So a few weeks ago I had my nieces and nephew over and they decided they wanted to do some drawing time with me. I of course loved this idea and was all for it. I gathered up a bunch of supplies for them to use and was ready for some fun. While I was rounding up those supplies, I started looking through some of my old things I had packed away and came across a collection of art books I haven’t used in ages. They were a bunch of “How-to-Draw” books featuring various cartoon and video game characters. As a wave of nostalgia washed over me, I thought these would be great for the kids to use and brought them out.
Turns out I was right because they loved them! Each of them spend an hour or two flipping through the pages and trying their best to follow along with the instructions for the characters they chose. I joined them as well sketching my own characters and helping them whenever they needed it. It really brought me back to the days when I was their age doing the exact same thing with those very same books. A pretty surreal full-circle moment for me.
After that day, I kept thinking back to the years when I would use those How-to-Draw books. I’m probably showing my age here because I think these are now like a relic of a time passed. I remember going to my school’s book fair each year and being excited because I knew there would be some of these books there for sale. If I recall correctly, I believe that’s where all of mine came from. These days you can just go online and find how to draw video and walkthroughs with ease. That actually makes these books pretty obsolete now, but I digress.
All of this lead me to wonder just how good and effective these books actually were for developing artists. I believe I’m at a level now where I understand the fundamentals enough to make a sound assessment of their value. The books I had specifically were ones for Sonic the Hedgehog, Nintendo Heroes and Villians, The Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, Digimon, Mickey & Minnie, Donald & Daisy, and Toy Story.
What I’ll start off saying is the obvious here; All these books are definitely made for beginners at a very early stage of learning to draw. I don’t want to say they are made for kids (though many could argue the subject matter certainly is catered to kids) because anyone can start learning to draw at any age if they are determined. But looking through these books with a more refined artist mind I can see some differences and personal gripes with them. The Sonic, Nintendo, and Digimon ones were all made by the same two publishers of Troll and Scholastic. I read through the steps and looked at the images for most of the characters in these books and I was not a fan. I was personally not a fan of the way they were instructing how to construct the figures and work toward refining the details. The steps were pretty vague and the images demonstrating each one were very cumbersome and stiff looking. I can’t fault them too much for this because when these were made, there wasn’t a lot of references for the specific characters so they worked with what was available. However, I can see that these books specifically are geared for a more casual artist learning to draw for just fun or a hobby. Their breakdown of the character anatomy shows me that, so I wouldn’t recommend these for anyone who is older and serious about improving their skills.
The Disney ones, on the other hand, were definitely of a different and higher quality. These were published by Walter Foster Publishing. I preferred the breakdowns and instructions in these books much more, and that might be my bias talking because I learned how to draw studying a Disney animation style growing up. But putting that bias aside, I can tell these were made with the intention of helping artists who are more serious in truly understanding the fundamentals. The steps are more specific and the image for each one clearly demonstrates what you should be doing and why you are doing it. They do a much better job of breaking down the characters into simple shapes and showing how to add elements and details to bring the character to life. Now this is much easier in this case because the Disney characters like Mickey and Donald have been around for many decades which means the style in which they are drawn has been well studied and duplicated. It helps that these animated cartoon characters are more simplified, but these books give more detailed instructions for building out the forms than the previous books I mentioned. Another thing I really liked about these books is they had sections where they discussed techniques for drawing other parts of the characters specifically like hands and various facial expressions. This tells me these books were designed for a more serious beginner artist who has aspirations to take their skills higher one day. I would highly recommend these books for any kid or adult who wants to learn to draw characters with understanding, conviction, and aspirations to take their skills further.
It should go without saying that these are for people who want to draw stylized cartoon characters like me. I know that there are many other how-to-draw books for just about any subject out there. If realism is more your thing then that’s fine. I’m just talking about my personal experience with these specific books on the subject of drawing cartoon and video game characters. While I do prefer one style of book over the other, both can be helpful in whatever way you are looking to hone your own drawing skills. It all depends on your motivation to grow.
Whether you are casual or looking to go pro, never stop drawing.
Keep moving forward!
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The Art of David Stankowicz 