How to Draw: Kawaii

About Yishan Li

Yishan Li is a professional Manga artist who lives in Shanghai. Yishan has been drawing Manga since 1998 when she was in high school and she has subsequently been published internationally including China, North America, France and the UK. Visit her website www.liyishan.com

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Kawaii is Japanese for cute, and anybody familiar with manga and anime will know what this style looks like. Learn how to draw your own cute characters and decorate everything with them!

As a long-time fan of all things Japanese this is one title I was looking forward to reviewing and having a go with. As with all the books in this series each page shows how, in several easy stages, you can build up a drawing from the simplest shapes.  For ease of use the original step is shown in blue, with each new step adding details in pink. Ink in the final lines in black, and then add colour. I have found that this system can result in the later stages adding a bewildering amount of detail suddenly, but with cartoon styles it is easy to see how you progress from a line drawing to a coloured image. The book opens with a page about the style, explains how the book works and what you need: basic art materials are all you require. Images include human figures such as a schoolgirl, witch, princess and scientist, animals like a cat, lion, dolphin and seal, plus everyday items like a donut, kettle, marker pen and car. I found I was drawing with ease and getting to understand what details and modifications are needed to make anything look kawaii. This is one of the best entries in this series in my opinion.