Draw 50 Cats
Lee J. Ames
Zephyr Books
Nonfiction, CH Art
Themes: Felines
***+
Description
This step-by-step book shows how to draw a variety of cats, from popular breeds to kittens at play.
Review
Before one develops an interest in drawing "right," one must have some incentive to keep drawing. At least that's how it was with me. When younger, I couldn't have cared less about anatomy, proportions, perspective, or anything else. I just wanted it done - now. Books like this help encourage children who are at the stage they want to draw, and they want to draw well, but don't yet have the interest or discipline to do it "right." Following Mr. Ames' instructions, a child will probably be able to, as the foreword claims, "draw the best cat in class." Succeeding with this might help them maintain an interest in art until they're ready for more advanced subjects. Personally, at my age, I find his use of strange shapes and random lines hovering in the middle of nowhere, plus the lack of initial confinement lines (so you can place the picture properly and don't wind up with half of your cat off the edge of the paper), to be frustrating, not to mention the lack of instruction on how to modify the images on your own for new poses. One of the biggest reasons to teach yourself basic anatomy is to do just that - otherwise, you're just copying someone else's observations. Still, it is a nice book for beginners, and should help sustain a young artist's interest between the first inclination to draw something and the desire to learn more about how to draw. (I remember loving these books as a child, earning it an extra half-star for the target audience, though the section on "famous" cats includes several cartoons and cat celebrities that younger audiences wouldn't likely be familiar with; are Felix the Cat and Morris still popular?)