The Bookstore

The Supply Store

Back to YouCanDraw .Com

Your Artistic History

The Art Gallery

My Outrageous Offer

Order Now

The 5 Skills of Drawing

3 Keys to Success

Sign up for free ezine

See What our Members say

Welcome to the Bookstore

1. Books on Drawing.

2. Books that help you get your hands dirty.

3. Are you a budding entrepreneur?

Amazon.com is pleased to have YouCanDraw.com in the family of Amazon.com associates. We've agreed to ship books and provide customer service for orders we receive through special links on You Can Draw.com.

Amazon.com associates list selected books in an editorial context that helps you choose the right books. We encourage you to visit You Can Draw.com often to see what new books they've selected for you.

Thank you for shopping with an Amazon.com associate.

Sincerely,

Jeff Bezos

President, Amazon.com

P.S. We guarantee you the same high level of customer service you would receive at Amazon.com. If you have a question about an order you've placed, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Books and more books on on Drawing

Here's a modest but growing selection of what we think are top notch books on caricaturing, cartooning, and general drawing. If you have any suggestions for books you'd like to see here please forward us the titles and we'll happily post them here - with your endorsement! (And don't forget to check out the Amazon.com search engine at the bottom.)

My number one Highest Recommended Book:

	Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain By Dr. Betty Edwards If I could make this required reading, I would! Not because I get a small fee for selling it, but because it's the *source book* for the foundation's of drawing skills (the "5 skills") It chronicle's breakthrough research in neuro-physiology and how it literally affects the way we see the world.
Dr. Edwards' landmark book is also a fascinating reference companion that can only add depth and insight to your drawing experience. You'll be convinced anybody can learn to draw - including you.

How to Draw Caricatures
by Lenn Redman 0809256851

My brother Brian gave me this book for Christmas in 1988. It was my first real exposure to the "in-betweener" - the "Mr. Average" of Mr. Averages. Mr. Redmann does a wonderful job walking the line between cartoon and realism - with masterful results. The epitome of caricature.

He packs so many pictures in here I know why it took him a lifetime to write it. He also writes in a very personal and human way. You'll feel like you know him after you've read your way through it. A great selection of drawing subjects and explanations. Tons to teach. Four stars.

Guide to Cartooning
By Al Bohl

I include this book because I think exploring cartoons is a great way to abstract faces, facial features, and body parts- a necessary avenue for caricaturists headed for rapid-fire party and club drawing. Covers cartooning from the basics to animation to syndicating your own Doonesbury comic strip to making a serious business out of your side-busting hobby.

The Art of Caricature
By Dick Gautier

Mr. Gautier gives a fun overview of caricature tracing it's roots back through history, showing different cultural styles and uses of caricature to demonstrating his approach to the technique. His book leads off with a forward by Joan Rivers. Talk about an endorsement. Filled with his straight ahead and quite effective drawings. First of a series of caricature and cartooning books.

The Complete Book of Caricature
By Bob Staake

Done in black and white, this is listed as an "Art Reference" volume - and indeed it is. Much like "The Savage Mirror" in it's breadth, Staakes's book concentrates somewhat more heavily on the ink-line style of caricature. Filled with caricatures and comments from creators like Levine, Grossman, Hirshfield, Burke et al.

Toons!
By Randy Glasbergen

The creator of the syndicated cartoon strip "The Better Half", Mr. Glasbergen explores cartoons from all angles in his book. The line between caricatures and cartoons is a subjective one and learning cartoons can only help your caricaturing I believe. Learn how to draw gag bodies, action, comic animals, background props and cartoon lettering. He'll essentially show you everything you need to know to create your own cartoon strip and characters.

The Savage Mirror
By Heller and Anderson

A must for anyone seriously into caricature . Loaded - I mean loaded with reproductions of the best work by the top caricaturists in the business. Filled with work from the likes of Al Hirschfield, Phillip Burke, and John Kascht to name just a few.

Even the cover is beautiful!

An Introduction to Perspective
By Ray Smith

This has got to be the most beautiful book published on perspective. Mr. Smith shows the use of perspective in classic drawings and paintings as well as the fundamentals. How to grid your drawing with vanishing points; one, two and three point perspective; ellipses, these are all covered. Tons of full-color pictures, photos, and line drawing demonstrations.

Basic Perspective Drawing
By John Montague

Nothing fancy here - just the best step-by-step book I've run across on the subject of perspective. Mr. Montague goes through page after page of easily understood perspective lessons. You'll learn how to draw circles, spirals, cones, and blocks, in full 3-d perspective; how to incorporate them in to your drawings. I'd venture to guess if you took the time to absorb this book, you'd have no need for an architectural CAD program.

The Natural Way to Draw
By Kimon Nocolaides

Nocolaides says about drawing "the impulse to draw is as natural as the impulse to talk" and "It has only to do with the act of correct observation...". I think he sums it up for everybody interested drawing and art education. Considered by many one of the best books ever written on the subject. His method builds from simple drawing assignments - gesture drawing, drawing from memory, curtain drawings, poses, to adding water color and ink, and 5-hour marathons in the advanced sections. I've only scanned this book but very much look forward to diving into it.

The Technical Pen
By Gary Simmons

Mr. Simmons pours 30 years of pen and ink experience into this marvelous book. A working artist and Fine Arts Instructor at Henderson State University in Arkansas, he'll show you so many different effective inking techniques he'll start you thinking you don't ever have to use color again. An absolute must for those of you thinking about op/ed type caricatures and for anyone wanting to master the art of cross-hatching.

The Pencil
By Paul Calle

"The Pencil" is to pencil drawing as "The Technical Pen" is to ink drawings. Mr. Calle has a unique and vibrant style of drawing - so detailed and line-intense his drawings shimmer in front of you. Active, dynamic, electric - all adjectives that come to mind when you see his technique. Built on a foundation of hatching, you'll learn techniques that can bring a whole new level of texture to your drawings.

Books that help you
"get your hands dirty"

Learning to draw and actually drawing seems to excite that part of your brain that likes to keep on making things, the part that just loves to create. But sometimes getting to the drawing board is tough - you're full of doubts, you get hyper-critical, in a word you get stuck. Here we offer you a handful of books we think offer a helping hand. We've also added a few books that'll bolster your imagination, crank up your creativity, and skyrocket your "Idea Generating Quotient".

My # 2 most recommended book: Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way"

	For those of you having trouble getting started drawing, (or any art, craft, discipline, even entrepeneuring ) I highly recommend this book. Ms. Cameron outlines a 12 week guided, intensive program where you'll start from scratch getting to the root of your hesitation and rediscovering your own gifts.
The program is built around the daily discipline of morning writing and a weekly "artist's date". Simple prescription with powerful results. Probing and insightful. Julia Cameron's "The Artist Way"

WishCraft: How to Get What You Really Want
By Barbara Sher

Right from the cover: "A unique step-by- step plan to pinpoint your goals and make your dreams come true". Couldn't have said it better myself.

Premise: everybody has genius in them. Somewhere. Unappreciated, neglected genius is at the root of our restlessness. Ms. Sher has the knack of ferreting that out and then tying it down to real world steps to make it a touchable, actionable reality.

Iron John
By Robert Bly

Hardly a book you'd expect to find at a site about drawing caricatures but I'm a firm believer that if you're serious about pursuing any art or discipline you're going to run into obstacles. Your number one obstacle won't be time, it won't be money, it'll be yourself. Mr. Bly's greatest strength lies in his ability to make old stories, poetry, and manhood (seriously!), into a usable, urgent, timely masterpiece. I've bet I've read this book eight or nine times trying to really figure it out. Probably my favorite non-fiction book of all time. Not just for guys.

"The Einstein Factor"
To order press Einstein Factor

by Win Wenger, Richard Poe (contributor)

Drawing is a visual function. And just like Betty Edwards explains so well in her book above, drawing is away to tap into the whole other, largely forgotten, mostly unconscious part of our brain. Drawing is just one road to it.

In the Einstein Factor, author Wenger details powerful exercises he's worked decades developing. By studying Albert Einsteins letters, laboratory notes and habits, Wenger aims (and succeeds) at uncovering clues about the way Einstein's brain works, how other great thinkers come up with their ideas - and how you and I can benefit from what he's uncovered.

I like this book because it shows you all the different ways your mind works in images and pictures - how it's constantly tossing up images, sensations and emotions. You'll learn to build an awareness of the subtle offerings that come from deep within your own mind, from your own subconscious. You'll learn to respect those pictures and "visuals" as clues to something going on that's much greater, much more profound than just "coming up with ideas".

If you're after more than just "right-brain access" you'll learn a whole arsenal of techniques and tools to access your creative, image-spewing, at times even danger-predicting "quiet" mind. To order press Einstein Factor

Jump Start Your Brain
By Doug Hall

Rather than trying to squeeze ideas out of your tired brain like toothpaste from an empty tube, Doug Hall takes a radical approach: fill your brain, your visual environment, your sonic surroundings, your physical space with pictures, sounds, foods and objects connected to your area of interest. Make your brain nothing less than a multi-sense stimulated, over flowing whirlpool full of everything connected to your subject - before you try to conjure up idea one on your own. Very unique in his approach.

For the business minded

At some point some of you will want to make money with your new hobby. Some people will ask "is it really possible?". All I can say is look in the yellow pages - look at all the people already making money doing things you'd love to be doing.

If you're starting from scratch, yes, it will take a little longer. But then anything that hasn't taken a little hard work or an investment of time is probably not going to stand up in the long run.

I thought I would always be "above" exploiting my own talents for money. Then I hit a wall. The Moslems have a saying: "In the Mosque I give my alms to Allah, but outside I have to keep my camel tied up". To me this meant you have a world that's very personal and private to you, and then you have the real world. In the real world you have to feed yourself, care for your family, do all your day to day things.

How do you do that, pay the bills - and enjoy your life? I've found building a business out of and around my skills and talents has to be one of the most gratifying and fulfilling things things I've ever done.

Interested in opening your own e-business or expanding your budding caricature career into a booming local, even international business? Have a book in you just dying to pop out? Below are several cutting edge "e-book" titles I highly recommend. The first two summarize beautifully the program I've followed to make "YouCanDraw.com" the success that is. Don't miss out on Dr. Ralph Wilson's free "Dr.Ebiz".

"Make Your Site Sell!"
By Dr. Ken Evoy

Dr. Ken Evoy launched an Internet "movement" about one year ago. Now it's turning into a revolution. He packed more information into one small book for a price so low, nobody interested in having their own e-business could go without it. For about $17.00 American you can get your hands on over 800 pages of "pure gold". What's it about? Tried and true methods of building your own site - a site that will sell for you, a site that might just let you quit that day job.

I'm not going to overhpye this folks, but Dr. Evoy packs into one little book what I've spent thousands and thousands of dollars learning. There's all sorts of similar packages out there on the Web but you'll pay 100 dollars to 500 dollars for the same information. Does he have the last word on the subjects he covers? Probably not. But then nobody does. But no where for the price do you get such a wide spectrum of great advice.

He covers search engine placement strategies - and getting your site placed high;
how to build simple, effective, fast loading sites without the ridiculous, "cool" gizmos that waste your time - and lose the sale;
psychological triggers of good, honest, copywriting;
dozens of guidelines on what makes a site easily navigable, practical, and accessible;
and so much more.

His guarantee is iron-clad and un-reproachable. If at any time you're not happy with it you can ask for all your money back, get it back - and keep the book!

Click here to read a whole lot more about "Make Your Site Sell!"

Click here for "Make Your Knowledge Sell!"
By Monica Harris and Ken Evoy, M.D.

Feel like you have a book in you? Feel like you have information or decades of experience in an area someone might benefit from? May be you don't feel that way, but I guarantee you, if you think about it - you do! Here's the perfect companion volume for "Make Your Site Sell". Here you'll see you DO have the material for putting together the report, the info-book, the "How-to-book-on-anything" you've always had in you. Do what Monica says and you'll have more than the raw material for your own electronic production. She'll show you how to sell what you've made, where to sell it, and how to put together a "sequel" or a business "back-end".

Includes a second 420 page companion volume by author Ken Silver with a contrasting - but very informative perspective on building info-books;
a list of over 300 bookstores, markets and venues to sell your info-product;
a manual on how to completely automate your product so you're not married to your computer or phone 24 hours a day filling orders, and lots lots more.

(Folks, I'm using this extensively to market my own book right now, - the one you're reading. Worth checking out. )

Click here to find out more about for "Make Your Knowledge Sell!"

"Make Your Price Sell!"
By Dr. Ken Evoy et.al.

The third edition from Dr. Evoy's entourage - and the perfect entry to fill out a trio of invaluable e-commerce instruments. Discover what people will pay for your electronic information masterpiece. Price and value are a total mystery to me folks. This tool seems to offer a remarkable solution to an age old conundrum. But don't take my word on it, check it out for yourself.

Click here to read more about "Make Your Price Sell!"

For those of you interested in starting your own web business or want to keep on the cutting edge of electronic marketing and commerce, Dr. Wilson's newsletters are an incredible value. Packed with links, ideas, and the latest low down on what's happening small business-wise on the Internet.

Click here for Dr. Ralph Wilson's free "Dr.E-Biz" small business marketing resource

To look for any titles at Amazon.com, just pick your favorite category and run with it in the search engine below:

Kasbohm & Company's

YouCanDraw.com

e-mail: jeffkaz@YouCanDraw