Yay!!! Clap Clap.... what a hit in the classroom! The students in my daughters 6th grade class couldn't wait to have their turn at drawing monsters. It's easy enough that any child can follow. It's delightfully funny and scary too. We need more of these books in our schools instead of the vampires and zombies. We loved it! ( )

This book is not about "How to Draw" anything, really. In nearly all of the many art-project case studies that form this volume, the process of a preliminary sketch is pretty much taken for granted, and the end-products are usually paintings, and sometimes sculptures!

As far as "Monsters" go, the authors Paul "Imperial" Ledney and Chad "Toyghoul" Scheres are partisans of the Kustom Kulture school of artifact adornment, for whom Ed Roth's work provides the quintessence of "Monster." (There are also some nods to the Universal Studios icons of horror.) Their monsters are not frightening, but rather zany and disgusting.

Each of the twenty-one chapters traces a monster art project from start to finish, with discussion of supplies used, creative decisions of all sorts, and specific techniques, along with ample color photo illustrations of the progress. About half are by Scheres and half by Ledney, and the text gives their own first-person explanations of their processes.

Editor (and publisher) Timothy Remus assembled the project, and also interviewed each of the authors. The two one-page interviews are each entertaining reading. Remus could have used more proofreading assistance, though. Besides the occasional spelling or grammar error, there are issues like a numbered list that goes: 1, 2, 3, 3.

The $27.95 cover price is rather steep for a 150-page softcover, but there are color illustrations on nearly every page. The price will perhaps be worth it for aspiring customization artists. The authors provide both technical instruction and creative encouragement. As Scheres says, "Having fun is step one" (41). ( )

How to Draw Monsters doesn't feel like your normal 'How to Draw' book. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

The book takes you step by step through several projects of different styles, using many types of media, even throwing in a bit of sculpture and crafting.

Both writers do a fairly neat job of explaining the process, materials and techniques they're using. The style of writing is encouraging and straight forward, they both come off approachable and enthused.

The overall script is disjointed though, skipping from markers to acrylics back to pen and ink and pencil sketching. This makes for a hard read.

I think an intermediate artist would enjoy this book. Beginners could benefit just from seeing the thought processes involved in working through a project but may not understand how they got there in the first place. Advanced artists may appreciate the works but likely wouldn't find anything new to them. ( )

I think this is a pretty great art book because it provides examples of a large variety of techniques, materials, styles, etc. and has some new and different concepts for art. It's also a good book because it doesn't just show how to draw monsters, but also how to sculpt and paint them. The doll converted to a yeti in chapter ten is one of my favorites just because it's such a unique idea. ( )

I received How To Draw Monsters through Library Things Early Reviewer program. It seems like a great book for artists who are ready to take an interest in drawing monsters to a more professional level. Professional being the key. I was expecting a learn how to draw monsters book for a young teen level of interest and have no experience to judge usefulness of this book for professionals.