Maury Aaseng

I’m, at best, passable with a pencil, but I would like to get better. As such, I’m always on the look out for instructional material which can help me improve. Thanks to NetGalley I got to read The Little Book of Cartooning & Illustration which looked very interesting.

The Little Book of Cartooning & Illustration bills itself as a collection of tips and techniques for drawing characters and expressions in a traditional cartoon/animation style. It definitely looks stylistically traditional to me, a novice and know-nothing.

The book begins with a brief overview of physical tools and materials, and an even briefer aside about digital ones, before getting straight to business. As a beginner I would have liked a little more handholding, but after a very short intro to the basics of drawing a human head, a page with a template follows for your own attempt.

Assuming you now have assimilated the rules, the book delves into how to break them for conveying emotion, character or motion cartoonishly. Quickly moving through drawing heads, body parts, emotions, and bodies, and adding colour, part 1 ends with a series of full step-by-step character drawings.

Part 2 concerns itself with animals and inanimate objects, and driving home the point that in cartooning, less really can be more. Part 3 spends about 8 pages on two step-by-step walkthroughs illustrating scenes and gags, respectively. Part 4 consists entirely of two step-by-step caricatures, spending about 5 pages per character.

I’m so happy I got to read this book, but ultimately it isn’t for me. I’m not interested in the style taught in this book, and I also found it a little intimidating as someone who isn’t proficient enough with a pencil to be able to simply draw a character. I need more info on the basics of how to draw characters, not just how to change the style or expressions of them.… (mehr)

This little book of cartooning has a lot of examples and step-by-step instructions mainly to create facial expressions and people, with the last part of the book dedicated to animals, objects and how to create 1 and 2 panel gags. It is a friendly guide without much theory and plenty of practice pages to draw on, which makes it suitable for kids.

Judging by all the authors involved, I was expecting a guide with more personal techniques and tips based on their work experience, but soon enough I realized it wasn't meant to be an in-depth guide for those seriously studying cartooning. However, it is great for kids and teenagers! it has all those practice pages, enough tips to draw your first characters and even Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga's step-by-step caricatures. It has been made simple enough that you (or your kid) won't struggle or feel overwhelmed and will be eager to try these techniques out.

As usual, I tried a couple of their examples. I must admit it was satisfying to complete something that looks nice, even if it's from the book examples and not from my imagination. *I read it as an eARC*… (mehr)

Drawing: Birds by Maury Aaseng

I am always interested in seeing what I can learn from art books and new ways to improve my ability to render images with pencil and/or paint. Six birds were used as examples but the techniques would be useful in drawing any bird.

What I liked:
* Each bird had many steps with precise directions that allowed me to see what pencil to use where and how what was done in each step made the birds pop out from the page.
* Words I wrote down were: pencil use, definition, shading, dimension and movement
* The descriptions about how to create a variety of feather types, beaks, eyes and feet
* Birds were shown on branches, flying and from more than one position/side
* Bark, leaves, branches, pin needles, knots in trees, water and flowers were discussed
* It was simple but detailed at the same time and easy to follow

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Walter Foster for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars… (mehr)