What is the best book to learn how to draw manga?

"What is the best book to learn how to draw manga" is a pretty common question. As I already explained in my "Best way to learn to draw Manga" article I believe the best you can possibly do is to redraw characters and pages from your favorite manga comics and try to memorize the shapes of different things from different angles so you can draw them again later from memory.

However if there is one book I really like it has to be How to draw better Moe characters. It is very instructional and teaches you how to draw characters from many different angles and in perspective. This is one of the most important skills to have if you want to draw truly good looking characters and unfortunately many books either ignore it or treat it very lightly. As far as I know this book hasn’t yet been translated into English but there are tons of illustrations on every page and the pictures are self-explanatory. “How to draw better Moe characters” is focused on the Moe (cute) manga drawing style but also has a good amount of anatomy as well as computer shading and coloring info on top of this.

By now it probably isn’t really obvious why I like it so much but I am sure you will understand once you check the samples on the page. This is definitely the best looking HTDM book drawn by professionals that could be compared to (and who might actually be) top artists in the game and manga industry. So if you like the art in games like Disgaea or Final Fantasy 9 you are going to love this book. It’s so much more fun to learn to draw from a book that has great looking characters and to be inspired and challenged by the professional and confident way they were drawn.

Last time I checked it cost ¥1,890 which is about $19. I'm sure you can find it at:www.amazon.co.jp