Customer Reviews

You Can Draw: Star Wars

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have taught drawing classes at our public libraries in my city. Some of the topics were Star Wars related. Although this book has a wealth of information and the artists are really first rate it is my experience that pre-teens and young teens may have a tough go of some of the practices and trying to imitate the artists of the book. It is somewhat of a drawing crash course and I have found trying to tell students "practice and most of all have fun" does not really communicate the time it takes to make a polished drawing as shown in the book. I am not saying it is bad but it is also not a step by step book exactly. Case in point: Jabba The Hutt. The book shows a build up from basic, to middle, to detailed stage. I have found students will have a lot of problems with the middle phase because they look so great in the book. The break down into smaller steps is needed. Since the publisher is aiming this at kids I think parents and teachers should be aware that yes it will teach them to draw Star Wars but it may be more work involved than a standard drawing-for-kids book would be like. I recommend the book but be prepared it is not exactly easy. I also would warn parents and teachers that the spiral bound pages are easy to get snagged and tare. A little extra care is needed in turning the pages but this also allows the book to stand up with the hardback binding and it also allows the pages to lie completely flat. Well worth the asking price for any Star Wars fan young or old.

I usually look to DK books for their outstanding visual guide books for movies and comics but here's something that Star Wars fans should dig even if they're not aspiring artists, It's the You Can Draw Star Wars book. The book features three chapters: Pencil Drawing, Inking and coloring, and finally creating a comic. You can see that based upon these chapter titles, this is a book that is geared towards aspiring comic artists, particularly.

There's really good advice here even if you're not interested in drawing Star Wars characters. The book discusses the various tools the artist will using including types of pencils, compass, erasers, templates, French curves, and more. The book begins with standard drawing technique such as starting a figure out with a rough stick figure to nail down the figures pose. Throughout the book, tracing paper overlays show a figure as it is developed from stick figure to finished product which is a nice tough and quite educational, especially for beginning artists.

Next you get into defining your character even more by adding muscle, shading, and movement. Now develop your drawing further by adding lighting techniques and perspective. Next up are close-ups of your character and time to work on facial features and expressions. Of course, as the books goes on you won't just be learning how to draw the human characters but also the various Star Wars aliens, druids, weapons, vehicles, and ships.

The inking chapter again discusses the tools and this may be very new to younger artists who have been only working in pencil so far and have not used professional inks and colors on their work. There are of course many options when it comes to colors from markers and pencils to water color and oil paints. Again you'll learn proper inking techniques and choosing the best color properties.

Finally you'll get a quick lesson in comic book design and working from a script and laying out the look of the book and adding word balloons and sound effects. The book comes with an excellent template for adding various types of balloons. It's really a well-done book that is useful for novices. The art in the book is provided by Matt Busch and Tom Hodges.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

This is my favorite Star Wars book since "The Ultimate Visual Guide" came out a year or so ago. The books is a good introduction to drawing, and even provides helpful suggestions about different tools professional artists use to make their work look so great.

I'm a novice drawer myself, but that's ok because the book can be used by artists of all levels who want to draw better Star Wars works of art. It gives you basic advice about how to draw the human figure, and, once you are ready, more advanced suggestions to really give your work a professional, comic-book quality look.

I'm really looking forward to using this book, along with the Visual Dictionary series from DK to start drawing Star Wars again, and drawing Star Wars better than ever. In my experience, everything from DK is top notch, especially their Star Wars series. You seriously can't go wrong, the quality of work they put into their products is simply amazing.

I am very impressed with the quality of the art and instruction. Busch and Hodges have very different styles and it is fun seeing how they start and where they end. I have already started to follow the stylings and have found it almost easy to draw characters I never imagined I could. This is a book but where you can learn to draw just about any character based on the process.

Burton has also done a great job in the detailed writing. She writes simply enough so that children can enjoy the book but adult enough that any age group will feel like this book is for them. I feel comfortable in showing this book to anyone who wants to learn how to draw.

At the price I paid, I feel like I owe the team money.

I gave this book to my 9 year old grandson, who loves to draw Star Wars figures. The text is quite a bit above his reading level, but he's already been using the book to draw!! He loves this book.

I have zero art skills, read some of the reviews, and decided to order this book hoping I could learn how to draw Star Wars. If that describes you, you should skip this book or you will be frustrated as I was. This book is well illustrated but unfortunately it goes from drawing stick figures to completed drawings in one to two pages. I found myself clueless as to how to get past the stick figures since the intermediate steps are not covered in this book.

This book covers too many subjects over its meager 95 pages. I would have preferred to have 95 pages of how to draw one Han Solo, for example, instead of the two pages that he gets in this book. It is beautifully illustrated, that's the only reason I give it three stars. It would be great for any Star Wars fan but don't be disappointed if you can't draw anything.

I bought this for my son's eight year old birthday because he loves the How to Draw books. This one is the hardest I have ever seen. It's is aimed at a teenager in terms of drawing ability.

I purchased this book for my nephew because he loves to draw and is a Star Wars fan. I was amazed at the quality!

Spiral bound, hardcover, with transparent flyleaf pages for many of the illustrations, this is way more than I expected for my $14.

Our nephew loves the book, and really enjoyed showing me some drawings he's made using the suggestions in the book. Our other two nephews who don't draw also really liked reading it just for the 'insider' Star Wars info.

A great find!

Great material however, it is published with intention to attract young audience. The instruction is more for experienced artists as there is few steps on each drawing- missing the steps for detail and texture, which may make it difficult for beginner to produce "matching" appearance to the final picture in the book. This is the book I would recommend to experienced artist, never mind the "children book" look. Instruction inside is more for adult and advanced artist.

I bought this book for my 10 year old son who loves star wars and loves to draw; he hasn't been able to put it down. The book is very explicit and shows you in a very graphic manner how to draw characters, machines, and others. Very good indeed I'm glad we bought it.