June Recommended Reading

Yesterday I made a mad dash to the theater to catch the 1:15pm showing of Up. Lo and behold, that showing was sold out. So I had a couple of hours to kill before the next showing and decided to head over to Borders to pass the time. Since I've been trying to push my drawing skills further by learning about character design, I searched for books on the topic and found a very good one called "Creating Characters With Personality" by Tom Bancroft. Well, ok, I thought, this looks intriguing. After two hours, I'd read it cover to cover! The book starts out with a some excellent explanations about character design, what is is, how it's done and by who. There's even an assignment to develop a cast of 6 or 7 characters in a Western. There's background information about each character, physical descriptions, and personality traits. Your assignment is to come up with a cohesive look to this colorful bunch. What makes the book very interesting is that Mr. Bancroft asked several notable Disney, comic book artists, and cartoonists such as J. Scott Campbell, Peter De Seve, Rob Corley, and Mark Henn to contribute depictions of the heroic lead character. Very interesting to see all the interpretations as well as learn the approach each artist took and why.

Mr. Bancroft put together an insightful, entertaining book that I think artists of all levels can benefit from. I know I learned quite a lot and I'm excited to apply some of the tips I picked up. Even if you're a new artist, I recommend you add this book to your library.

Here's a link to where you can purchase it on Amazon.com.{LINK}