How to Draw Magical, Monstrous & Mythological Creatures (How to Draw (Walter Foster)) by Berry, Bob (2013) Library Binding

How to Draw...

by Merrie Destefano

How to Draw Magical, Monstrous & Mythological Creatures is for artistic tweens who dream about the magical, mystical, and darker side of things. Starting with an introduction to various drawing tools and techniques, the goth-inspired title in the new Walter Foster Studio series for tweens will have enthusastic artists learning to draw their favorite creatures and beasts across three categories, including Magical Characters, Mythological Creatures, and Monsters. From a Manga warrior and a dragon to Medusa and the Boogeyman, aspiring fantasy artists will find inspiration on every page. Additionally, character history, folklore, legends, fun facts, and trivia-driven sidebars add to this fantastic experience.

Genres: Drawing, Art, Reference

Leather Bound

First published July 1, 2011

Reviews

[Bill Tillman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I DID NOT READ THIS BOOK! So why write a review? I tried Amazon's "Send Me A Sample". and I can tell a great DIY book when I see one. I was a graphic designer for several years so I know good reference books.

[Krystal Ortiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was much more than I anticipated when I checked it out digitally. I was expecting a basic how to draw things book. But this book included a combination of drawing techniques, how to draw lessons and informational text on the creatures and characters that it was showing. It started with a basic introduction to the magical and mythical creatures made popular by legends and myths. It then listed several supplies needed to draw these things. I feel the book is a bit more advanced than just basic drawings, because it asked for things like higher quality pencils with different shades and a lightbox to draw on. The techniques described were also a bit detailed and not so basic, like hatching, shading and gradating, as well as making different colors on the color wheel. After all of this introductory material, it then gets in to the drawing of creatures. The creatures are broken down into three chapters: magical, mythical and monstrous. Each chapter had 8 creatures to draw. A nice touch was that for each creature, there was a written description of what the creature is. Once the actual steps to drawing began, this is where I felt like the book was for students who had a bit more artistic experience. The first step was mostly completely drawn out, and the remaining steps just added details and developed the drawing with color. Overall, the book was more difficult and detailed than I expected. It would be a great addition to a middle school or high school library or art classroom. I think it is a bit much for elementary students because of the details in the drawing techniques, but it would be used by older grade elementary for a challenge or for those who already have artistic skills. The combination of technique, how to and informational text in this book make it different than most drawing books I have seen.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a bit apprehensive about this one because Zombies! and Vampires! In the same collection were so not for me. This one seemed to do everything right, though, and it was even entertaining in a campy btvs sort of way. However be sure to bring back your inner teenager, especially if you happened to go to public high school in the day, because the author assumes that is their reader base. They’re probably not wrong. It’s just that those weren’t my experiences growing up and I am not a teen reader. 😉😂

Nonetheless there’s some good art stuff here, although I could wish for a little more details on inventing your own scenes + characters rather than mostly copying.

[Abraham Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

nice book of how to draw mythological and otherwise creatures