'how to draw manga' books where the Western artist obviously has this very, very shallow idea of what 'manga' looks like, and they'll have disproportionate, frankly ugly cartoon characters with oversized eyes, because they don't understand the actual aesthetic or have any respect for the rules. (The real telltale sign, imho, is when all the lines in a manga character are of equal thickness, as if even basic cartooning rules have been thrown out the window.)There ARE some too-rigid 'rules' presented in this book still -- it leans a bit heavily on the idea that female characters should always have bigger eyes than male characters, which just is not true in all manga styles -- but I think the overall effect of all the different ages and expressions gives you a solid grounding in the fundamentals of learning the style, as well as putting your own spin on it. :)