i've been reading "Creative Perspective For Artists and Illustrators" by Ernest Watson, which i think was written in the 50s (my used copy is from the 90s), and his approach is so natural tbh, it's like, "here's the technical stuff but i'm gonna keep gently reminding you that Vibes Are The Most Important". it's very affirming, haha. this was written in a time with fewer tools and probably less pressure to be so exacting and i think that's what i needed. other books have a lot of cool info for people smarter and less dyscalculia-having than me but this is the advice i needed i think

i have a lot of cool digital tools at my disposal, and in some ways learning to draw has never been easier, but in some ways it has also never been higher pressure. this is chilling my brain out. a used copy of this book is dirt cheap, so i highly recommend it. (also my copy seems to have been aging gracefully since the early 90s and it has a delightful old/library book smell now; i cannot help but stop and take the occasional whiff while reading. this is just the sort of creature that i am)

the full list of books here:

• Figure Drawing Without A Model, by Ron Tiner
• Creative Perspective for Artists and Illustrators, by Ernest Watson
• Drawing From Your Imagination, by Ron Tiner
• How To Draw Manga, by Katy Coope
• How To Draw Manga: Compiling Characters, by the Society for the Study Of Manga Techniques
• Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud
• Perspective! For Comic Book Artists, by David Chelsea
• Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain, by Betty Edwards
• Point Character Drawing AND Secret Character Drawing, by Taco _{(these are the ones with the titles in Korean; i highly recommend buying these even if you can't read Korean, the drawings really do speak for themselves and there's so little text that like... if you really need to know what it says you can Google Lens it)}