Airspeed Prime here as usual with another Korra Merchandise review. This time for the How To Draw The Legend Of Korra book that was recently released. With this review I will let my video review do most of the talking as this is a very visually based book.
Art By - Angela Mueller
Published By - Walter Foster
I just have a few things I want to mention before I direct you to the video review.
First and foremost, the early preview for this book that we got a few months ago showing a complete drawing in 4 steps, misnumered steps and nonsensical text is not at all representative of this book's finished product. I was completely prepared to give this book a scathing review, but I was pleasantly surprised with the end result. The book actually gives 7-8 steps per drawing and does explain how to add the character details, even including a few side notes about character specific traits like Mako's eyebrows, Bolin's curl and Korra's hair ornaments. While not perfect, in that I wished there was some written instruction at points, as despite the extra steps there are a few times where you go "Where do I start with this step?", but it is not too difficult to follow. The instructions are drawn by Angela Mueller, who is a character designer on Korra, so this book is done by someone who knows what they are doing, the instructions are quite good.
[caption id="attachment_9081" align="aligncenter" width="600"]
My first try at drawing something from the book. Asami's Satomobile AKA The Avacar.[/caption]
In short I am not an artist, at least in terms of this type of drawing. I am more technical/geometry focused, so I do more technical drawing, Orgami and Papercraft, I simply am not good at freehand drawing. This book really did help me to draw something I really enjoy for the first time, and I was very pleased with my first few attempts, even if they are not perfect. So in that sense for me this book was exactly what I wanted.
[caption id="attachment_9082" align="aligncenter" width="600"]
Here is the actual version of page 13, we got this one in the early preview. As you can see the steps do not end at step 4, there are 2 pages left of this drawing. Also note the insert at the top of Korra's height compared to Mako and Bolin. Very helpful steps.[/caption]
The weird thing about the book is that it is completely Book 1 Air focused, only Book 1 characters are included here, which given that the Book 3 Finale is in 3 days, makes this book feel like it should have come out 2 years ago. I hope that this book sells well enough that a Book 2 and 3 how to draw book gets made as I would love to learn how to draw Wan, Raava, Unalaq and so on.
The Book is also fairly big and made with good quality paper, the quality is very high all round on this book, in huge contrast to the quality the early preview suggested. Whoever made the decision to release that early preview has heavily ruined the reputation of this book months before release, you just don't put out a preview that early if it is not in anyway representative of the end product.
To end this brief written review, I highly suggest watching my video review linked below, I basically show off every page of the book, show off and talk about some of my attempts at drawing based on the instruction from this book. If you are interested in getting into drawing Korra characters, this book is definitely worth getting and at the low price of $10 it is worth it for such a well made book. A surprisingly good book.
Video Review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CswBr9BBU-o
How To Draw The Legend Of Korra
Art By - Angela Mueller
Published By - Walter Foster
I just have a few things I want to mention before I direct you to the video review.
First and foremost, the early preview for this book that we got a few months ago showing a complete drawing in 4 steps, misnumered steps and nonsensical text is not at all representative of this book's finished product. I was completely prepared to give this book a scathing review, but I was pleasantly surprised with the end result. The book actually gives 7-8 steps per drawing and does explain how to add the character details, even including a few side notes about character specific traits like Mako's eyebrows, Bolin's curl and Korra's hair ornaments. While not perfect, in that I wished there was some written instruction at points, as despite the extra steps there are a few times where you go "Where do I start with this step?", but it is not too difficult to follow. The instructions are drawn by Angela Mueller, who is a character designer on Korra, so this book is done by someone who knows what they are doing, the instructions are quite good.
[caption id="attachment_9081" align="aligncenter" width="600"] My first try at drawing something from the book. Asami's Satomobile AKA The Avacar.[/caption]
In short I am not an artist, at least in terms of this type of drawing. I am more technical/geometry focused, so I do more technical drawing, Orgami and Papercraft, I simply am not good at freehand drawing. This book really did help me to draw something I really enjoy for the first time, and I was very pleased with my first few attempts, even if they are not perfect. So in that sense for me this book was exactly what I wanted.
[caption id="attachment_9082" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Here is the actual version of page 13, we got this one in the early preview. As you can see the steps do not end at step 4, there are 2 pages left of this drawing. Also note the insert at the top of Korra's height compared to Mako and Bolin. Very helpful steps.[/caption]
The weird thing about the book is that it is completely Book 1 Air focused, only Book 1 characters are included here, which given that the Book 3 Finale is in 3 days, makes this book feel like it should have come out 2 years ago. I hope that this book sells well enough that a Book 2 and 3 how to draw book gets made as I would love to learn how to draw Wan, Raava, Unalaq and so on.
The Book is also fairly big and made with good quality paper, the quality is very high all round on this book, in huge contrast to the quality the early preview suggested. Whoever made the decision to release that early preview has heavily ruined the reputation of this book months before release, you just don't put out a preview that early if it is not in anyway representative of the end product.
To end this brief written review, I highly suggest watching my video review linked below, I basically show off every page of the book, show off and talk about some of my attempts at drawing based on the instruction from this book. If you are interested in getting into drawing Korra characters, this book is definitely worth getting and at the low price of $10 it is worth it for such a well made book. A surprisingly good book.
Video Review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CswBr9BBU-o
