Yes those 'instructional how-to's ' ... some of you probably guessed what this is about. Those silly little flashy artsy, how-to instructional art books (especially those with the neat looking geometrical shape constructions). Many of us found them entertaining and awesome when we were younger, and some continue browsing through them today. Before going into the subject I want to make note that I've started this to share some of my opinions on these particular books, and hoping to hear some of your own. Firstly, I realize that hardly any-where on CA's forum has given mention of these type of books. It is obvious most do NOT cover (if not enough) the material they advertise. And that's something I'd like to point out; these artists who put their time into showing their examples in the pages give but so little detail and information, usually confusing some people. These artists, depending on the theme of book they're involved, are rather obvious to have had same skill training and troubles, etc. Is it the "How-To" category that tells its writers and artists to somewhat be skimpy? More bone and fat, less meat. I've browsed through many of these books in different categories and subjects and they all appear to skimp what they 'try' to share with their readers. Must be business work...
Now, I know most are like crap and do not actually give useful information but rather sell fancy art; inspiring concepts maybe, motivations and idea jumpers, there are though in my opinion at least a few that I had come accross that both inspired and taught me at the same time. Resourceful tips if not great technique information. What really bugs me about the majority of "how-to's" is their assuring promise of "read more of our shit, and in so and so whatever, you'll be as fecking awesome as I and 'said guy' here!" which by now is funny. When skimming through one of these books and spotting a small portion of a paragraph stating something that DOESN'T refer to studying more of their comics or, continue to cross yer fingers and refer to something like Anatomy; Life; Reference; Subjects outside their STYLE I smile. Once I caught something in a book that really, really refered to practicing and exploring such subjects outside the theme of the whole so strongly I thought I jerked a tear and almost bought the thing (laughs).
Despite the many crappy ones in the market, I always liked those that showed figure constructions with those neat geometrical shapings. If there's a book with that element and has decent or good information I might have gotten it; I love the look of those geometrical structurings. Dumb of me though, I never practiced enough of the 'geometric shape construction' in my earlier technical art training. Tried for a good while, and found most of the proceedure too stiff. At least because I always tried starting a figure fresh with stiff shapes. Moved onto more organic exercises like gesture, fluid sketching and blocking in which I prefer more until now which I've been thinking of trying out the "build a figure with freaky lookin' geometrics" method again. I'll never do one or another, I always blend and mix my methods. It makes me nice...
So I'm going to stop rambling on this subject of nonsense, and give some air and space..for others to give opinion. Would like to see what you got to say, as I'm sure others will too.
By the way, I'd really like to see what y'all think about the geometrical figure structuring methods; what's your opinion on that? Do you prefer it, do you not? Do you mix methods?
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Originally Posted by Quofalcon
- however they are good for the youngest of the young if you want to inspire them to draw. (by "How to Draw" books - I'm assuming you mean the stuff like "How to draw Superheroes" that simply show a bunch of shapes, the character detail 1, then character in costume - don't really cover much else). Good for inspiring little kids to draw, but not really good for teen/young adults just getting into it.
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