Keys to Drawing Author: Visit Amazon's Bert Dodson Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0891343377 | Format: PDF
Keys to Drawing Description
Review
"This long-popular guide uses simple black-and-white pencil drawing illustrations to help beginners to develop their skills and dexterity through a series of short exercises." --Library Journal
About the Author
A painter, teacher and illustrator, Bert Dodson is the author of the best-selling North Light book Keys to Drawing. He's illustrated more than 70 children's books and worked as an animation designer for the PBS series Intimate Strangers.
- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: North Light Books; Reprint edition (August 15, 1990)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0891343377
- ISBN-13: 978-0891343370
- Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.6 x 0.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
"Keys to Drawing" by Bert Dodson is one of the first drawing books that I bought after I got back to doing art after a break of over 15 years. It opened my eyes, stimulated my enthusiasm for drawing again and provided me with some really excellent guidelines about what to think about when drawing.
My edition is a North Light Books paperback published in 1990. Amazon indicates the current edition was updated in 2001 and, although I've not seen that I think it unlikely that it departs much from the sound advice provided in earlier editions.
I see the synopsis on Amazon says that it "Describes the drawing process, discusses proportions, light, depth, texture, pattern, design, and imagination, and tells how to evaluate one's work." And it does do all of those things - but it also does a lot more. He has 55 keys to drawing which are introduced as he goes through each of the topics in turn - and he provides lots of practical exercises to see how they can be applied.
It needs to be pointed out that this book is NOT a manual for how to draw in a hyper/photo realism manner - there are other books that do that.
What I like most about this book is it starts by encouraging people who want to develop their drawing to develop their own 'handwriting' for their drawing. Dodson explains:
* how we draw is as individual to us all as how we write.
* all artists combine freedom (intuitive, looser, sketchy drawing) and control (analytical, precise, careful drawing) in their work - they just do it differently
I just loved the idea that this author wanted me to be me - and not like him or somebody else.
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