| Level: | Beginner / Intermediate |
| Tone: | Step-by-step |
| Pages: | 112 |
| Published: | 2005 |
| Arbitrary Rating: | 4/5 |
| Plan to Reread: | Yes |
My Opinion:
Over the years I have seen more books by Christopher Hart than I can count. The guy has something published for pretty much every style you can find. I'm not entirely clear on the why, but he's also pretty polarizing in the drawing community. Some people like his books a lot, some people hate them. There's even a few people who have dedicated web sites to why you shouldn't read Hart's stuff.
My local library had a copy of "Cartoon Cool: How to Draw New Retro-Style Characters" and I couldn't really pass on a whole collection of guides just because of some mix reviews. Plus, this style is still way outside the range that I typically draw so the bar for improvement is pretty low.
One tip that I learned directly from this read is that you add bold lines by tracing along only one side of the original sketch. This probably sounds super obvious to anyone who has experience drawing, but I had always assumed you just trace over the original line. That's why my lines would wobble back and forth on both sides of the original and always looked awful.
Learning something new, even something small is a step in the right direction for me. I also appreciate that the pages are stuffed with examples and step by step guides instead of pages of discussion on what makes a cartoon style. I'm not sure I'm ready to give Hart a glowing review for all of his publications, but this one is definitely worth a read if you're looking to draw cartoons.
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