Council of designers, illustrators

Question

Design

Introduction. You can skip
Here's a story in my life. I met my then-future wife when she was in her second year at the institute, then she studied at the faculty of land management and did not suspect what she had gotten herself into. I never understood why she did it, and when I looked at the old drawings I was completely freaked out ... why land development. The institute ended - the civil service began. And then I saw enough that Petrovich from my first job seemed to me like a fluffy hamster.
And that's when she was offered to take responsibility for all the top bribe-takers for an increase in salary by 10 euros per month (in fact, this is such a position - to issue land acts). I decided enough is enough. The next day, her application was on the table. And I promised myself that she would do what she dreamed about before entering the institute - to draw.

Essence
Now, with the help of offline courses, video tutorials, articles on the Internet, my wife has mastered Photoshop, Illustrator, and got a little hand on the tablet. I see her as an illustrator for small games, we have small desks in our city. But I'm not quite sure how to proceed. Therefore, there are a couple of questions:
A) Recommend books on:
1. Design theories in as simple and non-dry language as possible to cover various topics from color to font theory
2. Maybe there is something in Russian directly for game designers
3. Maybe some books about character illustration?
B) If you have any advice on further "quick" learning - I will be VERY grateful to you
. For example, creating illustrations for various stocks, or as a universal “free fighter”

Answer 1

You have "a problem of the beginner and the professional".
A professional differs from a beginner in knowledge of the applied field and the ability to organize his work. How well does your wife know graphics in games? Let him take a few games and try to make a copy of the drawings himself.
Tips:
- Register on DA (http://www.deviantart.com/) and look at the work there, repeat. And in general, let him create his own gallery there.
She needs a pencil drawing course to manage her tablet. The rutracker had a simple but understandable course
- It would be nice to read at least one book on academic drawing.
- Try to draw every day.
- And when he comprehends Zen, let him study Gimp (I hope version 2.8 will be released by that time).

Answer 2

Personally, I learned from cartoons. In my opinion, this is the very thing, because it makes it clear how a drawing can differ from reality, and what can be neglected. There are good lessons from Carton Smart , but unfortunately there are few free ones.