Pencil Drawing: Project book for beginners

by Michael Butkus, Eugene Metcalf, William F. Powell

'The age-old art of drawing is one of the most important foundations of all the visual arts—and it’s also a relaxing and enjoyable pastime! This book offers a simple, step-by-step approach to learning the fundamentals of sketching—from starting with basic shapes to rendering accurate still lifes, landscapes, animals, and portraits. You will learn techniques used to render various textures, including glass, metal, foliage, and fur. Even if your only experience with a pencil is writing with one, you’re still perfectly capable of executing these easy-to-follow basics. Everyone who wants to practice and perfect their drawing skills will find this project book created by Walter Foster Publishing and Reeves to be a valuable tool.

Genres: Art, Reference, Drawing

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[J.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book focused heavily on technique, particularly shading, pencil hardness, and heaviness of the artist's touch. What I liked about it was that there weren't "how-to" sketches that had a few scant lines added to each step and then, at the end, had a completed image that looked NOTHING like what you could come up with yourself.

However, I think this was a bit over my head. I've never had formal artistic training and felt that while the book addressed items of interest to budding artists, I would've been better off with a live instructor assisting me.

[Roxanna López · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. A beautiful book, short, concise and full of interesting tips. However, as a how-to book it does not work; the explanations are not sufficient for completing the projects if you are a true beginner. I suspect that if you have a live instructor that can supply the missing information it will be a rather good book. As it is, it is definitely not for beginners.