Best children cartooning books according to redditors

Oh man, art hobbyist turned art student here! I study classical realism and the figure, so your mileage may vary with this advice depending on your goals, but here it goes.

First, reading list.

Animating the Loony Toons Way is a great primer to conveying motion and energy, and simplifying form.

Figure Drawing for All It's Worth [PDF] is a classic by the great Andrew Loomis that's in the public domain.

Vanishing Point is a good beginner book on perspective.

Don't worry about memorizing everything in those books. Drawing is a process of constantly correcting yourself, and the more you read the more you'll understand, which will make you better which will make it easier to see more advanced flaws and so on.

The most important thing is to practice as much as you can. That answer isn't particularly sexy, but practice without reading will get you farther than reading without practice. Remember to constantly push your comfort zone. The atelier that I study at has a poster on the wall with three concentric circles. The inner circle marks the comfort zone, and this is where what you're drawing is so easy that it's not really a challenge. The outermost circle marks the panic zone. Things in the panic zone are so complex that you have no idea how to even approach them. The middle circle is the learning zone. Things in the learning zone are difficult, and you don't know how to do them, but you know where to start and the basic process of how to go about it. Stay in the learning zone.

Draw things that you see, and do so as much as possible. If you can't draw what you can see with your physical eyes, how can you learn to draw what you see in your fuzzy and inconsistent imagination?

When I was first starting out, I drew small boxes and spheres in perspective, and tried to draw them from every angle. It's pretty hard and tedious, but everything you draw is made up of simple shapes. Draw simple shapes before moving to more complex forms.

Start simple, and then make things more complex. For a head, I usually start with a cube before moving on to the more subtle aspects of form. Here's an example of how I approach drawing a head (excuse the shitty quality and stylized-ness, this took me like 2 minutes):

First I block in the basic shape and mass. Don't sweat this, you can always change it later.

Second, I start to chisel out some of the bigger form variations, and try to begin defining the complex side plane of the head and face. I know where to begin and end the angle changes because of lots of experience and practice. You develop a gut feeling for it after a while.

Thirdly, I finish defining the various planes and begin to work on the details. The larger shapes help me locate the smaller ones. John Singer Sargent would start his paintings over if an eye was in the wrong place, because to him it was indicative of a larger structural problem that caused him to place it there. A lot can be fixed if you start with a strong beginning.

I'm not taking this image far by any means, but here it is with some value thrown in to get a sense of depth.

Gone back over with a darker pen to emphasize the final lines of the image.

One thing to watch out for is rhythm in your work. Rhythm is a repetition of a single line or curve throughout the piece (in other words, things line up), and it's what makes a piece hold together and feel cohesive. Look through some cartoons or comics and see how many rhythms you can find. I wish somebody had told me about rhythm when I was just starting out.

That's all I have in the way of general advice, but definitely let me know if you have any more specific questions of any kind. I love talking about art. I hope this was helpful!

https://smile.amazon.com/C-D-William-Steig/dp/0312380127

Are those really Christopher Hart's drawings? Because if yes he's come a looong way from his actually TERRIBLE "manga" art syle from back in the day. His books were so terrible that even if I was desperate for a how-to drawing book I refused to touch his stuff with a 10-foot pole (same goes the other American chick's "anime" instructional book).

His old book: https://www.amazon.com/Kids-Draw-Manga-Shoujo-Christopher/dp/0823026221

Do you mean how to draw swords? Swords: An Artist's Devotion.. How to Draw Weapons????

Do you mean a book about how to fight using a sword? For example, The Art of Drawing the Sword by Darrell Max Craig is focused on Japanese sword history and samurai culture. Is there a certain style of sword or fighting you're interested in?

Or do you mean about the art of swordmaking and blacksmith work, about that kind of sword art? Or something else?

If you liked that, you'll like this book I just picked up by DK/DC. Incredible book that goes through all the main storylines and has a bunch of graphics like that. For example:

http://i.imgur.com/nVuHzxD.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/qq9A8fn.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/jPvdZu7.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/T1yfFxn.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/18EzIPn.jpg

I got it at my local bookstore, but I'll see if I can find the Amazon link for it! It's honestly a great encyclopedia on the batman mythos.

Edit: Here's the link to it!

I have the same book. It was from some school book sale magazine thing. Every semester or year or something we'd get a little magazine with a bunch of books in it. You (your parents) could order books from it. Naturally seeing a zelda book I had to get it.

Apparently amazon has it.. It says "troll" though, but it looks like there's a lot of sellers.

This is the book. I had it as a kid.

http://www.amazon.com/Draw-Marvel-Comic-Super-Heroes/dp/1570540004

It’s the Pokémon Adventures 20th Anniversary Illustration Book: The Art of Pokémon Adventures https://www.amazon.ca/dp/142159451X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_49qVCbQVKMHD9

Bought it while it was on sale

He is good! Get him a sketchbook, encourage him to draw from life whenever possible. Or something like this, a friend of mine does comics workshops for kids/new artists, a workbook like this could encourage him too: Let's Make Comics!: An Activity Book to Create, Write, and Draw Your Own Cartoons https://www.amazon.com/dp/0399580727/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_WIO4DbR66MK47

I think you might be thinking of How to Draw Blitz Cartoons. At least, I had this when I was a kid, and it had transparencies like what you describe...

http://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-Blitz-Cartoons-Bruce/dp/1561380113/ref=pd_sim_b_1

HEY /u/PittPensPats, I THINK I MIGHT HAVE A COUPLE OF BOOKS YOU MIGHT WANT TO CHECK OUT:

CDB! AND CDC? BY WILLIAM STEIG.

I'M JOKING OF COURSE, AND THOUGH I WOULDN'T WISH HARDSHIP ON ANYONE, BECAUSE OF YOUR WAGER WITH AISHAAA, I HOPE YOU HAVE TO GO VOWEL-LESS FOR AT LEAST 3 MORE GAMES. :)

EDT: CPTLS. :D

Wanna try drawing more romance ;D

Elephant Barber

I really don't get this third thing thing....I never know what to put D:

I could probably get an award for the longest time ever willingly spent in bed....on reddit.

Since he is into science, I highly recommend Howtoons by Fred Van Lente and Nic Dragotta (Image). Interspersed throughout the story are science projects, instructions for building stuff, etc.

Marvel's Disney Kingdoms line has some great all-ages stuff: Seekers of the Weird, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Figment. Terrible Lizard by Cullen Bunn (Oni Press) is also really good.

Source: I have a 7 year-old who loves to read.

Artsy - Trying to learn how to draw disney princesses.

Alexis Frederick-Frost's newest book came out yesterday (OGRES AWAKE!) and is grateful for any attention: (https://www.amazon.com/Ogres-Awake-Adventures-Cartooning-James/dp/1596436530)

I think this is a fairly common sort of book. Here's the one I had in the early 90s

That sounds like Making Faces by Norman Messenger

https://www.amazon.com/Making-Faces-Norman-Messenger/dp/156458111X

https://d2ydh70d4b5xgv.cloudfront.net/images/7/8/vintage-book-making-faces-by-norman-messenger-1992-hardcover-by-turn-wah-press-12a921f6c23d9153e55c467325e09c13.jpg

One description on Amazon described flaps featuring such things as "...a dagger in the neck, nails in the head, screw through the nose, and safety pins in the ears..."

*Edited to add links

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adventures-Tintin-Soviets-Black-White/dp/1405214775

Origin of the Hobgoblin

This looks like the art style in the back of this book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0439585600/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/275-8970096-5346450

OP confirm?

https://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Ultimate-Guide-Amazing-Publishing/dp/0756626757 or an earlier edition of this seems like the best bet.

You're probably referring to Spider-Man: The Ultimate Guide. A popular Scholastic offering at schools.

Did you use this book for this? I vaguely remember things from it.

Batman Encyclopedia (NOT a list of stories):
http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Batman-Encyclopedia-Robert-Greenberger/dp/0345501063/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422692616&sr=8-1&keywords=batman+encyclopedia&pebp=1422692629398&peasin=345501063

Another Batman Encyclopedia:
http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Comic-Book-Heroes-Original/dp/1401213553/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1422692616&sr=8-5&keywords=batman+encyclopedia

The DC Encyclopedia:
http://www.amazon.com/DC-Comics-Encyclopedia-Updated-Expanded/dp/0756641195/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1422692616&sr=8-7&keywords=batman+encyclopedia


Batman: The World of the Dark Knight (has overview entire run, plus story synopsis for some stories)
http://www.amazon.com/Batman-World-Knight-Daniel-Wallace/dp/0756692490/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1422692616&sr=8-3&keywords=batman+encyclopedia

I don't particularly recommend any of these books, but you kept saying that word encyclopedia so, well, those three may interest you.