Drawing for Animation

And just as Cornerhouse stages its drawing and animation show...the postman delivers a copy of Drawing for Animation - a new book by Paul Wells with Joanna Quinn and Les Mills.

Its part of the Basics Animation series from academic publisher AVA, and its approach is primarily to get across the fundamentals of drawing in relation to classical, drawn animation, and it does this very well - it's a well designed and lavishly illustrated publication, and as an 'introduction', its a comprehensive one.

Best for me though is how it manages to sneak in interesting and insightful snippets -  Joanna Quinn on 'learning to draw' is a delight, and commentaries on, for example, things like memory and perception come into play are thoughtful and engaging.

With profiles of key (no pun intended) figures, including Paul Driessen, Michael Dudok de Wit and Luis Cook, make it feel like something of an essential.

And that's not just because...in its graphic narrative section, it features a whole six pages on Animate's very own Francis, by Let Me Feel Your Finger First (image). See the film here. Read Esther Leslie's essay here.