Book Review: Comickers Art 2

In Comickers Art 2, the subject is on sketching and human expression. Note that this is not a comprehensive sketching tutorial. The text explains the basic techniques and guidelines to sketching. For example, they say to consider the use of perspective in sketches, but they don't actually teach the technique itself. They just talk about the technique, which might be a little hard to grasp without visual examples. On the back cover, it says "A visual step-by-step guide to creating authentic manga characters". That's not accurate.

The main bulk of the book is on the featured artists, their interviews and sample of their work. In this series, the artists are Hiroshi Kanno, You Higuri, Eiji Usatsuka, Hiroshi Takahashi (wiki), Tenpo Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi, Kikoushi-Enma.

There's also a gallery named Hot New Talent. It contains illustrations from unknown artists. The quality of work here of course can't be compared to the featured artists.

At the back are a few pages of manga created exclusively for Comickers Art. They are, sadly, in Japanese so I have no idea what the story is about, even if the art itself is great. It's just a few pages anyway. The contributing manga artists are Shigeki Maeshima, Miou Takaya, Yoshimi Moriyama and Natsuko Mori.

The book finishes off with a few full page coloured illustrations from Kana Ohtsuki, Toromi, Tatsuyuki Tanaka, Yukihiro Nakamura. 7 pages.

The nice thing about this book is the interviews, which gives insight into the artists' workflow, the manga and animation industry.

If you like this book, check out other Comickers books too.

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