4 out of 4 stars
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How to Draw Anatomy for Comics by Stan Bendis Kutcher is an introductory guide in comic anatomy for young, budding comic artists. The book consists of approximately 132, fully illustrated, color pages tutoring young artists on the skills required for comic art.
The book is divided into seven chapters focusing on the materials to be used, the basic shapes involved in sketching comic characters, the different perspectives involved in the creation of comic characters, the basic human anatomy for providing a skeleton to comic characters, the Golden Ratio for fleshing out comic characters, detailing the characters and finally, putting all the lessons together to come up with basic comic characters. Each chapter is accompanied by a fictional character like the Lava Dude, the Rainbow Child, etc who seem to be guiding the reader throughout the book. All the concepts explained in the book are accompanied with illustrations to help the reader understand what the author is trying to describe.
The book leaves nothing to chance, as it explains everything required for comic art, even the kind of pencils and erasers used along with images, to give the reader a complete idea. The book is designed to provide a step-by-step, thorough process of creating a comic character. For example, in the chapter on basic shapes the author describes the basic shapes used to make a comic character, then how these shapes are put together to create a comic character and then goes on refining the character for the next few steps to help the reader the understand how to proceed in creating the final product.
I really liked the chapters on Perspectives and Golden Ratio, since these chapters provide some in-depth information on what actually goes into making a comic character. Sketching a comic character is not as simple as drawing and coloring people. It involves multiple perspectives which are well explained by the author, through the use of extensive illustrations. Also, the principle of Golden Ratio is really important and the author quite sensibly explains human anatomy before proceeding with this principle. This principle is explained in the simplest manner possible and it becomes really easy to grasp this concept.
The tips provided by the author are also quite helpful like taking note of the shadows on the floor, so as to take them into account while drawing basic shapes. The best part of the book is the encouragement the author provides to young artists to explore and experiment all the options available for creating comic art, even teabags and ketchup! I would advise the readers to make it a point to read the book on a color screen to utilize this guide fully. I rate this book 4 out of 4 for being an easy, step-by-step progression guide to comic art.
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How to Draw Anatomy for Comics
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