Character Mentor: Learn by Example to Use Expressions, Poses, and Staging to Bring Your Characters to Life

I don't know where to begin praising this book. Sure, there's TONS of how-to books on cartooning out therebut FINALLY here's a book that is hyper-specific on the little nuances of creating characters. "Twinning", using depth,specifics on how wrinkles work on clothing, etc. In addition, there's contributions by other artists like Terry Dodson,Stephen Silver, etc. Also, there's some assignments for the reader to do. Tom's Disney-esque drawing style is just bursting withlife and energy. (Obviously a graduate of CAL-ARTS.) Please note that this may not be a book for beginners. The book focuses more on bringing life and energy to yourcharacters. I highly recommend purchasing Tom's previous book "Creating Characters with Personality" too by the way.A MUST for any aspiring cartoonist!

In the fields of animation and illustration, the craft of character design is often completely overlooked by the casual observer. Instead, the human eye perceives the most well-crafted characters as living things, whether we're looking at a sequence of frames or simply one static image, because the finest character designers have learned what exactly tricks the brain into seeing life in lines.There have been a handful of books over the last thirty years or so that have touched on this topic to one degree or another. However, these are very often oversimplified, starting with volumetric shapes and hurrying through the details to arrive at the quickest complete character possible. Such methods are certainly valid and universally applicable -- for first-year animation students, perhaps, or fledgling comic book artists. Up until now, the question of what makes a character truly unique and lively has been left as something the novice must explore him/herself.Tom Bancroft's book is probably the first one of its kind that goes past this basic level. Right off the bat, Tom assumes the reader is not only intelligent but avidly interested in the details. He explores perceptual cues, the various methods of conveying emotion and personality (which are far more numerous than simply drawing a smile or a frown), and the tiny little decisions that can completely alter the way an audience will see a character, for better or for worse.Tom's experience as a veteran of Disney's traditional animation era really shines through here. And in an age where technology provides an ever-increasing range of shortcuts, it's ultimately all the more important that these techniques be detailed and passed on to the next generation of artists. Check this out -- you won't regret it.

This book is invaluable as a resource for the various stages that go into designing and developing characters. It is an excellent teaching/learning resource for the beginner, and full of information that experienced artists can apply to their work.I love Tom Bancroft's drawing style, and this book is full of illustrated examples of the tips and techniques he is describing. The illustrations are a nice size... one thing I hate is when art/instruction books have tiny little pictures that obscure detail... but these illustrations are a pleasure to look at.For a companion book, I would highly recommend another book by Bancroft... Creating Characters with Personality: Creating Characters with Personality: For Film, TV, Animation, Video Games, and Graphic Novels I would, and will, give it the same review as this book.

This book is very appropriate to my learning style. A bought it a while ago, when I was looking for books to help me with hand-drawn animation (this is NOT an animation textbook, by the way; it focuses on bringing your character to life. So, don't expect anything about timing and all that. And of course, you will need to have a character to start with).Level: intermediate (not for beginners in drawing; I have been drawing for more than 10 years, including 4 years at an art institute, and I still had to do some research and practice on anatomy while reading this book).Pros: - the chapters are well organized. Each will focus on a different feature of your drawing. - very helpful tips from a professional - there are exercises for each chapter, with student samples and instructor's comments on said samplesCons: (I can't really call this a con, but for lack of a better word, I'll just go with it) Don't expect this book to hand you all you need to know on a platter. It's a mentor, so you will still have to do some work on your own to find how to adapt the instructor's advice to your own style.

 FormatThe great idea this books has is to sperate the images from the text (video). In this case, you can enjoy the text with a illustration, but then focus only on the illustration to get more meaning from it. I need revise Mark Cirlley's Mastering Manga because he does same thing with his book, but here the examples just seem to match more. I miss buying traditional books. Since I lost most of my library just due to strorage and weight issues, I have had to move to digital. However, this is first book I feel wasn't just thrown together and placed on kindle.Content:A super helpful fun read. It's not all new when looking at something like Draw Magazine, but unlike Draw Magazine it contains many practical character design and illustration advice in one coherent art style and direction.

Wow! What a great book! This teaches you everything you need to know about how to make your characters look really great and show actions and poses in your artwork. This book is definitely worth the price because it shows you many things that other books don't. I can't say enough great things about this wonderful book! Buy it! You won't regret it! :)