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Good Books for Learning How to Draw?
HFrankenstein:
One of the nice things about drawing is that you oftentimes don't have to put forth that much extra effort to improve at it. You just have to do it, whenever the fancy strikes you, and you'll just plain get better the more you do it, whether you're trying to or not. Things like Math and Physics don't enjoy that luxury.
Of course, there is a lot of technical skill that you'll want to read up on. Perspective, in particular, is something that I think all artists should get a handle on, because few things ruin an image like bad perspective. And anatomy is important, too, but I do pretty much nothing but cartoons, so it's not as big a deal for me.
Bookwise, I've never read a book in my life, because I'm illiterate and I'm dictating right now, but I'm sure you can find almost anything you need with some careful Googling.
Splintered1:
Hogarth and Bridgeman are great books--as already mentioned. I think it also depends on what and how you want to draw. Are you going for a more realistic style or something more manga? Hogarth is great because his techniques will help you draw better without reference, which is valuable when you're working on a comic and don't have reference for every single frame. Bridgeman relies more on having a model or reference available. However, no matter what your style is, I recommend finding a figure drawing session somewhere and attending often. I've learned more about drawing from (1) just doing it (which has also been suggested repeatedly) and (2) hanging out and talking with other artists about what works for them.
-KW
Narshada:
As previously mentioned - bridgeman and hogarth for anatomy.
Other than that, drawing on the right side of the brain was interesting, but I only read about a chapter before I loaned it out and never got it back.
Perspective for comic book artists is a great book on.. you guessed it, perspective.
making comics by scott McCloud has some interesting ideas, but not really a 'how-to' book. Drawing comics thw marvel way - useful but very dated.
I'm going to put a further reading section on my website in the next couple of weeks which should cover some more stuff.
philharmonic:
Not shure if this would help or not but recently got a copy of "The Computer Cartoon Kit" by Steve Marchant. Its not much help in learning to draw but thought i'd mention because it helped me figure out some aspects of photoshop that Jeph didn't cover in his tutorial.
iliketodraw:
http://www.amazon.com/Figure-Drawing-Without-Model-Tiner/dp/0715306464
http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Way-Draw-Working-Study/dp/0395530075/ref=sr_1_8/002-3966829-4327269?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187160560&sr=1-8
http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Right-Side-Brain-Workbook/dp/1585421952/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/002-3966829-4327269?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187160648&sr=1-3
All these books are fairly good, the latter is more practical as it includes exercises and the like which can be completed within the book.
Welcome to drawing!
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