Thread 7763706

If you have tried any of the usual art instruction books recommended to begs. Please share your experience so begs can figure out if they are worth studying.

>Jack Hamm's Drawing the Head and Figure
What it teaches you is very concrete and specific. Many step by step example, which is only useful for drawing for example a head in a specific position.
Also shows how different body parts can be simplified and how to handle proportions. it tries however to teach you to follow certain rules to make it look right.
While not bad per say, some oft the tips were helpful. Since it not abstract, it's difficult to apply it to usage outside of the example the book shows you.
Why this book is hyped by the comic crowd is beyond me.

>Keys to drawing
The teaches is abstract and can be used to draw anything from observation. Anything you see can be broken down into lines, contours and shapes.
techniques for measurement and alignments to make the proportions and distance look right.
It's not that helpful for drawing from imagination, however. Very helpful when it comes to drawing from references and building up visual memory.
Never understood why people complain about that one of the first exercise is telling you to draw your own hand. That this is somehow a steep learning curve.
Of course it's not going to be perfect. it's more to show you how the concepts can be applied to draw something irregularly shaped. In other words something that is not geometric shaped.

>>7763706 (OP)
pyw

Xiao Weichun's Anatomy is useful and easy to understand
Scott Robertson's How to Draw/Render are good too but can be tricky to apply depending on the subject / stylization
3D Total Color & Light is also very good, especially the tutorials by Guweiz and Knopf
my work is >>7760343 >>7761781

>>7763756
I kneel. I didn’t expect gaijin book about colors can teach you how to color anime girls. I skimmed How to Render. And it was mostly cars and mecha.

>>7763717
Sure have a sketch!

>>7763706 (OP)
>Preston Blair's Cartoon Animation
In my opinion, the best starting point for learning drawing is through cartoons, and this book is the best for that. It's nothing but cartoon characters, but they ratchet up in complexity, to the point you should be able to draw most any other character through the lesson's learnt in this book, and you shouldn't be overwhelmed when learning the realistic human figure.
It also goes over some lessons in classic character design (though they shouldn't be treated like a bible), and animation.

>Loomis' Fun with a Pencil
Also a good starting point, as it also starts with cartoon characters, but the biggest fault with this book is that Loomis was not a cartoonist - that is to say many of the drawing he expects you to study and learn from are, frankly speaking, absolutely fucking hideous. His baby heads are the stuff of nightmares.
However, many of the drawings are still quite appealing, and unlike with Preston Blair's book, he goes over the beginnings of how to draw the realistic head and figure, as well as some rather short chapters on perspective and shading - neither of the last two are expounded on quite enough, but are decent introduction I suppose, as this book is really just an introduction to...

>Loomis' Figure Drawing for all it's Worth
A very good book, in my humble opinion. Here, Loomis is in his wheel house, showing nothing but realistic figure work, and I don't believe there was a single bad drawing within - many are quite fantastic actually, and make it that much more fun to study from. All the stuff you expect is in there; a greater explanation on perspective, proportions, anatomy, shading, the planes, rhythm of a drawing, clothing, line of action, etc.
If I had to fault it for anything, it didn't expand on drawing the face and head, with Loomis either expecting you to have read the previous book, or using that as a means to sell more of his later books (one specifically being about the head).

>>7763847
>Jack Hamm's The Head and Figure
I'm with OP that this book leaves a lot to be desired when drawing the head, and it's lessons for the drawing the figure as a whole are not so great either, but where this book shines is the greater in-depth looks at each body part, and the little nuggets of information to think about when drawing them.
For example, the mouth when smiling would assumedly mean the bottom lip lowers a lot (as shown in cartoons, for example), but as Hamm points out, it's actually the top lip that moves and rises the most.
Or a section about hair, and how to depict the different colours and shade of hair tonally.
So not a good starting book, or one for learning to drawing the figure, but a great one as a follow up.

>Jack Hamm's Cartooning the Head and Figure
A terrible starting point, and honestly just not a very good drawing book. It essentially just shows you a bunch of drawing by Hamm, with no real guide on drawing them, or anything for that matter. There are some neat ideas and drawings in here, but it's not useful for someone trying to learn to draw, though it may be good for someone who's experienced who's looking to do some cartoon studies.

>Keys to drawing
This is going to be a controversial opinion, but I do not like this book. I think it's a good book, but not for me personally.
It promotes messy sketchy drawing, that I took too close to heart at a young age, and it frankly hindered my drawing abilities for some time.
I should go back to it, as it has been many many years since I last looked at it - and if you decide to give it a go, do be aware of the potential pitfalls the book may teach. There are many great lessons in there, just learn them with caution.

its a small book you can carry anywhere with you, easy to read and has all the basic stuff for beginners at drawing.

>>7763706 (OP)
>Why this book is hyped by the comic crowd is beyond me
Anime animators rec it too, and that's why I read it years ago. It's an okay resource, its chapter content is clearly an inspiration for a lot of Youtubers.

>>7763766
>I kneel. I didn’t expect gaijin book about colors can teach you how to color anime girls
The art fundamentals are universal, specially stuff like color & light.

>>7763766
you shouldn't kneel for mediocre crap
get better standards anon

>>7763756
worst anatomy book I own, the shoes at the very end are nice though. Really kicking myself for buying this overpriced garbage because of ic's advice.

>>7763706 (OP)
Preston Blair and a good book of sketches from your favorite renaissance artist (I have one from Michelangelo) are the only books I recommend. Bridgman, Hogarth, TASK (as well as Simplified Drawing for Animation), and Loomis are all good too but I don't think they are quite at the level where I'd recommend them to every beginning artist.

The best exercise for improvement (including imagination) is short pose figure drawing, with the occasional master study to learn appealing shapes and keep your accuracy high.

>>7764704
Always read the scans on E-H first, anon

>>7763706 (OP)
>How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way
I would not recommend this book to a beginner, more for someone who already learned to the basics of drawing from observation.
It covers the basics of construction, perspective, figure, head and composition, although briefly. There also isn't many exercises in the book.
Only remember them asking you to draw a figure, head and your own comic page. You won't get much out of the book by doing these alone.
The main idea is probably that after reading about a topic that you try it out for yourself. It's a good starting point for learning to draw from imagination.

>>7763756
how long have you been drawing

>>7769821
since march 2021 (although pretty inconsistently)

>Andrew Loomis - Fun with a Pencil
This book is aimed at beginners but it's actually quite hard to draw the 3D forms as a complete beginner. If you actually do what he tells you and had fun constructing your own little cartoons guys, you would learn pretty quickly however.
He covers the divided ball and plane method for heads and how to construct figures but only briefly, so you are left with more questions than answers. These would take hundreds of hours of practice to get good at them. So you'll need to reference his other books for better explanations.
The writing is a bit dated and his cartoon style isn't for everybody. In the last half of the book he briefly covers perspective. Other books cover this better so I would recommend that you just skip that part.
Overall I'd only recommend the first part as a brief introduction to the concept of constructive drawing.

>>7772877
genuine question, why is fun with a pencil always pushed over picrelated?I feel like it's more in line with what a beginner artist may be looking for but I don't know if that is just me.

At what stage should I pick up a book and start reading it? I can draw figures that don't look terrible, and can do basic - if unorganized - construction. Here's my latest (incomplete yet) figure.

Can I and should I start with Loomis' figure drawing, or should I start with head and hands first?

>>7773620
Probably because Fun with a Pencil is short and more beginner focused, so it's easier to recommend.

>>7763847
>are, frankly speaking, absolutely fucking hideous. His baby heads are the stuff of nightmares
This, what the fuck were those creatures.

>>7773620
I’ve yet to see proof that anybody on the entire internet has made it past page 20 of fdfaw

>>7773712
every japanese artist

>>7773620
Fwap is somewhat required reading for FDFAIW, as I believe he doesn't get into draw the head? Just skim through fwap if you want to start fdfaiw as quickly as possible - this way you can know if you're missing something and go back to that section in fwap if needed.

>>7773665
>At what stage should I pick up a book and start reading it
Whenever you want to learn more or are having difficulty. Study a bit, then try to apply what you've learned.

any good books on learning how to draw sexual art/sex?

>>7763756
>Xiao Weichun's Anatomy
I downloaded this one when it first started getting talked about and it was the worst case of this:
>Bridgman and Loomis: :(
>Bridgman and Loomis, from an Asian guy in bad translation: :)

>>7774651
Nope. Not trolling or anything. But the great hentai artists don't teach their craft. You need to figure things out yourself.

>>7774660
For me what drew me to him over Bridgman and Loomis is that he had a ton of fun figure drawing exercises, like drawing a shape and then putting a figure there as well as ultra dynamic forshortened poses to copy

>>7773712
I did a study a every damn figure in that book. Took a long while, but I definitely improved because of it.

>>7773712
what makes you think this? is it because no one you seen have discussed any topics beyond page 20 of fdfaw?