Keys To Drawing

Anyone who can hold a pencil can learn to draw. In this book, Bert Dodson shares his complete drawing system—fifty-five "keys" that you can use to render any subject with confidence, even if you're a beginner. These keys, along with dozens of practice exercises, will help you draw like an artist in no time. You'll learn how to: • Restore, focus, map, and intensify • Free your hand action, then learn to control it • Convey the illusions of light, depth, and texture • Stimulate your imagination through "creative play"

Draw with Confidence and Creativity! New in paperback! Creativity occurs in action. It is not a trait; it is something you do. To be creative, you need to engage in the art-making process. When you are "in the flow," you shift out of the future and into the present, making connections, generating variations and surrendering to the process. This ten-year edition of Keys to Drawing With Imagination is a course for artists in how to take something, do something to it and make something new. Bert Dodson, author of the best-selling Keys to Drawing (more than 250,000 copies sold!) presents fun techniques and mind-stretching strategies to get you drawing better and more imaginatively than you ever have before. In every section, he offers you basic guidelines that help you channel your creative energies in the right direction. Before you know it, you'll lose yourself in the process, enjoying the experience as you create something gratifying and worthwhile. The subjects covered in this hands-on book are as vast as the imagination itself. Through 58 strategies, 36 exercises and 13 step-by-step demonstrations, you'll explore how to: • Take your doodling from mindless to masterful • Create your own reality by crumbling, melting or breaking objects • Flip the familiar on its ear to create something utterly original • Experiment with visual paradox and metaphor • Tell vivid stories through the details in your drawings • Play with patterns to create captivating compositions • Build your drawings by borrowing ideas from different cultures • Develop a theme in your work Along the way, Dodson offers you priceless advice on the creative process culled from his 70 years of drawing and teaching. For additional inspiration and encouragement, he includes the work of 30 other outstanding artists, including R. Crumb and Maya Lin. So what are you waiting for? Grab this book and start drawing! You'll be amazed at what you can create. *Note to readers: This book is a 10-year anniversary paperback reprint of the Keys to Drawing with Imagination hardcover edition (2006).

Popular artist Leonardo Pereznieto—whose instructional YouTube videos have earned him millions of views and a devoted fan base—teaches beginners the fundamentals of traditional drawing. In his first book “You Can Draw!” Leonardo Pereznieto helped artists recreate the realistic surfaces and textures that make his own work so popular. Now he’s going back to the very beginning to teach them the basics of drawing, covering first exercises, fundamental techniques, light and shading, composition, and perspective, and more. Loaded with information on materials, a glossary of essential terminology, and hundreds of illustrations, this illuminating guide includes such projects as a fall still life of fruit in a basket, with instructions on shape, shadow, and detail, as well as a cityscape, a landscape with depth of field, animals, train tracks, jewelry, and drawing with a message. Once you’ve mastered these basics, you can unleash your imagination on whatever subject you like!

Imagine having the ability to draw any subject with precision, detail and expression. With Claudia's help, you can do it! In How to See, How to Draw, you will discover how to tap into your powers of observation, strengthen your hand-eye connection, and draw the world around you with new skill and accuracy. Just take it one step at a time. Claudia is an expert teacher, breaking down complex compositions into a series of achievable shapes and values that even beginners will understand. Through dozens of mini demonstrations, fun-to-do exercises and complete step-by-step instruction, you'll learn everything from basic drawing techniques to more challenging methods for rendering wonderfully rich, in-depth compositions. Her visual instruction details how to: • Use a variety of drawing tools to suit your style and artistic intent • Learn to let go of preconceived ideas so you can observe lines, shapes and spatial relationships as they actually are • Create strong compositions through comparison and proportional control • Find, fix and avoid common mistakes by using simple grids and guide lines • Understand and work with perspective to create the illusion of depth • Reveal form through light and shadow • Explore the potential of texture to create mood and movement Claudia's drawings illuminate a range of subjects, including portraits, landscapes, animals and still life. You can practice using her reference photos and drawings, or you can apply her exercises to your own subjects. Start today, Claudia's way! Following her masterful guidance, you'll see the world through new eyes and draw better than you ever have before.

Drawing is experiencing an unparalleled surge in the art world. Passé notions that once defined drawing as being a preparatory stage for painting or sculpture have long since been cast aside. Drawing is now fully recognized as its own art form—in the biennials, art fairs, museum exhibitions, and beyond. Drawing has come of age. Contemporary artists are increasingly discovering that drawing is something unique and different from painting. It is an intense, sensitive, compelling, personal, and utterly direct art form, one with its own concepts, characteristics, and techniques. In addition, contemporary drawing is not governed by any particular imagery, but rather encompasses a variety of approaches, including realist, abstract, modernist, and post-modernist. Contemporary Drawing delves into the essential and far-reaching concepts of this medium, exploring surface, mark, space, composition, scale, materials, and intentionality in turn. Key techniques, such as using nature to induce marks and working with a checklist to determine a drawing’s problems, are introduced throughout. Plus, an in-depth chapter examines a number of artists, such as William Kentridge and Gego, who are breaking traditional boundaries that separate one artistic discipline from another. Lushly illustrated by a wide range of highly accomplished contemporary artists, Contemporary Drawing offers a broad perspective on this expansive and energized field of art.

The 35th anniversary edition of the classic how-to book that has helped millions of artists learn to draw. When it was originally published in 1970, How to Draw What You See zoomed to the top of Watson-Guptill’s best-seller list—and it has remained there ever since. “I believe that you must be able to draw things as you see them—realistically,” wrote Rudy de Reyna in his introduction. Today, generations of artists have learned to draw what they see, to truly capture the world around them, using de Reyna’s methods. How to Draw What You See shows artists how to recognize the basic shape of an object—cube, cylinder, cone, or sphere—and use that shape to draw the object, no matter how much detail it contains.

This internationally bestselling guide covers essential drawing techniques, written by expert practical art author Barrington Barber. The Fundamentals of Drawing is a practical and comprehensive drawing course from beginner to advanced levels. Opportunities for practice and improvement are offered across a wide spectrum of subjects with step-by-step examples to guide you through. Subjects include: • Still life • Plants, nature and animals • Portraiture and life drawing • Perspective and composition The methods used in this book are time-honored and proven, having been practiced through the centuries by art students and professional artists. Barrington Barber brings his invaluable expertise as a working artist and teacher to the task of showing you how to use them effectively to create successful drawings. No matter what your level of expertise, you will find his clear approach encouraging and his way of teaching inspirational.

The Complete Beginner's Guide to Drawing contains more than 200 drawing techniques, tips, and lessons for budding artists looking for a variety of subjects to practice drawing. The Complete Beginner's Guide to Drawing is a comprehensive hardcover guide to drawing a vast array of subjects, from landscapes and flowers to animals and portraits. This helpful resource begins with a thorough introduction to the essential tools and materials you need to get started, including different types of pencils, sketchbooks, papers, and other tools. Then learn the fundamentals of drawing, as well as a variety of drawing techniques, including rendering realistic textures, creating volume, and capturing perspective. The Complete Beginner's Guide to Drawing guides beginning and intermediate artists through a series of easy-to-follow, step-by-step projects covering a variety of subjects, including: Flowers Landscapes Wild animals Cats Dogs Horses People Human bodies Children Still lifes With helpful tips and easy-to-follow, step-by-step lessons,The Complete Beginner's Guide to Drawing is the perfect resource for beginning artists who want to improve their drawing skills. The Complete Beginner’s Guide series provides a comprehensive guide to drawing a vast array of subjects, from landscapes and flowers to animals and poses. Artists will learn the fundamentals of drawing, as well as a variety of techniques, including rendering realistic textures, capturing perspective, and creating dynamic portraits and compositions. With helpful tips and step-by-step artwork to inspire, the Complete Beginner’s Guide series is the perfect resource for practiced beginning to intermediate artists looking to hone their drawing skills and techniques.