Drawing Cute with Katie Cook

This is from an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

This book is an awesome introduction to illustrating, aimed at younger children. And even adults for that matter who might want to get into the fun business of creating a cute children's book. I had never heard of Katie Cook, but despite looking barely older than a teen herself, she's a mature illustrator who has worked on a variety of projects for, for example, Marvel comics and on My Little Pony, so she's well-known in the business for her illustration skills.

She should also be known for her writing skills since she's also a writer and her comments throughout this book were hilarious and it was worth reading it just for those. The illustrations are really the cherry on top though, because in a handful of steps she shows how to create a bewildering variety of images of animals (would that be bewilderbeasts?), assorted inanimate objects, sports and hobbies, and food - which seems to be a special favorite of hers despite her trim figure. Maybe Cook isn't just a name?!

The steps are easy. As she says, if you can draw a potato, you can draw anything, and anything and everything populates these pages. The chapters cover Animals, Foodstuff, Hobbies and Sports, Holidays and Seasons, and Handy-Dandy Objects. There's getting on for a hundred thirty pages of illustration, and each page contains about two things to draw, including domestic and wild animals, flying and swimming animals, cute and scary animals, and even fantasy animals. And insects and arachnids are animals, remember, no matter how much you might want to dissociate yourself from that end of the family.

There are cakes and ice creams, teapots and milk cartons, pineapples and avocados. You'll like her grapes a bunch! When you see her apples you'll say "Core!" Drawing peppers will no doubt ring a bell. The broccoli looks very cubby, but it's with the sandwiches that you'll earn your bread. Okay, enough pun-ishment! There are also kayaks and racquets*, knitting and football, jigsaws and books - enough to keep you busy making variations on a theme until before long, you're launching into your own original drawings in short-order Cook style! (Okay, I lied about the puns).

I really liked this, the drawings are good and simple enough for anyone to follow and create your own. The results are very cute, just as the title promises. The supporting text is, well, supportive, and funny, and this book makes for a great gift! If there's one thing we really do need, it's a lot more talented illustrators, especially of cute, and from a diverse background. This book is a great way to encourage that and I recommend it.

*Isn't racquet a weird word? Seriously? Who would even think up a word like that? Just sayin'.

This is a sweet little book to help kids (and adults) gain confidence at drawing fun little characters with ease. I did some of the exercises with a young friend and we enjoyed the little creatures we created.

Nice little book.... the drawings are perfectly cute. love the step by steps. Can't wait to play around with them more. Hoping to do more drawing in 2018

I recieved a free digital copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.
This is a cute step by step drawing book. She shows you how to draw food, animals and inanimate objects. One of the cutest from each category: bok choy, giraffe and alarm clock.

The description of this book made me laugh - Fun fact - a lot of animals are shaped like potatoes. Another fun fact - potatoes are easy to draw. Another another fun fact - if you can draw a potato, you can draw animals.

I'm pretty sure I can draw a potato but I would have been less sure to tell you I could draw an animal. However, Katie's book includes 200+ lessons for drawing super adorable stuff. And while I didn't try out drawing anything while checking this book out, I did find some things I might like to try eventually. Since basically everything in this book is a super, super adorable and oh-so-cute cartoon version of cute animals. And other things. Like vegetables. Because vegetables are totally cute, right?

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

As a new grandmother, I am looking forward to being able to write and illustrate stories for my grand-daughter as she gets older, so this is just the sort of easy-learning guide I was looking for. . The drawings are fun and easy to copy, even for a complete beginner, whilst the amusing commentary by the artist supplies all the encouragement you will need to try out your creativity.