The Art of Animal Character Design [Hardcover]

David Colman (Author, Illustrator), Daniel Morris (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2007

Finally, there is an art book above the rest. There are many animal drawing books out there, but none explain how to use the knowledge obtained from study in an actual trade craft. This book explores the methods, philosophies, and secrets of a top character designer in the animation industry when dealing with creating animal characters, both professional production samples and personal work make up the content.

Editorial Reviews

Review

If you're a fan of animation, of design, or of beautiful art in general, then listen up, because this book is for you. There are a million books out there, collecting and presenting the art of a million flavors. If you're like me, you've taken countless art books off the shelf, opened them up, and found disappointment that the interior artwork is no match for the beautiful cover that lured you in the first place. Or the artist loudly publicized on the cover turns out to have only a small portion of the book dedicated to his or her work. Or the book turned out to be a seemingly random mishmash of images, devoid of any instructional or explanatory text. But every once in a while, you find a book that you crack open, and within the first couple pages you know without a doubt that you'll be bringing that book home with you. For me, David Colman's The Art of Animal Character Design was one of those rare books. Unlike the disappointment I've so often found in other books, here is a book jam-packed with beautiful designs, sparkling with character and personality. Here is a book focused on a single strong artist flexing his artistic muscles in a variety of design styles. And best of all, here is a book that isn't afraid to not only present these incredible drawings to us, but to actually take the time to teach us the "why" and the "how" of what he's doing. David clearly likes to draw, and he clearly likes to teach, and if you can bring this book home and spend some time with it, you'll find that he's clearly terrific at both. --Shanw Kelly- co founder of AnimationMentor.com

THE ART OF ANIMAL CHARACTER DESIGN By David Colman. Recommended. Signed! From a top character designer who's worked for Sony, Cartoon Network and Disney, this is a lively and appealing collection of drawings and sketches of animal characters. David also explains how to design characters using observation, design mechanics and your own imagination. Much more than a sketchbook, this is a thorough how-to guide to the art of animal drawing. His technical versatility ranges from the hyper-realistic to the purely fanciful. His expressive and engaging characters remind us of Claire Wendling's work. Handsome oblong format. Signed by the artist. David's Doodles, 2007 --Bud Plant Book Catalog

About the Author

In his short time as a professional artist, David Colman has become a recognized and respected illustrator and character designer for the animation industry. He has been a creative force at such renowned studios as Sony Imageworks, Sony Pictures Animation, Sony Television Animation, Disney Television Animation, and is currently Character Design Supervisor at Cartoon Network Studios. David s first widely viewed work came at Sony Imageworks where he was brought on by Ken Ralston as a character designer for critically-acclaimed animation feature The Polar Express. He watched his characters, caribou, and wolves come to life alongside actor Tom Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis, receiving industry kudos on his first feature film. Following Polar Express, David worked in visual development at Sony Pictures Animation on such films as Open Season and Surf s Up. Under the supervision of Marcelo Vignali and Richie Chavez, David s distinctive character design and story sketches became integral to the character development and overall look of both films. While at Sony Pictures Animation, he met renowned illustrator Aaron McGruder, creator of The Boondocks comic strip, which is syndicated in more than 250 publications worldwide. Aaron was so inspired by David s work that he invited him to join Sony Television Animation to help develop the comic strip into an animated series. David s longtime admiration of McGruder led to his collaboration on the series launch through to its 15-episode first season. Although Boondocks was picked up for a second season, David leveraged that success along with recent character development work on Stuart Little 3 to join the Cartoon Network as Lead Character Designer for Class of 3000, a series featuring recording artist Andre Benjamin, better known as Andre 3000 of the group Outkast. Since its premiere in November 2006, the show has remained number one in its timeslot and is currently in its second season, with a possible t

Product Details

• Hardcover: 174 pages
• Publisher: David's Doodles; 1st edition (February 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979068606
• ISBN-13: 978-0979068607
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #82,039 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sketchbook with a lot of tips, July 10, 2009

By 

Parka (Singapore) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Art of Animal Character Design (Hardcover)

Length:: 0:15 Mins

David Colman is a character designer specializing in animals. The Art of Animal Character Design is a sketchbook containing his wonderful caricatured animal designs.

This is not the step-by-step instructional art book. However, it does contain a lot of practical tips and points to look out when drawing animals. He workflow is to observe, to think and then to draw. The emphasis is on thinking and he talks about his thought process for the sketches in the book.

His principle is to draw what the animal is doing and draw the character of the animal, rather than just drawing the animal. To quote from the book, it's to draw the 'verb', not the 'noun'. This is the repeating theme throughout the book, and it shows in his examples.

There are a lot of interesting and useful insights provided. For example, he talks about the need to lock down shapes to preserve design integrity so that the animal is still recognizable. There are also tips on how to improve believability through the application of gravity and forces. Other than just drawing animals, he would also caricature humans into their animal form based on their behaviour. There's also a section on creating imaginary animals.

This book is a very good resource to character designers. It's highly recommended.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid Fundamentals with an abundance of Creative Imagination!, February 29, 2008

By 

Jackson L. "animation director" (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Animal Character Design (Hardcover)

Brilliant Designs and just enough concise prose make this the most outstanding Animal Drawing book on the market. I own many current and out-of-print texts that deal with the subjects covered here, but with the exception of Ken Hultgren's classic primer (sought after by every Disney animator of the past 3+ decades)The Art of Animal Drawing- no other book combines the necessary steps to get you to create original character designs without falling back on gimmicks or following current design trends.
I put it up there with Glenn Vilppu's series Vilppu Drawing Manual and the original FA course! Bravo!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All the advice that you'll need to make your illustrations interesting, September 9, 2007

By 

Chandra Calihan - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Art of Animal Character Design (Hardcover)

Make no mistake, this is NOT a book that teaches you how to draw. This is for more advanced illustrators. It's simply a guide filled with wonderful examples and text that expresses how you can characterize animals (the same can be applied to people). All these tips and lessons and examples help you see what the artist is trying to tell you. Its a great book to learn from if you're seriously thinking about learning how to cartoon properly.