A part-time art educator I talked to this summer said technical drawing books can be very helpful to teachers. “[A scholarly resource] that I use all the time is Will Eisner’s Expressive Anatomy. You know, Will Eisner is the major Disney darling of yore. It’s a great resource”
However-- and I expressed this in our conversation-- those kinds of books can be hard to use, especially for students in art classrooms. Briefly scanning the Goodreads page for Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist reveal the numerous challenges that readers have had with the book. Bad reviews cite a lack of step-by-step instruction and call the book superficial. One review even says that readers might have more success with the book if they were led through it by a teacher.
But that art educator understood how drawing books can be challenging for readers; “I use them mostly in cartooning because I think that takes some of the pressure off, and some of the scariness away, if you know how to use them in the right way”.
She tried to build trust with her students, so they felt comfortable approaching these books and potentially even bringing them home. She's constantly replenishing her classroom library and she encourages students to take them, because ultimately, “They’re there as a resource that’s available to them.”
Art teachers looking to pick up some books to add to their classroom library can consult this Indie Bookstore Finder to find bookstores near them, or they can use the Goodwill Locator to find a source for books that might be a little more affordable.
