The Complete Guide to Drawing Action Manga Drawing Book by Shoco & Makoto Sawa

The Complete Guide to Drawing Action Manga by Shoco & Makoto Sawa

Whether your character is jumping for joy, kicking and grappling with an opponent, or fighting to the death with sword in hand, this book provides all the essential techniques to draw more lifelike action figures in the classic Japanese manga style. The introduction first shows the reader the physical anatomy of both male and female figures and gives important tips on how to scale out proportions, perspective as well as, small but often-overlooked details, such as the differences between how male and female hands, fingers and feet look and are drawn.

With five subsequent chapters, this book covers over 40 action poses in the following categories:

Chapter 1: General motions and movements like running and jumping,

Chapter 2:  Covering basic fighting movements and positions such as punching and kicking,

Chapter 3: Facing off with an opponent or a rival with martial arts, throws, lifts, high fives and other such actions, 

Chapter 4: Looking at poses wit  figures holding weapons for example; swords, spears, knives and hammers, 

Chapter 5: And finally, how characters react to an opponent, for example, dodging a punch or taking impact from an attack. Each pose and movement is illustrated with a rough sketch outline followed by a highlighted manga drawing containing detailed annotations by the author. After studying the sketches, you can practice the drawing techniques in a tracing section at the end of each chapter.

Each chapter also provides professional tips on the use of colour and shading for greater realism.

About the Author:

shoco is a Japanese manga artist and illustrator born in 1990. During a year in Paris as an exchange student, she spent nearly every day in the Louvre, constantly inspired by the artwork around her. She also spent a year studying art at the P.I. Art Center in New York. She has won numerous awards for her manga in Japan, which include The Rose and the Stray Dog and Samurai Lover. She is currently working on a new project.

Japanese manga artist Makoto Sawa is best known in his home country for his work on the SQ.Crown and Blue Striker manga series.