John Hastings's The Drawing Breakthrough Book: Drawing made Easier for Everyone Reviewed By Lavanya Karthik of Bookpleasures.com
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Lavanya Karthik
Reviewer
Lavanya Karthik: Lavanya is from Mumbai, India and is a licensed
architect and consultant in environmental management. She lives in
Mumbai with her husband and six-year old daughter. She loves reading
and enjoys a diverse range of authors across genres.
By Lavanya Karthik
Published on March 10, 2011
Author: John Hastings
Publisher: Draw 3 Lines Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-9826202-8-1
Click Here To Purchase The Drawing Breakthrough Book: Drawing Made Easier for Everyone
As someone struggling to teach herself to draw, I am constantly on the lookout for books that will ease this seemingly Sisyphean journey towards a destination as daunting as it is seductive. So ‘The Drawing Breakthrough Book” with its comforting byline has been a constant companion of mine this past week. Author John Hastings, quite the polymath in his pursuit of skills ranging from electronics to ball room dancing, wrote this book in response to his own frustrated attempts at learning to draw and, under its gentle tutelage, I have worked my way through a series of steps that promise to demystify the process of drawing and encourage artists of all skill levels towards improving their skills.
‘A line is a dot that goes for a walk’, Paul Klee reminds us midway through this well designed guide and that endearing spirit, both simple and whimsical, is what the author celebrates in this award winning book that breaks the process of drawing down into easily navigable steps, aimed at “mastering the most basic component of drawing – the line”.
“Look, look, look”, George Weymouth urges us on in the opening pages of this book, that leads us into well designed exercises aimed at helping the novice sketcher visualize a subject, gauge its dimensions and scale and, most importantly, identify drawing mistakes. The book then moves on to explaining points of reference and the use of guidelines before moving on to building up simple perspective drawings. The final section of the book looks at the expansion of drawing skills to attempt more complex drawings, discussing composition, shape rhythm and the combination of a variety of lines.
I especially liked the spare layout of the book, with its crisp black and white diagrams, sketches and photographs, very much in keeping with its overarching theme of simplicity, focusing on achievable goals and systematic progress toward increasing skill levels. While aimed at readers 13 years and above, the book’s approach lends itself to easy adaptation for younger artists as well. ‘The Drawing Breakthrough Book’ is also rich in tips and techniques to aid visualization and drawing. Most significantly, its stepwise progress is great at building confidence, often one of the greatest hindrances in the fledgling artist’s path, and in encouraging its readers towards more advanced artistic adventures.
Click Here To Purchase The Drawing Breakthrough Book: Drawing Made Easier for Everyone
Author: John Hastings
Publisher: Draw 3 Lines Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-9826202-8-1
Publisher: Draw 3 Lines Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-9826202-8-1
Publisher: Draw 3 Lines Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-9826202-8-1
Click Here To Purchase The Drawing Breakthrough Book: Drawing Made Easier for Everyone
As someone struggling to teach herself to draw, I am constantly on the lookout for books that will ease this seemingly Sisyphean journey towards a destination as daunting as it is seductive. So ‘The Drawing Breakthrough Book” with its comforting byline has been a constant companion of mine this past week. Author John Hastings, quite the polymath in his pursuit of skills ranging from electronics to ball room dancing, wrote this book in response to his own frustrated attempts at learning to draw and, under its gentle tutelage, I have worked my way through a series of steps that promise to demystify the process of drawing and encourage artists of all skill levels towards improving their skills.
‘A line is a dot that goes for a walk’, Paul Klee reminds us midway through this well designed guide and that endearing spirit, both simple and whimsical, is what the author celebrates in this award winning book that breaks the process of drawing down into easily navigable steps, aimed at “mastering the most basic component of drawing – the line”.
“Look, look, look”, George Weymouth urges us on in the opening pages of this book, that leads us into well designed exercises aimed at helping the novice sketcher visualize a subject, gauge its dimensions and scale and, most importantly, identify drawing mistakes. The book then moves on to explaining points of reference and the use of guidelines before moving on to building up simple perspective drawings. The final section of the book looks at the expansion of drawing skills to attempt more complex drawings, discussing composition, shape rhythm and the combination of a variety of lines.
I especially liked the spare layout of the book, with its crisp black and white diagrams, sketches and photographs, very much in keeping with its overarching theme of simplicity, focusing on achievable goals and systematic progress toward increasing skill levels. While aimed at readers 13 years and above, the book’s approach lends itself to easy adaptation for younger artists as well. ‘The Drawing Breakthrough Book’ is also rich in tips and techniques to aid visualization and drawing. Most significantly, its stepwise progress is great at building confidence, often one of the greatest hindrances in the fledgling artist’s path, and in encouraging its readers towards more advanced artistic adventures.
Click Here To Purchase The Drawing Breakthrough Book: Drawing Made Easier for Everyone