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Recommended books

Ok, so I’m not making any bones about it: if you make a purchase on Amazon after following these links, I will get a small commission (at no extra charge to you). But, having said that, I can assure you that these are all books and products that I really rate.

How-to books

I just can’t help referencing Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards: it was the book that influenced the generation of teachers who taught me, so it was bound to affect me. I wholeheartedly recommend it for its approach to drawing: if you like some of the loosening up exercises I write about on here, you’ll love this book. Here it is on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

The DVDs might be interesting, too: Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

There are, of course, many, many books on how to use Photoshop, and, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m self-taught. But I have used a Quickstart book to teach me an animation programme when I needed it quickly, for my MA. If you’re looking for the same kick start in Photoshop, I’d recommend them for their clarity and lots of screen shots. Plus, this volume covers both Macs and PCs, while my mentions of Photoshop apply to my own experience on PCs only. Photoshop 7 for Windows & Macintosh on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

Colour Index by Jim Krause is just an amazing, small, desirable book. It contains over 1100 colour combinations, shown in small squares with suggestions as to what they evoke (progressive, quiet, rich, muted…). Values are given so that you can replicate them on the computer. Here it is on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.

Artists

I mentioned Tom Phillips in this post. He is one of my favourite artists for the pure originality and diversity of his projects.

Tom Phillips: Works and texts is the ultimate coffee-table book. It will keep you happy for weeks. Find it on Amazon.com and on co.uk.

A Humument is an incredible Phillips project in which he took a Victorian novel and painted over every page, leaving only a few words. A Humument on Amazon.com and on Amazon.co.uk

More Tom Phillips here (.com) and here (.co.uk) - if you are a fan of postcards, be sure to search out his huge book on the subject.

Are you familiar with Miroslav Sasek? The name might not ring a bell, but the chances are you’d recognise his ‘This is…‘ series of books, each of which contains joyous pictures of a city’s highlights. I often think that he’s an example of a man who carved out a great life for himself, staying in cities around the world for six weeks at a time, drawing. His style is so loose and unconstrained by rules that it is an absolute joy to pore over. And now they are being reissued, so you don’t have to bid for yellowed old volumes on eBay. Like, er, me.

Check him out on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

See this post for a summary of how I feel about Paul Hogarth - possibly one of the greatest influences on the way I think about art and illustration. His Drawing on Life is an incredible book which is both his autobiography and a collection of his lifetime’s work. If you like the Draw Anyway approved style, you’ll love this. You can see it here on Amazon.com and here on Amazon.co.uk.

Children’s illustrators

Children’s books are a favourite subject for me. Here are some quick links to some of my very favourite children’s illustrators.

Illustrator	Amazon.com	Amazon.co.uk
Satoshi Kitamura This Japanese artist uses inks to create extremely detailed pictures of townscapes and interiors populated by sassy cats, silly sheep and hangdog dogs. His streetscapes astonish me every time I look at them. Minor details like a crooked cup or a leaf on a tree are also inspiring.
John Burningham A grand old master of children’s book illustration: the longevity of his work means that many of his characters are found to be wearing delightful Seventies-style clothes. These books are a good study for anyone who is afraid that their lack of technique will stand in their way. They are artfully simple, and at first appear as if drawn by a ten-year-old boy. The words tend to be well-chosen. too.
Taro Gomi Another Japanese artist, and another ink impresario. Gomi is best known for his ‘Everybody Poops (take off the final ‘p’ for the British version), probably because of the shock value of a book that talks about defecating - but in my opinion one of his loveliest works is ‘Bus Stops’, a small, chunky board book showing the various places in town where a bus stops. There’s lots of detail in each picture and my daughter loves pointing it all out.
Sara Fanelli Fanelli has a very distinctive style of collage: she uses old lined, faded paper, labels and the inside of envelopes, items that have a sense of mystery and agedness about them. Her stories are very unusual, too, and demand much more from the reader than is normally expected from a child.
Illustrator	Amazon.com	Amazon.co.uk
Barbara Nascimbeni I do not know very much about Nascimbeni, other than that I picked up Small Brown Dog’s Bad Remembering Day, and was enchanted by the use of colour and detail. She also uses little snippets of collage, just enough that a child can point it out and feel clever for noticing it. Ever since getting this book, I’ve been collecting her others - Archie Hates Pink is similarly beautiful. I love her characters and the way she can create environments you feel that you could walk around in yourself.
David McKee Is he best known for the Elmer the Patchwork Elephant series, or for the tv programme Mr Benn? Either way, it’s easy to think you know his style, and not bother looking deeper, but this is a mistake! Some of the lush psychedelic vegetation in the early Elmer books, for example, is a treat to behold.
Carl Larsson Artistry to aspire to, really, this one - even I can’t pretend that the Drawanyway ethos of ten-minute chunks is going to get you results like these painstaking and detailed and beautiful watercolours. But, still, the truth is that every great artist like Larsson got to be as good as they are by constant practice and a growing familiarity with his favourite subjects, so there is inspiration for us all here.
Lauren Child Charlie and Lola are so well-known these days that I’m sure I don’t need to write an explanation here. But I will just say that Child’s work is a very welcome example of a cartoony style and clever use of collage going mainstream. Hoorah!

And I could go on and on and on and on on this particular subject; no doubt there will be plenty more posts about children’s books in the future.

Cartoonists

• Well, I won’t get any commission for this, but out of the goodness of my heart, I point you towards my all-time number one hero and favourite comics artist ever, Mr. Philip Bond.
• Kate Evans is an old friend of mine - we used to live in the same block of flats, but she has gone off to live in a caravan while I opted for a relatively normal life in a house made of bricks. Furthermore, while I stopped dawing, Kate just kept on and on. Her cartoons tend to focus on environmental and political concerns - quite right too - she’s currently working on a book about breastfeeding. Meanwhile you can inform yourself about all the complicated issues of climate change, the easy way, with her light-yet-sobering book Funny Weather. Buy it on Amazon.co.uk or .com (it’s called Weird Weather in the USA).

Like everything else on this site, this page is a work in progress to which I am sure I will be adding soon.

Donate to Drawanyway

If you don’t especially feel like buying a book, but you’d like to donate to Drawanyway, that’d be lovely! Much as I enjoy making the site, it does take a lot of time and energy, so if you feel you’ve got something out of it, you can now repay me quickly and easily via Paypal (you don’t need a Paypal account to do this, although if you do have one you’ll be taken to your account page). Any amount would be welcome, no matter how small. Or large. It’ll all be swallowed by the escalating costs of toddler-raising.

Thank you - Myf :)

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