"How-To" Books

[Michael D. Nicola]

Below is a list of "How-To" books.

These are fantastic references and, in many cases, an almost indispensible part of any serious Industrial Design library - for both students and professionals alike.

[Michael D. Nicola]

How To Draw Cars Like A Pro
By Thom Taylor & Lisa Hallett

This has to be one of the absolute best books on the subject of drawing and rendering cars. Don't let the old school hot rod illustration on the cover fool you, this book is an excellent basis for anyone looking to study car styling and design. Thom Tayler himself is an Industrial Design graduate of Art Center College of Design in Passadena, California, and he covers all the topics and techniques that one would get from some of the best Industrial Design and Transportation Design schools around the world. He does this with very clear illustrations and great examples. An excellent resource and very highly recommended.

If you're interested in buying this book online, click here.

[Michael D. Nicola]

How To: Design Cars Like A Pro
A Comprehensive Guide to Car Design
By Tony Lewin

Every so often a book is published that forges new insight into subjects few know anything about. And this is one of those books. How To: Design Cars Like a Pro is as inspiring as it is informative. Unlike Thom Taylor's book How To Draw Cars Like A Pro, this book delves deep into aspects of automotive design through the eyes of some of the greatest designers and industry leaders of our day. The emotion, the frustration, the creativity, the excitement...it's all here. The book does lack something in the way of sketching and rendering instruction, but it more than makes up for it with it's contemporary layout, awe-inspiring visuals, excellent references, and wealth of data. This is yet another excellent resource and one that I very highly recommended. Combine How To: Design Cars Like A Pro with How To Draw Cars Like A Pro, and you'll definitely have a winning combination.

If you're interested in buying this book online, click here.

[Michael D. Nicola]

Presentation Techniques
A Guide To Drawing & Presenting Design Ideas
By Richard Powell

This has to be one of the last remaining books of it's kind still available in print today. And for it's cost (approximately $30Cdn) it is worth it's weight in gold! While not writen specifically on the subject of cars like the two books above, Presentation Techniques by Richard Powell (a graduate of the Royal College of Art, in England) demonstrates the various sketching and rendering techniques used by virtually all Industrial Designers to get their ideas down on paper and across to their clients.

But this book is much more than just rendering and presentation techniques. After covering the various materials and tools used throughout the book, Powell gets into it with an indepth explanation of perspective using various complex shapes. He then moves on to understanding light and shadow, reflectivity, and colour tone selection. And I haven't even mentioned the techniques yet! Appart from the essential practices, like marker and pastel, Powell introduces additional techniques including the use of airbrushing, and even some basics of rendering using CAD software.

The shear abundance of step-by-step examples in this book is increadible to say the least! Powell walks you through the rendering of numerous products from a simple a floor vacuum to a full automotive interior, and everything in between (and yes, there are a few car renderings and they are awesome). And the use of various media and drawing papers helps to illustrate not only the possible results, but also the slight variances between the different techniques required to get some great results.

I cannot say enough good things about this book. If you are serious about Industrial Design and about learning to draw the way the pros do it, this book is an absolute MUST HAVE!

If you are interested in buying this book online, click here.

[Michael D. Nicola]

Creative Marker Techniques: In Combination With Mixed Media
and
Quick & Easy Solutions To Creative Marker Techniques
By Yoshiharu Shimizu

It doesn't get any better than this! Published in both English and Japanese, the two books shown here, Creative Marker Techniques: In Combination with Mixed Media, and Quick & Easy Solutions to Marker Techniques, both by author Yoshiharu Shimizu, are the absolute definition of what How-To books for Industrial Designers should be. These books are the reason why all other rendering books exist, yet no other book can even begin to measure up.

Everything is here. And I mean EVERYTHING! Here's a rundown of just some of the items that are covered in both of these books:

• An overview of different sketching types, including thumbnail sketches, line drawing sketches, value sketches, and highlight sketches
  
  
• Concise review of all the drawing materials used, including various types of markers and inks, gouaches, chalk pastels, pens, pencils, erasers, brushes, cotton pads, rulers, sweeps, templates, compasses, and masking materials
  
  
• Descriptions of the various paper types used such as vellum, marker paper, and tracing paper
  
  
• The use of masks to help keep drawings clean and professional looking
  
  
• The use of instant rub-on lettering, and how to create visual effects with them
  
  
• The use of liquid colourless blenders and coloured inks to create dazzling background and fill patterns
  
  
• Demonstrations on how to use a Letrajet spray marker attachment to create the effect of reflectivity
  
  
• In-depth explanation of perspective drawing, including several example demonstrations
  
  
• Countless demonstrations of rendering different products from contemporary microwave ovens and telephones, to a full car rendering, all using various sketching and rendering techniques, and on varying paper
  
  
• Even a rendering demonstration done both by hand and using a Adobe Illustrator on a Macintosh computer to illustrate the difference in outcome
  

As the story goes, Creative Marker Techniques: In Combination With Mixed Media was the first of the two books to be published, with the initial printing commencing in November 1990. After it's introduction however, Yoshiharu Shimizu received so many questions from students and professionals regarding the various techniques demonstrated in the book that he decided it would be beneficial to release a second book in an attempt to provide answers to a broader audience. Hence, Quick & Easy Solutions to Marker Techniques was published and released in April 1995. This second book covers much of the same material as the first, however it goes into a greater level of detail and explanation with respect to the techniques demonstrated, making it extremely desirable by the "hard core" artisans and designers looking to master the material Shimizu presents.

Despite all these positive attributes, there is but one negative. Virtually everything written by Yoshiharu Shimizu - including these two books - has been out of print for several years. This makes finding these books for sale anywhere extremely difficult. And as you would expect with any limited availability item of this caliber, the used book prices for these publications verge on extortion! As of this writing, Creative Marker Techniques: In Combination With Mixed Media is available used (in like new condition) for approximately $200Cdn on Amazon.ca; Quick & Easy Solutions to Marker Techniques typically fetches upwards of $400US on Amazon.com. To put these prices into perspective, each of these books retailed for just under $50Cdn when they where in print!

But with that said, these books are the best of the best, and if you have the opportunity to pick either book up, I would highly recommend that you do so. I would suggest that you try eBay or maybe some of the smaller online book retailers - who knows, you might get lucky and find a copy in good condition for a reasonable price. If there's nothing there, then either Chapters/Indigo or Amazon usually have them available used (but be prepared to pay).

If I had to choose between these two books, I would take the second one, Quick & Easy Solutions to Marker Techniques. As I said, it covers much of the same material as the first book, but goes into greater detail with respect to the demonstrated techniques. But with such a low availability of both books, that may not be an option.