6 Best Manga Drawing Guides For Facial Expressions That Build Real Emotion

Your child has spent hours sketching characters, and you’ve watched them go from wobbly stick figures to recognizable heroes. But lately, you’ve noticed something is missing; every character has the same neutral, pleasant look on their face. This is that wonderful, challenging moment when a young artist is ready to move beyond just drawing a person and start creating a personality.

Building Believable Characters Through Emotion

Has your child ever shown you a drawing of a big fight scene, but everyone looks… calm? This is a common hurdle. Learning to draw facial expressions is the bridge between drawing objects and telling stories. It’s where a character stops being a collection of lines and starts having feelings, thoughts, and a soul.

This isn’t just about art; it’s about emotional intelligence. When a child has to think, "What does deep sadness look like?" or "How do eyebrows show surprise versus anger?" they are building empathy. They are learning to observe the world around them more closely and understand the non-verbal cues we all use every day.

Investing in a good guide for expressions is about giving them a toolbox for storytelling. It empowers them to create characters that feel real and relatable. The goal is to help them draw what their characters are feeling, not just what they look like.

Mark Crilley’s Mastering Manga 3 for Teens

You might already know Mark Crilley from his incredibly popular YouTube tutorials. His books carry that same clear, patient, and encouraging tone, which is why Mastering Manga 3 is a fantastic choice for the self-motivated teen or tween who is ready for a structured approach.

This book doesn’t just show you a finished expression; it breaks it down into manageable steps. Crilley is a master at demonstrating how small changes to the eyes, mouth, and eyebrows can completely alter a character’s mood. It’s less of a "copy this" encyclopedia and more of a "here’s how it works" lesson plan.

This is a great fit for:

• Ages: 12-16
• Skill Level: Intermediate artists who have the basics of head construction down.
• Learning Style: Kids who appreciate a logical, step-by-step process and want to understand the "why" behind the techniques.

Ozawa’s Expressing Emotions for Core Skills

If your child is a bit younger or is just starting to think about expressions, Tadashi Ozawa’s book is an excellent foundation. It focuses on the absolute core mechanics of how faces show emotion. The style is clean and simple, which prevents beginners from getting overwhelmed by complex hair or shading.

Think of this as the fundamental building block. Ozawa’s guide is brilliant at isolating the key features—the tilt of an eyelid, the curve of a mouth—and showing their impact. It’s perfect for helping a child build a solid base of knowledge before they start adding more complex, stylistic flair. It’s the kind of foundational book that will serve them for years, even as their style evolves.

Yishan Li’s 2000 Manga Faces for Variety

Does your child ever say, "I want to draw something, but I don’t know what"? 2000 Manga Faces is the perfect cure for that creative block. This isn’t a step-by-step tutorial; it’s a massive visual library, an encyclopedia of ideas.

This book is an incredible resource for expanding a young artist’s visual vocabulary. They can flip through it and see endless combinations of features, expressions, and character types. It helps them break out of the habit of drawing the same face over and over again. It’s less about teaching a single method and more about sparking a thousand new ideas. This is a fantastic long-term investment that a child will pull off the shelf for inspiration for years.

Hart’s Master Guide to Drawing Anime: Faces

Christopher Hart’s books are staples in craft stores and libraries for a reason: they are incredibly accessible. If your child is just showing an interest in drawing faces and you’re not sure how deep the passion runs, this is a very safe and effective starting point.

Hart’s approach is straightforward, covering a wide range of common anime and manga archetypes—the hero, the villain, the comic relief. The steps are easy to follow and deliver satisfying results quickly, which is a huge confidence booster for a budding artist. While some advanced artists might find the style a bit generic, it provides the essential scaffolding a beginner needs to feel successful and stay motivated.

Sawa’s Action Manga for Dynamic Expressions

Once your child has mastered static portraits of happy, sad, or angry characters, the next step is showing emotion in motion. This is where a specialized guide like Sawa’s How to Draw Action Manga comes in. This is for the kid who draws epic battles, thrilling sports scenes, or dramatic confrontations.

This book teaches how to draw faces in the midst of action—shouting, grimacing in effort, or reacting in shock. It connects the expression to the entire body’s movement, creating a much more dynamic and compelling scene. This is an intermediate-to-advanced resource, perfect for the child who has the basics down and is now focused on bringing more energy and drama to their visual storytelling.

A-Piko’s Class101 Course for Digital Artists

If your child’s sketchbook has been replaced by a drawing tablet, a book might not be the right tool. An online course, like A-Piko’s popular "Creating Appealing Characters" on Class101, is built for the digital medium. It addresses the specific tools and techniques used in software like Clip Studio Paint or Procreate.

This is a bigger commitment of time and money, similar to a semester of an art class. However, the value is in the video format, where a student can watch a professional artist’s process in real-time. These courses often include downloadable resources and a community where students can share work. This is the right choice for a teen who is serious about digital art and whose passion has proven to be a long-term interest.

Developing a Personal Style Beyond the Guides

It’s important to remember that these books are tools, not rulebooks. Your child’s first drawings from a guide might look like direct copies, and that’s perfectly normal. That’s the "learning the chords" phase of their artistic journey.

Encourage them to experiment. What happens if they take the eyes from one character and combine them with the expression of another? Can they apply a technique from the book to their own original character? The ultimate goal isn’t for them to draw exactly like Mark Crilley or Yishan Li, but to absorb the principles and blend them into their own unique style.

Praise their effort and creativity, not just how closely they copied the example. A drawing that is uniquely theirs, even with its flaws, is a bigger developmental step than a perfect replica. These guides are the launchpad, but their imagination is the rocket.

Ultimately, the best guide is the one that gets your child excited to pick up their pencil or stylus. Match the book to their current skill, their primary interest, and their learning style. By providing the right tool at the right time, you’re not just buying a book; you’re fueling a passion.