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Perspective! for Comic Book Artists: How to Achieve a Professional Look in your Artwork
This clever book teaches artists the unique skill of drawing perspective for spectacular landscapes, fantastic interiors, and other wildly animated backgrounds to fit comic-strip panels.
176 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
February 19, 2020
Very useful. Has many clear explanations.
November 10, 2022
Though Chelsea explains it all in a simplified manner, I'm still left with a bunch of things I didn't get and some I didn't even attempt to understand... (I mean my geometry can only be so good!) but the book was amazing indeed. Except for Mugg. There isn't an uglier character design.
I'll be revisiting this book many times in my years-long-perspective-drawing-journey in the future. Such good, much recommended.
I'll be revisiting this book many times in my years-long-perspective-drawing-journey in the future. Such good, much recommended.
April 10, 2015
Borrowed this book from my friend at 6 months ago and have just gotten around to finishing it. He'll be happy to have it back although it is a little worn because my cat decided to be a book critic as well...
Presented in the same graphic narrative style as Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics Etc. by Scott McCloud this art book uses the comic book medium to give instruction and considering that the audience for a work like this is obviously comic book fans, it's a good narrative choice. I'm not much of an artist myself, so i was just reading it to see how it stocks up against other similar books I've perused in the past, such as the aforementioned Mr. McCloud's works and the several thousand volumes of graphic novels and manga I have read over the years. Therefore, I'm not really qualified to comment on the instructional nature of the book, I'm assuming if I'd been sketching along I would probably retain more of it. But I wasn't. So I didn't. The narrator of the book is the author himself, so yay for self-insertion... and he teaches his coffee cup/friend Muggs how to properly draw objects and people in perspective. Personally I found Muggs to be creepy and unlikable. He's a talented enough artist on his own, but he's lazy and a bit dumb. He's also an opportunist and I hate the shape of his skull. Probably Muggs was the most annoying part of this book for me. I would have preferred like a cartoon dog or something... or a talking pencil or pretty much anything. Maybe it's because I'm not a coffee drinker? Anyway, just my opinion.
All in all it was a pretty good book. The friend I borrowed it from is an art teacher for Middle School students and he keeps a copy in his class, where I'm sure it's appreciated. Not a bad addition for the book shelf of any budding artist really. Take a look and see how you feel.
Presented in the same graphic narrative style as Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics Etc. by Scott McCloud this art book uses the comic book medium to give instruction and considering that the audience for a work like this is obviously comic book fans, it's a good narrative choice. I'm not much of an artist myself, so i was just reading it to see how it stocks up against other similar books I've perused in the past, such as the aforementioned Mr. McCloud's works and the several thousand volumes of graphic novels and manga I have read over the years. Therefore, I'm not really qualified to comment on the instructional nature of the book, I'm assuming if I'd been sketching along I would probably retain more of it. But I wasn't. So I didn't. The narrator of the book is the author himself, so yay for self-insertion... and he teaches his coffee cup/friend Muggs how to properly draw objects and people in perspective. Personally I found Muggs to be creepy and unlikable. He's a talented enough artist on his own, but he's lazy and a bit dumb. He's also an opportunist and I hate the shape of his skull. Probably Muggs was the most annoying part of this book for me. I would have preferred like a cartoon dog or something... or a talking pencil or pretty much anything. Maybe it's because I'm not a coffee drinker? Anyway, just my opinion.
All in all it was a pretty good book. The friend I borrowed it from is an art teacher for Middle School students and he keeps a copy in his class, where I'm sure it's appreciated. Not a bad addition for the book shelf of any budding artist really. Take a look and see how you feel.
August 21, 2018
This is how a text book should be: informative, descriptive, illustrative and interactive. The text should be a reference book for Computer Graphics course too: it will easily smoothen the concept of vanishing point, horizon, cinvergence, hidden surface, one/two/three point perspectives etc. The writer opens the world of persepective in his own comic-story telling way and gradually develops our understanding of it through his illustrative dialogue with Mugg, an imaginative painter itself. What amazed me most is how intuitively he jumped from one concept to another and build them up.
October 24, 2024
I enjoyed it. There were a few pages where the author got technical that I got lost. Might have been better if I sketched along but I wasn’t cause I’m trying to get an overview at this point.
Presenting the whole book as a comic was interesting and made it fun to read as well as providing visual info at every turn.
Took about a day to finish it.
Presenting the whole book as a comic was interesting and made it fun to read as well as providing visual info at every turn.
Took about a day to finish it.
March 31, 2021
What should be a dry topic was made endlessly hilarious by David Chelsea's story throughout. Not story like plot, but this guy could definitely have a comic strip going.
As for learning perspective, I can't believe it, but it's finally clicked!
I want to do some more practice of it all, but my gosh, someone managed to teach me perspective.
Definitely worth drawing everything he says throughout the book, even if that drawing will slow down the reading by weeks. Makes the move to each new step and piece of information more natural.
I don't give 5 stars easily, but this deserves every one.
(I bought several books on perspective hoping one would help, and this one was above and beyond the right one for me.)
As for learning perspective, I can't believe it, but it's finally clicked!
I want to do some more practice of it all, but my gosh, someone managed to teach me perspective.
Definitely worth drawing everything he says throughout the book, even if that drawing will slow down the reading by weeks. Makes the move to each new step and piece of information more natural.
I don't give 5 stars easily, but this deserves every one.
(I bought several books on perspective hoping one would help, and this one was above and beyond the right one for me.)
May 16, 2018
I've been trying to finish this one for more than a decade but wasn't motivated enough 'till now.
Great lessons in perspective, with great examples, easy to understand, exhaustingly so. Perfect for younger readers also.
The characters are a bit boring, and as a comic it's stiff. The perspectives are breathtaking and the teaching is superb but it lack the wonderful flow the McCloud books have.
Still it's an awesome addition to have to your library and incredibly useful.
Great lessons in perspective, with great examples, easy to understand, exhaustingly so. Perfect for younger readers also.
The characters are a bit boring, and as a comic it's stiff. The perspectives are breathtaking and the teaching is superb but it lack the wonderful flow the McCloud books have.
Still it's an awesome addition to have to your library and incredibly useful.
January 22, 2022
Upped my rating from 4 to 5 stars because I only left the last star off due to things like warped perspective not being addressed—and whaddayaknow, he also did a sequel to this all about that. This first book is a great resource and starting point for a lot of things. It got pretty intricate with the floor plan techniques, but that makes it a reference book now too, for when I can't remember things quite right on my own. ha
September 14, 2021
It really puts things into perspective :)
December 18, 2019
I didn’t find this book a good resource for teaching perspective drawing. The comic format doesn’t seem ideal for the instructional content. Some of the wording is confusing and hard to follow. Three stars because I guess it was engaging enough that I read it anyway and used it more as a refresher on perspective drawing.
February 6, 2021
This author uses in a nazi swastika "joke" in teaching perspective. I would recommend finding a different perspective book so you don't support white supremacy.
Read
January 13, 2024This book is an extremely comprehensive explanation of how to draw objects and humans accurately in perspective; it even includes, at the very end, template pages for a variety of one-, two- and 3-point perspective line guides. Great stuff!
While the technical information was plentiful and useful, I found myself skimming over nearly every piece of comedic dialog between the author and a pretty unlikable character that he's teaching perspective to. I understand that their shenanigans are supposed to lighten the otherwise very technical and detailed content and make reading the book a breeze, but the antagonistic rapport between the two was fairly off-putting to me: the teacher (the author) comes off as patronizing and sarcastic, and the character he's teaching doesn't want to learn and just wants the easy way out (which conveniently allows the author to show both the accurate methods he champions for, as well as the methods he notes are wrong, but which are pretty standard shortcuts to getting similar results).
The book ends with the teacher basically giving everyone the shortcuts (templates) and instead of getting to work on drawing and practicing, the pupil character starts advertising his own perspective class. Those who can't do, teach - amirite? Hohoho. So in the end, the underlying tone felt like the author was tired of people not wanting to put in the work to truly learn perspective, so he decided to make fun of his students; maybe even his peers?
If that tone doesn't bother you, you'll love this book! Like I said, it's a great resource for explaining perspectives.
I grabbed another book on perspective from the library by the same author - accidentally - and I'm glad to see that the tone in it is different from this one!
While the technical information was plentiful and useful, I found myself skimming over nearly every piece of comedic dialog between the author and a pretty unlikable character that he's teaching perspective to. I understand that their shenanigans are supposed to lighten the otherwise very technical and detailed content and make reading the book a breeze, but the antagonistic rapport between the two was fairly off-putting to me: the teacher (the author) comes off as patronizing and sarcastic, and the character he's teaching doesn't want to learn and just wants the easy way out (which conveniently allows the author to show both the accurate methods he champions for, as well as the methods he notes are wrong, but which are pretty standard shortcuts to getting similar results).
The book ends with the teacher basically giving everyone the shortcuts (templates) and instead of getting to work on drawing and practicing, the pupil character starts advertising his own perspective class. Those who can't do, teach - amirite? Hohoho. So in the end, the underlying tone felt like the author was tired of people not wanting to put in the work to truly learn perspective, so he decided to make fun of his students; maybe even his peers?
If that tone doesn't bother you, you'll love this book! Like I said, it's a great resource for explaining perspectives.
I grabbed another book on perspective from the library by the same author - accidentally - and I'm glad to see that the tone in it is different from this one!
November 26, 2020
It has a lot of interesting information on drawing perspective, but it felt like a “tedious construction” that may have been better off as “one short book” instead after all...
Reading this book felt at times rather heavy, annoying, convoluted, unnecessarily lengthy... In the end, the journey felt unpleasant, even if there is undeniably a lot to learn in the process of absorbing David’s words and images (assuming your brain can wrap around ‘em without turning into a sludge of confused jello).
Reading this book felt at times rather heavy, annoying, convoluted, unnecessarily lengthy... In the end, the journey felt unpleasant, even if there is undeniably a lot to learn in the process of absorbing David’s words and images (assuming your brain can wrap around ‘em without turning into a sludge of confused jello).
December 28, 2021
A very easy to understand art book on perspective. I liked it because you can
not only use it for comic book artists, but also for drawing any where in city's,
Or country side woods, or for sketching humans in cutie settings, or inside
buildings. A great reference book for anything you want to draw that needs
a perspective set up first. Especially if you want to get every thing in its
Proper space related to everything in the drawing.
Debra H.
not only use it for comic book artists, but also for drawing any where in city's,
Or country side woods, or for sketching humans in cutie settings, or inside
buildings. A great reference book for anything you want to draw that needs
a perspective set up first. Especially if you want to get every thing in its
Proper space related to everything in the drawing.
Debra H.
April 30, 2020
Makes learning perspective very fun and you’ll laugh out loud a few times, but honestly to really gain a mastery on establishing depth in your drawings you’re better off learning from a dry boring old master.
February 10, 2023
I am a very beginning artist, trying to figure out how to make my scenes look plausible. I found this book to have very valuable insights on perspective drawing - I’ll definitely be returning to this.
March 16, 2018
Very useful book!
October 25, 2018
Pretty good explanation of perspective. Some of the demos were confusing and could have been explained better. And beyond 1 point perspective, the book is less practical.
October 6, 2019
Great lessons on perspective to take me closer to my future profession in comics. Thank you.
October 14, 2019
it’s fun, it’s clear, it goes into considerable technical depth and explains everything - with PICTURES. what more could u possibly want?
October 31, 2022
Best perspective book I've read.
January 1, 2023
easy to follow, fun and engaging, this book takes a creative approach to teaching perspective rules and techniques.
July 7, 2024
I expected this book would teach perspective in a simplified way but it gets complicated quickly. Some tips are really good but I feel I didn’t learn enough.
Read
November 4, 2025Goes over three types of perspective..
kindof confusing
kindof confusing
February 1, 2019
This book is better than a lot of books on perspective. It's a comic so it teaches things visually which was helpful. That being said there was still a whole bunch that just went over my head, especially in the later chapters. Maybe perspective is just hard.
July 12, 2011
I only heard about this book from reading Making Comics by Scott McCloud. If it weren't for him, I'd never have given this book a look. It's a very valuable and entertaining way of looking at the complexities of Perspective. The book itself is presented exactly like like that of Scott's books: Understanding Comics, Making Comics, etc.... It's all done in comic book form.
The things you learn inside this book are 1-Point, 2-Point and 3-Point Perspective as well as Circles and Human figures. David Chelsea gives you the nuts and bolts of all things relating to the topic at hand. But this book does have a flaw and it's a big one in my eyes. He doesn't give the reader any clear, hands-on, step by step instructions to apply the knowledge gained from its pages. Sure, some will argue that it's up to the reader to apply what you have learned and take it from there. But I personally think some step by step walk through of practical applications within the comic field would have elevated this book to a perfect score.
Rating: 4 Stars out of 5
The things you learn inside this book are 1-Point, 2-Point and 3-Point Perspective as well as Circles and Human figures. David Chelsea gives you the nuts and bolts of all things relating to the topic at hand. But this book does have a flaw and it's a big one in my eyes. He doesn't give the reader any clear, hands-on, step by step instructions to apply the knowledge gained from its pages. Sure, some will argue that it's up to the reader to apply what you have learned and take it from there. But I personally think some step by step walk through of practical applications within the comic field would have elevated this book to a perfect score.
Rating: 4 Stars out of 5
August 4, 2011
In this entertaining and incredibly informative book, David takes his empty headed friend Mugg on a trip through the (comically questionable) history and application of perspective. Even though his book carries the power of a high level college course, Mr. Chelsea tames the beast of perspective by actually making the entire book a paneled story, just like a graphic novel.
As the story progresses he moves us from the remedial to the practical and finally leaves us standing on the pinnacle of technical mastery, staring back, wide-eyed at all we learned while we thought we were just having fun.
Along with the all the formulaic applications are a few awesome "tricks" of perspective illustration like using old photographs to create perfect 3 point perspective without vanishing points.
Notes: Don’t let the name fool you. Perspective For Comic Book Artists, is not limited in scope to comic books. In fact, I believe (as do luminaries like the late Will Eisner) that it is one of the best perspective books of our generation, for any illustrative application.
As the story progresses he moves us from the remedial to the practical and finally leaves us standing on the pinnacle of technical mastery, staring back, wide-eyed at all we learned while we thought we were just having fun.
Along with the all the formulaic applications are a few awesome "tricks" of perspective illustration like using old photographs to create perfect 3 point perspective without vanishing points.
Notes: Don’t let the name fool you. Perspective For Comic Book Artists, is not limited in scope to comic books. In fact, I believe (as do luminaries like the late Will Eisner) that it is one of the best perspective books of our generation, for any illustrative application.
July 17, 2013
One of the better books out there on how to render perspective. David Chelsea shows Mug how to draw perspective and explains it through comic book form, much in the tradition of Scott McCloud's treatises on comics.
It breaks down everything in to simple language and exercises that are illustrated in its comic panels. Chelsea even goes on to point out facts about perspective that other books get wrong.
Seriously, if you draw comics, this is THE book for learning perspective. In fact, even if you don't draw comics and take up other forms of art (fine art, illustration, animation, etc), this is a handy book to have because of its easy breakdown of perspective.
It breaks down everything in to simple language and exercises that are illustrated in its comic panels. Chelsea even goes on to point out facts about perspective that other books get wrong.
Seriously, if you draw comics, this is THE book for learning perspective. In fact, even if you don't draw comics and take up other forms of art (fine art, illustration, animation, etc), this is a handy book to have because of its easy breakdown of perspective.
June 5, 2009
Drawing in perspective seemed simple enough to me. Drawing lines to the vanishing points and then constructing vertical lines from point to point... and... uuh... wait, you mean I can take a floor plan and accurately draw it out in 3D perspective?
This book answered a few questions I had and then gave me more answers to questions I hadn't even thought of asking. The best part is, it's all in comic book format, inspired by Scott McCloud's books. What better way to learn a visual craft?
I'll be re-reading this book very soon.
This book answered a few questions I had and then gave me more answers to questions I hadn't even thought of asking. The best part is, it's all in comic book format, inspired by Scott McCloud's books. What better way to learn a visual craft?
I'll be re-reading this book very soon.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews