Welcome to the art resources page!

Picture by munakata (hisahige)

Here you will find links to free resources for learning and improving anime and manga art skills. All books linked are hosted on the Internet Archive and are in Japanese or Chinese, however the illustrations are clear and the information can be easily absorbed via visual cues. Most of the instructions in these books were designed around traditional work but are easily applicable to digital mediums.

I created this page due to the sheer amount of high-quality anime drawing resources available online that few people seem to be taking advantage of, possibly because combing through hundreds of resuts on the Internet Archive takes time, or because most of the really good tutorials aren't in English or for whatever reason. In order to "git gud" at drawing you cannot just draw without reliable guides to learn from. There is plenty of art advice available online for free, but art instruction online is one of those areas where the rule of, "90% of anything is trash" applies.

Character Drawing Resources

日本大师讲漫画基础篇Let's Draw Manga回林晃著赤丁香译 - Rìběn dàshī jiǎng mànhuà jīchǔ piān Let's Draw Manga huí lín huǎngzhe chì dīngxiāng yì, or Japanese Masters Speaking Manga Let's Draw Manga Basics. Fairly comprehensive Chinese language volume covering the basics of anatomy, clothing, expression, and composition.

日本漫画大师讲座 2,林晃和角丸圆讲漫画服饰造型 - Rìběn mànhuà dàshī jiǎngzuò 2, lín huǎng hé jiǎo wán yuán jiǎng mànhuà fúshì zàoxíng, or Japanese manga master lecture 2, Lin Huang and Kadomaru talk about manga costume modeling (Google translated). This one seems to be originally Chinese but the artists featured are Japanese. Detailed diagrams of how to draw many types of manga clothing with lots of attention payed to wrinkles and physics, very in-depth.

日本大师讲漫画 - Rìběn dàshī jiǎng mànhuà, or Japanese Masters Speaking Manga: Beautiful Girls. Another Chinese book but I'm unsure whether or not this one had a Japanese edition. Anyway, another book on drawing female characters, except this one is more varied and is focused more on Beautiful girls than cute ones, although the examples contain plenty of both! Jokes aside, contains instruction and lots of pictures regarding anatomy & proportions, poses, hair, and stylizing. I personally like the style used in this one.

卡通漫画绘画技法 美少女的画法 - Kǎtōng mànhuà huìhuà jìfǎ měi shàonǚ de huà fǎ, or Cartoon Manga Drawing Techniques Drawing Techniques of Beautiful Girls. Chinese edition of a rather old Japanese book. This one focuses on drawing more mature and beautiful girls with heavy emphasis on anatomy and sections on character design. Recommended for fans of retro anime aesthetics.

萌えキャラクタ 描き分け - Moe Character Kakiwake, or Drawing Moe Characters Distinctly. This book is a fairly comprehensive guide on drawing female characters with moe characteristics. Focuses mainly on faces, expressions, anatomy, and dressing characters in typical moe outfits like lolita dresses and sailor fukus. Recommended for those with an interest moe and kawaii aesthetics. There are also a few other books in this same series, コミックス ドロウイングブック ( No. 01) 萌えスタイルの描き方, this one focuses more on poses as well as having a section about digital coloring, and 萌えキャラクタ の描き方 (コスチュ ム編） this one focuses more on clothes.

小威老师 漫画教室 - Xiǎo wēi lǎoshī mànhuà jiàoshì, or Teacher Serena Comics Classroom. Chinese edition of originally Japanese book. This one is about techniques mostly used in shojo manga and includes plenty of illustrations that I believe were drawn by mangaka Arina Tanemura. Good for learning about utilizing aesthetic choices common in shojo manga.

クリエイターのためのおんなのこデータベース　〔２００９〕改訂版ファッション編 - Creator no tame no onnanoko database 〔2009〕 kaichōban fashion-hen, or Girls Database for Creators [2009] Revised Edition Fashion Edition. A Japanese book from, you guessed it, 2009 that features several different artists and features detailed guides on drawing clothing for female characters. Pretty long and is one of the better clothing guide books in my opinion.

通漫画技法 美少年造型篇 8 - Xiǎo wēi lǎoshī mànhuà jiàoshì, or Comic Manga Techniques - Beautiful Boy Style Chapter 8. An in depth guide to drawing bishonen characters. Focuses on anatomy, clothing, stylization, and features several different artstyles. Also has a section on duo poses. Good for learning how to capture the bishonen aesthetic. Pretty in-depth and has plenty of pictures.

漫畫達人技法聖經 美 少年綜合篇 - mànhuà dárén jìfǎ shèngjīng měishàonián zònghé piān, or Manga Master Skills Bible: Beautiful Boys Comprehensive Chapter. Similar to the last one in that it's mainly about drawing pretty boys but this one has sections on referencing from real photos, as well as more on composition. Comprehensive anatomy section and includes character design tips. It was published more recently than the last book (2013) and is more aesthetically relevant as far as style goes (this is just a preference).

日本漫画大师讲座 3,林晃和角丸圆 讲魅力角色造型 - Rìběn mànhuà dàshī jiǎngzuò 3, lín huǎng hé jiǎo wán yuán jiǎng mèilì juésè zàoxíng or, Japanese Manga Master Lecture 3, Lin Huang and Kadomaru talk about charming character modeling. Another Chinese book in the same series as the other book with Lin Huang and Kadomaru. Features both male and female characters and a lot on anatomy, posing, and different levels of stylization.

The Ultimate Guide To Character Drawing: Presented by toshi - An extensive guide to character drawing with a lot of focus on referencing from photographs and achieving natural poses and movement. Markedly different from several of the other books listed here in that the examples are drawn in a relatively more realistic style. I came across two other books by this author, this one and this one. Both focus on common errors and how to fix them and techniques to help improve fundamentals.

人体解剖図から学ぶキャラクターデッサンの描き方 - Jintai kaibō-zu kara manabu kyarakutādessan no kakikata or, How to draw character sketches based on human anatomy. Really comprehensive book on drawing manga stle characters based on realistic anatomy. Focuses heavily on muscle structure.

写真から描き起こす,マンガデッサン - Shashin kara kaki okosu, mangadessan or, Drawing Manga From A Photo. A book focusing on drawing poses from photographic references. Lots of pictures and diagrams are easy to understand.

超级 漫画家 圣经 - Chāojí Mànhuàjiā Shèngjīng or, Super Cartoonist Bible. A quite large comprehensive Chinese original book on making Japanese-style Chinese comics. Covers the basics of character drawing as well as perspective, lighting & shading, coloring etc. and also includes a section on comic composition. The example images are given in a variety of different styles ranging from semirealistic to super deformed.

吉田徹 10分で女性を描くコツ 250 - Yoshida Toru 10-bu de josei o kaku kotsu 250 or, Toru Yoshida Tips For Drawing A Woman In 10 Minutes 250. Book written and illustrated by the title author giving tips on drawing attractive female characters, split into several sections. The illustrations in this book are of a more realistic style. The last section of the book focuses on referencing from photographs. Good supplement book.

キャラーの気持ちの描き方 - Chara no Kimochi no Egaki, or Drawing Characters' Feelings. Book about drawing expressions. Gives examples of expressions from different angles, on characters of different ages, etc. in moe style.

ころもゆうぎ- Koromo Yuugi, or in English, Clothing Play. A Japanese book depicting anime girls putting on various common anime/manga outfits like a shrine maiden outfit and a cheerleader uniform. No actual tutorials/step by step but good for reference to figure out how to depict fabric folds and texture. Shouldn't be used by itself in my opinion. The illustrations are very cute and are in full color.

おんなのこの髪型カタログ - Onnanoko no Kamigata Catalog, or Girl's Hairstyle Catalog. Another reference book now depicting common anime girl hair styles. Like Koromo Yuugi it lacks step-by-step walk throughs but it does hi-light different hair shapes and the way hair sits on the head. A good supplementary book specifically for hair.

戦う！　和風武器イラストポーズ集 - Tatakau! Wafu Buki Illustration Pose Shu, or Fight! Japanese-Style Weapon Illustration Pose Collection (man that was a mouthful). A guide on drawing Fighting poses and weapons, as well as traditional Japanese style clothing with in depth examples. Recommended as a supplement for those interested in learning about drawing action oriented art, ninjas, samurai, that kind of thing.

YouTube Channels

I tend to be rather wary when it comes to YouTube channels for art tutorials and advice, as many art channels give objectively bad advice, use click bait-y titles and thumbnails, and the information isn't very easy to absorb due to many tutorial videos being bloated with unnecessary commentary, in my opinion. I have, however found Hide Channel's tutorials to be well explained. The audio is in Japanese but subtitles in several languages including English are available.

Manga Materials - Focuses mainly on anatomy but has tutorials on some other things like perspective too. A good resource for learning to apply realistic anatomy to anime art. Japanese narration with English subtitles.

Non character drawing related resources

This following section is dedicated to resources covering things like backgrounds, animals, and coloring.

背景画の 描き方 - Haikei-ga no kakikata or, How to Draw a Background Image. A Japanese book about drawing backgrounds digitally with a heavy focus on rendering. Although some of the information relating to perspective can be adapted to traditional art too. I think that this is mainly intended to be a guide on how to draw Visual Novel style backgrounds so if you're going for a different style, say a painterly style, YMMV.

Animation Effect Drawing Technique - Guide to drawing common atmospheric effects commonly seen in anime at various stages in movement.

Useful non-manga style resources

Below are contained tried and true books not focused on ACG styled art that will nevertheless help you improve in fundamentals that are necessary to create good anime style illustrations. These are in English.

Figure Drawing For All It's Worth - A classic when it comes to figure drawing, you should atleast check this book out. Despite being written over half a century ago the fundamentals are still applicable.

Constructive Anatomy by George B. Bridgman - Book that focuses on learning anatomy from studying the parts and their construction and then learning to put them together (as opposed to learning how to draw the whole body from life straightaway).

Perspective Made Easy - Being one of the most commended books on perspective and trusted for decades, Perspective Made Easy contains valuable information on one of art's fundamental concepts presented in an easy to understand manner.