Book Review: Passion for Life

Passion for Life is a collection of life drawings by Stephen Silver. He's a character designer who has created characters for top animation studios like Warner Brothers, Disney (Kim Possible) and Nickelodeon (Danny Phantom). He also teaches at www.schoolism.com, CalArts and Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Arts.

The book comes with a clothed hardcover, perfect bind. It's large sized and pretty thick at 200 pages.

This book is all sketches. The drawings you'll see are rough, aimed at capturing the essence of the pose, in an exaggerated and stylized manner. Other than nude figure drawings, there are also a few character designs as well. There's plenty of work to look at, many different poses of characters of all shapes and sizes. It will give you some ideas drawing and creating characters.

In addition to the sketches, Stephen also shares his thoughts on drawing — balance, gestures, rhythm and inspiration. These are tips (not many) to set you thinking. Very often he reflects on his life and his passion on drawing. The title of the book actually came about from the passing of his fifty-year-old cousin. "Life is short, make it great!" is the theme of the book.

I shall end with one of the many quotes included.

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

You can find the book at Stephen Silver's website www.silvertoons.com as well as on Amazon.

Also be sure to check out his blog stephensilver.blogspot.com for more of his work.

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If you buy from any Amazon links on the blog, I get a little commission that helps me get more art books to feature.

Country-specific Amazon links for this book:
Amazon.com