Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice

Excellent book, very fun to work through exercises. Thought provoking too. Highly recommend for anyone interested in drawing, making illustrations and conveying their ideas.

If you came here from Lynda Barry and are expecting the same from Brunetti, well you'll be disappointed. This slim little book is more of a syllabus than Barry's Syllabus book. Brunetti is funny and self deprecating in the intro before he gets into the instructions. The volume is slim on images, even though it's a comics drawing book. There are some illustrations but the book is mainly about letting the READER explore the instructions.There are a lot of gold ideas in this book, a lot of info to mine from your own mind. The best how to books let you explore your versions.I really dig this book, even if it is 180 degree different from Barry's book.

This is a well written and useful book by a brilliant but humble individual. Brunetti doesn't yammer on or show off without instructing. He gets right down to business and offers helpful insights and a series of carefully devised consecutive exercises. A great investment packed with practical info for its small size for any artist or cartoonist.

So I've finished the lessons in this book and I think a ton of people miss the point of this book and what it means. Now when looking at it at first, it pretty much seems as though it teaches scrappy comic/cartooning for fun and kids.This is not the case as yes maybe at first they'll be drawn scrappily, but that's only if you're new to the craft. Take cartoonists such as Sergio Aragones and Stan Sakai for example. when you break their works down, they pretty do what Brunetti does with his work. In fact in an interview Aragones had with Stan Lee, he explained that he does his cartooning so well as a result of observing/understanding what he's drawing. Philosophy and Practice, explains exactly that just in a different way. In fact, outside of those two, there are cartoonists such as Dav Pilkey, Jeff Kinney, Stephrn Silver, Mike Mignola, and even comic strip artists that use shape language, so it's best to look up the artists you like.Another thing to understand is that if you want to be professional at the craft, you'd have to study actual anatomy, perspective and all the other essentials. Once you do all of that and when you try to go back to this book, the art transforms! This tells me that my hard work from studying those essentials combined with this book, helps push my imagination, which is the most essential implement for cartoonists as a whole.Finally, and this is important, DO NOT use the visuals that Brunetti provides as a crutch or help (specifically copying them). When I first attempted copying his art, it basically made my art look wonky and off. To go back on drawing from your favorite artists, Brunetti got his style from copying his favorite artists, Chris Ware and Charles Schultz. Now it's fine if he likes those artists, but by my guess from the reviews I've seen before, I take others are not fans and that's fine. And as I said previously, study cartoonists you like. While on the topic, despite the lessons he provides feeling a bit fixed, simple and concrete, just like how when learning art basics and being imaginative with them, this book is no exception. In the first week it talks about making art within a time frame and when first exposed, that can be pretty stressful, but imagine if you already studied form and thumbnailing. Combined with this lesson, this can actually teach you how to draw items with clarity despite the lack of time. You can even use later lessons to go back and use from previous lessons interchagably. You'd be surprised from what you can do!In conclusion, is this book perfect? By itself no, especially if people are only studying just Brunetti as the sole artist, your toons will be rigid and stiff. However, should you use the knowledge of the arts you've learned from other sources, this book is a perfect way to test yourself. Despite all I have to say, let me reiterate this, outside of this book, this person has not been a professor to me, nor have I never met him. If I have one last say it's this, I think the creator should revise this book with more information based off of what I've provided, so he can be much clearer on his points, outside of that I think this book is good to read.

A fifteen week cartooning course that might take 150-300 hours. Although there is more emphasis on visual language than writing, it will help the comics writer to be more economical and elegant. It would be fruitful to work through this course with others in a group. Brunetti considers powerful universal principles relevant to writing, music, performance, e.g. spontaneity vs. deliberation, a rough order in which a beginning artist should acquire the fundamentals (“marketing” and “making connections” is last) and cheerful encouragement to persist through reams of “bad” work. Would pair well with “Art & Fear” as well as Lynda Barry’s “Making Comics” for those having trouble getting started.

Full week by week course on cartooning...not your usual cartoon guide. For those who really want to learn....excellent

This is a clear, concise, & accessible book for all interested in cartooning. Brunetti provides instructions and a coursework style presentation which allows the reader to develop their own style of artistry. Very enjoyable.

As a way of jump-starting your creative processes around the art of cartooning, look no further than this wonderful little volume by Ivan Brunetti which guides the would-be cartoonist directly to the 'heart' of a good cartoon in a few well chosen and effective exercises. If you're looking for a detailed manual on technique, penmanship or colouring, please look somewhere else. But, if you need a complete makeover on the very spirit of cartooning then this book is absolutely ESSENTIAL.

Mr. Brunetti has what may be one of the most direct approaches to cartooning I have ever read. I find myself doing the exercises and then suddenly seeing changes in my work. I am strictly a recreational cartoonist in it for my own kicks and i think this is a very helpful book. Most pros will know this stuff already but he verbalizes the internal process very well indeed. Worth tracking down a copy of this book.

Su apariencia y tamaño hacen que parezca una obrita sin importancia, pero en realidad este libro es un ejemplo de cómo se puede aportar (o decir) mucho con poco. De hecho, su brevedad ayuda a la recomendable "relectura" (ya que este manual esta lleno de perlas que se pueden pasar por alto en una primera lectura)

Habe es gekauft, da Lynda Barry sich in ihren Büchern auf dieses bezieht. Hilft auf jeden Fall dabei, Lyndas Beschreibungen der Übungen zu vertiefen und zu verstehen. Schade, dass ich nun keine kreativen Schreibkurse mehr lehre, sonst würde ich die Übungen sehr gern ausprobieren...

Truly a philosophy - on cartooning as a practice and comics as a medium. Also, a 15-week workshop course that, if followed properly, reaps dividends. He teaches you the ins and outs of many of the devices you can use to tell a story with words and pictures. You will learn by doing, and you will be encouraged to communicate in your own voice, free of artifice and (unintentional) parody.As an aside: Brunetti has a been-there-done-that, slightly sardonic tone, but it's his voice and it all comes from the best of all possible places. Mixed with this cynical master's voice is a humility in approaching his subject, which is very powerful. He really has been there and done that, y'know...

A great little book, easily read and full of useful exercises for you to develop your own style, which is so important; as opposed to slavishly copying others