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The Master Guide to Drawing Anime: How to Draw Original Characters from Simple Templates
The first book in Christopher Hart’s bestselling Master Guide to Drawing Anime series—How to Draw Original Characters from Simple Templates is the essential guide for anyone who wants to learn how to draw anime, from the world’s leading author of How To Draw books.
Nothing brings anime artists more satisfaction than creating original characters to use in a comic strip or graphic novel. In this anime drawing book, bestselling how-to-draw author Christopher Hart helps them reach this goal by providing insight into the six most popular types of anime characters: schoolgirls, schoolboys, preteens, vengeful bad guys, humorous personalities, and fantasy figures. He supplies templates for each; an extensive array of “menus” of head and body types, outfits, and accessories; and detailed, accessible, step-by-step demonstrations and drawing exercises, making this the perfect reference for anyone who wants to learn to draw anime. Plus, Hart showcases some of the best anime artists in the world for this title—including Inma R., Tabby Kink, Ayame Shiroi, Euro Pinku, and Tina Francisco. It’s the guide every would-be anime artist has been looking for!
Suitable for all levels, from beginners who are just starting to learn how to draw anime, to advanced users who want to hone their skills, this is the ideal resource for all fans of anime and manga drawing. Drawing books are a perennial present to inspire young artists and a popular gift for teens. There is no greater tool than an art book to spark creativity, develop new artistic skills, and help kids and teens channel their energy towards positive self-expression.
Nothing brings anime artists more satisfaction than creating original characters to use in a comic strip or graphic novel. In this anime drawing book, bestselling how-to-draw author Christopher Hart helps them reach this goal by providing insight into the six most popular types of anime characters: schoolgirls, schoolboys, preteens, vengeful bad guys, humorous personalities, and fantasy figures. He supplies templates for each; an extensive array of “menus” of head and body types, outfits, and accessories; and detailed, accessible, step-by-step demonstrations and drawing exercises, making this the perfect reference for anyone who wants to learn to draw anime. Plus, Hart showcases some of the best anime artists in the world for this title—including Inma R., Tabby Kink, Ayame Shiroi, Euro Pinku, and Tina Francisco. It’s the guide every would-be anime artist has been looking for!
Suitable for all levels, from beginners who are just starting to learn how to draw anime, to advanced users who want to hone their skills, this is the ideal resource for all fans of anime and manga drawing. Drawing books are a perennial present to inspire young artists and a popular gift for teens. There is no greater tool than an art book to spark creativity, develop new artistic skills, and help kids and teens channel their energy towards positive self-expression.
144 pages, Paperback
Published July 7, 2015
53 people are currently reading
456 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Hart
155 books203 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
I started drawing character designs and storyboards for a small animation studio in while in High School. Cartooning and animation was a magical experience to me. I try to bring that experience, as well as art tips, to my readers. Their enthusiasm also motivates me.
Early in my career, my cartoon work got noticed by Watson-Guptill, a premier publisher of art books. They asked me to do a book for them on drawing cartoons. It sold 200,000 copies, which is a healthy number. So we kept going. I discovered that I enjoyed the art of creating books, which has its own special requirements. I also worked as an author for Random House, Quarto and Soho Publishing. In total, I have had 8 million books sold, and have been translated into 20 languages.
My book, "The Master Guide to Drawing Anime: How to Draw Original Characters from Simple Templates" has sold over half a million copies to date and is still very actively in print. An earlier book of mine, "Manga Mania: How to Draw Japanese Comics:" reached the number one art book in the country, according to Bookscan.
I've also been a cover story on the industry trade magazine, "Publisher's Weekly." And if you've read this far into my Bio, then I'm more impressed with you than you are with me!
Thank you so very much for letting me offer some inspiration to you in your art adventures.
Christopher Hart
I started drawing character designs and storyboards for a small animation studio in while in High School. Cartooning and animation was a magical experience to me. I try to bring that experience, as well as art tips, to my readers. Their enthusiasm also motivates me.
Early in my career, my cartoon work got noticed by Watson-Guptill, a premier publisher of art books. They asked me to do a book for them on drawing cartoons. It sold 200,000 copies, which is a healthy number. So we kept going. I discovered that I enjoyed the art of creating books, which has its own special requirements. I also worked as an author for Random House, Quarto and Soho Publishing. In total, I have had 8 million books sold, and have been translated into 20 languages.
My book, "The Master Guide to Drawing Anime: How to Draw Original Characters from Simple Templates" has sold over half a million copies to date and is still very actively in print. An earlier book of mine, "Manga Mania: How to Draw Japanese Comics:" reached the number one art book in the country, according to Bookscan.
I've also been a cover story on the industry trade magazine, "Publisher's Weekly." And if you've read this far into my Bio, then I'm more impressed with you than you are with me!
Thank you so very much for letting me offer some inspiration to you in your art adventures.
Christopher Hart
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 19, 2021
Gave good information on how to come up with a characters but I wanted it to break down how to draw it, not just come up with it.
April 7, 2020
Christopher Hart is reaaalllllyyyy good at drawing. This book taught me in words and showed me with pictures. I’m still working on drawing better. But one problem for me was how neatly you have to erase if you’re on paper. You NEED to draw on a iPad or something.
November 5, 2021
Gorgeous illustrations and finely detailed instructions! This is a great book for even more advanced manga drawers. I love it!
June 9, 2025
Excellent book to get started with!
This book is a really good book for young artists who want to learn how to draw in an anime/manga style. It has many, many useful illustrations regarding proportions and lots of helpful tips for unique character design. It has sections on both teenage and preteen girls, teenage and preteen boys, fantasy women, villainous men, uniforms and also comedy drawing. It's best used by children because of the light-hearted way of writing and the humour the author adds. It's really great for kids!
The book has lots of styles of drawing and explains colouring and how it affects the impression readers get of a character. It's a really great book to get started with and I'd really recommend to young anime/manga artists!! It has something in there for everyone.
If you enjoyed this book and want to collect more or improve your skills, I would recommend the book "The Master Guide to Drawing Anime: Tips & Tricks: Over 100 Essential Techniques to Sharpen Your Skills - Master Guide to Drawing Anime" by Christopher Hart for polishing your drawing skills and pushing you further. It's still aimed at kids/teens but it's good for characterisation and coming up with stories. "Manga Mania Universe: The Massive Book of Drawing Manga" by Christopher Hart is a tome filled with characters and drawing styles from every genre imaginable! I would also recommend that to young artists. "The Master Guide to Drawing Anime: Amazing Girls" is likewise great for designing and drawing female characters.
This book is a really good book for young artists who want to learn how to draw in an anime/manga style. It has many, many useful illustrations regarding proportions and lots of helpful tips for unique character design. It has sections on both teenage and preteen girls, teenage and preteen boys, fantasy women, villainous men, uniforms and also comedy drawing. It's best used by children because of the light-hearted way of writing and the humour the author adds. It's really great for kids!
The book has lots of styles of drawing and explains colouring and how it affects the impression readers get of a character. It's a really great book to get started with and I'd really recommend to young anime/manga artists!! It has something in there for everyone.
If you enjoyed this book and want to collect more or improve your skills, I would recommend the book "The Master Guide to Drawing Anime: Tips & Tricks: Over 100 Essential Techniques to Sharpen Your Skills - Master Guide to Drawing Anime" by Christopher Hart for polishing your drawing skills and pushing you further. It's still aimed at kids/teens but it's good for characterisation and coming up with stories. "Manga Mania Universe: The Massive Book of Drawing Manga" by Christopher Hart is a tome filled with characters and drawing styles from every genre imaginable! I would also recommend that to young artists. "The Master Guide to Drawing Anime: Amazing Girls" is likewise great for designing and drawing female characters.
January 4, 2021
Pretty good book
Good references and some good advice to follow. Quite easy to read, and one of the more detailed process explanations I've come across.
Good references and some good advice to follow. Quite easy to read, and one of the more detailed process explanations I've come across.
June 26, 2023
A collection of examples annotated by pointers about manga style, the approach is learn by example and adapt what you see. If you have learned basics of drawing, including human figures, perspective and shading, there is some useful material for inspiration and refinement of an anime/manga style. If you are someone with a desire to make your own manga-inspired drawings or comics but without experience drawing, this is a poor place to start.
The strength of the book is providing numerous examples ("templates" in the language of the text) and some helpful pointers. We're told (correctly) that by combining different elements of them, we can generate a wonderful variety of characters. The weakness is that these are supposed to stand on their own, instead of complementing specific instructions and detailed discussions. For example, the book points out that eyes are the defining feature of anime faces and that creating distinctive characters (therefore) requires creating distinctive and expressive eyes. (Agree!) This is followed by a page of three eye illustrations, which have little more to say than that the smaller eyes are smaller and the brown eyes are brown. At this point, you might expect several more pages on eyes, including composition of eyebrow, eyelid and iris; differences between masculine and feminine eyes; how to add manga style highlights; and ways to make eyes (including brows) convey emotions. Sadly, this is missing. The handful of example eyes are supposed to serve as a template to create your own characters, but if you are struggling to draw eyes that look like Chris Hart's, there's nothing to help you out. To the extent that some of the important basics are touched upon, important details are under emphasized. For example, when discussing proportions, the principle that a character should be about 7 heads tall is relegated to a marginal comment. As a result, only a careful reader would notice--and even then they might not apply the point as carefully as they should .
The book's sections are organized by character type: schoolgirls, schoolboys, preteens, villains, fantasy characters, and humorous character, with cool examples in each section. There's good material here for inspiration in creating your own manga. The later sections build on the first by making helpful comparisons. For example, fantasy characters are often taller and have especially dramatic features, like waist length hair. The book would have benefited from a more careful analysis of some basics as preliminaries, such as sections on heads and faces, bodies and proportions, and poses and perspective. It would have made the subsequent examples so much more helpful.
Ultimately, Chris Hart's book is a tomb of great illustrations and stylized elements with too little structure to make it a place to start with Anime-style illustrating.
The strength of the book is providing numerous examples ("templates" in the language of the text) and some helpful pointers. We're told (correctly) that by combining different elements of them, we can generate a wonderful variety of characters. The weakness is that these are supposed to stand on their own, instead of complementing specific instructions and detailed discussions. For example, the book points out that eyes are the defining feature of anime faces and that creating distinctive characters (therefore) requires creating distinctive and expressive eyes. (Agree!) This is followed by a page of three eye illustrations, which have little more to say than that the smaller eyes are smaller and the brown eyes are brown. At this point, you might expect several more pages on eyes, including composition of eyebrow, eyelid and iris; differences between masculine and feminine eyes; how to add manga style highlights; and ways to make eyes (including brows) convey emotions. Sadly, this is missing. The handful of example eyes are supposed to serve as a template to create your own characters, but if you are struggling to draw eyes that look like Chris Hart's, there's nothing to help you out. To the extent that some of the important basics are touched upon, important details are under emphasized. For example, when discussing proportions, the principle that a character should be about 7 heads tall is relegated to a marginal comment. As a result, only a careful reader would notice--and even then they might not apply the point as carefully as they should .
The book's sections are organized by character type: schoolgirls, schoolboys, preteens, villains, fantasy characters, and humorous character, with cool examples in each section. There's good material here for inspiration in creating your own manga. The later sections build on the first by making helpful comparisons. For example, fantasy characters are often taller and have especially dramatic features, like waist length hair. The book would have benefited from a more careful analysis of some basics as preliminaries, such as sections on heads and faces, bodies and proportions, and poses and perspective. It would have made the subsequent examples so much more helpful.
Ultimately, Chris Hart's book is a tomb of great illustrations and stylized elements with too little structure to make it a place to start with Anime-style illustrating.
March 26, 2020
Hmm.
I have to say that this was an informative guide, but it still didn't help me draw.
Um. I liked the captions?
The character drawings were very nice but slightly overwhelming. They said that anime depends on templates, but the book didn't say how or where to make/get templates
I have to say that this was an informative guide, but it still didn't help me draw.
Um. I liked the captions?
The character drawings were very nice but slightly overwhelming. They said that anime depends on templates, but the book didn't say how or where to make/get templates
August 17, 2025
I decided to review this because I just love this book so much. It’s an extremely helpful how-to-draw guide, and besides that, the captions are really funny. I think that young artists could get so, so much out of this book, and it’s more then worth checking out!
January 7, 2019
Descriptive and funny with plenty of charts and guidelines.
November 29, 2019
I really liked it it's pretty good for beginners but in my opinion it could have shown some more expressions
December 28, 2020
Hart is genuinely the best instructor for cartooning. I and my youngest son love all of his videos and his books.
February 22, 2021
It is my favorite book
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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May 26, 2022It is good book and intranet
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 18, 2024
Pretty good but it's kind of so difficult to draw the steps
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 4, 2025
Very good and easy to follow. Could use a little more detail on how to draw hair though.
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September 2, 2016Nothing brings anime artists more satisfaction than creating original characters to use in a comic strip or graphic novel. Bestselling how-to-draw author Christopher Hart helps them reach this goal by providing insight into the six most popular anime types: schoolgirls, schoolboys, preteens, vengeful bad guys, humorous personalities, and fantasy figures. He supplies templates for each; an extensive array of “menus” of head and body types, outfits, and accessories; and detailed, accessible, step-by-step demonstrations and drawing exercises. Plus, Hart showcases some of the best anime artists in the world for this title—including Inma R., Tabby Kink, Ayame Shiroi, Euro Pinku, and Tina Francisco. It's the guide every would-be anime artist has been looking for!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews