Mastering Manga 2: Level Up with Mark Crilley

This book is the second in an amazing series. All three are very necessary and useful for learning how to draw manga-style, design characters or create a comic book series. They are not only limited to manga style, either. My favorite thing about these books is how they challenge the worst things manga often brings, like body shaming and lack of ethnic diversity. The books show how to draw black characters, though they are not usually featured in manga. They also show how to draw fuller-figured characters, in a way that is completely respectful. While they help you learn to draw, they also instill values that are sorely lacking for many artists. They show you how to draw action, but not gore, and they show you how to create romance, but not heavy sexual content. This book goes more into character design, perspective, poses and especially how to format manga/comics to keep readers interested. All in all, I highly recommend all three books.

Like the first Mastering Manga, the target audience of this book are those looking to start drawing manga. It is written with the assumption that the person has a basic background in drawing, but that is not necessarily required for the majority of the book. Recommended for 13+ unsupervised; assistance for younger users may be needed.Highlights:- The book is set in sequence for drawing (head, different hair and facial styles, bodies, poses, environment).- Step-by-step instructions on how to draw heads, body parts, poses/movement, and environments are provided.- Less focus on sexualization of characters compared to other manga guides.- Explanation of environment and character integration (to include step-by-step how-to) is provided.- Faces and drawings more detailed than first book.Concerns- The material is drawn more towards Shojo Manga, but can be adapted to other styles.- Some material is similar to first, but others different, meaning that one may want to start with the first Mastering Manga.- Drawing of some poses, styles, and faces/hair/emotions not included from first volume.- There are jumps in skill between parts that will give issues to younger audiences and those with less patience.- Increase in drawing complexity may be more difficult for newcomers to pick up compared to the first volume.- As with most Manga drawings, those with practice/experience in drawing will have an easier time and less practice needed than those without experience.- Other thoughts:- Unlike some other Manga books, I wouldn't be concerned with giving this book to a thirteen-year-old to start them off with drawing Manga.- You will need paper with no lines, a pencil, eraser, and a pen of some sort. You may also want a ruler and wide variety of colors for a fine-tip pen set.- I included a couple of drawings that I did to show the difference that two months of practice and the two books accomplishes.

I liked this book, it's a great reference book cause it has a lot of different poses and clothing types! I liked the clothing folds page very much, haven't seen it in a drawing book before and their great references! this book doesn't go super super into detail about basic shapes and turning them into body parts and junk, it's more of a copying with steps and some instructionthat's not a bad thing, it's just not the best book if you wanna learn more of how and beginning shapes with every detail along the way, more of a practice book with lots of poses to practice on along with a lot of references to help out beginner artists. but I think this book is great for learning all basic different things for manga/anime, not only does it teach bodies of both genders and lots of poses, but it also goes into detail on clothing folds, chibis, and even has a handful of cool backgrounds to learn!

In the intro, Crilley says he did his best to make this 'a real how-to-draw-manga' book, meaning an emphasis on conveying narrative rather than just drawing manga-style characters as art. There are sections that explain his process start to finish, planning a panel, composition, sequencing, inking, page layout and more. I especially liked the section on using point of view to convey narrative purpose.The bulk of the book focuses on drawing characters, both male and female. Some of the basics do overlap with volume I, like basic proportions of the body/face. However this book includes variations such as a worm's eye view, sitting, a standing kiss and foreshortened views. The harder poses are a good continuation as a level-up from volume I, but the instructions are clear enough that I think beginners could follow them if they take their time to get it right.I follow the author's Youtube channel and I've noticed that his style has evolved a bit since the first book was written. Lately he seems to be doing more traditionally realistic drawings, many of which are quite impressive. However, this book is more rooted in the manga style. I've read some criticisms of the first book that say it's not authentically Japanese enough, but personally I like that he portrays people of different ethnicities and ages, which I haven't seen as much in the Japanese books I have.Both volumes of Mastering Manga are good, but if you can only get one, consider what you want to learn. This book would be a better choice if you want to learn more about putting together a full story, whereas the first book had more examples of variations for details such as hands or eyes. Each book does stand on its own, so get both if you can.

You can't go wrong with this book, yet another useful, fun to read book by Mark Crilley!This book not only contains a lot of reference but other than the reference pages every single drawing in this has plenty of steps that take it slow so you don't lag behind like many other books. This is extremely useful for a beginner like myself, when I finished a drawing and shaded it i felt very satisfied that the steps made it much easier to draw than other books.Ontop of that every page has plenty of explaining on the steps and what you will be drawing.For a beginner you CANNOT go wrong with this book I'd get it as soon as you can, with the very useful addition of the environment page and many new additions to the previous book. Mark Crilley manages to make every page seem fresh and not like he is repeating himself from the previous book which is nice since I know I'm getting my monies worth.I thank Mark Crilley for writing this it has helped me a lot with my drawing!

I bought both this and the first edition in order to gain valuable insights into how exactly to create decent looking manga characters. There's plenty of good tutorial, tips and examples in this book to get you started, beginners need not beware, it is easy to understand and starts off slow and simple, how to draw eyes, how to draw a basic head at various angles etc. Eventually it progresses quite naturally into more in-depth lessons, literally, as it teaches you the basics of perspective, foreshortening and creating 'space' in which to place your action. It will teach you how to give your creations more character, more depth to the environments you put them in, and how to add details like wet clothes, rain, and other tricks of the trade. It is by no means a fully comprehensive guide on everything you need to know, for instance it seems to be geared towards traditional pencil and paper art, if you are creating digitally you will need further instruction on how to do line art, colour, and add effects as this features nothing on such things at all. As a guide to the fundamental design and creation of characters and environments in this particular style though it has been of great help and I still refer to it regularly when embarking upon a new project.

This is an absolutely brilliant book. It really helps you tell your story for comic drawing, putting things into perspective, how to colour things correctly, add drama and more importantly how to build your story board from scratch through to the finished product. My favourite book of the 3 so far. Just wondering if & when there'll be a Manga4. I do hope so.

My 12 year old son is very artistic and has recently gotten into manga in a big way. This book has really helped him develop his manga style of drawing. It is very noticeable how much his drawings have improved having learnt from the book.The book itself is very well designed and presented, with lots of illustrations and easy to follow lessons. Other similar books can be a bit on the basic or simplistic side, but Mark Crilley's is entry level but done well. He covers many aspects of manga style drawing and is both encouraging and inspiring.If my son is anything to go by, it works. My son is now a Crilley fan and if he becomes a successful artist himself, I'm sure he'll cite him as an early influence!

Book 1 is a great entry level course on drawing manga. But book 2 expands on many of the lessons and gives a crash course into drawing techniques and character design.