I probably have almost every Ed Emberly instructional drawing book
ever published. My 7-year-old daughter loves his books as much as I do. Emberley's books are appealing because his step-by-step instructions are clean and simple, and if you follow them you will end up with a great looking critter.
When I saw the image above, I thought it was from a new Ed Emberley book, but it was actually created by illustrator Nate Wragg, who is also an Emberly fan. Here's what Wragg says about Emberly's work:
As a kid I had several of his books, and I have to say he was one of my first artistic inspirations. I used to love to draw from his books, follow the steps, use all the fun shapes, and adding all the detail at the end was my favorite part. One of the things I love about Ed Emberley's work is the way he designed his characters off such simple shapes. It's one of the first things that I think we all learn and do as designers when we are working on a character design, or thinking about structuring a layout drawing for a background. Start simple, and play with simple shapes to help vary your design, then go from there.
Ed Emberley Sasquatch tribute
I asked Amy Parness, the co-founder of Sparkle Labs, maker of fantastic educational electronics kits, to write a Medium post about gender and the business of being a maker business person. Her terrific essay calls out the problems with “pink girly engineering kits.” From Medium:
Zero UI is the new term for “invisible interfaces”—what happens in the future when all the clicking and tapping and typing is history: “If you look at the history of computing, starting with the jacquard loom in 1801, humans have always had to interact with machines in a really abstract, complex way.” [Fast Company]
CEO Dick Costolo will resign, to be replaced in the interim by Jack Dorsey
This Smartphone Photo Lens Kit arms you with six unique smartphone photography accessories, so you can take high-quality and well-composed photos of any subject from small insects to expansive landscapes.6 unique lensesRolls up neatly for transportTripod for stabilitySmall lenses attach seamlessly with magnetMicroscope and 8x telephoto lenses attach with a case (case attaches to phone)Lens wallet […]
Inspired by the universality of symbols, the founders of Noun Project began to collect thousands of hand-drawn icons. The concept has since transformed into a massive digital collection of 150,000+ unique icons that fuel the work of designers every day. Spend less time crafting icons and more time putting amazing designs out into the world with […]
You won’t need to think twice about going hands-free on the road with Exomount’s easy-to-use car mount. It mounts your smartphone so easily, you literally only need one hand to quickly secure your phone in the perfect position and get driving. Don’t risk a ticket, use the world’s best suction technology to effortlessly mount and […]
I’m a professional videogame designer and my rough concept sketches STILL look like Ed Emberley drawings. I was thrilled when I went through the books at my parents’ house a few years ago and found my old copy of “Make A World”. Yay, Ed! Without you and Richard Scarry, my childhood would have been much less interesting.
“Without you and Richard Scarry, my childhood would have been much less interesting.”
You too? Throw in the guy that did the “Draw 50 _____” books, and we’ve got a trifecta.
Remember Mark Kistler too?
DUDE! I can’t believe you busted out with Mark Kistler! That guy and Ed Emberly were (and in many ways still are!) my undefeated art senseis!
Ok, a cursory google images search didn’t find it, but I distinctly remember growing up around my dad’s snarky poster entitled: How to draw a square, a circle, and a rectangle.
You see, you start with a parrot, then you erase the eyes, the feathers, the legs….
Draw, draw, draw! Draw every day! Bring a positive attitude to your drawing!
Ed Emberley was a cornerstone to my childhood.
Mark Kistler came along a little later (for me at least), and always struck my introverted sensibilities as a bit too intense–like the love-child of Doug Henning and Rip Taylor. But bless his heart, he’s still going strong today, and his enthusiasm is still engaging kids in drawing. And that’s pretty cool.
Sigh, talented people make me sick. 8-) Even if I traced every image, my drawings would be unrecognizable.
I hope people that can draw, paint, etc. realize how special they are and that their talent is amazing and wonderful.
OMG! Thank you for posting this! I had these books as a kid and have long since lost them and could not remember what they were. The moment I saw your picture, I knew it was the books I had. Thanks a bunch for posting this!
Ed Emberley and Richard Scary were a huge part of my childhood. Does anyone remember a guy who drew this giant, futuristic space scene on PBS in the early 90s?
Also, just wanted to give a shout-out to Bill Cosby and Picture Pages. Pudding Pops.
Wasn’t that the aforementioned Mark Kistler? Also, Richard Scary!! Whoopty Woot!