The Complete Drawing Course

"Your step-by-step guide to drawing and sketching in pencil, ink, charcoal, pastel, and colored pencil"--Cover.

Award-winning author and artist John Raynes shows you how to develop your drawing style. Gain a wealth of artistic insight and practical knowledge by following his advice that has been successful for over 30 years. He explores shape, form and volume, perspective and structure, composition, light and texture in easy-to-follow, step-by-step exercises to help you build your confidence and skill. You can practise your newly acquired skills on still life, landscape, buildings, portraits and figure painting, all executed in a wide range of media from pencil, charcoal and pastel to watercolour pencil and ink. Packed with practical tips and invaluable advice, 'The Complete Drawing Course' will allow you to tackle any subject with confidence.

This progressive course enables even the complete novice to tap into the magic of drawing, to use art to discover the world, and to create significant personal responses to reality and ideas. 768 illustrations.

From achieving those first professional strokes to mastering composition, lighting, and color to finishing beautiful still lifes, portraits, and landscapes, here is a course that covers every basic skill as well as more challenging lessons for the developing artist.

Smith maintains that anybody willing to practice can be taught to draw. He sets out to prove his theory in this complete, step-by-step course, providing all the necessary techniques in a simple, easy-to-follow style. Each phase of every project is accompanied by illustrations and photos demonstrating the skills involved. 600 photos.

“Lively and accessible...progressing nicely from quick-pose sketches to more ambitious interpretations of both the character and the form of the person one is drawing...covers a variety of media and explores light and shadow, clothing and drapery....[Constance’s] use of cropping, pastels, collage, and monotypes attests to her preference for creative expressions....an outstanding book for public libraries.”—Library Journal.

A practical guide to drawing which takes the reader stage by stage through a course of 25 lessons covering still life, portraits, town- and landscapes.

Overflowing with full-color images that demonstrate techniques and illustrate the correct use of materials, this is an art school in a book. A team of experienced professionals furnishes the budding painter with all the tools to finish a project: invaluable instruction in color theory and composition; the basics of drawing and painting, from strokes to perspective; and meticulous coverage of each medium, from pencil to wax crayon. Detailed exercises cover still lifes, nudes, landscapes, self-portraits, impressionist techniques, and more.