Draw Fight Scenes Like a Pro

I was pretty excited to get this book, since it's one of the only books on this subject out there. I will mention that I'm rating this based on being a 39 year old (amateur) artist who has read comics his whole life. I love a good slug-fest in a comic fight scene, but let's face it, sometimes things can get pretty stale and repetitive. It usually comes down to just punching and kicking. One of the reasons I picked this book up is because of the author's experience in Aikido. I was hoping for some good "how to's" on things which usually get very little attention in comic fights: locks, throws, and grapples.Now, I will say that I know drawing any kind of comic book scene is time consuming and difficult. Simple fight scenes wouldn't be too much harder, but when you start adding in complex moves, understandably it could take a lot more time, and I'm sure many artists just don't want to mess with it.There are various things I liked about the book: he shows a number of angles of faces being punched, and what that would look like. He shows some pretty useful stuff on drawing clothing, and some good stuff on how to draw a few different kicks. I also liked the fact that he mentioned using photos as references, since there will be many things you won't know how to draw off the top of your head. He even shows some examples of his own.Now, for what I felt made the book fall short. He gives a brief intro to various martial arts and fighting styles, such as karate, boxing, Aikido, etc. But beyond giving us some basic info on that style, he doesn't really give us anything with can use visually, such as example moves from that style. Boxing, for instance, wouldn't require any examples, but Aikido or Jujitsu, on the other hand, are styles that most people won't be familiar with, at least enough to draw. I would love to have seen a few pages of various arm/wrist locks or breaks, grapples, etc. related to those styles. Kung Fu is another style that has many stances and moves that most people don't know about or can't draw.Most of the info in the book you could probably get just by reading some comics and studying the fight scenes, but as I said there is some good info in this, so if you are new to drawing fight/action scenes you may want to pick it up.

I just finished reading this book and I still need to read it again to really grasp the many different things being taught. This book touches on a lot of different subjects from drawing anatomy to how other professional artist approach the fight scene. It is obvious that Johnson(no immediate relation) clearly knows about the fight scene since he is trained in martial arts, it shows in his in depth analysis of this essential element in comic book illustration. Each chapter has some sort of exercise that tests you over the material covered in that chapter. Some of the other topics covered are: different fighting techniques, character development, super powers, environments. In my opinion his use of arrows to show different action elements of a scene is very valuable to understand. This use of arrows trains you to think a certain way when you are laying out your scene. The only drawbacks I think were their is no answer key for the exercises! And it would have been nice to have some sort of further suggested reading list. It is still a valuable book to have both as a learning tool and a reference for future use.

Fight scenes were always a challenge for me to draw so I purchased this book for help. The first few chapters cover the basics of creating figures in motion and brief descriptions of various martial art styles such as boxing and brazillianjujitsu.Later on in chapters 6-8 are sections about the various stages of fight sceneswith plenty of examples. I found chapter 6 very helpful as it mentions about how a characters fighting style should match their personality.Overall I don't think the book is for begginers. I do reccomend it to advanced artists who wish to understand how to draw and understand fight scenes.

With what I paid for this book I really expected something more, but this was SERIOUSLY disappointing. It was pretty much a few images of fighting poses with some text but mostly white space. How to choreograph a fight and draw it, or even the use of speed lines wasn't even touched on. Even a newbie comic artist would have a hard time getting much from this. It seemed like the author had a series of mid-fight pinups and just put them in a series and tried to make text to match. There wasn't even the most basic of lazy how to draw book lessons that involve sketches, no mid steps, and then finished. At least that could have been a thing. What little martial arts was shown was frankly a wikipedia blurb and a few drawings. I'd return it but I got it from a small business and I don't want to hurt their bottom line. It's so bad I can't even donate it to our local library in good conscience. The How To Draw Manga Fight Scenes is superior!

Excellent book for anyone who wants toKnow about drawing comics, I learned a lot

this is really one of the best books on the market. i really dont want to make this a long review, so ill go straigh to the gut on this one.the art is great, its really easy for you to understand, and its very helpful for any kind of drawing style you are into.im very happy to have ought this book.

Good book and quick shipping

love this book. i used it to reference fighting styles and moves and foreshortening and perspectives alot. great buy!