Drawing Realistic Pets from Photographs

I'm surprised at all the gushing reviews. Perhaps the print quality was better in previous runs. But in my copy, purchased new, there are only two useful finished drawings (both on the cover: the two that haven't been obscured by blue, green, or orange dye) that indicate the actual quality of the work the author and artist creates. None of the drawings within the book are anywhere near that quality (I want to stress here this is the fault of the printing, not the artist). If I were the artist, and this book was out there representing my work, I would be enraged. The production quality, printed in China on grainy paper, is so bad that neither the finished drawings nor the reference photographs have anything like the necessary detail for an art book. Considering how much of the book is given over to illustrations --- this is not a text-heavy book, but relies on visual examples --- failure to accurately reproduce those visuals is a fatal and unforgivable flaw. On many of the final drawings the lack of tonal variation in the printed piece is so bad it makes the work look amateurish at best; bland, flat and lifeless at worst. As a teaching tool you need to be able to see detail in order to learn anything: pencil strokes, gradation of shading, variation of line thickness, etc. The author mentions these things, but the illustrations meant to show them largely don't. Only the early stage line drawings are relatively clear, but that is precisely because they are not detailed. The photographs are even worse. To use them as exercises, the way the book suggests, is impossible. I suspect most of the reviewers who enjoyed the lessons simply substituted photos of their own, as the photos in the book are small gray blobs of uselessness. As to teaching technique, this book is basic and very narrowly focused. I find this approach too limited, although clearly keeping it very simple works for some people. The artist teaches one and only one method: create a line drawing using a grid, shade in the dark areas, smudge and blend the midtones, erase out the highlights. (it's interesting to note that the student artwork showcased early in the book looks very much like the teacher's. There's something too generic and mechanical about the whole approach, although I'd be perfectly willing to admit that whatever individual expressiveness and depth might have been real in the actual drawings gets blurred out of existence by the awful print job.) For contrast look at  Drawing: Dogs & Puppies: Learn to draw a variety of canine companions step by step (How to Draw & Paint)  by Cynthia Knox. Much larger illustrations printed on higher quality glossy paper --- the detail is much easier to see. And it's half the price. Anyway, the grid technique works as far as it goes, it's taught to beginners the world over, but as other reviewers have pointed out you don't need an entire book to teach it, and it is only one of very many possible techniques for creating realistic pencil drawings. Practically every exercise simply repeats the same procedure and the same instructions over and over again. After you've read the first five pages, you've pretty much read the whole book. A few bits of beginner advice pop up from time to time, but mostly it's repetition, repetition, repetition, and more bad photographs. Do an internet search on drawing with a grid and you'll already get further than this book will take you. While you're at it, Google "pencil drawings of dogs" (or cats or whatever) and you'll find much clearer, more detailed (and hence more expressive and more alive) representatives of technique and finished artwork online. You can learn a lot from studying quality work well rendered. Too bad there's none in this book. To sum up: the grid and blend technique may be a revelation to an absolute beginner, although one size never fits all and even a good technique doesn't suit every circumstance. But whether or not you find the level and style of instruction satisfying, and clearly many reviewers here do, there is absolutely no excuse for the lousy quality of images in this book. It's an art book. If being able to see the art doesn't matter, what does?

Having avoided my innate desire for the arts for close to 30 years due to perfectionism issues, I finally decided I had to kick it in the butt and began borrowing books from the library on drawing and painting. I loved Drawing Realistic Pets so much that I bought my own copy. Basically, I had lost all the training I'd gotten from the few art classes I took way back when.But I have found not all books on drawing and painting are good at being practical and useful on teaching you simple techniques to get the ball rolling. Drawing Realistic Pets gave me the fundamental information I needed, like basic tools, how to blend pencil strokes for the right effects, effective use of an eraser for highlighting effects, equipment, supplies (it may sound foolish to a beginner but there are lots of subtleties in the differences between pencils). What especially helped me was a technique I had been taught many years ago but forgot--using a light grid to help you better draw your picture to proportion. I did 2 drawings of a face--one without the grid and one with and there is a night and day improvement between the two. Well worth the money. I love this book.Even when not drawing, the many dog drawings in this book (among other animals) have a tranquil effect on me, like listening to Bob Ross as he paints. 8-)

I have some old photographs of a dear old friend no longer with me. There will never be any other photos and some of the ones I have are pretty sad quality. I wanted to remember "Buffy" with some fun drawings using what photos I had blowing up little photos into large wall size with greater detail. This book helped tremendously. Using the grid method really does work and allows me to "blowup" photos that would suffer from physically enlarging the photo by converting them to a drawing. And it had a side affect I liked. Buffy was suddenly back in my life and I realized I still remembered details of her face and body I hadn't caught in the photos. I can't really say I have turned into an artist but I think I could do much better using this book if I did the one thing this book doesn't do, make me practice. The more I spend time actually drawing the better it gets. No your first attempt at a drawing is not going to work unless you are really an artist already. The book really offers the chance to draw from photos but it will not happen over night, it is not a miracle book. But practice over and over and over some more and you will really create some wonderful drawings of pets whether still with you or not. And you can start to even change those drawings with different expressions and posses. It is truly a fun adventure and this book provides the missing piece.

i like how this book simplifies how to draw pets from photos without making me feel like i am a child. detailed and descriptive just enough so i can make the pictures resemble my dog and not just a dog. i am excited to use to draw my pug puppy and a few of my friends dogs. i wouldnt exactly call myself an artist but i have sold some work but when i started to try to draw my pug i just couldn't get his face balanced to where i could look at the drawing and say, "that's hugo!" (hugo - my pug) i have only browsed through the book but i did find helpful info that i was looking for. i would reccomend if you are interested in really capturing a pets likeness.

I haven't drawn for about 10 years. I took a few art classes in high school but didn't practice much. This book helped me so much. I had never used grids before and they really helped me get the right proportions for my drawings. My first drawing was a huge improvement over my previous attempts. I wish there was a little more detail on taking your drawing to the final step with lifting out color. But overall I think this is a excellent book for beginners. i wish I had it when I was younger. I'm inspired to start drawing again.

If you're totally new to drawing, you may find the first few pages useful, and if you've never seen the grid technique before you may be amazed...but as people have been using this technique for years, it's nothing new or particularly helpful for people who are already aware of it.A better title for this book would be 'Here's some pet portraits I've drawn'...as that's what you're really getting. It's the same advice repeated over and over again. Take a photo, draw a grid, make a line drawing, shade it in and blend. This was pretty much covered in the first few pages, and was then repeated for the rest of the book. If you're a total beginner, then a few of the simple suggestions about blending may be useful, but you will probably struggle to create anything particularly realistic as this book will not teach you the skills needed to take the work from the basic line drawing to a realistically shaded and blended final picture. If you're more experienced then I can't see that there is anything new you will gain from this book.Pleasant to look at, but not good as teaching material. Similar to the books that take you from the first stage of drawing some circles and tubes, to joining them up to create the basic shape of an animal, then jumping straight to a completed drawing with all the fur details, light and shade, but no instruction of how to get there.This will show you how to draw a grid, and what you should expect your basic line drawing to look like. From then you're pretty much on your own. I have quite a few books by this artist and they're all pretty much the same...which is just a collection of her work, with a few pictures of intermediate stages, but without any real advice. I don't recommend for people trying to learn, but it's nice enough to look at and see what some finished pencil portraits can look like.

Helpful tips but not as detailed as I had hoped

Brought this for my sister as she loves drawing and is really good at the animated side of it and wanted to learn to draw more realistic - she loves the book so its a well worth buy for someone who is interested in art :)

the print on this is dreadful.... it is so dark no marks or drawing lines can be seen in the final or pre-final stages. it is so bad I am going to write to the publishers, I have wasted my money,

Some useful stage by stage drawings, but I was rather disappointed by the quality of the black and white pictures. A lot of them are quite dark and lack clarity. Not very useful for an amateur artist. I probably won't use this book. Drawing Realistic Pets from PhotographsDrawing Realistic Pets from Photographs