Action! Cartooning

I recently changed my at style from manga-inspired to more "traditional" techniques. I first picked up Mr.Caldwell's Fantasy!Cartooning (another recommended purchase) and the techniques were so helpful and informative, I immediately looked up his other books. Don't let the title fool you- this book offers more than just straight action techniques. There are a lot of basic methods that really boost your style, such as using... Read Full Review

Yep. It's that good. Ben's style is infectious. This would be in my top 5 how-to-draw books that I keep close by on my drawing desk. I respect the advice passed on in these pages. His breakdown instruction on heads, figures, faces, women etc is second to none! He is a master of his art. I would definitely buy another one as a gift for a budding cartoonist or even an established cartoonist. This is one of those books you... Read Full Review

I've bought this book, read it (noticing some instructional errors - but nothing you can self-correct) and started to draw (rather copy) the examples. The results: Self-satisfaction. This is a good book to start with if you plan to animate action cartoons in the future (on paper or on the computer). After I draw all the examples in this book, it would be a good excercise to use Mr. Caldwell's principles and draw my own characters... Read Full Review

"Action!Cartooning", by Ben Caldwell, is a great book on drawing cartoon figures. I am a professional caricaturist myself (I own caricature concessions in a major theme park, and wrote the book "Let's Toon CARICATURES"), and a lot of the info Ben gives about "pushing" the characteristics of your characters, in order to give a clear, instant insight into their personalities, can be applied to caricaturing as well. There's... Read Full Review