Customer Reviews

Cartoon Cool: How to Draw New Retro-Style Characters

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Hart breaks down the basics of modern character design in ways anyone could easily assimilate and recreate. This book came in handy when I taught animation to college students: being able to draw is only the first step to creating characters one can move about with ease and appeal. Hart's approach, and the examples he uses, are perfectly suited to the more modern techniques of Flash, but are also adaptable to classical animation. This book is a great find, offering practical, useful advice to those who intend to take animation seriously. I'd advise serious animation students to have it as part of their library, along with "The Illusion of Life", "Your career in Animation" by David Levy, and "The animator's Survival Kit" by Richard Williams.

I have purchase a good number of Chris Hart books. I have been through regular style, happy-go-lucky cartooning to comic book style to manga. I just wasn't getting the hang of them. Then I saw this book. I figured since I was a Dexter's Lab fan, I would give it a try. It was so easy for me to do! It just clicked with me.

I had found Christopher Hart books to range from well-explained to poorly-explained. This one falls deeply into the well-explained category! It explains differences in representing genders, how different types of eyes and other features can change a school girl into a sexy seductress. There are just so many tips that take the regular lessons and sort of glue them together or reinforce them.

It goes without saying that everyone is going to have one style they can do better than any other. If you have tried the others like I had, give this one a shot and don't be suprised if it is the one for you.

I had to order an extra copy of "Cartoon Cool" so the students in my elementary school art class could share Chris' amazing book!

While all my K-5 students enjoy "Cartoon Cool", I find that my 3rd thru 5th grade kids learn the most about drawing based on Chris' style and instructions. Simple lines and curves, uncomplicated anatomy and basic shapes for hair and faces, all contribute to successful creations from my budding artists. The retro style is so popular now, and is a refreshing change from all the manga characters of recent years.

Thanks for another great book, Chris!

Great for 8-15 age range. Artwork is fun and isn't intimidating to novice drawers. I'm a little out of the target age range and target skill set in my opinion, but even still I did pick up some clear, concise, and insightful tidbits on the style. If anyone is looking for drawing books for their kids, I'd keep Christopher Hart's name in mind.

If you are looking to change your cartooning style or just want to learn how to draw "retro" styled cartoons, this is your book! Christopher Hart teaches you how to draw retro-styled cartoons by comparing the classic style and the retro style so you can pinpoint where you need to draw differently to achieve that retro look.

As always, a great learning guide for the beginner or the experienced cartoon artist.

This book is sweet!!!! I looked throught it at Chapters in Canada
and I knew it would be right beside an IPod Mini on my Xmas list!
Really good for beginners and experts (like me, hee hee), great ideas, and it's really fun to read! Oh yes, Mr. R.M. Fernandez definetly doesn't know what he's talking about! He says the hands in the book "strangly" have 5 FINGERS!! DUH!!! Don't all people have five fingers!? SHEESH! Oh ya, I'm in Grade 6 and I AM PROUD TO BE CANADIAN!!!!! Have fun!

This book was very enjoyable and a great deal of fun. Christopher Hart really captured the essence of retro cartoon characters and obviously how to draw them. This provided great instruction and was very entertaining. My kids loved this book!!

a whole lot of info! absolutely great! show's you all kinds of poses, expressions, characters. i think its great for beginners like me

I learned that I shouldn't buy books by Christopher Hart. They are not really bad, but they aren't good either.
This book is basic. It's not really bad, as it has a few drawings you can use as basis to develop your own retro style.
It consists of a few quick how-to's with step by step drawings. But the end product isn't a great drawing.

Go watch Kim Possible, or go to deviantart and you'll find better resources than what this book offers.

I will admit, I hate most Christopher Hart books. But this one is quite unique. It's not trying to impersonate a style like anime or manga. It's reviving a very unique style of art referred to as "retro".

I love this book because this is definitely my style. But the style in this book (and some of the advice) is quite limiting. Cartoons like Kim Possible, Danny Phantom, and to a lesser extent Teen Titans the animated show really show off the retro style evolved to a great extent.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a unique style beyond anime, manga (which I happened to draw all the time before this book), and Marvel Comics.

But it definitely would be good to have a basic understanding of anatomy, since this book does not go into it really at all.