The Drawing Lesson

Mark Crilley's latest book, The Drawing Lesson: A Graphic Novel That Teaches You How to Draw is a graphic novel about a boy name David who receives art lessons from a woman name Becky. David sees Becky drawing at the park and asks her if she can give him free art lessons. Through their dialogue, you learn various lessons about drawing. David and you, the reader, gets a lesson about drawing what you see, shading, doing a loose sketch, understanding light and shadow, using negative space, checking proportions, simplifying things, creating a composition, and bringing it all together. I really liked this graphic novel because I love non-fiction graphic novels or graphic novels that teach me something new. I wish the illustrations were more cute (more manga-like since Mr. Crilley has written about drawing manga) and that the graphic novel was in full-color instead of the sepia-tone. All and all, I highly recommend this graphic novel for artists or anyone who enjoys reading educational graphic novels.


Disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.

Home Sewn

In Cassandra Ellis' new book, Home Sewn: Projects and Inspiration for Every Room, you get a how-to-guide on how to sew just about anything for your home. The sewing projects in the book is broken up into sections: Living, Resting, and Eating and Sharing. For the Living section, you can learn how to sew lamp shades, linen ottomans (I plan on making this as I have to change out the fabric of my ottoman), sofa throws, silk upholstery and curtain tiebacks. For the Resting section, you can learn how to sew pillowcases, headboard piece, bed skirt, duvet cover. For the Eating and Sharing section, there are instructions on how to sew tea towels, tablecloth, placemats, coasters, chair covers. The book goes into detail about where you can obtain quality fabric, dyes, kits, and other sewing needs. The pictures are also divine and really lovely to flip through. As I am a novice sewer, this book is really handy to have on hand for my redecorating needs.

Disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.

Doodletopia Manga

I've always been a huge fan of cutesy illustrations so I've always loved Manga. Christopher Hart's latest how-to-draw book, Doodletopia: Manga, teaches you how to draw those adorable, big and shiny-eyed manga characters. While this book teaches you how to draw the usual manga man/boy and woman/girl, I really enjoyed the illustrations of the chibis and cutesy animals more. I specifically got this manga book for my daughter, and together, we both drew many of the insanely cute animals. We both love the pig: chubby cuteness, the chibis, curl girl, yummy treats, and tiny vampire. Every illustration in the book is just like the description, it's SUPER-CUTE. I plan to give a copy of this book to my daughter's friend who loves to draw.

The contents in the book are as follows:

1. Introduction
2. Finish the Heads and Faces
3. Make Hilarious Expressions with Silly Selfies
4. Draw Your Own Versions of Manga Characters
5. Dress the Chibis from Around the World
6. Draw the Super-Cute Animals
7. Add a Team Leader
8. Have Fun with Emoticons
9. Stuff the Pages with Doodles
10. Master the Manga Mazes
11. Complete the Scenes
12. Create Manga Crafts
13. Doodle Free-For-All

Disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.