Very closely related to the earlier post on Process, I’m also obsessed with how-to books.  Like many comic artists, I have a little bookshelf full of these tomes, including my pride and joy, an original hardcover printing of Andrew Loomis’s Creative Illustration (12 bucks at a half-price books here in Austin – they had NO idea what they were selling…).  By far, Loomis’ books have been the some of the most enlightening instructional texts I’ve ever come across despite the fact that they’re over 50 years old.  They are, unfortunately, out of print and there seem to be no plans to change that.

Over the years there have been various places online that have hosted digital scans of Loomis’s books, and I’ve made the effort to acquire PDF copies of each.  I’ll spend the occasional weekend afternoon going back through these books, and every time I find something new to incorporate into my work.

I recently came across these AWESOME resources, where all of his books (and many more, including George Bridgman) are collected for easy download:

http://gekos.no/art/index.php/component/option,com_idoblog/Itemid,60/id,68/task,viewpost/

http://alexhays.com/loomis/

http://webshop.gekoss.com/

Dive in and enjoy!