Cartoon Animation with Preston Blair, Revised Edition!

A fascinating introduction to drawing generally, with a particular emphasis on cartoons and covers all aspects of the cartoonist's art, including storyboarding, backgrounds, creating focus, guiding viewing and loads of insider tips. I would definitely recommend it.

This is the most wonderful book and I have never seen anything like it before. It starts at a very basic level, listing all of the equipment you would need to be a good cartoonist, and moves through constructing your characters, developing your design, giving them movement, before finishing with animation principles and animating the acting (of your drawings). Each section is clearly referenced with explanation and step by step drawings. I was fascinated by the process and was amazed that a slight tilt of a character's head could make such a difference!

The pages detailing facial expressions is just wonderful - and so realistic! Lots of the illustrations are based on circles and these are clearly defined so that you improve your drawings. The pages which define and explain the characteristics of pugnacious and screwball 'types' are hilarious and clearly illustrate how much thought and consideration is required to draw characters that 'come alive.' It is the small details I became fascinated with, like how to express character through wings (flying characters).

The sections detailing movement and animation are a joy to behold. So many small alterations in illustrations are clearly what make the difference in animation.

We run a cartooning elective club at my school and I know this is a book that pupils and teachers alike will enjoy using to improve their craft. Definitely a title I will be adding to our school library.

As I started reading this book I had an overwhelming sense of deja vu. That is because I own an old copy of Cartoon Animation (which I dug out to compare) from 1994.
The new book, however, is far more streamlined and up to date. There are a few pages on tools and materials as well as the basics in scene composition that were missing from the old version.
It was also set out in a much more succinct manner. It still has all of the old pictures but they are compiled in a far more logical order and shrunk from a 2 page A3 spread to one page of A4, while this makes the drawings smaller it doesn't in any way decrease the quality of the art. It also has the added effect of shrinking the book down from its quite hefty proportions of 1994 to an easily portable A4 book.
The updated version also has more in colour sections and looks far less 'busy and easy to understand.
I much prefer the new version and will look into updating my own copy.

---Amazing Animation Resource---

I received a reviewer's copy of Cartoon Animation with Preston Blair from the publisher through NetGalley, and here are my thoughts.

This book is just what a young (or old!) animator needs in order to better understand the art of animation. Even with all the automated computer-animation software around these days, I believe there is tremendous value in learning the "ancient" technique of drawing animated characters by hand.

Humans and animals, body and facial expression (the mouth action section is fantastic!) are all covered.

The drawings are full of the enthusiasm and talent of the late author, and it's such a gift that this is being republished in 2020, in a well laid out, beautiful edition.

From an author like Preston Blair, one of the classic Disney animators, you surely get very precious information about character animation. Very essential, he reassumes the most important know-how, such perspective, fortshortening, character buildup from basic shapes, expressions, motion etc. It is of very easy comprehension, richly illustrated, but as it does not go in depth, should be integrated with other books. This one serves as a very useful handbook to keep in mind the most important principles recommended from one of the masters of animations. The classic stile of the Disney characters of our childhood is a joy to the eye and the heart.