Comics has to be one of the toughest mediums on the artist, mainly because they have to be ready and able to draw just about anything. Understanding perspective is a must, and in my view, the most important skill because if things appear “off,” the reader instantly notices, even if they can’t put their finger on why.
There are many great perspective books out there, but most focus on a single image or only explain how to draw from the standard one, two and three point perspective. They usually use something easy like building to highlight their examples. What about people? What about furniture in a room? What if people are in a room? It’s hard to apply real life to such a basic cookie cutter example. It was difficult for me to find a book that helped me understand how to use perspective for any shot. If I have a great idea for a fight scene or an extreme angle, I want to know how to put that on paper. Very few books explained non-standard perspective with the clarity of Perspective! for Comic Book Artists by David Chelsea. This book made the others look like chump change. I bought it many years ago and looking back I can honestly say that it made a significant impact on my art. What’s the most important thing I learned? The proper use of camera angles. It really does help you to achieve a professional look in your artwork.
Perspective! for Comic Book Artists is not your run of the mill book instructional book. It’s laid out entirely in a comic book format, so each panel on each page helps to get the point across. Chelsea uses a running dialogue between himself and the reader which I think works very well. If you’ve read Scott Macleod’s Understanding Comics, you know what I mean. Teaching perspective while doing it in the format in which it applies is a great idea. The entire book is an example of how to use perspective in ‘real life’ (real comic life) scenarios. I highly recommend this book as an essential in a comic artist’s library. Here's the link to the book on Amazon, http://tinyurl.com/cn98qg
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