You Can Draw Star Wars (Spiral-bound)

~ (Author), Matt Busch (Illustrator), (Illustrator) "With a mere pencil-and a little imagination-drawing characters from a galaxy far, far away is easier than you think!..." (more)
Key Phrases: Darth Vader, Star Wars, Anakin Skywalker (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

From droids and wookies to Darth Vader, this step-by-step guide teaches budding artists everything they need to know to draw characters from the amazing world of Star Wars. For a live demonstration of the book's drawing techniques, watch these three dynamic video guides featuring Matt Busch, one of the illustrators of You Can Draw Star Wars. (Click on each image to launch the video.)

Episode I: Preparation

Episode II: Light and Shadow

Episode III: Drawing

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Spiral-bound: 96 pages
• Publisher: DK CHILDREN (January 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 075662343X
• ISBN-13: 978-0756623432
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 9.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,500 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #1 in	Books > Children's Books > Arts & Music > Art > Cartooning
  #2 in	Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Characters > Star Wars
  #4 in	Books > Children's Books > Arts & Music > Art > Sculpture

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You can draw yes! But some work is involved., February 19, 2007

By	Jedi Learner "jobiwan2" (Texas, Planet Earth) - See all my reviews

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.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SOLID BOOK FOR BEGINNING COMIC ARTISTS, January 21, 2007

By	Tim Janson (Michigan) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

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

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for any Star Wars Library, April 12, 2007

By	Corran Horn "Corran Horn" (Phoenix, AZ, USA) - See all my reviews

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.