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Drawing: Faces: Learn to draw step by step

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With Faces, learn to draw detailed, realistic human faces in graphite pencil from basic shapes.

Successfully drawing the human face is one of the most challenging, yet rewarding, artistic experiences. With a wealth of detailed step-by-step projects to both re-create and admire, this 10.25 × 13.75–inch book teaches the basics of drawing human facial features with graphite pencil. In addition to the step-by-step drawing projects, Faces includes information on choosing art materials, building with basic shapes, placing proportionate features, defining facial expression, and shading to develop form and realism. Discover how to render a variety of faces with simple instructions and tips on how to adapt your drawings for varied angles and emotions.

Acclaimed artist Walter T. Foster shares his personal methods for rendering the human face in all its expressiveness as he introduces tips and techniques for approaching babies, children, teenagers, and adults of all ages. Easy-to-follow demonstrations and helpful techniques for drawing correct head and facial proportions, eyes, noses, lips, and ears make this book a necessary addition to every artist’s library of drawing references.

Designed for beginners, the How to Draw & Paint series offers easy-to-follow guides  t hat introduce artists to basic tools and materials and include simple step-by-step lessons for a variety of projects suitable for the aspiring artist. Faces allows artists to develop drawing skills by demonstrating how to start with basic shapes and use pencil and shading techniques to create varied textures, values, and details for a realistic, completed portrait drawing.

Drawing faces can be a challenge, but with this step-by-step guide, you’ll be rendering realistic portraits in no time.

40 pages, Paperback

Published March 3, 2020

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About the author

Walter Foster

264 books2 followers
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
Profile Image for Alicia Bayer.
Author 10 books252 followers
December 30, 2019
Note: After being so perplexed by how out of date the faces were, I looked at the "about the author" text on the cover and found out the author died in 1981 at the age of 90. This is apparently a new book using his sketches, which explains a lot. I'm leaving my original review as follows since it will help determine if this is a good book for you.

This is a good basic drawing book to learn how to pretty easily draw faces but it is straight out of the 1940's and 1950's in terms of the faces. It's almost comical how out of date these people are. Think Leave it to Beaver and black and white private detective movies. All of the subjects are thin, white, conventionally attractive looking folks with trim haircuts, ties, fedoras, bows in their hair, etc. other than one black child who looks like he's wearing a newsboy cap and a few older folks (one might be Mother Teresa?). The only man who looks non-white reminds me of a villainous foreigner cliche of an old Man From U.N.C.L.E. episode. Makeup is minimal on women -- again, think of the stereotypical housewife or secretary from the 50's and you'll get the idea.

The book is in black and white with the exception of colorful boxes of text. It is 40 pages in total.

This will be a good primer on drawing faces with scale lines and such. It shows alternate angles and a variety of old fashioned hairstyles. You'll need to look elsewhere for diversity of models, body size variations, or modern makeup, hair, hat and dress styles.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.
Profile Image for Natalie  all_books_great_and_small .
3,160 reviews178 followers
January 4, 2020
I received an advanced reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

This is a great starter book for learning to draw faces with useful information and tips. I will refer back to this book when I attempt the facial sketches within it.
A good book for if your starting out learning to draw faces as not overloading or too challenging.
Profile Image for Annie.
4,738 reviews88 followers
February 16, 2020
Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Drawing: Faces: Learn to draw step by step is a book in the Learn to Draw Step by Step series. Due out 3rd March 2020 from Quarto on their Walter Foster imprint, it's 40 pages and available in paperback format. This appears to be a reformat and re-release (excerpt?) of material first released in 1997 with the same title by the same author.

The titles in this series are all formatted in a similar manner and this one is no exception.

A short general introduction (10%) covers tools and materials including pencils, paper, blending tools, etc. The intro is followed by a group of non-specific tutorials on graphite techniques, shading, light, shapes and perspective. The following tutorial chapters are specific for different subjects (mostly faces) and include specific anatomy: eyes, noses, etc, leading to some full studies. There is also a very abbreviated tutorial on rendering some surfaces and finishes. It should be noted that the style of these renderings is very retro/traditional in a style which was popular in the early to mid 20th century, much of that popularity springing from the art of Mr. Foster himself.

I like these tutorial booklets, they're inexpensive and full of useful info for artists looking for improvement in their own work. It's nice to see them getting a re-release for a new audience of artists and learners.

Four stars - for what it covers and for a very short tutorial guide, it does the job admirably well.

Disclosure: I received an early eARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Profile Image for Mechthild.
389 reviews7 followers
February 18, 2020
Do you want to be successful in drawing the human face?
The book "Drawing: Faces. Learn to Draw step by step" is based on the work of Walter Foster. The important statement in the introduction points out the goal of this book: "The qualities of individual faces, as well as the emotions they convey, make them some of the most fascinating subjects to draw. And becoming comfortable with drawing the face will give you the confidence to go on to draw the full human figure." The book is one of the 40-page books from the "Drawing ... step by step" series, published by Quarto Publishing Group - Walter Foster. The ten chapters can be divided into two blocks: 1) tools & materials and shading techniques and 2) proportions (of adults and children), features (of adults and children), profiles, and different views.
The book presents itself with great graphics and design and is very detailed in its step-by-step approach. Tips that help with the drawing are included throughout the book. They are a great help for the budding artist. It is helpful and inspirational for beginning (and advanced) artists who are wanting to draw with graphite pencils. It would make a nice gift and I would recommend it for them. Readers need to be aware that it is a basic book, index and information where the needed materials can be bought are missing. Furthermore all the drawings are done with graphite pencil, drawing with colored pencils are not included in the book.
The complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley free of charge. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
#DrawingFaces #NetGalley
651 reviews17 followers
March 27, 2020
Even though it's quite a short book (40 pages), there is a good number of images to work with.

It provide information on tools, materials and shading techniques to start you off. It then moves onto showing adult and children proportions and features. It is then followed by 4 more sections on profiles, frontal view, three-quarter view and other angles.

A good book for a beginner starting out with drawing faces using a pencil. I like the way it shows the different features and gives steps on how to draw them.

I received this book from Netgalley in return for a honest review.
Profile Image for Agnes Preszler.
165 reviews2 followers
March 6, 2020
Drawings aestethically outdated (remembers the Bridgman books), but very essential and useful information for beginning pencil portrait artists. Adult and child features explained, profile and 3/4 views, planes of the face, shading techniques, a hint to perspective applied to human faces.
Profile Image for Melissa Overby.
195 reviews4 followers
September 9, 2020
This gave me a few new tips and tricks on how to easily draw and shade faces. I'm not a beginner, by any means, but I'm always looking for new ways of drawing and shading. Thanks so much!
Profile Image for Witch-at-Heart .
1,577 reviews21 followers
January 22, 2020
This book is short but informative. The drawings are excellent and the instructions on shading on facial features is very good. Highly recommend this book. I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.
Profile Image for Nicki Markus.
Author 55 books298 followers
January 5, 2020
Drawing Faces was a mixed bag for me. The introductory pages are sound, with useful information on things like proportion and shading. However, this is a heritage text, and as such the example giving look very dated, which may be off-putting for some readers. The style for portraiture has changed somewhat since these pieces were first drawn, which makes them feel a little irrelevant now. In conclusion, I am giving this book 3 stars. It has some good information, so beginners may want to check it out, but be aware that the style of the examples may not be to everyone's taste.

I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews

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