How to Draw Vampires - A Book Review

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*Stops Sparkling* - Ah well... That's kind of embarrassing really... 

How to Draw Vampires is a book written by Mike Butkus and Merrie Destefano. The illustrations shown in the book are by Mike Butkus. And no. They don't sparkle. However that is not the most surprising part about this book, the most surprising part about this book is the fact that it is really really good. Really. So lets begin this review!



First things first, what is this book meant for? Drawing vampires? Not really. Now that probably threw you off and you're now thinking "Wait, doesn't this book title say How to Draw Vampires???" which is true it does say that. But the vampire is more of a subject that is supposed to attract people to the book. The book itself doesn't "teach" how to draw them. The book simply uses vampires as an excuse to show you techniques in which you can use on any drawing. Hell this book could have been about Unicorns and still be an informative book.

Okay, moving on we now know that the book shows you techniques to help you paint and draw. What kind of techniques? Mainly traditional ones. This book gives a nice list of materials to use, how to use them and a easy step by step process of how the drawing or painting is completed with them. The book also covers digital painting as well, does it cover it as much as other books? Probably not, but it is still fairly good and gives the basics, however, if you want to know things like brushes and more advanced features it is better if you get a different book.One of my favourite parts in this book is that it shows a mixed media approach, such as using coloured pencils with acrylic for certain affects, or using an airbrush with acrylic to give a light colouring. These small hints and tips allow for a beginner artist to experiment with what they have and to see what they can do.

So to conclude this nicely made review (oh look sarcasm) I would have to say that I would recommend this book to starting artists as well as artists who might have been at this for a while. It's a great book for more advanced artist because of the inspiration it gives. I mean this man is an amazing artist and I am extremely jealous of his powers. This book isn't truly a "must have" but it truly is a really nice asset to own and not only that but your friends will be jealous too. I should know.

Anyways so you can get this book either to the left in the sidebar or you can simply click here.

If you don't like vampires there is also a zombie book from the same authors that teach the same techniques here.