Sketch Book for the Artist: An Innovative, Practical Approach to Drawing the World Around You

by Sarah Simblet

Integrating the techniques and insights of a master artist, an introduction to the art of drawing explores a wide variety of media and techniques for both novice and experienced artists, with practical guidelines on such topics as shape, shading, portraiture, architectural renderings, nature, perspective, and more.

Genres: Art, Drawing, Reference, Nonfiction, Design, How To

264 pages, Hardcover

First published May 2, 2005

Reviews

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More pictures at parkablogs.com)

This book is published by DK is an encompassing look at sketching. It's not an instructional book although you can get lots of ideas from looking at the classic and contemporary drawings included. Some of the sketches are from artist Sarah Simblet, and others from a myriad of artists.

There isn't much covered on the techniques. While there are topics like composition, light and shadow or perspective, they are mainly to introduce such concepts to beginners.

The book is heavy on subjects. The main chapters are on animals, botany, architecture, still life, body, portraits, costumes, imagination and many more.

It's a general guide to sketching and understanding the different sides to it. It's a bit too general for me though. For drawing books, I prefer those that are dedicated to specific subjects.

It's an interesting book to flip through, and isn't too expensive.

The US version of this book is "Sketch Book for the Artist". There's another edition with British English called "The Drawing Book".

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome picture/word book for someone with my sentiments. Sketch book for the Artist suggests ideas and techniques for an artist to consider in order to improve their art and challenge themselves. Often times, the author uses her own art and the art of masters to demonstrate each concept.

The illustrations are beautiful and inspiring.

[Elizabeth Grey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was briefly an Art History major in college. Part of recieving an Art History degree means that you have to take art classes. I took a drawing class, and looked for extra help. This book was by far the best. It goes over the supplies, and techniques.

[Rick Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sarah Simblet's Sketch Book for the Artist is a lush resource for beginners and experienced artists alike. There is a lot here, she covers the chaos of cities the tranquility of nature, the complexity of interacting with a human face. Stuffed with rough sketches and much more finished pieces, she gently poses questions of what the readers' drawing inclinations might be, and inspires them to go do more of that.

[Ria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting read. I liked how she explored all the mediums of sketching. I recently went to Prague and came across Alfonse Mucha's works which was talked about breifly in this book. There are some useful excercises, but what I loved most were all the examples. She also divided the book into different types of sketching such as portrait, landscape, architecture, etc; It made me realize just how much there is to sketch out there and that I've barely even scratched the tip of the ice berg in my artistic endevours.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such an inspiring book. Simblet uses a wide range of works by various artists to guide us in using diverse media to sketch a number of subjects within unique categories such as Costume, Gatherings, and Gods and Monsters as well as traditional ones like Animals and Plants and Gardens. Worth reading just to look at the pictures.

[Srivani · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book to look through but nothing too revelatory in my opinion.

[Lloyd Downey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over the years, I've found these DK books to give really great value and to have really great illustrations. "The Drawing Book" is no exception. It has a wealth of beautifully reproduced illustrations and covers ...pretty much....the entire gamut of drawing. Sarah Simblet deals with pencil, pen and ink, crayon, chalk, brush silver point ...and probably other media that I can't recall at the moment. She gives examples from both well known artists plus her own work to demonstrate the possibilities with drawing. Unfortunately, I find that her own style of drawing doesn't greatly appeal to me. Maybe I prefer something a bit more finished than her 2 min sketches and rough outlines. I think there are other, better books around which actually teach one to draw but as an overview of the possibilities with drawing, the book is pretty good. Before actually reading it from cover to cover, I had the impression that it was a definite "keeper" in my collection. Now, I'm not so sure. I will keep it for the moment but not sure that I will refer to it very often. However, four stars from me.....(the quality and quantity of the illustrations lift it out of the ordinary).

[Kos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Covers a broad range of subjects and how to capture them. The author's knowledge of drawing materials clearly comes through and encourages the reader to experiment without fear by showing her own drawings and master works. The problem is that there is no set audience for this book.
The concepts and subjects she covers are intriguing for an advanced artist, but will be incredibly daunting to a beginner. The tutorials are placed haphazardly, drawing animals and plants in ink and graphite is explained at the start but then circles back to drawing elipses in the chapter about still objects, which is then followed by drawing the human figure and a showcase of the anatomy of the head. This sort of whiplash feels incredibly patronizing at times. I'm confused by the author's choice of introducing silverpoint, a technique that is for one, not cheap, demands precision and is hard to correct, before charcoal, which is cheap, accessible and can be used in many different ways.

Overall an intriguing read but do not expect it to be a how-to-draw book, it's great at encouraging exploration of different subjects and experimentation.

[Christianne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Do not buy the Kindle version. Bad photo scan of book

Do not buy the Kindle version of the book. It is a very bad photo scan with blurry unreadable text. There are light spots on some of the scan pages. It is like someone used an old Xerox with the toner cartridge almost empty to upload poorly photocopied pages. The book is probably an interesting one as most DK publications are, but look into a physical copy. This book cannot be purchased on Kindle even if it is one of those 1.99 deals. You will be really disappointed 😞

[Brigitte · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Sarah Simblet’s books. Botany for the Artist is her other gem. Wonderful art work and reflections about the art process. My only complaint is that the book didn’t really feel like it was focused on sketchbooks.

[Chris Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good resource book with tons of things I still need to learn.

[Mohamed Labeeb · Rating 2 out of 5]

An okay book to look through and that's all there is to it.

[Sati Whalien52 · Rating 4 out of 5]

it's filled with aspiring illustrations/sketches, could be very handy for beginner artists

[Eliza Leone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very easy to read. Clear images and ideas. The author shows the many different mediums, and supplies making it easy for someone only slightly knowledgeable to understand the complex supplies in the art world. I had to read this for a beginning art class and it made me WANT to draw, want to be a better artist. i highly recommend it!

[Troy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, bar none, the best book I've seen in a while that covers so wide a range of drawing topics. From materials to approaches to retrospectives of the masters to an overall celebration of art itself, I found this book in the library randomly and, some hours later, am buying my own copy. Par excellence!

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jam-packed with inspiring examples of artists and works I have never seen, thoughtful analysis of techniques, and sage advice. I'll definitely be reading it over again and referring to it in the future.

[Svetlana · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent volume with great examples of the author's personal work and the work of other artists. The written chapters are inspiring and well researched and leave the reader with just enough information and interesting insights to want to explore the topics further.

[Rishi · Rating 5 out of 5]

gives you so many good avenues for what you should put in your sketchbook and when so as to keep you drawing and getting better

[Eliel Lopez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good reference book to muse over especially when in need of some inspiring fresh ideas.

[Simon Yoong · Rating 2 out of 5]

the starting is a little too abstract for me, but gets better later on. A lot of the art isn't too conventional, but presents a lot of ideas and sketches to inspire the reader.

[Evgenia Pradel · Rating 3 out of 5]

a good book to go through