"How to Draw" Books for Kids?

[shannanigan]

Ok... some evil person in my family got my 10 year old Niece a "How to Draw Anime Characters" book. I don't want her joining the hordes of tweens on DeviantART who can't draw a decent stick figure unless its Japanese-style Fan Art!!

I'm looking around, but thought I'd check here to see if anyone might have a suggestion or two. The usual suspects of Hogarth, etc are not applicable obviously, since she is only 10 years old. I'm looking for simple but with a little substance, not just "Copy this Drawing" stuff. Know what I mean? Such books may not exist, but thought I'd ask anyway.

Thanks in advance!!




P.S. Sorry if this is in the wrong forum. I wasn't sure where to post it!

[Elwell]

Honestly, for a ten-year-old those books are fine. She's at the age where most kids stop drawing, so anything that encourages it is a good thing. Don't talk down that kind of stuff if it's what she's interested in now, she'll either get good enough so that she'll be open to more exploration, or she won't.

[shannanigan]

Honestly, for a ten-year-old those books are fine. She's at the age where most kids stop drawing, so anything that encourages it is a good thing. Don't talk down that kind of stuff if it's what she's interested in now, she'll either get good enough so that she'll be open to more exploration, or she won't.


Of course I didn't talk down to her about it! What kind of example would I be if I did that? Though I may personally find Anime generic and trendy but I would never discourage her from wanting to draw.

What I'm looking for are additional books to get her interested in MORE than just Anime and how to copy things. Because you are right she is at that age where they stop being interested... so giving her more will be encouraging and help her start to develop creative thought. With a huge lack of art in schools today it needs to be nurtured from family... thats my goal here.

So again, if anyone has a suggestion of other books I would appreciate it. Her birthday is in March and I thought it would be a good gift. Better than more Bratz dolls anyway.... :P

[Arshes Nei]

She's 10? She's at that age where they will copy what's in their short attention spans XD

I mean if you look at Alex Ross, that's exactly what he was doing around her age. He just had passion for it enough to make it a career.

http://www.virtualubbock.com/stoAlexRoss.html

[armando]

How to draw comics the marvel way
Picture this: How Pictures Work
Creating characters with personality

[alesoun]

The Fundamentals of Drawing by Barrington Barber. Don't expect her to read it, though. If she tries her hand at copying one or two of the drawings, she'll be doing fine...

[tensai]

I would look into
Art for Kids: Drawing: The Only Drawing Book You'll Ever Need to Be the Artist You've Always Wanted to Be (http://www.amazon.com/Art-Kids-Drawing-Artist-Always/dp/1579905870/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230606439&sr=8-1) by K Temple
and
Drawing for Older Children & Teens (http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Older-Children-Teens-Brookes/dp/0874776619/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230606505&sr=8-2) by M Brookes.

Latter one is more text, and perhaps more interesting for yourself or to go through together. First one more directed to kids interested in drawing and letting them have fun.

[Ohaeri]

Of course I didn't talk down to her about it! What kind of example would I be if I did that? Though I may personally find Anime generic and trendy but I would never discourage her from wanting to draw.

What I'm looking for are additional books to get her interested in MORE than just Anime and how to copy things. Because you are right she is at that age where they stop being interested... so giving her more will be encouraging and help her start to develop creative thought. With a huge lack of art in schools today it needs to be nurtured from family... thats my goal here.

So again, if anyone has a suggestion of other books I would appreciate it. Her birthday is in March and I thought it would be a good gift. Better than more Bratz dolls anyway.... :P

I'd probably get her an artbook for something that she's interested in.

For example, if she loves a certain game, you could get her a book for it.

At the age of ten, I loved Final Fantasy 8, mostly because of the beauty of the art (it was quite nice at the time, though now it's a bit dated). If someone had gotten me a book for the art of it I would have been in heaven. Sadly my mother thought it was the devil and probably would have given herself an aneurysm if I had gotten any more interested in it, but I digress. XD

Anyway, the goal is just to show her that there's a whole other world out there. Just about any good artbook will do. People are often surprised at the sensitivity of children. At twelve I read Ender's Game and it relieved me how much it felt like the author understand that I was an intelligent human being just like anyone else. :p And of course, adults complain often that it's too intelligent a book for children! That's just rubbish, I think.

Anyway, the point is, show her that there is more to art than manga. After all, if (when?) she starts drawing seriously, you can teach her about how it's a good idea to study anatomy, etc. . . . It's easier to hear that from someone you know, anyway.

[armando]

My mom got me that 'Drawing for older children and teens" book when I was 13, I hated it, one of the reasons I quit drawing as a teenager. The art in it sucks, so I didn't bother reading it, too many words any way for a kid who just needed some tips on how to draw.

[EVIL]

I'm afraid that any book with the word "kids" on it will get ignored. At that age, especially girls, don't like to be referred to as children.

anyway, if you want to give here a really nice art book, give her the ghibli "the art of" type books, like "the art of Spirited away" It not filled with bad anime type figures and there are some beautiful oil and watercolor backgrounds featured in them.
Its best suited for her age IMO

[Alison B.]

You could always do what I did with my sister (granted I was quite into manga at one time too), I introduced her to anatomy. Basically I was like "here look at my figure drawing book, here look at this comic, here try these markers they're cool, hey why don't you try doing this?" Yep. She turned out just fine. I'm actually a bit jealous, as she certainly draws better than I did at her age.

[Zaxser]

If she realy loves drawing, get her a sketchbook. Everything else is frivolous.

[alesoun]

Lol! I used to draw in pencil on the pages of a book if it caught my imagination! Sometimes even a sketchbook is superfluous!! ;)

[jhgoforth]

Don't deride the anime style art just because it's not your cup of tea. If that really is her big interest, you shouldn't stifle it. You might do more harm than good by getting something more 'serious' art book flavored. Know how many times I got ticked at artbooks as a kid? Know what I wanted to draw instead at that age? Spiderman. I bought Spiderman books (early 90s so it was the early days of McFarlane...god help me lol) and copied the cool poses of him and the villians. I tried to figure out how they came up with certain poses. Eventually I asked my aunt when she visited (who was an artist) about different things. She encouraged my interest in comics and supplemented it with hidden ways of teaching basics. Anime is a fad in a way, but that doesn't mean it's less of an art form. Fact of the matter is, at least Japan has a healthier 2D animation market than we do. That they have loads of crap quality means they have a lot on the market. There are really good technically beautiful anime's out there. The crappy ones are just brought over here more often because of American's views that animation is for kids only (which is reason numero uno that I always find the series that I like through a fansub). Anyone who draws anime is off base if they don't take the fact that it is animation they are pulling from. Think drawings from Hanna-Barbera would really be all that different as far as quality? The difference would be in style only.

As for books for that age it depends on her interests. Find out what she likes first. What shows, what music, what books she is into lately. (God help you if it's hannah montana...i will say a prayer for you if it is....).

Comic style, Marvel book is good, if a bit outdated for a kid's tastes. Personally, I'd just start out with a few books on subjects like "how to draw animals" etc. When you are that age, you like to see results, see that you yourself can make something. Turning art into 'study time' is a quick way to kill the artistic spirit in most kids (there are rare exceptions but they will make their interest known to you).

[StephenJ]

Right now I;m reading Drawing the head by William Maughan. It's really one of the best "how to" books I've ever read.

[Black Spot]

I just got Anatomy for the Artist and my 13yo went, "Cool." I know I'm going to have to hide it but I won't.

[PieterV]

Just take something fun and not too technical. I don't see what would be so bad about the anime book. Granted, they suck, but it's important she's having fun with it. Don't give her a book on medical illustration so to speak.

[bitjockey]

If she's anything like me, the more you try and push her away from her interests, the more she'll dig in her heels and stick with it out of sheer stubbornness. She'll move on to the more serious side of things when she's ready.

[StephenJ]

Hope I'm not to late but I know that Mark Kissler is well regarded as a drawing teacher for really young kids. He at least teaches about shading, and volumetric shapes.

http://www.youtube.com/user/MarkKistler

[J Wilson]

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-Mccloud/dp/006097625X

While it's about comics and story telling and all of that, it's a really fun read that gets you thinking. I think even non comic artists can get a lot out of it, and I think the format makes it great to get older kids into it.

[MyOrangeHat]

I second (or third?) the vote for an "Art of" book. Find out what anime she is into and try to find the art book for that. Or what I was into at that age was Disney so I have The Art of Mulan (Really good book!) and a making of the Lion King book. I marveled over how different all the ideas and styles were before they became the final animation. I read the things cover to cover and they're long books. I was fascinated. If she's into Miyazaki at all the art books for his films are great. I love is watercolor sketches.

And even with Disney and anime as my driving force most of the way through high school I still turned out fine. I now enjoy anatomy studies and figure drawings. It just takes maturity to want to go and learn the very technical specific areas of art instead of just making a cool picture.

[ALH]

Probably a little young for a 10 year old- and I dont even know if its still in print or if its been updated in a bad way over the years - but this was my BIBLE as a kid. It covers the subjects in a fun way, thats approachable but technical where it needs to be. A large part of the 'monsters' section, for example, focuses on generating ideas and trying out different methods such as using thumb paintings as silhouettes, or making the snakes for a Medusa head out of bits of string dipped in paint- rather than a 'step by step' symbol learning manner.


I got other ' how to draw' books as gifts through my teens since that one, but none of them had the same attitude towards creativity as the usbourne book- a lot having a heck of a lot more text than images, which is absolutely useless if youre trying to make drawing seem fun instead of a homework assignment.

[Ashtonw]

How about manga?

[rinjii]

as someone who started drawing on the whole with the 'how to draw anime' series of books, i totally don't see the problem with starting out with them- we all gotta start somewhere, right? besides, some of those books taught me more than the high-school art classes i was in at the time when it came to basic anatomy, proportions, basic perspective, etc. they're good as supplement books, just like any other book that focuses on anatomy, animals, or any other 'professional' books, which i'm sure she'll get into with as much enthusiasm as before.

[Meloncov]

NeonDragon's book is similar in style to children's how-to-draw books, but has a far better grounding in art principles and does a better job of encouraging creativity.

[Asatira]

Walter Foster has a number of books to start with, covering all sorts of media and styles, including a number of fantasy genre books. I actually started with some of their animated Disney film books. Those how to draw books are like a lot of how to draws; breaking the process into simple shapes and building up complexity. You can go to their site and look at their catalog.

[arttorney]

Yes. Ten is a tough age. You can't get her a simple coloring book because she will be insulted. She doesn't quite have the background for a highly technical book.

Children only really gain the ability to get into more abstract information around the age of eight or so. Right now she is still in that first blast of understanding how enormous and amazing the broader world of information can be. Five years ago she would have interpreted an anime character as representational art, but now she can see there is stylization of the form. She probably likes it that way. For several years she will focus on trying to be able to emulate the stylization she enjoys. During this period she will be learning how to work with her mark making media, to control them and make things look the way she meant to. (She needs to learn that anyway). Picking what she is interested in will keep her making marks for the time being.

When I was that age I was a science geek and read through the Time-Life Library books on various subject matter. Picture books, rather than art books per se, might help if you know her areas of interest. She can go to work trying to recreate photo references or fill her head with images that will later be in her imaginative mental library.

[Aphotic Phoenix]

Yes. Ten is a tough age. You can't get her a simple coloring book because she will be insulted. She doesn't quite have the background for a highly technical book.

True, but sometimes you can find some interesting advanced coloring books in art stores. Remember having one that illustrated all the greek myths that was very fine lined and detailed, and having a lot of fun with that. Can't find anything that resembles it online so far though.

Agree with most people that you should focus on what she likes, and build from there.