Draw Amazing Animal Mash-Ups

Gr 3–6—The cartoonish but detailed comic book—style and the use of vivid colors will give this series of drawing books immense shelf appeal—and kids will not be disappointed. All that's required to convincingly duplicate the 13 chimerical combos in each book is a minimum of drafting or copying skill. Each drawing builds in six steps using volumetric construction shapes—big ovals for bodies and limbs and small circles for joints. This provides draftsmen with the opportunity to pose each creature to suit the scene they want to create. The wealth of ideas—a samurai dinosaur, a chicken knight, a squid chef—will inspire artists to take their own doodles up an imaginative notch. It's a challenge to adapt body parts from various creatures so that they fit together, to stretch costumes designed for humans so that they fit animals, or to blend machine parts with living bodies.