Drawing Action Comics: Easel-Does-It [Spiral-bound]

Lee Townsend (Author), Colleen Doran (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 12, 2005

• With special photography, Drawing Action Comics: Easel Does It shows how to draw and color action superheroes, and how to place them in exciting scenes
• ten creative step-by-step projects, demonstrating how to draw and ink larger-than-life figures, how to get action into your artwork, how to use color creatively, and how to make your male, female, and otherworldly superheroes come alive
• all materials, equipment, and techniques needed to create superheroes are fully explained and accompanied by a gallery of action heroes by professional artists

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lee Townsend is a professional cartoonist, animator, and illustrator who has worked for clients such as Disney and Dreamworks as well as DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Image Comics, and others.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 96 pages
• Publisher: Harper Design (April 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060588365
• ISBN-13: 978-0060588366
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,491,761 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unusually good book on drawing comics, May 27, 2005

By 

picardfan007 (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Drawing Action Comics: Easel-Does-It (Spiral-bound)

This is the first book of it's type to give artists drawing assignments and explain what proper materials to use to get those professional looking lines. I like the photos that show you step by step to making special effects and textures with ink. Collen Doran, an independently published comics artist adds a few pieces of her own art in this book. At face value you may think it's a childrens book; however it's very helpful to anyone wanting to illustrate comic book art.

1.0 out of 5 stars Amateurish, error-filled art, October 26, 2011

By 

Timothy Hsu "cheapskate" (sunny California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Drawing Action Comics : Easel Does It (Paperback)

Lee Townsend is a comic book inker, not a penciller. The technique shown is okay, but the underlying substance of the art is weak. The untrained eye will notice that many of the illustrations look "off" or "not quite right." The trained artist can identify the numerous proportion, pose, perspective, foreshortening, and anatomy errors. Composition (panel or page) and storytelling are not addressed.

This book might be worth a glance through to become familiar with the illustration process, provided the reader has enough of an artistic foundation to not be led astray by the erroneous instruction and bad advice.

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good exercises, December 5, 2007

By 

Reader "a_reader_999" (United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Drawing Action Comics: Easel-Does-It (Spiral-bound)

The artwork is very good. I haven't come across any examples with, for example, bad foreshortening or parts of a face that don't fit, the kind of thing that frustrates a student. The first exercise is on drawing the figure of a male superhero, and it's very easy to follow. After only three or four attempts I had made a pretty darn good drawing. Now after a dozen attempts I can do it without the book, and consistently.

I also liked the fact that the book starts with the figure (in fairly basic poses) rather than the face, recognizing that drawing the human face well is *much* more difficult than drawing the figure (again, the figure in a basic standing pose). I'm not about to be deterred by a few failures myself, but if this is a book for beginning art students, you want to hit them early with stuff that they can do well so that they feel motivated to continue. It makes sense to start with a figure rather than a face.

I also love the easel format. Yes there are other ways to prop up a book, but the fact that you can prop this one up on its own makes it very convenient.