Drawing For the Absolute and Utter Beginner, Revised: 15th Anniversary Edition

This book will NOT make you a competent portrait artist, or allow you to render breath-taking landscapes.The book helps you build a tool set, a repertoire of skills you will be able to carry forward into more specific typed of art and drawing.The book teaches you about how to put something you see and make it into lines on a page. This sounds incredibly mundane, but if you want to develop the skills you need to pursue art, the fundamentals this book will give you, and the exercises and practice it teaches you are essential.The book helps instil good practices, and enjoying the process of creating art, and I think a really good starting point. There are other books which will carry you deeper into the field, and indeed in the direction(s) you want, but regardless of whether you want to start with pen and paper, pencil, chalk, or a digital drawing tablet, the fundamentals you will finish this book with will allow you to get much more out of more advanced or fast paced books.

This was a good book and I bought it because of the great reviews, there are lots of exercises...however I found them to be uninspiring and not much fun - there was no information or practice about drawing animals or plants or even rural scenes. It was all about Humans and inanimate objects and very matter of fact...the author clearly understands the psychology behind drawing and I'm sure that if you stick with it you will improve - but I think this could put complete beginners off particularly if you already have some natural ability, I just found it uninspiring and will probably give it away.

I haven't done any of the lessons yet but flipped through it because I want to get through a few more things in my Keys For Drawing book first. The lessons seem to be very good for beginners with no drawing experience starting with basic and easy and progressing to more challenging as you go along. There's everything from still life to portraits to landscapeing. I was surprised at the thickness of the book and the binding seems very sturdy. It also covers different media and how to use them. Honestly, I couldn't find anything I disliked about the book.

I didn't find this book very helpful. There isn't much instruction, and it really boils down to "draw a bunch of stuff." There isn't enough discussion of technique.

This is the perfect beginners' book for sketching.

Not bad. A bit advanced for anyone under 15, unless they got talent.