Start Sketching & Drawing Now: Simple techniques for drawing landscapes, people and objects

by Grant Fuller

A complete course for the can't-wait-to-get-started beginner!Got the urge to draw? What are you waiting for?! Getting started is as easy as 1-2-3 with Grant Fuller's Start Sketching & Drawing Now! Packed full of easy and fun techniques, readers will learn to create accurate and expressive likenesses of people, animals, landscapes, and objects. Suddenly rendering even something as mundane as an electrical plug will become an adventure in seeing-and as you'll discover, learning how to really see your subject is half the battle.   • A progressive series of lessons range from proven exercises for developing hand-eye coordination, expressive line work and keen powers of observation, to creating the illusion of depth and dimension, realistic textures, reflections and more   • 30 step-by-step demonstrations cover an exciting range of subjects, including still lifes, landscapes, architecture, animals and people   • Graphite pencil is the featured medium, but charcoal, pen & ink, colored pencils and pastels are also exploredPractice is important, of course, but this expert instruction will fast forward you past many hours of trial, error and frustration. With every lesson you'll develop skills and confidence. Get started today with simple materials you may already have or can easily pick up at any major retailer. Before you know it, you'll be able to capture a wide range of subjects with artistic style and vision.

Genres: Art, Drawing, Nonfiction

130 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 8, 2011

Reviews

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have the fourth edition.

The book is one from a countless stream of broke ”artists” that are trying to get ”different streams of income”.

The book wastes pages showcasing full page mediocre works from the author, with no relation with the text, just to see he can draw better than a 6 year old.

The book wastes pages on the usual crap: like what sort of pencil sharpeners can be bought in the supermarket. And in case you were to dumb to search the Internet, here is a rudimentary sketch from the author, completely out of proportion -- the desk sharpener (called manual sharpener) being as large as the ”pocket sharpener”. Worse, the author is too ignorant to notice the difference in sharpeners lies not in the size of the box, but in the shape of the blade, and the way the mechanical parts function.

While showing the same sharp one bladed pencil sharpener in three forms: ”pocket”, ”manual”, and electric, the erasers get less than a third of a page. Once more the guy has no idea. But he needs to make a book, and the editor was most probably precise in the required number of pages.

It certainly looks like the people who are too intellectually challenged to do Sciences go for a career in Humanities. And, as an extension, people who are challenged even by the requirements of the Humanities go for the Visual Arts. Does anyone need to see half a page wasted so that a moron will display his marks with pencils of various hardness? Wouldn't help more to have the ”student” buy three pencils and test them all on paper?

In the end there is generic advice copied from other books. Only the very basic. What a waste of paper and gas to make that paper travel around!

[Yelena Casale · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the break-down and gradual build-up of exercises and I'm looking forward to trying them all. I enjoyed the book.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

To sketch

An art instruction manual on how to start drawing. Techniques in lighting, stroke, and patient is needed and I picked up a few good tips and tricks. Easy to follow and with plenty of step by step guide images and explanations this is a good book for someone with some drawing skill wanting to expand their skill level.

[Osamuyi Okpame · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good introduction to arts for beginner artists or refresher course for professional artists.

well structured and very simple to follow and it teaches the fundamentals of art like learning to observe and commit the essentials to memory

[Ixby Wuff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A complete course for the can't-wait-to-get-started beginner!Got the urge to draw? What are you waiting for?! Getting started is as easy as 1-2-3 with Grant Fuller's "Start Sketching & Drawing Now!" Packed full of easy and fun techniques, readers will learn to create accurate and expressive likenesses of people, animals, landscapes, and objects. Suddenly rendering even something as mundane as an electrical plug will become an adventure in seeing--and as you'll discover, learning how to really see your subject is half the battle.

A progressive series of lessons range from proven exercises for developing hand-eye coordination, expressive line work and keen powers of observation, to creating the illusion of depth and dimension, realistic textures, reflections and more30 step-by-step demonstrations cover an exciting range of subjects, including still lifes, landscapes, architecture, animals and peopleGraphite pencil is the featured medium, but charcoal, pen & ink, colored pencils and pastels are also explored

Practice is important, of course, but this expert instruction will fast forward you past many hours of trial, error and frustration. With every lesson you'll develop skills and confidence. Get started today with simple materials you may already have or can easily pick up at any major retailer. Before you know it, you'll be able to capture a wide range of subjects with artistic style and vision.

[Pat Loughery · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nice, short, well-organized Intro to drawing and sketching with a particular emphasis on pencil/graphite. It would be helpful for all beginners, and especially for youngsters and teens.