6 Best Character Design Books For Young Artists That Teach Storytelling

Your child’s sketchbook is filled with drawings of the same spiky-haired hero or wide-eyed animal, over and over again. You see their dedication and passion, but you’re wondering what the next step is to help them grow beyond just copying a style. The key is to help them connect their art to storytelling, turning those static figures into characters with a purpose.

Beyond Drawing: Connecting Art to Storytelling

You’ve seen it happen. The drawings are getting technically better, but the characters all have the same vacant expression. This is a sign that your young artist is ready for a huge developmental leap—from learning how to draw to understanding why they are drawing.

Character design is visual storytelling. It’s the art of communicating a personality, a history, and an emotion through shapes, lines, and colors. A slumped posture, a jagged silhouette, or a pair of wide, curious eyes should tell us who a character is before they ever speak a line of dialogue. This is the magic behind every great animated film, comic book, and video game.

The books on this list are chosen specifically because they teach this crucial connection. They aren’t just step-by-step drawing manuals. They are guides that encourage young artists to think like writers and directors, asking questions that infuse their creations with life. This shift from focusing on "what" a character looks like to "why" they look that way is the secret to unlocking their unique creative voice.

Bancroft’s Book for Disney-Inspired Personalities

Is your teen obsessed with the fluid animation and expressive faces of classic Disney or Pixar films? If they are trying to capture that same level of life and appeal in their own work, they are ready for a more professional-level guide. This is common for artists in the 11- to 14-year-old range who are starting to think more seriously about their craft.

Creating Characters with Personality by Tom Bancroft is the perfect resource to bridge the gap from hobbyist to aspiring professional. As a former Disney animator, Bancroft has a gift for breaking down complex industry concepts—like shape language, posing, and constructing expressions—into lessons that are clear and accessible for teens. He masterfully connects every artistic choice directly to the character’s inner world.

This book is a smart investment for the young artist who is genuinely dedicated and perhaps even considering art as a future career. It’s not a light read for a casual doodler. The principles it teaches are foundational to the animation and illustration industries, ensuring it will remain a relevant and valuable resource on their shelf for years, long after other art books are outgrown.

The Silver Way for Developing a Unique Art Style

Many young artists hit a frustrating wall. They become incredibly skilled at mimicking the style of their favorite manga or cartoon, but when they try to draw something original, it feels flat or derivative. Helping them find their own artistic voice is one of the most important things you can do to support their journey.

For this specific challenge, I always point families toward The Silver Way: Techniques, Tips, and Tutorials for Effective Character Design by Stephen Silver. Known for his design work on shows like Kim Possible, Silver focuses less on rigid rules and more on the creative thinking process. He provides exercises and insights that encourage artists to experiment, break down what they love about other styles, and synthesize those elements into something uniquely their own.

This book is ideal for the intermediate artist, typically ages 12 and up, who has the technical basics down but feels creatively stuck. It’s less of a step-by-step manual and more of a creative mentorship in a book. It builds the kind of artistic confidence needed to develop a portfolio of original work, making it a powerful tool for any teen who is serious about their art.

Scott McCloud’s Making Comics for Story Basics

Does your child’s sketchbook look less like a collection of portraits and more like a series of scenes? If you’re seeing action lines, word balloons, and characters interacting with each other, they are no longer just designing characters—they are trying to tell stories. They just need the right tools to build the framework.

While not exclusively a character design book, Scott McCloud’s Making Comics is an absolutely essential guide for any young artist interested in narrative. Presented in a brilliant and engaging comic book format, it is the definitive guide to the "grammar" of visual storytelling. It explains how panels, pacing, body language, and composition all work together to create a powerful story.

This book is a must-have for any artist aged 10 and up. It provides the foundational knowledge that helps them understand that a character’s design is only as strong as the story it serves. It teaches them how to make their characters act, emote, and move through a world, turning their drawings into a true narrative experience.

Character Design Quarterly for Diverse Inspiration

At some point, you may notice your artist is in a creative rut, drawing the same type of hero or creature repeatedly. The best way to break out of this is through exposure to a wide variety of professional styles and approaches. This expands their visual library and shows them what’s possible beyond their current influences.

For this, Character Design Quarterly (CDQ) is an incredible resource. It’s a publication, not a single book, so you can invest in a single issue or a subscription. Each volume is packed with tutorials, industry interviews, and stunning galleries from a diverse range of contemporary artists. It shows how different designers solve creative problems, from creating fantasy creatures to sci-fi heroes.

CDQ is best suited for the more dedicated teen artist, around 13 and up, who is actively seeking inspiration and insight into the professional art world. It’s an investment in perspective, not just technique. A few of these on the shelf can be more valuable than a dozen generic "how-to-draw" books, and they have great pass-along value to other art students when your child moves on to new resources.

Sherm Cohen’s Cartooning for Expressive Fun

If your child is between 8 and 12 years old and loves the bouncy, energetic, and hilarious style of modern TV cartoons, their goal isn’t photorealism. Their goal is fun. They want to create characters that are squishy, expressive, and bursting with personality, just like the ones they see on screen.

Cartooning: Character Design by Sherm Cohen is the absolute best choice for this age and interest level. Cohen, a storyboard artist and director on shows like SpongeBob SquarePants, understands what makes cartoons work. His book is focused on the core principles of great cartooning: using simple shapes, creating clear silhouettes, and mastering exaggerated expressions. The whole approach is built around energy and appeal.

This is a fantastic first "serious" art book that won’t intimidate a younger artist. It prioritizes creativity and fun over rigid anatomical rules, which is perfect for building confidence. It sneakily teaches foundational animation principles like "squash and stretch" in a way that feels like play, setting an excellent groundwork for more advanced studies down the road.

Ed Emberley’s Make a World for Younger Artists

For the youngest artists, often in the 5- to 7-year-old range, the biggest hurdle is confidence. They have big ideas in their heads but get frustrated when their hands can’t quite execute them. The goal at this stage isn’t to teach them professional design theory; it’s to show them that they can create recognizable and fun characters with just a few simple shapes.

Ed Emberley’s drawing books, particularly Make a World, are legendary for a reason. He uses a simple visual alphabet of shapes—circles, squares, lines, and scribbles—to construct an entire universe of characters, animals, and objects. The step-by-step process is incredibly clear and empowering, showing a child how to build something complex from easy, manageable parts.

This is the perfect starting block. It demystifies the drawing process and short-circuits the "I can’t draw" frustration before it even begins. It teaches the most important lesson of all: that art is accessible. These books are durable classics, often passed down between siblings or found in school libraries, proving their timeless value in sparking a lifelong love of drawing.

Building a Library to Support Your Artist’s Journey

Remember, you don’t need to run out and buy all these books at once. An artist’s library should be built thoughtfully over time, just like their skills. The goal is to provide the right resource at the right moment to help them overcome a specific creative challenge they’re facing.

Think of it as a progression. You might start with Ed Emberley to build foundational confidence for a 6-year-old. A few years later, Sherm Cohen’s book can help them make their characters more expressive and fun. As they enter their teens and their goals become more focused, a book like The Silver Way can help them develop a unique style, while Creating Characters with Personality can prepare them for more advanced work.

A well-chosen art book is a fantastic investment in your child’s passion. Unlike a toy or a video game that gets set aside, these books become trusted guides that they will pull off the shelf again and again for years. By providing a resource that meets them where they are, you are sending a powerful message that you see their passion and believe in their journey.

The best art books don’t just teach a child how to draw a nose or an eye; they teach a child how to think like a storyteller. By carefully matching the right book to your artist’s age, skill level, and current passion, you’re giving them more than a drawing lesson. You’re giving them a key to unlock the countless characters and worlds waiting inside their imagination.