How to Draw Cartoon Animation
Recently we had a swap-meet at work. It was a ton of fun. I didn’t have much to offer, so that made it a bit difficult to acquire good stuff. But some people were more into getting rid of their stuff than acquiring new, so that helped.
One of my “wins” is this book — How to Draw Cartoon Animation by Preston J. Blair. The cover is different, but the inside looks exactly the same as what’s featured on this blog about animation archive. There are some more photos on my flickr.
I like this book because it really breaks down drawing into basic blocks and steps. You see the end result and it’s hard to do that with your eye and your imagination only. But seeing these small parts that eventually make up such animated characters helps you feel confident about learning how to draw. I’m not a huge fan of American style comic books and animation, but the techniques in this book can be applied to a more broad style of drawing. It’s no wonder that newer editions keep getting printed, and it continues to have impact on what we see today.
Take another look at the pages posted at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive blog and compare them to your copy… They’re completely different.
See ya
Steve