Member Reviews

'The Art of Comic Book Drawing' by Maury Aasent, Bob Berry, Jim Campbell, Dana Muise, & Joe Oesterle is and art instruction book with a superhero theme and lots of character ideas.

The book starts with looks at tools and materials, digital illustration, and drawing basics. Then building out body parts like heads, bodies, feet and hands, along with how bodies look in motion. There are are 10 hero and villain breakdowns to get practice in for creating your own characters and the book finishes up with things like story segment and speech bubbles.

There are quite a few art books out there and some better ones on creating a finished comic project, but for the casual artist who wants to dabble, this isn't a bad step at all. The basics are here and lay a decent foundation.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Quarto Publishing Group – Walter Foster, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

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As with many people today, I’m obsessed with superhero movies and shows. When I saw this book on learning how to draw them, I decided to check it out. I’m not artistic at all, but this book made it look easy to learn the basics on how to draw such characters. I really liked looking through it. I highly recommend.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed this book

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The Art of Comic Book Drawing is a fun book for beginners, with step-by-step tutorials, helpful tips, and dozens of drawing and illustration techniques.

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The Art of Comic Book Drawing is everything that it promises to be. This is a guide and introduction for comic book artwork. Everything from the basics to more detailed steps is included here. And it's all designed to get readers started on their comic book journey.

What I love about this book is how it really managed to cover all of the basics. And I do mean all of them! This book covers the basics of drawing, inking, character creation, drawing motion, lettering, storyboards, and more. It's actually quite impressive!

Best of all, it actually does a brilliant job of explaining all of these basics to you. Anybody who has read an art book knows that this element is just as (if not more) important as having a talented artist on the team. Thankfully, you can find both here.

I also love that they've included practice pages and exercises throughout the book. I know that might not seem like much, but it's something I've come to really love and appreciate.

In short: this book has everything a beginner would need or want in order to get started. So if you've been wanting to create a comic, but don't know where to start, or are feeling intimidated, then this is absolutely a book worth checking out. That is also true even if you're just curious, because The Art of Comic Book Drawing is also an interesting read, regardless of skill level.

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This is one of the best drawing guides I've worked with. It starts at a beginner level teaching shading and sketching techniques, but even at a beginner level, it adds comic-specific tools and tips about common techniques among comic artists. It then progresses up to figure drawing for various kinds of characters. I'm a complete beginner on drawing figures, and it broke the steps and techniques into simple instruction I could understand. Alongside figuring drawing, it teaches how to suggest motion and perspective with your figures and how to make that work with your story. It also provided practice pages for every new instructional page, working up to drawing complete comic book panels. Along the way, it provides quippy comments about the art and tips for tools and styles to draw comics as professionals do. The only thing that would have pleased me more is if it had provided more instruction about the digital aspect of the art, but that probably would have strayed too far into Photoshop instruction. If you're looking to get into comic book drawing, or drawing with figures in general, I highly recommend this.

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A dynamic, interactive introduction to creating your own comic book characters. Lots of step-by-step pages to help get you started. Good for adults or teens. Absolute beginners may find the techniques a little intimidating, but intermediate and advanced artists should have plenty to do.

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Everything all in one. This book gives tool information for all medium, including digital. It’s got a section focused on drawing the characters, one on the uses of different fonts to convey emotion and one on the background. A great tool for a novice, but also a great condensed reference book for someone who is a bitter experienced.

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The Art of Comic Book Drawing is a tutorial and style guide to comic and storyboard layout. Due out 10th March 2020 from Quarto on their Walter Foster imprint, it's 128 pages and will be available in paperback format. At least some of the material is re-formatted and recompiled from several earlier publications 2006-2014.

The layout follows the familiar Walter Foster tutorial format. An introduction covers tools and supplies, digital illustration, drawing and inking techniques, followed by a short and easily accessible general drawing tutorial and an introduction to texture and perspective. The book is aimed at character driven graphic storytelling, so a fair bit of the content concentrates on building characters, storytelling through perspective and movement, villains, battles, adding word balloons and lettering.

Each of the chapters includes several start to finish tutorials illustrating the concepts and techniques from the chapter. There are interactive blank panel pages for the reader/artist to try out the preceding lesson.

This is a basic book but full of good technique and will provide some useful takeaways for the majority of readers/artists. This entire series is worthwhile and will be a valuable addition to the artist's home library. This would make a welcome gift for a young person who wants to learn some comic drawing techniques.

Four stars.

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As a person who has only taken art classes in high school but average skills. This book gave step by step instructions on how to draw comics on all levels from body features to action. I can't wait to take what I've learned and use it for my own comic book.

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The Art Of Comic Book Drawing is an awesome tool. The steps and explained well and easy to follow. This would be a great book to have in every art classroom.

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Comics are stories that have a face.
As we see rise of superhero movies and franchise, age of comics is reemerging from dungeons.
A strong medium to tell a story which is highly enjoyable.
If you can draw and like to draw comics this is an activity book to give you practice.
It starts with basics like nose, hands, face, frames and step wises teaches how to draw your own comic.
Book does not touch complicated aspects but covers simple themes of traditional comics.
There are pages for practice and they are very useful.
A very good drawing trainer with particular focus on superhero comics.
Thanks netgalley and publisher for review copy.

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I love trying out creative ways to draw. As a child I always made my own comics. It was an early favorite. I havent drew much in years so I thought it would be fun to read this and I loved it. It definitely made me want to draw more. You should definitely check it out.

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I’ll be honest, I read this book just to see if I’d want to buy it for the hubs. He’s recently developed an interest for writing a comic. He’s already a professional artist, he just has no experience in comics. I’ve already bought it one book on the subject. Still, the more the merrier if they have something new to add, right?

I don’t think will add anything that he doesn’t already know / the other book didn’t already cover, so I won’t be purchasing it. That said, still giving it 4 stars. Why? It’s still a good reference tool for beginning coming book artists. This feels like it would especially good for young artists who have an interest in comics but don’t know much about drawing them, the layout process, what tools to use (including a page on digital illustration), etc.

While not comprehensive, there are enough tips here to get someone started. This is the kind of book you’d buy first to see if your interest in comic drawing is something you’d want to explore more or not.

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To be perfectly honest I don’t have much in the way of drawing talent or an interest comic drawing however when I saw this book I knew it would be of interest to my 11 year old son so we read through it together and in his opinion it’s a great drawing guide and he finds it a very useful tool to help aid him in creating characters and proper techniques. And I figure if it’s of use to an 11 year old then it could be helpful to anyone.

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I have read and used several of these kind of guides on painting and drawing, and love them for my own use but I also work with children on art workshops and they are a great reference guide for when we work with something the kids, and myself, might not be that familiar with, eg comics!!
This book takes you from the very basics of drawing bodies using lines and shapes... through to facial expressions, developing characters and achieving movement in your drawings. Adding shading, speech, and by the end you can make a full on comic.
There are step by step instructions to guide you but if you already have some experience you can dip in and out of whichever sections you need.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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I loved this book it perfectly chronicles the original art of comic drawings and what has made them beloved by millions. The artwork and instructions are excellent and detailed. I recommend it for anyone that loves comic artwork.

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The Art of Comic Book Drawing needs to go on my bookshelf! It is attractive and thoughtful, organized and fun. A great resource.

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The various sections of the book are illustrated by artists of different time periods and unfortunately it is quite evident, as there is no continuity between them. The "Creating characters" and the following sections (including battles) that should be of great importance to build upon later are totally different in style from the rest of the book, are very outdated in style (some of them at least of the 50's if not earlier) and in my opinion of no help for a modern artist. The practice sheets are of no use either. On the other hand the "Building Comic characters" section is much more likeable.
There are also some useful information there: tools, strokes, shading, speech, sound effects and elementary storyboard. I liked the page layout and the colourful background and comic style decorations.

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The Art of Comic Book Drawing gives the reader an in-depth look into creating comics! If you've ever wanted to learn the basics of character creation, inking techniques, dynamic movement, and more--this how-to delves into the steps to take to help you become a comic creating pro.

This book is arranged by skill, introducing the reader to basic drawing techniques and practice opportunities before gradually encouraging the reader to add on to the knowledge they've acquired. Tips are placed throughout the book, giving helpful hints about tools, techniques, general knowledge specific to comic creation. Artists are encouraged to find what works best for them--from markers to Photoshop, anyone who picks up this title is bound to find their own groove and have fun discovering what that is.

From "The Bulk" to "Ms. Mega," readers will enjoy the detail and care given to encourage anyone to pick up a pencil and give comic character and story creation a try. While informative for anyone interested, this title is recommended for those who have beginner to intermediate experience with drawing. Hobbyists of comic artistry will appreciate the specific focus on this subject, perhaps learning more specific techniques that they may carry with them into their own skill set.

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