Drawing: Techniques and Tutorials for the Complete Beginner

by Christine Allison

Drawing is not only a relaxing and enjoyable pastime, but also one of the original mindfulness techniques, being a great way to be in the moment and observe your surroundings. Despite the common assumption that the ability to draw is a skill you either possess or you don't, it can be readily learned with the right teacher guiding you. Christine Allison fulfills that role with her expertise and friendly, encouraging approach. With 10 step-by-step tutorials in Drawing , Christine helps beginners navigate a range of subject matters and drawing media, providing them with a thorough grounding in the basics of this satisfying art.

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good advice and exercises. It could have used a few more steps for some of the projects.

[Andrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

In general, I like these tutorial books as they give you simple projects to "test the water" in different techniques. I bought this one, because I somehow thought it is focused on just pencil. However, it jumps all over different mediums, and I was not able to follow, since I don't own all the necessary stuff, and don't plan to buy it at the moment.

[Mina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for those who are good at learning on their own AKA "wish I had this during Covid". The biggest challenge in finding a good book for a specific hobby is that it goes either too in-depth, or that it's too complex, or that the homework doesn't build on the previous piece of homework.

This book does the above well. It hahs 10 'projects' which come with a picture and a 'how to' set of steps with pictures, together with 4 mini essays wjth practical advuice about how to make art work for you even when you aren't naturally creative (e.g. "Finding Inspiration" where she advises people to take pictures of things they like looking at, to discover what they like drawing).

I saw some people flag that it's not 'just' pencil drawing. Well, yes, she does drawing plus water-solluble pencils, drawing with ink, drawing with different pencils, with different papers - the reason I think it's a minor point, is that you can still do the projwcts in just pencils.

The key thing is to get the lines, shapes and tone right with pencils, and then if you're into it, this book will still be here to show how to apply different art mediums.

List of projects and recommended mediums vs what I used:
- 3 apples still life in pencil - done in pencil
- bouquet of tulips using a paper frame in water-solluble pencils - done in plain color pencils
- tree in pen and in ink - done in pen and fountain pen (brishing water over an ink drawing is an epic feeling)
- Scottish landscape done in water-solluble pencils - done in color pencils
- armchair in charcoal - done in pencil
- seashell in charcoal - done in pencil
- ceramic pitcher and fabric in charcoal - done in pencil
- sunset in water-solluble pencils
- self portrait
- out and about city-scapes / park

[Massanutten Regional Library · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leslie, Central patron, June 2018, 3 stars:

Rather simplistic approach to drawing.

[Roxy · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a COMPLETE beginner, I feel this book is too short for all the art mediums she’s suggesting to use.

[Danielle Vasquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

A more traditional study of art