Recently, I was looking at the shelves of my local low cost bookshop, Bookthrift, for ‘How To Draw’ books. There were around 10 books offering different approaches to drawing instruction.
The first, and lowest cost, book was Mike Chaplin’s “Drawing - First Step To Becoming An Artist” in the Discover Art series from Capella. The price was only £1.99 (Publishers price £5.99).
So, as far as cost is concerned, whatever the quality inside the slim volume of 48 pages, it wasn’t expensive. The question was…
“Is it any good?”
The answer is ‘Yes’
What set the standard for me was the quote on the back (Hardback) cover…
“Making marks is a human instinct that we all explore in early childhood, but as we progress into adulthood confidence in our ability to make ‘art’ diminishes”
Inside the short book you are treated to a wide range of topics that are important for a balanced overview of drawing. Mike Chaplin expertly explains what you need to use in few words, including…
- Paper… wood based and cotton rag
- Drawing tools… pencils, charcoal, inks and chalks
- Drawing equipment… Drawing boards, easels and seating.
Visualization is covered, using simple measuring tricks and recognizing basic shapes and negative shapes.
Drawing format is covered…
- Portrait
- Landscape
- Elliptical
What I liked was the Experimental Mark-making section, with its encouragement to use different markers and biro pens for rapid sketches… You will be amazed by how Mike Chaplin uses a bird feather.
5 drawings show you how to get the best from ‘Lights’ and ‘Darks’ (I really like the 3-minute sketch of snow covered cottages)
Along with discussing what kind of subjects to choose to draw you are given guidance about…
- Composition
- Perspective
- Texture
- Light sources
The elements… weather and water reflections lead towards using your drawing as natural preparation for painting.
Overall, Mike Chaplin, a member of the Royal Watercolor Society, amply demonstrates his drawing and artistic skills. Equally, his enthusiasm radiates through the book. And, I really like the still life exercise at the end of the book that shows how the artist created a drawing of his studio.
The only possible problem is that, for a beginner, I imagine more detail would be wanted… but I think you will find encouragement and a boost towards your own enthusiasm for drawing and sketching.
My final comment is…
“What more can you expect for £1.99 (or even £5.99)… A full time art tutor?”
Unfortunately, at the time of writing, I couldn’t find any evidence of the book at Amazon. However, when I entered Mike Chaplin’s name into the Amazon search engine 2 books appeared…
- Complete Book of Drawing and Painting: Essential Skills and Techniques in Drawing, Watercolour, Oil and Pastel (Paperback) £5.86 (Second hand)
- The Complete Book of Drawing & Painting: Essential Skills and Techniques in Drawing, Watercolor, Oil, and Pastel (Hardcover) £6.99 (New) £4.08 (Second hand)
See you soon
Michael
p.s. I should mention that Diana Vowles is Mike Chaplin’s co-author.
p.p.s. I’ll review another of the low cost drawing books I picked up from Bookthrift in the next Blog.
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