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The Big Book of Realistic Drawing Secrets: Easy Techniques for drawing people, animals, flowers and nature
This is the book that can teach anyone to draw (yes, even you!)
If you're not getting the kind of true-to-life results you want in your drawings (or if you can't even draw a straight line), Carrie and Rick Parks can help. As award-winning teachers, they have a proven game plan for helping artists of all levels overcome common problems and see immediate improvement in their work. As professional composite artists, they know the tricks and tools for achieving incredibly lifelike results. In this friendly, foolproof guide to drawing, they share it
• Easy-to-master techniques for achieving a convincing sense of depth
• How to draw challenging textures like metal and fur
• Putting personality into your portraits
• 40+ step-by-step demonstrations featuring a variety of people, animals and nature
Easy enough so that beginners can jump right in, and comprehensive enough to help more accomplished artists refine their skills. This book covers all the essentials, teaching you the secrets of realistic drawing one step at a time, building the skills you need to tackle any subject convincingly--even those you've always thought were beyond your reach. Before you know it, you'll be turning out picturesque landscapes, stellar portraits--any subject that inspires you to put pencil to paper!
If you're not getting the kind of true-to-life results you want in your drawings (or if you can't even draw a straight line), Carrie and Rick Parks can help. As award-winning teachers, they have a proven game plan for helping artists of all levels overcome common problems and see immediate improvement in their work. As professional composite artists, they know the tricks and tools for achieving incredibly lifelike results. In this friendly, foolproof guide to drawing, they share it
• Easy-to-master techniques for achieving a convincing sense of depth
• How to draw challenging textures like metal and fur
• Putting personality into your portraits
• 40+ step-by-step demonstrations featuring a variety of people, animals and nature
Easy enough so that beginners can jump right in, and comprehensive enough to help more accomplished artists refine their skills. This book covers all the essentials, teaching you the secrets of realistic drawing one step at a time, building the skills you need to tackle any subject convincingly--even those you've always thought were beyond your reach. Before you know it, you'll be turning out picturesque landscapes, stellar portraits--any subject that inspires you to put pencil to paper!
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
251 people are currently reading
368 people want to read
About the author
Carrie Stuart Parks
37 books917 followersCarrie Stuart Parks is Christy, Carol, and Inspy award-winning author, an award-winning fine artist, and internationally known forensic artist. Along with her husband, Rick, she travels across the US and Canada teaching courses in forensic art to law enforcement as well as civilian participants. She has won numerous awards for career excellence. Carrie is a popular platform speaker, presenting a variety of topics from crime to creativity.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 7, 2017
This book is inspiring. I've been an artist for a long time (my whole life!), but I was trained as a cartoonist and animator. Sometimes I like to get back to the roots of classical art, and this was a great way to revisit that.
The author does a great job of explaining her techniques from start to finish. The book goes from basic concepts like shading a ball, to using advanced tools I've never even heard of before like electric erasers and french curves! The depth and breadth of the instruction she's able to take you through in these pages is amazing, and has expanded my view of something as "simple" as a pencil sketch.
While this book does take you from beginning to end, I would set it at a slightly higher level than "beginner." For some reason, art books are always marketed at people who have never drawn in their entire lives. Every art book is a beginner book if you read the back. Realistically, the author makes a decent number of assumptions about your experience with art and the types of techniques you may have already tried on your own or in a class. And the level goes from beginner to advanced very quickly.
I also felt that the book focuses overly much on portraits. I think portraits are extremely difficult and interesting, and are a great subject to cover in detail when you're talking about realistic drawing. However, there was almost no attention covered on other components. One page, and two paragraphs, cover fabric. One or two pages on backgrounds. A few objects or images based on pets. And that's about it. It makes sense to me that the authors are primarily portrait artists, but for a general book on drawing it seemed to be a bit lacking in other areas.
Overall, despite my critiques, I highly recommend this book. If you're a true beginner, don't be afraid to pick it up - but be warned that it may take you a long time to get to the level of the examples shown. If you're a mid-level artist trying to improve your skills, please check it out! You'll find an extraordinary amount of knowledge and experience on the best ways to make your drawings more realistic.
The author does a great job of explaining her techniques from start to finish. The book goes from basic concepts like shading a ball, to using advanced tools I've never even heard of before like electric erasers and french curves! The depth and breadth of the instruction she's able to take you through in these pages is amazing, and has expanded my view of something as "simple" as a pencil sketch.
While this book does take you from beginning to end, I would set it at a slightly higher level than "beginner." For some reason, art books are always marketed at people who have never drawn in their entire lives. Every art book is a beginner book if you read the back. Realistically, the author makes a decent number of assumptions about your experience with art and the types of techniques you may have already tried on your own or in a class. And the level goes from beginner to advanced very quickly.
I also felt that the book focuses overly much on portraits. I think portraits are extremely difficult and interesting, and are a great subject to cover in detail when you're talking about realistic drawing. However, there was almost no attention covered on other components. One page, and two paragraphs, cover fabric. One or two pages on backgrounds. A few objects or images based on pets. And that's about it. It makes sense to me that the authors are primarily portrait artists, but for a general book on drawing it seemed to be a bit lacking in other areas.
Overall, despite my critiques, I highly recommend this book. If you're a true beginner, don't be afraid to pick it up - but be warned that it may take you a long time to get to the level of the examples shown. If you're a mid-level artist trying to improve your skills, please check it out! You'll find an extraordinary amount of knowledge and experience on the best ways to make your drawings more realistic.
September 28, 2014
I have been drawing on and off since I was a child and am for the most part self-taught. This year I am focusing on learning to draw realistic portraits with the help of this book.
"The Big Book of Realistic Drawing Secrets" is written by a husband and wife team of forensic artists. It walks you through how to make great realistic graphite drawings from photos- what materials to use to get the best results, how to use your reference photo to make great drawings, how to draw facial features and textures, and how to put it all together to draw realistic portraits.
It's designed so a beginner artist can work through the entire book and so slightly more experienced artists can dip in and out of it as they need to.
It has great instructions that are easy to follow and lots of exercises to try. It's setting a whole new standard for my work, and I love it.
If Goodreads gave half stars, it would be a 4 1/2 star book.
For a slightly longer review, see http://artfullycarin.com/realistic-dr...
"The Big Book of Realistic Drawing Secrets" is written by a husband and wife team of forensic artists. It walks you through how to make great realistic graphite drawings from photos- what materials to use to get the best results, how to use your reference photo to make great drawings, how to draw facial features and textures, and how to put it all together to draw realistic portraits.
It's designed so a beginner artist can work through the entire book and so slightly more experienced artists can dip in and out of it as they need to.
It has great instructions that are easy to follow and lots of exercises to try. It's setting a whole new standard for my work, and I love it.
If Goodreads gave half stars, it would be a 4 1/2 star book.
For a slightly longer review, see http://artfullycarin.com/realistic-dr...
January 28, 2013
I am very keen on drawing but have only ever learnt from my own experience. Just lately, I've been thinking it's about time I worked on improving my technique and so I grabbed this book to start me off.
On the whole, I've been very pleased with my buy as this book offers some great tips that will help beginners and more experienced artists alike. I loved the simple explanations, accompanied by clear pictures illustrating each point.
This book has definitely set a new standard for me to aspire to and I could see straight away some of the areas where I am going on. I look forward to trying out some of the new techniques and suggestions on my next drawing.
On the whole, I've been very pleased with my buy as this book offers some great tips that will help beginners and more experienced artists alike. I loved the simple explanations, accompanied by clear pictures illustrating each point.
This book has definitely set a new standard for me to aspire to and I could see straight away some of the areas where I am going on. I look forward to trying out some of the new techniques and suggestions on my next drawing.
April 23, 2021
It was okay. Not quite what I was expecting. I was hoping it would reveal some juicy secrets to realistic drawing, but the advice here is basic and can be found inside any book. So, the title is misleading. What else can I say, overall, it's a book about drawing.
August 27, 2017
good
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 16, 2021
Great book with a lot of practical advice
March 5, 2014
as someone who has been self taught this book is full of tips on tools and how tos that have been very useful. I have been reading it with my 8 year old now who wants to learn to draw and after we finished the first chapter said, "wow it's like they read my mind and were taking directly to me!" & is even more determined to stick with drawing!
June 22, 2015
This book gives me so much information from types of tools to use, different ways to use them and info on how to go about drawing different types of scenes, animals and people. It's one I keep handy to refer to.
October 17, 2011
See my brief review here: http://uuuinfinity.blogspot.com/2011/...
May 11, 2016
Loved this book and all the steps and tips. Would 11/10 recommend this book to someone who loves art and would love to learn some new things.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews