There are so many amazing resources out there for learning how to draw. I spent so much time scanning the shelves of my middle school library for the How To Draw books for animals, anime, clothes, anything I could get my grubby little child hands on. I would take copy paper and press it up against the book pages, carefully tracing the steps as carefully as possible. While my methods have changed since then, there is something amazing to be learned from seeing someone else's methods. Today I'll share my little collection of books and how they've helped me!
And if you pay attention, my cat Dingus found this lesson very informative and definitely wasn't napping while I took pictures, haha!
I collect my books from many different sources including book stores, game stores, arts supply stores, museums, artist alleys, yard sales, and even facebook marketplace sometimes. And these aren't just How To Draw books either, though there are definitely some of those in the mix.
Reference Books
This is probably what most people are thinking of when I say art books. Classic drawing tutorials in paper form, teaching you how to draw by breaking down the subject into shapes. These are probably what I use most often.
I cannot recommend the series of Morpho Anatomy for the Artist books by Michel Lauricella enough. While the previous book took a very clinical approach, the Morpho books lean heavily into interpretations and shape language. It emphasizes the roundness of form and the many different ways bodies can appear, whether from age or work or general wear-and-tear of life. I find myself regularly checking my book on hands the most.
Art Of- Books
If I enjoy a piece of media, I'm immediately searching to see if an Art Of book exists. These vary so much from book to book but usually contain things like character concepts (my personal favorite), landscape concepts, storyboards, outfit designs, notes from the artists/creators, final stills from the show/game/whatever it is, and sometimes extra content that wasn't included in the final work.
Indie / art zines
I was introduced to zines via the Nashville punk scene back in highschool, but never really did anything more than single page, hand drawn fanfics to pass to my friends. But if you go to the artist alley lately you'll find many artists that have their own zines, hand-bound comics, or even small production art books! I've grabbed many little ones as special treats when I do well at a con.
Little Coven by @MariDoodles is a rainbow of girls across every page. Each one uses roughly the same tools and materials, yet each rings of such personality. The different levels of rendering and techniques use shows the myriad of ways those same tools can be used. It makes a good inspiration for drawing challenges.
When I saw a Pokemon themed tarot deck that also had an art book with all the card designs, I KNEW I had to have it. Evolution Art Book was a massive collaboration organized by CatStealers where a ton of artists submitted pieces of so many different Pokemon. So many styles and interpretations and moods and mediums in one book makes it an amazing coffee table book to have out for guests, or to browse when you need inspiration.
Hey, does that look familiar?? I would be remiss if I didn't mention the art book I got to contribute to! The Palette Scheme is a smaller collaborative project organized by LovelyLadyArtist. We were all assigned colors and drew fake fashion magazine pages. This is one of my pages where I drew my firbolg Dondi, but I also have two other pages with my lamia Phillis and my fursona Basil! It's so interesting to see how so many different artists interpreted the same prompt. This was such a fun project to be a part of and I definitely plan to participate in more art zines in the future.
Final Ramblings
I would be here typing for 10 years if I went over every detail of every book, but hopefully this little snippet of my collection has given you some insight into the different kinds you can get and how they help me in my art journey. Whether your focus is character design, illustration, concept art, photorealism, or whatever else you can think of, I guarantee there's at least one book out there that fits right into your niche.
Lastly I want to note that I am not sponsored by any of these artists/publishers and do not make any commission if you grab them. This is purely my personal collection that I have almost entirely purchased for myself, so even if you don't go for these books in particular, go find one that piques your interest!
