Mini Chibi Art Class is a book all about how to draw Chibi characters.  I'm not much of an artist and even with these step by step details on how to draw a whole bunch of different adorable characters, I didn't get very far.  But there are a ton of ideas in this book with the characters that already exist and then different outfits and hairstyles so you can make things your own!

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

I am finally going to learn how to draw Chibis because this is by far the best Chibi drawing book I’ve ever seen. I have several Chibi drawing books and have browsed a few others, but none of them welcomed me with such encouragement and explanation plus an abundance of step-by-step tutorials like this one! Mini Chibi Art Class is a very well organized and user-friendly book. It is just like taking a class in learning to draw Chibis and I can’t wait to go through the multitude of tutorials.

I particularly appreciate that nearly 30% of the book is dedicated to Chibi Basics (more on this later), something that other books cover in only a handful of pages. Yoani starts from the beginning and goes step-by-step through everything you need to know. One of the best features of this book is that for each of the 19 tutorials, Yoani provides an outline of the posing Chibi for the reader to complete by adding its features, clothes and then coloring. In fact, seeing the outlines allayed much of my anxiety about being able to draw Chibis and I figure that once I get the basics perfected by doing all these tutorials, I will feel more confident to draw the outlines.

After a discussion of the supplies, Yoani provides the reader with a thorough review of Chibi Basics — how to draw the body (including proportions), face, hair, clothing, etc. Next, we learn about coloring Chibis and Yoani explains how to choose colors and how to do shading. She even recommends which colors are best to use for shading specific colors, something I have never seen before and it’s inncredibly useful. There are two practice Chibis in which Yoani goes step-by-step in pencil and then coloring.

Part Two consists of 12 adorable Chibi tutorials with each one representing a different month of the year. The Chibis have different poses, expressions, clothes and props so you will get a lot of experience by doing all of these tutorials. There are 5 more tutorials of cute Chibi beasties. Following that is the indispensable Inspiration Gallery, which provides the budding artist with 20+ varieties of eyes, hairstyles, clothing, props/accessories, and ears/tails. The last section is called practice and coloring pages and consists of 12 Chibi outlines in different poses and 6 completed Chibis ready for coloring.

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group - Race Point Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a temporary advance e-copy in exchange for my honest review. I will definitely be buying this book.

This is a really cute comprehensive guide to drawing your own little chibis. I would recommend it for anyone who wants to start drawing chibi art!

The thing that set this art book apart from many others for me was the inclusion of the figure sketch for you to work from if needed. Often it's a matter of trying to repeat the steps to get that perfect figure placement and guidelines, and this book instead presents you with a place where, in the beginning, you could easily trace it and then draw your chibi over it...a great tool for beginners who still also need to work on muscle memory (or for those of us who may never get it quite right, in which case, a bonus item like that is gold.

Mini Chibi Art Class by Yoai is a very informative look at how to draw Chibis. It shows how to draw different types from eyes to full bodies.

Mini Chibi Art Class by Yoai


My thirteen year old daughter has been reading manga for several years and drawing in a manga style for almost as long. Needless to say, she was even more excited about the opportunity to help me with a book review than usual.

We’re not familiar with the original Chibi Art class, but a cursory glance online indicates that Mini Chibi Art Class is the same book as the original, only smaller.

For those of you not familiar with manga, “chibi” (shorty) is a style of manga in which the characters are “kawaii” (cute). Chibi characters have big heads and little bodies.

This book is a thorough guide to creating chibis from your own and includes

-materials
-getting the proportions right
-facial features
-clothing
-backgrounds

The biggest section of the book is devoted to a calendar year of chibi characters with seasonally themed poses and props etc. Each month has 2 two-page spreads with step-by-step instructions for recreating the character’s pose.

The next section is devoted to “Beasties”, chibi characters with cat ears or bat wings.

After that, there’s an inspiration gallery with different styles of eyes, props, clothing, etc.

The final section is a place to practice drawing various poses and coloring in completed drawings.

My thirteen year old absolutely loved this book and has asked if we can buy a copy of our own when the book comes out. She has done numerous chibi drawings based on ideas from this book.

I wanted to see what this book would be like for a beginner, so I asked one of my (almost) eleven year old twins to look at the book. She reads manga sometimes and she likes to draw, but she has never really drawn in a chibi style. She was able to pick up the basics right away and produced an ADORABLE self portrait. 


I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in drawing chibi characters. This was a fun and thorough guide and my girls have enjoyed it so much. My thirteen year old has pointed out that that a paperback version of this book would be easier to use than a digital version. I’m not sure if this book will have a digital edition of its own since it’s a mini version of an existing book that does have a digital edition, but that’s something to keep in mind. I will definitely keep an eye out for more of Yoai’s drawing books in the future.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley/Race Point Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

This was so cute and perfect for quarantine right now! I've been wanting to get better at drawing character and I loved the chibi style. The instructions and images are easy to follow which is of course a plus. Definitely would recommend!

Firstly I would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for an advanced reading copy in exchange of an honest review.I love drawing but I have never done Chibi before but it is really similar to drawing realistically and this book will help you with that as well.
The main sections are "Chibi Basics", "Chibi Cuties" ,"Chibi Beasties" and give detailed instructions for drawing any Chibi you could ever want to draw. It also contains an inspiration gallery and practice and colouring pages. I love this book because it’s not limiting Chibi drawing to characters inside the book but gives a variety of inspiring ideas for your very own Chibi. There are all kinds of characters throughout the book with instructions for how to draw them, beginning with simple shapes and lines, then adding more detail, and finally, finished in full color. I don’t know about you, but the best way for me to learn how to do something is if someone shows me how to do it. Mini Chibi Art Class is light on the text and heavy on examples.. The book also covers various poses, how to add wrinkles to clothes, and even how to make your own Chibi. If you're buying this book for children, it will be teaching them art techniques they can carry with them forever! Possibly setting them up for more than just drawing chibis! Overall, this guide is designed in a way that’s as practical as it is simple. The tutorials are so step-by-step that a small child would have no problem understanding it .With Yoai’s expertise and step-by-step guidance, you’ll learn the art and technique of cuteness in no time!
Highly recommend it!

This super-fun drawing instruction book would be great for any artist, young or old, wanting to up their drawing came. The Chibi characters -cuties and beasties -are adorable and fun to draw. I was successfully able to draw several of them and look forward to trying more!

The cutest book ever! I'm so excited to start drawing these cuties! I love the step-by-step, all the different chibies and at the end there are some inspirations like different hair styles, eye format and color and accessories. I love this book! I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

I think this is a nice how to draw book. It is easily readable and with time and practice, it would get easier. I do think this would be easier to use if it were a hard copy to look back and review while drawing.

Mini Chibi Art Class
A Complete Course in Drawing Cuties and Beasties - Includes 19 Step-by-Step Tutorials! by Yoai is a cute art book for children, beginners, or those wanting to learn more about Chibi. Great step-by-step instructions with images to match. Adorable drawings and easy way to have fun! A definite 5 star book! This is a book I requested from NetGalley and the review is voluntary.

Mini Chibi Art Class is a fun tutorial art book full of step by step projects for readers who enjoy the chibi anime style. Due out 19th May 2020 from Quarto on their Race Point imprint, it's 144 pages and will be available in paperback format.

I love to draw and doodle. Despite not being super advanced and skillful yet, I find drawing very relaxing most of the time. This is an accessible guide full of techniques and cheerful upbeat advice. The drawing style itself is completely adorable (chibi ちび translates to 'little'). They're big eyed and round faced with tiny hands.

This guide has an accessible and appealing format. A short introduction is followed by tools and supplies, basic techniques, and then the individual drawing tutorials. The author does a good job of explaining (and showing) proportions for different ages, positions, action and movement, etc. There are a lot of different tutorials but not much variation in facial expression included in this book.

Great selection for a gift for a young artist, perhaps with some added sketch pads and pencils. This would also make a superlative classroom or library book. I would also recommend this one to babysitters, grandparents, parents, and basically anyone who spends a fair bit of time with small kids in order to up their 'draw with me' game. I really enjoyed this. I will use these to decorate my journals and notes for friends.

Four stars. Fun collection.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This was great! With lots of different tasks and templates it really gave a nice beginners insight into drawing chibi. It's perfect for learning a new skill in lockdown with a very cute outcome.

This is a great book to learn how to draw these small, cute characters. I would not recommend this book for beginner artists. The book provides a thorough introduction to drawing supplies and the anatomy of a chibi. But, the drawing. instructions are complicated and would require the reader to flip back to the instructional material at the beginning while working on the book's projects. The projects are lovely and use a variety of styles and accessories. But, little instruction is given on how to draw the clothes or the accessories used in each project. The detail on how to color each of the projects are some of the best directions I have seen for future colorists. I would recommend this book for the colorist instruction alone. Overall, I would recommend this book for people interested in refining this drawing style.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

This book is so much fun and has so much information and detail included within it too which is set out in a fun format so children don't get fed up with it.
I loved how on the season/month chibi drawing pages that there was a blank template for children to draw their own version of the character shown or make up their own if so desired.
At the back there are colouring and drawing pages and lots of sketches of eyes, hair, accessories, clothes, shoes etc too.
This is a beautiful and fantastic book to help children get enjoyment from drawing their own Chibi characters step by step.

I loved this so much! I can not draw for anything, but I always loved the chibi istyle. This how to guide made it super easy to learn with step by step instructions and many different ways to practice. I highly recommend if you want to learn how to draw chibi or if you just want to know some pointers!

Brilliant Book ,it's helped me in my sixties on how to go about drawing figures that my Japanese granddaughter will understand , I also showed it to my eldest granddaughter hear in the UK & she loved reading this too,so it covers all age groups .

This is a cute little book with directions and practice pages for drawing Mini Chibi or small manga or anemia figures. Fun and well done.

This is a great breakdown of cute drawing. This would also be great for those who like to draw manga or anime. Simplified face shapes and simplified clothing. The book also goes into detail on the basics of drawing, such as shading and style ideas.