Shojo Fashion- Manga art school

Shojo fashion- Manga art school   Irene Flores   Book review

I am not really a fan of the Manga look, apart from a couple of exceptions, but this book interested me with its approach to drawing clothing. In my own illustrations clothing is something that I find tricky to draw realistically but this book is one of the best guides to doing so that I have seen.

The first section of the book features drawing bodies, heads and faces- all in the manga style- so to be honest I wasn’t really interested in this section. However I had a read through and the step by step tutorials seemed to be very informative and covered quite a bit of ground including facial expressions.

The following section on drawing clothes was what I was most interested in and it didn’t disappoint. It began with looking at different types of fabric and materials and explained the best way to draw them. As the section progressed it went into further detail on as many different types of clothing as I could think of including skirts, sweaters, shirts, jeans and coats. These were interspersed with mini tutorials on things like drawing ruffled skirts and quilted fabric. As well as the extensive range of clothing there were also lessons on drawing many different kinds of accessories.

The back end of the book gives you a few double page spreads of different types of manga characters and what to outfit them in giving you a chance to put all the previous lessons learned into practice. The final section demonstrates how to set a scene for your characters to live in and covers perspective and adding props.

Overall a very good book and not necessarily limited to fans of the Manga genre