Fortunately, you can be confident that any drawing instruction book of his will be worth getting… with the high quality of Mike’s drawing and his obvious enthusiasm.
A search at Amazon gives you “The Complete Book of Drawing & Painting: Essential Skills and Techniques in Drawing, Watercolor, Oil, and Pastel”
Today’s book review is very different. It is one of 4 books I bought on the same day…
“How To Draw Anything” by Mark Linley (costing only £1.99).
Mark gives a very structured, down to earth, step-by-step approach to learning how to draw.
This is definitely a book where you start from the beginning. It never forgets that every person who wants to draw is not naturally confident with their ability.
I quote from the first chapter ‘You Can Learn To Draw’…
“Yes you really can! Many people think that learning to draw is difficult if not impossible. If would be artists treated the subject as fun and went about it in the right way, it could be possible for nearly everyone, like learning to drive. At first it may seem hard, but it isn’t if the basic instruction is correct”
So…
- Are you going to treat learning how to draw as fun?
- Is ‘How To Draw Anything’ going to give you correct basic instruction?
Only you can answer question 1.
However, I can answer Question 2…
For a beginner the answer is “Yes!”
I completely agree with the structure of the course… you are taken through easy stages beginning with LANDSCAPE drawing…
From the start, Mark Linley does not mess about… Fig. 4 on page 11 shows how 3 line weights can show foreground, middle ground and distance…
- Heavy line thickness for foreground
- Narrower line thickness for middle ground
- Thin line for distance
This is a great start that I hadn’t thought about.
Understanding how to distinguish distance is vital to good landscape drawing…Fig.5 illustrates the difficulty you will face. Here an extended landscape is shown. Once again it is a line drawing. The problem is that the drawn lines don’t distinguish between foreground and distance… the line weights are exactly the same for each line.
However, In Fig. 6, Mark shows you a technique that helps you overcome the problem found in Fig. 5... HATCHING (a series of closely drawn lines that fill a shape)
Personally, having spent 20 years on a drawing-board, as an Engineer Draughtsman, I don’t like to use hatching in my artwork… it reminds me of techniques I want to escape from. Yet, there can be no doubt that the way Mark Linley uses hatching will make it easy for you to quickly create effective landscape drawings.
Mark moves you quickly on with…
- Simple building structures (bridges)
- Trees (something I often have difficulty with)
- Hills and mountains
- Farm buildings and cottages
- Waterscapes / seascapes, including boats
‘Be A Good Composer’ will be an important chapter to any keen artist. It discusses how an artist’s viewpoint (sitting down or standing) changes the finished picture. Mark shows you what is right and wrong…
“He shows you the common landscape drawing mistakes you will make”
And, he shows you how to make a tool that helps you see what is in front of you…
A simple grid
From Chapter 10 (page 80), you move into how to draw animals…
- Sheep
- Cats
- Squirrels
- Horses
- Dogs
- Birds
Here's where the difficult to draw stuff begins...
- Chapter 18 (page 145) starts with drawing people… You are shown how a simple shape can transform into a person’s head.
- Chapter 19 (page 152) concentrates on nose and lips
- Chapter 20 (page 160) looks at eyes and ears
- Chapter 21 (page 169) examines hair styles (Fig. 153 is impressive, showing a girl with long flowing hair)
- Chapter 22 (page 176) works on hands and feet
- Chapter 23 (page 184) arms and legs
- Chapter 24 (page 193) concentrates upon the body
To bring the human anatomy together, Chapter 25, spends time looking at posture (how people sit, stand and lie down), working with life models and how clothing affects body shape.
And there’s more in this 286 page book… it includes a section about ‘How To Draw Cartoons’
‘How To Draw Anything’ is a compilation from 5 other books…
- The Right Way To Draw
- The Right Way To Draw People
- The Right Way To Draw Landscapes
- The Right Way To Draw Animals
- The Right Way To Draw Cartoons
As good as ‘How To Draw Anything’ is, it can’t possibly show you how to draw absolutely everything, but…
“I can recommend Mark Linley for the simple, almost mechanical, process he gives to help you learn to draw… It sure makes a great starting point!”
See you soon
Michael
p.s. Lucky break! I looked at Amazon and there were 108 new and used copies of ‘How To Draw Anything’ available (at the time of writing) Price £1.99 (New)
p.p.s. Ebay also had plenty of copies (Warning - you could pay more than at Amazon)
p.p.p.s. Each of Mark Linley's other books (listed above) are also available at Amazon, along with others not listed.
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