Dorling Kindersley have produced various books in their You Can Draw series, so it was not suprising that a You Can Draw Transformers book was produced. What may be suprising however is that the book is written by Simon Furman, a Transformers writer and not an artist. This may make you worry a little about the artwork in the book, but you don't need to as it was all supplied by Guido Guidi, a fan favorite Transformers artists. In fact Simon's Transformers comic experience really helps to guide you through the book, and you truely feel that ne knows what he is talking about, where as other Draw Robot or Draw Transformers books may have failed in this area.
The book features trace overlays, fold out pages and stencils and is ring bound rather than gluded like most books. it's more like a binder than a book, only with a book's hardback cover and glossy feel. Their are 96 pages to drool over, and believe us you really will. So let's take a more detailed look inside.
First of all you get a little introduction from Simon Furman, who explains that he's not an artist himself. After that the first section is on Pencil Drawings, starting off by looking at the equipment you will need / should use long with various tips and exmaple images. For fans of natural penciled work, you'll love some of Guido's drawings in this large section.
The second part looks at basic figures, from stick-men through humans to Transformers. Then they move onto variations, robots and vehicle modes, with step by step guides on how to draw each. Perspective and Transformations are next, the latter section we found extremely interesting to see how the artist / designer works out how a Transformer should move and transform. Lots og G1 charaters are used throughout the book, and each one looks fantastic. Shading is the next area covered, followed by action shots and battle scenes. The final area in this section includes an incredibly battle scene showing the four stages used, Rough Pencil, Finished Pencil, Inked Artwork and Final Colour. It truely is an amazing picture, and our photograph below does not do it justice.
Along the way you'll find interesting tips from Transformers Artists such as Guio Guidi, Andy Wildman, Nick Roche, E.J Su and Marcelo Matere.
After the first section their is a brief masterclass on how to draw Optimus Prime, there is also a masterclass fo drawing Megatron later in the book (both are G1 versions). After the first masterclass the book looks at body parts, including heads, hands, feet, legs, details (such as battle damage) and weapons. These areas are great, especially the image of G1 Galvatron's face. The book then looks are different groups of Transformers, starting at Generation One, through Dinobots, Insecticons, Combiners and finally Unicron. It then moves on to Beast Wars, which introduces a differnet style of Transformer before moving on to Armada, mini-cons, Energon, Cyberton (where is usese a lot of boxart), and finally onto Stormbringer. The Megatron masterclass then seperates the third section in the book, starting on page 77, which covers Inking and colouring (using the US spelling).
On the inking / colouring sections, the book starts off by looking at the equipment before moving onto effects and the use of colour. The fourth and final chapter in the book looks at how a comic is put together, and this is one of the most interesting parts of the book and will appeal to more people then just artists. First up Simon gives a brief example of what a finalised comic strip looks like, before discussing shots, angles, scripting, thumbnails and final layout. After this is a list of resources, index and acknowledgements.
As we cannot draw, at all, we were unsure how well we would be able to judge this book. Although it would probably not help us, as we feel it is too advanced for complete novalists who have no skill in drawing, we still found the book highly interesting. If you can draw, even if it's only a little, or if you're good at it, then this is a book you should definetly by. The trace overlays are fantastic (I've never seen them in the book) and the artwork by Guido is amazing. Combine that with the guidance and insight from Simon Furman, and the tips by artists like Andy Wildman, and you really can draw Transformers. Even I'm tempted to give it a try, as I'll definetley being looking in my local bookshop for this book.
Of the four Dorling Kindersley books which were donated for our Transformers Movie Ultimate Give-away, this is by far the best. It has to receive a rating of 5/5 and come highly recommended. We were blown away by the book, it's presented really well, is affordable, interesting and very useful. Go and buy it as soon as you can.
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