How to Draw Your Own Story: The Dragon, The Knight, and the Princess
Don Bolognese
Tor
Nonfiction, CH Art
Themes: Dragons
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Description
This book includes the framework for a story and numerous images that teach the reader to draw and/or trace the characters. Part art instruction book and part fantasy story, the reader is encouraged to draw their own story (as the title implies.) Tracing paper is included.
Review
I almost gave this one just an Okay review. The writing is lively but sparse, and the primary emphasis is on tracing rather than learning to draw independently. However, on consideration, I decided to cut this book some slack. Tracing is a perfectly legitimate artistic skill. In learning to trace, the young artist learns how to see detail and control their pencil, essential skills if and when they decide to learn how to draw on their own. Bolongnese has several different options for each character (different helmets and armor for the knight, different dresses and hats for the princess, different heads for the dragon), meaning that the reader/artist can spend quite a lot of time combining them and even developing their own variations. I wish Bolognese had done a bit more with the text, and gone into even a bit of sketching and/or shading - he merely mentions that he's using it, not why or how. Some basic sketching and layout (to arrange characters on the page, so they don't end up halfway off) might've been beneficial. For the child too impatient to start with the basics of independent drawing (shapes, proportions, shading), or the kid frustrated with his or her own slowly-developing skills, though, this is the perfect book.