I'm a huge fan of Ken Hultgren and his work with Disney! I have a few of his books and love them. And this book on cartooning doesn't disappoint. He shows step by step how to draw funny and whimsical cartoons. Like his other books, he doesn't go into details on how to draw cartoons or gives tons of examples. So, if you are brand new to drawing it might not be your first pick. But if you love his style I would recommend getting a copy. It will help you in your process of learning to draw cartoons and inspire you. Also, this book has sections where you can practice the drawing. Great for older kids and adults.

The Know-how of Cartooning by Ken Hultgren teaches the established artists the basics of cartooning. From posture, to expressions, from various body parts, to movement and clothing, and even lettering, a wide variety of skills are demonstrated. It's not just people either! Animals have always played a big part in the cartoon world, and several sections are devoted to them. It doesn't teach the basics of laying out out framework, so it's not for the very new beginner. I'm not nearly skilled enough with drawing to have tackled any of the exercises, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading through it. If you know the basics already though, and are interested in exploring cartoon style art further, this is a great resource. Hardcopies have places in the book itself for practising each skill.

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Dover Publications for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I don't discuss Ken Hultgren's bravery, but being this book a reprint of the original published in 1946, more then 70 years ago, it shows its age. So the style is very old-fashioned, It could be alright though, but the major problem is that it's only a synthesis of the basic principles of cartooning. They are very important but disconnected from each other. For example: in a page there are stick figures to show line of action, in the next, overlapping forms of a clothed figure. You should arrive to the complete clothed figure by drawing at least a basic anatomical structure (constructive anatomy, see Bridgman, Loomis and others), and put on the clothes later, else there is no connection between them. Many aspects are treated: materials, perspective, weights, expressions, movement, various animals, etc, but usually on a single page or two. So it seems a digest of basic principles, but you surely can't learn cartooning from this book. By the way, every second page is blank, to be filled in, so the actual content is less than 50 pages.

This book was originally published in 1946. The cartoon characters especially the people are of their era. However having said that this is a brilliant book to learn the basics of drawing life like cartoons that move and flow. The examples of how to draw realistic horses would be of great value to any animal painter as they show how to capture proportion and movement. The cartoon human figures may not be in the same style as todays Manga cartoons but that does not diminish the way they show how to get a hand to hold something in a realistic manor. Anyone who wants to draw cartoons, or is interested in animation should start their journey with this book.