How to Draw With Your Funny Bone [Hardcover]

If you struggle to turn sticks into figures, then perhaps it is time to seek out a Trained Professional Artist! Illustrator Elwood H. Smith consults his expert funny bone as he leads budding artists through a tutorial on how to draw tricycle- riding pigs, silly-grinning cars, and jousting ketchup bottles. Emphasizing that subjects can be based on everyday materials and that artists have unique styles, this is a workbook that will encourage readers to experiment with their own types of visual expression. Sage instruction for would-be cartoonists from a veteran, self-billed 'Trained Professional Artist.'As the introduction suggests, this is more an overview of Smith's personal approach than a systematic guidebook. He mixes standard starting points-looking analytically at photos or clip art, working from basic 2-D and 3-D shapes-with pages of sample caricatures and cartoons that interpret images in goofy ways or add comical details. Photos of pigs, mostly, but also pictures of an old car, a goat skull and other promising items serve as inspiration for the galleries of quick sketches. Many of these come with hand-lettered comments: 'Light-bulb pig'; 'Here's a picture of an old sofa.' These complement the breezy main text: 'Even food you think is yucky can be fun to draw.' He also describes-though doesn't actually illustrate-using a lightbox, and he closes by urging readers to develop their own styles, providing a pair of blank pages as encouragement to limber up those artistic 'funny bones.' Smith's pictures are always good for a hoot, though tyros will get a truer start from Ed Emberley's classic manuals. -Kirkus Reviews . young artists will come to appreciate that when you use your funny bone to draw, anything can happen. - Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews