Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Perspective! for Comic Book Artists: How to Achieve a Professional Look in your Artwork

Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Perspective! for Comic Book Artists: How to Achieve a Professional Look in your Artwork by David Chelsea

1 review

f18's review against another edition

challenging informative medium-paced

2.5

From the preface:

You have in your hands the first book on perspective written specifically for the
comic book illustrator... for comic book illustrators, who are faced with the job of filling
frame after frame, usually in a hurry, it often means resorting to one's
imagination.

Which had me hopeful this would be a book mainly involving tips on how to eyeball perspective in a way that looks convincing. My bad, looking through the illustrations first could have proven this wrong, as many fall into the trap (pointed out in the book itself!) of having inappropriate FOV and thus while perhaps technically "correct," looking distorted.

But yeah no, this is a pretty standard book on horizon line / vanishing point perspective for traditional (aka not digital) technical drawings. Maybe it was groundbreaking in 1997, I'm not sure. The information is interesting and there are some good rules of thumb scattered throughout, but its not significantly different than any other perspective book I've used. The methods included are simply too complex and time-consuming to use for most working artists, and perspective grids (which Chelsea teaches as a time-saver) are able to be generated with much more usability and diversity via digital programs now.

Not the practical book on perspective from imagination it is touted as being.

In additon to that... it tries to be funny. Which... really doesn't land well. The race stereotyping and swastika joke were especially cringe-inducing, but it also has about the same percentage of men either nude or in skintight clothing as it does women NOT nude or in skintight clothing (hint: that breakdown isn't 50/50) as well as your standard post-renaissance and post-enlightenment essentialism. I also shouldn't have to be marking a how-to art book as including sexual content... and yet this includes a panel with a little visual joke about armpit fetishism. If this book included tips on finding visual reference there could have been a non-sexualized point about looking for unusual bodyparts and positions in pornography... but that's not what it was. Not a big deal, just... yeah.

Anyway, back to the drawing board... damnit that's a pun.

By the way, if you're looking for a book on architectural/concept drawing in perspective, Scott Robertson's How to Draw is more in depth and an overall less fraught reading experience.

Content Warnings

More...