Recommended Reading

This is a list of potentially helpful art and art-related books. Check for them at your library, local bookstore, or Amazon. Suggestions are appreciated!

Admin -- if working from a backup, overwrite the backup with the live copy before editing & updating. This keeps us from overwriting each other's updates.

***** 5 stars: very good - detailed with image, clear steps, very applicable
**** 4 stars: good - standard details and images, clear steps, applicable
*** 3 stars: standard - standard details and images,
+ not rated

Hospital Index

Inspirational

***** The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron
-With the basic principle that creative expression is the natural direction of life, Julia Cameron and Mark Bryan lead you through a comprehensive twelve-week program to recover your creativity from a variety of blocks, including limiting beliefs, fear, self-sabotage, jealousy, guilt, addictions, and other inhibiting forces, replacing them with artistic confidence and productivity. Terrific for dealing with artists' block and overall lack of inspiration.

General

***** How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way by Stan Lee and John Buschema
-An oldie but goodie. Most artists will outgrow this book very quickly, but it can't be beat for explaining the basics to absolute beginners of any age.

***** The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards
-A revised and expanded edition of the classic drawing-instruction book that has sold more than 2,500,000 copies, and...

New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Workbook: Guided Practice in the Five Basic Skills of Drawing by Betty Edwards
-...its companion workbook.

***** The Sketch Book for the Artist by Sarah Simblet
-Covering a wide range of themes from portraits to plant studies and still life, and showing how to tackle each subject in a variety of different ways, the Sketch Book for the Artist aims to widen the reader's understanding of drawing and to inspire them to pick up a pencil and draw. Alongside drawings by famous artists, the book uses the author's own sketch book as a way to examine attitudes and demonstrate specific techniques.

+ Drawing Cartoons: A Complete Guide by John Byrne
-This is the ideal introduction for budding cartoonists, covering all the essential aspects of the art. There's useful advice on the tools and equipment needed, and all the techniques are clearly and simply presented. Featuring numerous step-by-step examples and demonstrations, and more than 400 cartoons and caricatures, this book tells you how to: draw basic cartoons and create characters; depict expressions and gestures; draw portrait, political, stylized, and quick-draw caricatures; capture the personalities of your subject; develop your characters and create a comic-strip narrative; write scripts and graphic stories for your superheroes; bring your characters to life in animation sequences; create a storyboard, and more. Essential for all aspiring cartoon artists.

***** Cartooning the Head and Figure by Jack Hamm
-Let's pull back the curtain from your own latent creative abilities, provided you are new at this funny business of cartooning, and introduce you to some whimsical people who perhaps you didn't know could come from your own pencil.

***** The Art of Animal Drawing: Construction, Action Analysis, Caricature by Ken Hultgren
-Former Disney animator offers expert advice on drawing animals both realistically and as caricatures. Use of line, brush technique, establishing mood, conveying action, much more. Construction drawings reveal development process in creating animal figures. Many chapters on drawing individual animal forms — dogs, cats, horses, deer, cows, foxes, kangaroos. 53 halftones, 706 line illustrations.

***** How to Draw Animals by Jack Hamm
-A priceless resource on the fundamentals of drawing animals.

***** Drawing Scenery: Landscapes and Seascapes by Jack Hamm
-A terrific book on drawing scenery.

**** The Art Of Comic-Book Inking by Gary Martin
-The industry-standard manual for aspiring inkers seeking to take their work to the next level or for working professionals looking to broaden their skills base.

Perspective

**** Draw 3-D: A Step by Step Guide to Perspective Drawing by D. C. Dubosque
-An easy introduction to the basics of perspective. Good for beginners.

***** Perspective Made Easy by Ernest Norling
-Perspective is easy; yet, surprisingly few artists know the simple rules that make it so. Now they can remedy that situation with this step-by-step book, the first devoted entirely to clarifying the laws of perspective. Using over 250 simple line drawings, the author leads the reader through every important concept. 256 illustrations.

***** Perspective Without Pain by Philip W. Metzger
-This book is excellent for students or beginners who want to learn perspective.

***** Perspective! for Comic Book Artists: How to Achieve a Professional Look in Your Artwork by David Chelsea
-An in-depth and helpful treatmest of perspective as applied to drawing comics, presented in... comics format! Contains some gratuitous nudity.

**** Basic Perspective Drawing: A Visual Guide by John Montague
-A thorough treatment of the major principles and techniques of perspective drawing. If you want to draw perfect checkerboards or very realistic buildings, this is the title for you. (Note: If you find this kind of precision stifling, be sure to check out Will Terrell's comics-oriented Perspective Tutorial as well.)

**** How To Draw Manga Volume 29: Putting Things In Perspective by K's Art
-Goes beyond 1, 2 and 3 point perspective: slopes, scenery, stairs, relative sizes, how to keep characters on the same perspective plane, and more.

Anime and Manga

***** Tadashi Ozawa's How to Draw Anime & Game Characters series:
Volume 1: Basics for Beginners and Beyond
Volume 2: Expressing Emotions
Volume 3: Bringing Daily Actions to Life
Volume 4: Mastering Battle and Action Moves
Volume 5: Bishoujo Game Characters
-The first volume is probably the most helpful, but they're all good books. There is a lot of information and drawings packed into each volume. The series has an encouraging "you can do it" attitude. Unfortunately they can be hard to find.

**** How to Draw Manga: Bodies & Anatomy by Society for the Study of Manga Techniques
-Muscle-bone connections, how the surface of the body changes during movement, foreshortening, and so on. Contains some gratuitous nudity.

***** How to Draw Manga: Mech. Drawing by Katsuya Yamakami
-From bicycles to robots and space stations, mechanical drawing can be done with the use of just 4 elements (metal, glass, rubber, plastic). Once you have learned the element expression techniques, all you need to do next is accurately design the form and you've made a mechanical drawing!

Human Anatomy

**** Human Anatomy Made Amazingly Easy by Christopher Hart
-What the title says. Certainly not the only anatomy book you'll need, but a good introduction for beginners. Contains instructional nudity.

***** Drawing the Head and Figure by Jack Hamm
-This book is absolutely packed with anatomy information in the form of detailed drawings, sketches, and helpful commentary. A bit overwhelming for beginners, but an excellent book nonetheless. Contains artistic/instructional nudity.

**** The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expression by Gary Faigin
-An in-depth study of human expressions and how to draw them effectively. It goes into a lot of detail on bones and muscles, so it may be a little heavy for beginners.

***** People and Poses by Buddy Scalera
-This title has a few hundred high-quality photos of both male and female models in various typical comic book poses -- fighting, standing, wounded, etc -- plus a CD in the back cover with 600+ additional photos. It contains no nudity, just tight shorts and (for the women) tank tops.

**** Dynamic Anatomy: Revised and Expanded Edition by Burne Hogarth
-This is a very good reference book for learning to draw the human figure in action.

http://www.cafepress.com/bearsclover.8926090 by JR Dunster
-This is a companion book to the portrait tutorial site, www.portrait-artist.org. Many of the lessons and tutorials are similar to the site, but a lot of new artwork was created and additional lessons were written just for this book. Contents include: advanced shading techniques, differences between male and female faces, facial structure, "landmarks" of the face, anatomy of the neck, pencil crosshatching techniques, tips for drawing faces from the imagination, and much more!

Clothing

***** Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery: Solutions for Drawing the Clothed Figure by Burne Hogarth
-Learn to draw realistic clothing and other fabrics. Basic drawing knowledge needed.

***** Drawing the Draped Figure by George B. Bridgman
-Students learn the characteristics of seven different kinds of folds and how to render them, including pipe, zigzag, spiral, half-lock, diaper pattern, drop, and inert folds. Mastery of these principles is the key to realistic portrayal of garments. The straightforward, easy-to-follow text is illustrated by the author's own pencil sketches and diagrams. 200 black-and-white illustrations.

Art and Business

***** Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? A Fast, Clear, and Fun Explanation of the Economics You Need For Success in Your Career, Business, and Investments by Richard J. Maybury
-Understand money and inflation basics, and why both affect you so much. Good basics for going into any business, art or otherwise.

***** The Clipper Ship Strategy: For Success in Your Career, Business, and Investments
-Understand more about inflation, recessions, depressions, and "bubbles" or cones. Relevant reading for self-supporting artists.

***** Your Career in Animation: How to Survive And Thrive by David B. Levy
-Animation is a multibillion-dollar industry. Here’s an insider’s guide to getting into that industry, staying there, and getting ahead. Author David B. Levy has interviewed the top pros in animation to get their insights on creating a portfolio or reel, meeting animators, networking, and making the leap from working for others to pitching and selling. A resource section lists animation schools, film festivals, studios, Web sites, and publications to get budding animators off to an animated start.

***** How to Write for Animation by Jeffrey Scott
-A treasure trove of how-to for aspiring animation writers. With step-by-step instructions, award-winning animation writer Jeffrey Scott details the process of developing even the vaguest of ideas into a fully realized animation script. The book is meant to guide new writers from inspiration to presentation, with sections on premises, outlines, description, dialogue, series bibles, and more. Best of all is the book's refreshing "you can do it" attitude.

Hospital Index