The drawing course structure is clear-cut and should be easy enough for anyone to follow. The idea is that you copy the illustrations - with such a simple strategy you cannot fail.
For a beginner, ‘How To Draw Anything’ is a must buy at £1.99 (I’d pay more)… you don’t need high drawing skills to begin with… the mechanical structure almost guarantees success.
However, as always, there is a big ‘BUT’
The question is...
When you have finished copying all of the drawings in the book…
“What do you do next?”
Although the book title suggests you can learn ‘How To Draw Anything’…
“Are you going to be capable of drawing anything more than you’ve been shown?”
The likely answer is…
“No, I need more help”
Today’s book for review is “How To Draw Everything”, by Barrington Barber (published by Capella).
Here, the title is even more ambitious… you are being promised the dream of being able to draw “everything”
"Is that possible?" Surely, not!
Before opening the pages, I suspected that I was going to be disappointed. I am glad to say that…
“How To Draw Everything is unbelievable”
Barrington Barber seems, quite definitely, capable of absolutely anything… the 352-page book is crammed with top quality illustrations that prove it…
The book is so full of drawing information that it is almost impossible to tell you enough about it… it covers everything that you would want to know.
You’ll find information about…
- Drawing 3-d shapes and shading them to give substance and texture
- Perspective construction
- Technical aids… Grids, camera obscura and camera lucida
- Proportions and foreshortening
Moreover, Barrington’s superb drawings show you how to distinguish between a pinecone and a wine glass.
He shows you…
- Garden watering can
- Bowl of fruit
- Whicker basket
- Boots and shoes
- Bananas
- Brass candlestick
- Headphones
- Leather satchel
- Wooden toy train
There are still life drawings of…
- Violin and metronome
- Jacket draped over a chair
- Room interiors
- Bicycle
- Motorcycle
- Car
- Boat
And masses more…
Perspectives show you how to construct…
- Town scenes
- A church
- Street scene
And there’s…
- Human architecture
- Simplified animals
- Movement
- Riverscape
- Seascape
- Lakes
You find about…
- Water and reflections
- Earth and rocks
- Sky and cloud formations
Yet, the most important message Barrington can give you is contained in the first few words of the book…
“Learning to draw is not difficult. Everyone learns to walk and talk and read and write at an early age, and learning to draw is less difficult than all that…”
Doesn’t this sound reasonable?
“Drawing is merely making marks on paper which represent some visual experience…”
Pretty obvious?
"All it takes to draw effectively is the desire to do it, a little persistence, the ability to observe and a willingness to… Carefully correct any mistakes”
Ouch! That hurts!
“This last point is very important as mistakes are not in themselves bad… Regard them as opportunities to get better… and always correct them”
Barrington Barber, in those few words of introduction, has told you all you need to know about yourself.
In How To Draw Everything, you are given…
- First stages
- Object drawing and still life composition
- The experience of drawing
- Form and shape
- Forms of nature
- Figure drawing and portraiture
- Styles and techniques
- Composition
Finally, Barrington also recommends you look at Old Masters drawings, including…
- Ancient Greek art
- Leonardo Da Vinci
- Raphael
- Michelangelo
- Rubens
- Hans Holbein The Younger
- Rembrandt (a favorite of mine for his drawings)
- J M Turner (magnificent)
Isn’t that what you need?
Isn’t that what you want to know about drawing?
How can you top all that? I know I can’t match that in a book of 352 pages for only £1.99 (even the publishers price of £5.99 is low)
And, in the full knowledge that there’s a whole lot more I haven’t mentioned…
So, for now…
I’ll see you soon
Michael
p.s. I suggest you buy both books, How To Draw Anything and How To Draw Everything (use How To Draw Anything first)
p.p.s. Typically, as you might expect, I find that Amazon doesn’t stock this particular book… so, in the next posting I’ll give you a list of Barrington Barber titles available at the time of writing.
