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Its been awhile since our last book review. This time, its not a Weekly Reader book, but it is a book I've loved since I was a child visiting the school library. I think I borrowed this book probably twice a month at least, never tiring of it even though its not very long.
If you've never heard of Ed Emberley, you are missing out on a wonderful children's book illustrator. As he puts it on his website: "I'm an old grandpa kind of guy. I have written and illustrated around 80 books for children. 20 or so are still in print. 13 are drawing books [,] 7 are picture books." This Caldecott winner's simple illustrations had been a driving influence on me when I was very young, inspiring me to draw doodles whenever I had a chance on my notes (something that continued well into my college years XD). His style is easily identified with bold silhouettes and child-easy figures. The book I remembered I borrowed the most was Ed Emberley's Big Orange Drawing Book, which is exactly what it says on the bag, folks: a book of nothing but orangey things as far as the eye can see.
This slim halloween book is a portion of the Big Orange Book, including all his halloweeny things like skeletons, frankenstein's monster, and even witches and little demons. Not included in this volume are pumpkins, kid-friendly horror monsters like Vampirine or Dracula and Frankie himself, which can be found in other books.
What each book opens with is a sort of how-to: instead of showing you complicated shapes, Mr. Emberley breaks down all his drawings to a handful of easy shapes. The encouraging and kind words that tell you that you have a good chance of completing most of the drawings is a fantastic way to get kids to try drawing even if they never have before. The step by step instructions are in a box, with each new detail (shape, fill in or line) right underneath it. Each add-in is also illustrated step by step, adding onto the previous drawing until completion. What's impressive is that Mr. Emberley still does these illustrations by ink and hand. Its a rare treat nowadays.
Most of the drawings are page long, though some more complicated ones can take 2 or more. At the top of each page is a runner of examples of what you can do with these simple drawings when you put them all together. They also sometimes include variations to a figure at the end of the how-to.
As you can see, these figures are super easy to do, and most of his illustrations are actually silhouettes that one can do with just pen and ink (one whole book is dedicated to drawing over and with thumbprints!).
The real coup de grace of the book is a long how-to on how to build a haunted house (though the last how-to is a big witch on a broom with her cat familiar). This massive--at least comparatively to the single page how-tos in the book--step by step house is quite impressive, taking about 3 whole pages. The illustration is actually rather larger than the rest of the single figures, but by using the techniques you picked up to this point, as well as the figures you've just learned to draw, you can not only fill this single-story house to the brim with creepy tenants, you can also expand the whole house to be a multi-level, Winchester-esque work of art by adding on smaller detail elements. The variation at the end is an impressive piece of architecture that you'll no doubt want to try yourself.
If you've never picked up a pencil before to draw, or are a full fledged illustrator, this book is for you. For the inexperienced, its a great way to make easy and fun drawings to even decorate things. For the advanced, its a liberating and fun way to try something new and relax with something simple. I couldn't recommend any of Mr. Emberley's work enough.
Try Amazon or your local bookstore for a copy (or three!). Highly recommended!
Drawing Bug-a-boos and loving it
Dio (10/20/13)
All art and rights to images belong to Ed Emberley.
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