World Famous Comics: Simplified Anatomy for the Comic Book Artist: How to Draw the New Streamlined Look of Action-Adventure Comics! (How to Draw)
Simplified Anatomy for the Comic Book Artist: How to Draw the New Streamlined Look of Action-Adventure Comics! (How to Draw)
By: Christopher Hart Publisher: Watson-Guptill Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Watson-Guptill Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 160 Publication Date: May 15, 2007 Release Date: May 15, 2007
Maybe you’ve noticed. Today’s superheroes and action heroes aren’t as brawny and muscular as they used to be. In fact, almost all the characters in comic books and on TV have a fresh, new look--simplified, streamlined, edgier, with a hint of anime/cartoon design, and appealing to kids and adults alike. Now Christopher Hart, the superhero of how-to-draw books, has come to the rescue of artists everywhere with SimplifiedAnatomy for the Comic Book Artist. Anatomy has always been a difficult subject, but for this book Hart uses his straightforward approach to show a simpler way. In clear step-by-step illustrations and text, he shows: how to draw streamlined figures in poses; body types and muscles; the mechanics of facial expression; how to know which muscles to eliminate in a simplified drawing; grouping muscles; muscle contours versus bone contours; muscles in classic comic-book poses like flying and punching; and more. Now artist can stop struggling with the fine points of anatomy and start creating modern looking heroes and heroines with help from Simplified Anatomy for the Comic Book Artist.
One of Chris Hart's better books. This is a GOOD solid book that addresses surface anatomy. I recommend this book for seasoned artists having a rough time transitioning from fine art to comic art. Plus this is a good reference for budding and intermediate artists as well. I think artists that want to explore making web-comics and desire to create clean, crisp, deleniated fiures/ faces will benefit from a book like this.
This one of the BETTER books by Hart.
GREAT for those who love drawing animated-like stuff For starters, this book is by Christopher Hart, so naturally it's a great buy for people interested in the subject. This is a great book for people who prefer a more cartoony style to the graphic novel detail; I myself love drawing cartoons (including many Disney ones) and this book is wonderful in teaching you how to do your own, as well as be a most excellent reference guide for muscles, bones, and character ideas. A TOTAL recommendation if you want to try the more cartoony style.
But if you're more into the hard-core graphic novels (like the newer X-Men series), I totally recommend Christopher Hart's "Drawing Cutting Edge Anatomy: The Ultimate Reference for Comic Book Artists."
Highly Recommend! Simplified Anatomy for The Comic Book Artist teaches a new streamlined style of comics. In true Christopher Hart style, he breaks the concepts down for the reader, so that he or she can learn and progress quickly. This was very enjoyable, enlightening, and entertaining, and I highly recommend it.
Well worth having The only bad thing about this book is consistency due to the many different artists that worked on it. With that in mind this book is well worth having and a good resource about the adventure or Bruce Timm style of drawing.
FANTASTIC BOOK FOR THE BEGINNER Simplified Anatomy for the Comic Book Artist is comic art instruction Guru Christopher Hart's latest book and one of his best yet. Hart has been doing comic art instruction books for many years with a long list of titles to his credit. In this latest book, Hart tackles the modern, more simplified, and streamlined comic book art. Inspired by recent animated series such as Batman, Teen Titans, and Justice League, we are seeing more and more comics today being produced in this more simplified, animated looking style. This modern style has done a couple of things for the comic industry. First, it's far less time consuming to produce this type of art than traditional comic art...less time means less money. Second, and no knock on those artists, but obviously you can get away with somewhat less talent with this style as there is a minimum of detail required. Finally, much of this art today is being produced on computer, again saving time and money. This certainly accounts for the recent popularity of this style of art.
Hart takes a step-by-step approach to his instructions. On one page he shows an example of a piece of art done in traditional style and next to it, the same piece done in the simplified style. Basically this is simply a matter of less definition being added to the character. Less muscle definition, fewer or no bone structure outlines to the face and body, hair designed as "one piece" as opposed to drawing several lines of hair and curls, etc...The examples are striking in their sheer minimalism.
Now, this isn't merely a matter of taking out lines, but rather a complexly different approach to drawing figures. There's a whole change in thinking about how to construct the anatomy in this approach. Remember, you're not going for realism anymore. Fully the first 50 pages are spent just on the head and facial features. Hart will show you how to simplify the look of the eyes, nose, and mouth with dozens of examples included along the way.
Next up is the body and it's the same process as before. Simple bone and skeletal structures, simple muscle definition... Again, Hart shows dozens of examples of body types from heroes to regular guys to mad scientists. In this style, bodies are more angular...the hips and knees often come to an exaggerated point as opposed to the rounder look of traditional comic art. In defining muscles, that standard six-pack now becomes a two-pack...the shoulders and chest exceedingly broad and triangle-shaped.
Hart rounds out the book with a look at forced perspective, getting your characters to look like they are virtually jumping out of the page at you. Honestly, I believe that this book and this style of art has opened up a lot of doors to artists who maybe were not quite good enough to make it with traditional comic art. It's also allows small press publishers to compete against the bigger publishers. Heck, you even see this style of artwork showing up at major publishers like Image and Dark Horse.
It's another well-done book by Hart and perfect for the aspiring comic book artist.
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