| Level: | Intermediate |
| Tone: | how to, reference |
| Pages: | 128 |
| Published: | 2006 |
| Arbitrary Rating: | 3/5 |
| Plan to Reread: | Yes |
I have a copy of the 2006 version of, "Drawing for the Absolute Beginner: A Clear & Easy Guide to Successful Drawing (Art for the Absolute Beginner)". Fair warning, it's not nearly as beginner friendly as it sounds.
This book is broken down into six chapters: Sketching and Drawing, Principles of Good Drawing, Values, Practice the Techniques, Composition, and Let's Draw. Each chapter has a series of "mini-demonstrations" that are supposed to illustrate the focus of the chapter. For example, the demonstration I'm working on today is from Chapter 4 which lays out how to draw a boat in five steps.
I have a problem with this approach because it's the class 'Draw one circle, draw another circle, add details' approach to drawing that is impossible for a real beginner to follow. Everything from the structure to the final picture is a little too perfect for someone who is just starting out. Mark Kistler ended each lesson with pictures done by his own students and I could look at those and think, "Hey, my picture looks about that good. I must be on the right track."
From my perspective, this book is better for reference material than as a beginners book. If you're trying to draw a boat, plane, car, etc you can find good examples in here. But if you're trying to learn as an absolute beginner this book just lacks structure. It's difficult to settle into a routine since the demonstrations bounce around and don't really build on one another.
There are good points to pick up in this book, but you'll have to bring some experience and a lot of effort to get the full benefit. I plan to run through it again at least one more time a few months from now to make sure I've given it a fair shot.
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