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Drawing Cartoons Letter by Letter

Today I am going to share a fun drawing book about making cartoons from the alphabet.  This is a fun book to create characters from letters.  The publisher gave me this book in exchange for an honest review.

Drawing Cartoons Letter by Letter: Create Fun Characters from A to Z (Drawing Shape by Shape series)


From Amazon:  “Christopher Hart takes his hugely successful Drawing Shape by Shape series into a new dimension—and the fun starts with simple, basic letters and numbers. Step by step, Hart’s clever tutorials show how to turn an A into a clunky robot, a B into a buzzing bee, a C into a chomping dinosaur, and so much more. These inventive cartoon characters are a cinch to draw with Chris’s easy-to-follow instructions, and a great way to engage children with letters, numbers, and art. Every letter of the alphabet appears in both upper and lower case, and so do numbers 0-9.”

It’s fun to see how he changes each letter into a different character.  Here is a sampling of some of the drawings I made from this book.

Drawing Cartoons Letter by Letter

While searching for more information about this author, I came across his Deviant art page.  He also has a Facebook page for his art.  Christopher also has a bunch of other cartooning books, including some very popular Manga books (Manga for the Beginner: Everything you Need to Start Drawing Right Away!)  Here are a few sample pages from the book that he shared on his Deviant Art page.

This is a fun book you might want to add to your how-to-draw classroom library.  Personally, I only use how to draw books  (infrequently) when students get stuck and need them for guidance.  I also have them available for free time drawing for fun. The thing I don’t like about how to draw books is often the end results all look the same (go figure.)  However, there is room for creativity while using this book.  I think it would be a super interesting creative exercise to first have the students practice some of these illustrations and then afterwards each choose a letter and try to invent their own character using that letter in their design.  I also think that, for free time use, how-to-draw books provide students with practice training their idea to see shapes and lines and to replicate them with their hands, which in turn aids in their overall drawing ability.

This book is available at Amazon and other fine retailers.

Drawing Cartoons Letter by Letter: Create Fun Characters from A to Z (Drawing Shape by Shape series)

Check out these other popular books by Christopher Hart:

Drawing Shape by Shape: Create Cartoon Characters with Circles, Squares & Triangles (Drawing Shape by Shape series)

My daughter has this one and it is cute and appropriate for younger elementary students.  I always advise to preview books before buying them as sometimes drawing books (especially Manga) have some images you might not want your students drawing.  These are kid-safe.

Supercute Animals and Pets: Christopher Hart’s Draw Manga Now!

Manga for the Beginner Kawaii: How to Draw the Supercute Characters of Japanese Comics

This book is a very popular and heavily used book in my classroom library.

What do you think?  Have you seen this book before?  Have you tried inventing your own characters starting from the shape of a letter?

If you’ve read this far, thanks!  Thanks for being a loyal reader and supporter of my blog.

I haven’t blogged in a few weeks, because we’ve been busy selling our house and MOVING!  We are finally moved into our new house and slowly becoming settled and unpacked.  I’ve already painted two bedrooms!  There is soooo much decor work that needs to be done, and being an artist, I think I am picky when it comes to paint and wallpaper.  I have missed blogging and it was fun to write this post.  I am not working over the summer and I have many lessons and ideas to share with you.  I will be posting regularly to catch up on some of the awesome projects my students have made.  Drop me a line to say hi!

(Amazon Affiliates links have been used.  This generates a small amount of income at no cost to you.  Thanks for supporting Art is Basic.)

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About Marcia Beckett

Marcia is an elementary art teacher and loves painting, drawing, sculpture, art journaling and clay. Her blog, Art is Basic, features many exciting art projects for kids.

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