Books Reviews

Creative Illustration – Book Review

By Angela Youngman Sep 17, 2012, 17:19 GMT

During his career as one of America\'s most sought-after illustrators, Andrew Loomis (1889-1959) taught at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, and in 1939 he codified his lessons in his first manual, Fun with a Pencil. Four years later it had already been through six printings, and he followed up over the next two decades with a series of even more successful how-to books that remain the gold standard ...more

Creating an illustration which will grab attention and sum up a story is never easy.  Andrew Loomis set out to help with this fantastic book showing how to use tone, line and color to develop good pictures which can be used in many ways.

He discusses how psychology can help to understand and create the picture, as well as providing an analysis of a range of advertisements, posters and book jackets.  His resultant book has become a classic and has now been reprinted for a new generation of illustrators. 

Hundreds of drawings are included, showing how different aspects of tint and color are achieved, as well as the final versions.  This is a very useful reprint which will be much valued by anyone wanting to make a career in illustration.

Although written back in the 1940's, it still offers plenty of inspiration and technical details that will be of value to modern artists.  Given that most art schools no longer teach drawing, this book can provide the help that many artists need.