sábado, 18 de abril de 2009

Draw Comics With Dick Giordano


There are many "how to draw comics" out there, and I admit that the main reason I bought this one was because it's by comics legend Dick Giordano who has been associated with DC comics for most of his career. It's a shame that absolutley NO DC ART is featured in the book, probably because of copyright issues. It seems to me that DC should have cut Dick some slack and let him use samples of his own work using DC characters. On the plus side, it means that almost all the great art featured is previously unpublished work drawn by Dick for this book.
The book is aimed, not on those who want to learn how to draw, but those that want to learn how to draw comics, and in this Dick goes into great detail and gives you his tips and tricks from decades of experience.
His chapter on inking, called "The Art of Inking, is one of the best studies done of this dissapearing and misunderstood part of comic art. Indeed, Dick is mainly known as one of the best inkers in the business, having inked many comic classics and over the pencils of Great Ones like Neal Adams, Geore Pérez, Jose Luis García López and many others.
His (grossly underrated) pencilling is fantastic also, reminiscent of the aforementioned Neal Adams and García López but with a unique clean classic style all his own.
The sections on figure drawing offer many examples of different body and character types, showing that comic book drawing is not all super heroes. I do wish he would have gone into greater detail on the anatomy of the human figure since he hardly discusses muscle groups or skeletal structure, in this respect, a certain degree of previous drawing experience is a must.
Lastly, the sections on visual storytelleing and composition round things out quite nicely, and I daresay many of todays comic artists could benefit from the advice given in this chapter. There's even a part where Dick gives aspiring artists real advice on how to presents your portfolio and try to break into the businness, beyond the usual "practice, practice, practice".
If you don't know how to draw at all, this book may not be for you, though you will surely learn from it. If you're someone interested in drawing comics, this is invaluable and even as a Dick Giordano sketchbook it is a great example of one of the modern master of comic art.

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