When I was a little boy, it was common to see matchbook covers with ads saying things like “Learn to Draw!” The idea was that if you could draw the pokey little donkey, you, too, could one day become a famous and wealthy artist.
(More people smoked back then, so matchbooks were everywhere. Not so much anymore, of course.)
CHRISTOPHER HART podcast excerpt: “If you can draw a squiggly line, you can learn to draw. People think they have to draw a straight line. I’ve got news for people: that’s what they make rulers for. I don’t know any cartoonists that can draw a straight line, anyway.”
Today, if you think you might have drawing talent, sooner or later you’re going to wind up studying a book by artist Christopher Hart.
Hart has sold more than 2.5 million books, most of them instructional manuals in which he has taught a generation how to draw cartoons for comic strips, Japanese manga, American superheroes and much more. His latest book is Humongous Book of Cartooning and he joins us today to give away a secret or two and compel the artist in you to crack the spine of one of his books.
Christopher Hart Website • Facebook • Order Humongous Book of Cartooning from Amazon.com
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While Ames and Hart are great beginner books, I always judge How-To books first on the resume of the writer, usually found on the back cover, or near the back of the book. Then I thumb through the book, and read it if I have time.
When recommending a book on cartooning or comics illustration, I tend to recommend Eisner, Hogarth, Hamm, McCloud before Hart. If one is looking for a specific subject, then the Graphic-Sha books offer great instruction on how to draw mecha, bishoujo, or chibi.
All good comments! As Will Eisner’s authorized biographer, I certainly agree with recommending his instructional books, including
Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist (Will Eisner Instructional Books)
Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative (Will Eisner Instructional Books)