[Music]
Stan: What are some of your favorite art Books like instructional, how-to?
Sanford: The one that started - started everything for me was how to draw comics to Marvel way.
That was the foundation, that was the one that changed everything for me. It just put
me on the path. I was like 12 years old went to the local bookstore and I saw this book
and it said "how to draw like Marvel" and I was already starting to get into some of
the comics and it was like "wait a minute, if I learn how to draw like Marvel, maybe
one day I can work for Marvel". So I begged my mom, and she was like "okay, if you're
gonna put it to use". I think I put in the use needless to say.
Stan: Awesome. Thank you so much.
Sanford: Thanks Stan man.
Stan: Awesome.
William: Favorite instructional art books; the Andrew Loomis books are very good figure
drawing for all it's worth, that's terrific. He also did a book called Creative Illustration,
that's really good. For basic anatomy, Richman's a pretty good source. That was one of the
teachers that taught Norman Rockwell. Once you get to a certain level, a more sophisticated
level, the book by Vanderpoel is really instructional. He was one of JC Leyendecker teachers. I don't
recommend Burne Hogarth stuff. Burne was a friend of mine but I find his anatomy books,
his figures don't seem to have any bones in them. It's just all muscles. The bones are
so good at structuring figures that it seems foolish of me to leave that out.
Stan: Yeah. Who's your cartoon crush?
William: Russ Manning, the Tarzan artist before. I knew him as a Tarzan artist. He did a series
of comic books called "Magnus, Robot Fighter" and Magnus, his girlfriend Leeja, she was
so hot and she had this dress that, it sort of - was aggregated dress. It was transparent
at her knees, you always got the feeling of "oh man if only it was just a little different,
I'd see something" [Chuckles] but it never was.
Stan: What's your favorite instructional art book?
Pascal: "How to Draw the Marvel Comics Way" Stan: Okay.
Pascal: That's - when I was a kid, Grandpa and Friends, my dad sent that to me when I
was like 11 or 10 and I read it from one page to the end and backwards and then all the
exercises in it and I was like "oh my god!" I think that's the only art book I've ever
read in terms of like instructional thing. You could only draw to learn, so I didn't
- I didn't really read anything else.
Stan: Perfect! What are some of your favorite instructional art books and you can definitely
pull that one out right there on your - [Chuckles] Stephen: One of my favorite instructional
art books, this book is amazing, it's amazing. And oh, I just so happen to have it right
here! It's called "The Silver Way", and this is a book all about character design if you're
interested but some you know, really some of my books were - I - I follow with so much
of like the old masters in a lot of ways. I was just started - I discovered Leonardo
da Vinci really in all honesty. Not that I discovered him just now but his books recently
and was really through those but I love books like Andrew Loomis and George Bridgman and
any - any books like that that I can find. So they - they get old and classic in that
way, but they're - they're very informative and I think just learn - again, learning that
foundation and the basics takes you to that next level, even if you don't know what you
really want to do.
Stan: Right.
[Music]
Stan: Do you have any favorite art books?
Philip: No, I think going from life is better.
Stan: Ah, there you go.
Philip: I had a few students before and what I would have them do is go to a coffee shop,
look at someone for five minutes, don't stare at them, you're gonna get in trouble and spend
the next 10 minutes. You're not gonna - you're not gonna nail that in the first go, but if
you do that every day, keep it up for a month or two, what you're gonna learn is what the
art books can teach you. It's the gestures, the angles, the positions and stuff like that,
you know, the judging of camera distance. Because if we're talking about comic books,
that's what it's all about; the believable gesture and storytelling and angle and camera
distance of all these scenes that you're trying to draw and those are going to improve like
tremendously. How many muscles you have on your biceps and your tri - that - that's a
lot easier once you got the basics and your fundamentals, you know?
Stan: Right.
Philip: Are been taken care of.
Sean: The books that I was looking at was the Christopher Hart book on how to draw cutting-edge
comics, how to draw simplified anatomy and then Andy Smith's book, How to Draw Dynamic
Comics. So those are the three that I really use quite a bit.
Cutter: It's gonna be the same answer from probably anybody that went to art school but
Loomis, Andrew Loomis, all his books definitely, Gary Martin's book on comic book inking for
any - any incre, pretty much a must. Bridgman, I don't know, I have like literally ten-foot
stacks of books at my house but mostly of art and artists. But instructional books,
there aren't that many.
Stan: What are some of your favorite instructional art books?
Karl: ah, I've got a room that's just full of books, absolutely. The floor is just covered
in them. So I really like James Gurney's "Color and Light", I thought that was a crack in
the book. And it was quite pertinent to what I was doing. He was working in the field of
illustration, a lot of it was applicable, so that's great. The Bridgman books are fantastic
for Anatomy and breaking it down into its composite elements. I had a great book by
Harold Speed, it was like a art knack see [?] who worked in the UK and he was a fantastic
portraitist but, he was like "you have to lay your palette out this way. You have to
do this", there was no other way. But it was really informative and it was kind of - because
no one had taught me, that was what I needed; some rigid structured methods to approach
in oil paints, and so that was a good little book. But yeah, there's hundreds of really
good books but I always advise people, it's like if you're a musician or guitarist or
so, don't go for the average guitarist, go and try and copy Hendrix or the guys who were
really good. Don't go picking up on the guys who are okay, go for the top - top guys and
then you hope a bit of that will rub off on you.
[Music]
Marshall: Robert Beverly Hales, "Drawing Lessons From the Great Masters" not "Anatomy Lesson
From the Great Masters" which has his name on it but it's not really his work. "Drawing
Lessons From the Great Masters" is a single book it gives you such a good broad overview.
A hundred master drawings analyzed by someone who really knew what to point out at.
Stan: And he's got book reviews on his website with all of his book recommendations. What
are some of your favorite instructional art books?
Eliza: The Animation Survival Kit. That's a big one especially if you want to do animation.
The Story, definitely Story was a great book. Back in the day I was obsessed with books
from the National Russian Academy of Art because their studies and their life drawings are
off the chart. They're just so amazing cuz they they give you drawings that are graded
A, B and C kind of like here and when you see the B's and the C's, it just makes you
cry because they're so amazing. You're like "how is this a B? This is an A-plus plus.
So, it's nice to know that they're striving for that perfection. So I remember that was
a big influence when I was growing up and I still pay attention a lot to academic drawing
even when I'm doing my [?].
Stan: Any favorite instructional art books?
Erik: There's a ton of them and I could go down the list of the stuff that I'm sure you've
heard in all these other interviews. If these are being spliced together you're gonna hear
you know Loomis and all that stuff. My favorite one and I'll butcher his name, so I'm not
even gonna try and say it but the book is Framed Ink. I think it's one of the –
Stan: Framed Ink.
Erik: Framed Ink is a phenomenal new book. In fact, his whole line of framed books are great.
Stan: Perspective.
Erik: Yeah.
Stan: How many does he have?
Erik: He's got Framed Perspective one, Framed Perspective Two, Framed Ink and he's coming
out with a new one. I can't remember the name, it might be Framed Composition or something like that.
Stan: Probably.
Erik: He's got a new one coming out if it's not out already. He's phenomenal.
Stan: What superpower would be most useful to an artist?
Erik: Infinite endurance I suppose. You know, never getting tired, that would be the best
one as an artist.
[Music]
Stan: What's your favorite or some of your favorite instructional art books?
Sean: I guess it's an instructional art book but it's "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud.
It's an amazing book. I mean, it's really more about the theory of visuals and art in
general but sequential art especially, but I learned so much about, like about symbology
and about the way we see things and how we interpret lines and art and imagery. I tell
my students to read it all the time. I mean, it's on my list of you know required reading
for each one of my classes. If I had one book to recommend to anybody, it's understanding
comics by Scott McCloud. It's brilliant and it's in comic book form, so it's really - you
know, it's a fast read but you learn a lot.
Stan: Yeah. So you have a full list for your students?
Sean: I generally have to have a list of stuff.
Stan: What else is on that list?
Sean: Designing Characters and Creatures by Marc Holmes which I think is - it gives a
lot of little short assignments that you can give yourself if you want to essentially challenge
yourself to improve your character design portfolio. So, I think that's a really good book.
Stan: Biggest cartoon crush?
Sean: Oh Krang of course from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I mean, maybe - maybe Aku from
a Samurai Jack is a close second but you know, you can't beat Krang, he's awesome. All he
wants is his own body.
Stan: Any favorite instructional art books?
T.J: I'm kind of more of a child of the Internet you know? Like, my career kind of grew up
in that era of which you were starting to see more and more art material showing up
online such as the Proko channel.
Stan: Oh wow! Can you tell me more about those?
T.J: Oh man! I love this channel. No, it's - honestly that's one of the first things
I stumbled upon when discovering YouTube. Is like Proko stuff about the fundamentals
of drawing and that's the first time that I saw - it actually appealed because it was
kind of fun, it had some personality whereas books it's just like you and the pages and
you know, there's great writing and everything but I think having the interactive element
of YouTube videos that's what really helped me. Also just like online tutorials. I'd suck
up whatever I could find on DeviantArt, Gumroad is an amazing resource. I've gotten stuff
you know, Anthony Jones before doing his mentorship, some stuff from Eytan Zana to learn some environmental
stuff. I'm really curious about doing some Learn Squared courses, Alex Figini in particular
is like one of my like concept art gods and he has a - actually a whole course about doing
3d which is something that I really want to get into, it's pretty intimidating. So yeah,
as far as like influential learning material, it's most like internet stuff. Just little
gems across you know, the scope of the internet, yeah.
Stan: What are some of your favorite instructional art books?
Bobby: Bridgman books, those series are amazing. Of course Loomis comes to mind. There's so
many books that he's created but I love all of them. Imagine FX is a pretty cool magazine
with tidbits of little knowledge gems all over the place, that's a really good one as well.
Colin: Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, it's the best. Like actually, you can go through
all three of his books in that genre. My understanding his actually making a new one for just general
visual arts and it's amazing. I mean, it's a book I think everyone should read but it's
probably the best. Okay.
Stan: Cool.
[Music]
Stan: What are some of your favorite instructional art books?
Chrissie: How to Draw the Marvel Way. I actually never really read a whole lot of instructional
books, but I would watch a lot of like YouTube tutorial videos and just like practice figuring
it out on my own. So, yeah, I mostly would watch video tutorials and then just like - by
making my own mistakes, I kind of learned how to draw how I draw.
Stan: Who's your cartoon crush?
Chrissie: Oh, Aladdin. I always had a crush on Aladdin.
Stan: Nice, that's a good one.
Chrissie: I liked the new Aladdin too. Sorry, I have a thing for Aladdin I guess, I don't know.
Stan: What are your favorite instructional art books?
Peter: instructional art books?
Stan: You can name your own.
Peter: Well, okay. My own book The Dynamic Bible is one that I - yes, I like to push
as much as I can. But you know, like I said, even this book right here talking about the
previous question of my mentor Norm, this is an echo of Norm. That's what I always say
is that this is not me, this is people, thousands of people behind me pushing this information.
Norm being one of them and all the people behind Norm also too. This kind of information
of how to's and instructionals, when people are teaching, I like when people recognize
the histories of things and where it comes from. So for me, this book is very much an
echo of all the history of the instructors from Art Center. But of course, my book but
Scott Robertson's, right? How to Draw art book. Fantastic, very technical which is why
I actually like to push mine because it's little bit easier to kind of jump into and
then go to Scott's book because that's where you get the more advanced information. Framed
Ink, also fantastic for storyboarding, framing, cinematic composition. That’s what I'd recommend.
Stan: Awesome. What are some of your favorite instructional art books?
Lucio: Right now there is not a real book because I've studied on very old old books
in the Academy. So, right now I would suggest for real, like your video - Stan: OK.
Lucio: Really, they are like the best video tutorial, much better than books and I think
much better than many school around. I use the same kind of structure for the anatomy
and the light and shadows. People are not - are very lucky, the students, because they
can have kind of tutorials online and so I think this is one of the best, I would suggest.
And this is what I do it and I suggest to my students every day.
Stan: Thank you. What are some of your favorite instructional art books?
Brian: When I was coming up, it was Loomis and then it was also Step-by-Step graphics
back in the day when it was a really good magazine. It had like all those great illustrators
like it'd have like Thomas Blackshear going through and showing his step by step his gouache
process which didn't even exist back then. I mean, we're talking the 80s, so there wasn't
like all this stuff that you could pull right then but - so you know, Loomis was the first
because - I always have arguments people "Bridgeman Bridgeman's man. No I'm Loomis| guy not a
Bridgeman guy, what are you talking about?" you know? Like I said, Step-by-Step for graphics
was great because you had all these great guys in the industry showing you how they
did their stuff. I used to do writing for ImagineFX, would occasionally have some great
stuff you know, 3d world for the 3d world stuff's. I do a lot of CG and a lot of 3ds
stuff as well and then you know, finding places online where people are posting - I mean,
there's some great tutorials all over the place you know?
Stan: Yeah.
Brian: I mean, I just - Marshall turned me into the Etherington Brothers. Oh my god!
You guys want to see some really cool tutorials? Google that art books, you'll find them, you'll
will correct the spelling that I'm butchering the guy's name, two British brothers.
Stan: Books are a great way to boost your skills but videos are pretty awesome too.
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this video and thank you for watching this series. This is it, our last comic-con video
for 2019. If you like videos like this ,be sure to LIKE and Subscribe. I'll be asking
the pros more questions at next year's comic-con, but what should I ask? Did I miss something
that you'd like me to cover next time? Let me know in the comments and I'll write them
down for next year. See you later.