Bruce Blitz

Big Book of Cartooning is indeed a big book. The book claims to have "everything you need to know to get started." I would say that it is at least close and possibly over done. The book begins by showing tools that age good for drawing. The author assumes that you will use the book to become a better artist and he keeps that in mind when he shows you the tools because some are beyond the beginner. It is interesting to see them though.

Then Bill Blitz gets into the techniques, and for every show more technique, he gives a multitude of examples, and he does it in a way that lets the learner do more than just copy. The learner can be creative.

Blitz's chapter on cartoon portraits is disproportionate to the rest of the book. The chapter could have been a book in itself. The chapter could have been reduced so that the basic points would have been brought out, instead of distractinging from the rest of the book, and possibly disencouraging the reader who thinks this is a book about beginning cartooning. Also, some of his examples in the book aren't as clearly drawn as I would like, but he gives so many that usually the technique becomes clear. show less

741.5