Fun With a Pencil
by Andrew Loomis · first published 1939
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
Playful, beginner-friendly drawing guide built around simple shapes and cartoony figures. It gets you drawing quickly and also serves as a useful refresher for more advanced artists.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Written by commercial artist Andrew Loomis in 1939, this book serves as a cornerstone to learning to illustrate. It not only offers comprehensive and expert advice, but also shows the fun side of drawing and illustration.
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…populistic, but explains many thing the wrong way, which may cause some problems if you'll want to improve your techniques later. If you are learning to draw I'd better recommend you start with Andrew Loomis: "Fun with a Pencil" or even Vilppu Studio tutorials if you have serious mindset.
on “Drawing as a programmer” ↗…pencil + paper. A few things that have helped me so far: - Setting aside at least 1 hour a day to draw. This one is the most important. - Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards - Fun with a pencil by Andrew Loomis - Ctrl+Paint: http://www.ctrlpaint.com/ especially the Traditional Drawing, Composition, Perspective and Anatomy sections. - Sycra's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0373FA2B3CD4C899
on “Ask HN: How to learn new things better?” ↗…Lowy * Release It! - Michael Nygard * Site Reliability Engineering - Beyer, et al. ("The SRE Book”) * Domain Driven Design - Eric Evans * Introduction to Permaculture - Bill Mollison and Mia Slay * Fun with a Pencil - Andrew Loomis Design: * All books by Edward Tufte, especially “The visual display of quantitative information” * The Elements of Typographic Style - Robert Bringhurst * Understanding Comics - Scott…
on “Theory-building and why employee churn is lethal to software companies” ↗Another author I would had with a very fun and get you very fast drawing : Loomis, especially "Fun with a pencil", that can be fun (as the Preston Blair book btw), free online. Both are very good books for beginners (and a good refresher for more advanced drawing). I would stay away from Vilppu if I was a beginner…
on “The Best Textbooks on Every Subject” ↗A few resources for learning how to draw. Books: * Fun with a Pencil by Andrew Loomis (everything Loomis is great) * Perspective made Easy by Norling * Christopher Hart's books (friendly to beginners) YouTube: * Proko * Alphonso Dunn * moderndayjames Websites: *…
on “Ask HN: How do I learn drawing?” ↗…advice on learning resources. There are lots of others that are really good too. Drawabox.com has some good free stuff too. If you'd prefer books I think Andrew Loomis books might be public domain. Fun with a Pencil is a good one. If they aren't public domain you can get them for $10-15 on Amazon because they started reprinting them. How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way is also a really good introduction to drawing.…
on “The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air” ↗…drawing a line on a piece of paper. Simultaneously I read Lynda Barries' book on comic making and her book "Syllabus", and adopted her way of doing quick visual journaling every day. I read the Loomis book "Fun with a pencil" which is a book aimed at kids for drawing cartoony little things progressing to more realistic anatomy. This lead me to Loomis' books "Figure drawing for all its worth" and "Successful drawing". (the…
on “Ways of Seeing: Nicholson Baker learns to draw” ↗…Hogarth. Someone who likes general life/possibly painting would prefer Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Someone who prefers animation, would definitely love Preston Blair's books (and possibly Fun with a Pencil). I think not only a good book recommendation is useful, but a good useful explanation needs to go hand in hand with it.
on “The Best Textbooks on Every Subject” ↗