Chapter 1 Come with Me! Let's Draw in 3-D
The Goal
My goal with this book is to teach you how to draw in 3-D with great skill and confidence. You'll have the power to draw anything, at any time, from your imagination or from what you see with your eyes in the world around you.
Drawing in 3-D is my favorite thing to do! Since you are holding this book in your hands, I'm going to assume you love to draw as much as I do, and that you are looking for someone to teach you how to make your drawings look more "alive" and action packed, as if they really "exist" on the piece of paper. The good news is that drawing in 3-D is an easy-to-learn skill that you too can learn. You will become the paper dominator, the imagination master. You will become the great pencil-power wizard of planet Earth. How? When? Is this really possible? Of course it's true. Let's start now; just follow the directions below.
How to Use This Book
There are many ways to use this book. One way is to turn to the Dynamic Drawing Directory on page 27. Scan down the illustrated columns of the hundreds of lesson choices, find one that catches your eye, turn to that page, and draw like a wild Ninja artist.
Another way to use this book is as an idea resource dictionary, an "idea encyclopedia." When you want to draw something in particular for a school report, such as an ancient Egyptian pyramid or an African gorilla, turn to the Dynamic Drawing Directory and find the appropriate theme. Follow the illustrated lesson to draw the object in 3-D.
The best way to use this book is to follow it beginning to end. The beginning lessons will teach you several very important Renaissance drawing words and art terms and will help you understand the more difficult lessons later in the book. I also have added helpful pencil tips on blocking, sketching, and finishing. Along the way you will be learning several detailed shading techniques to make your drawing appear to pop off the paper in 3-D. After you complete chapters 1 through 4, go wild with your powerful pencil personality. Draw the lessons at random in whatever order you feel like. If at any time you feel your drawings are starting to look a bit tilted, askew, or misproportioned, you can always review chapters 1 through 4. When you go back to review the early chapter find out which Renaissance word you seem to be having difficulty with. Practice a few more of these early lessons once again. You'll fix the peculiar pencil problem promptly and be able to jump back to the more advanced chapters in no time. Relax, have fun, keep your pencil loose and your lines sketchy. You will want to draw each lesson several times before you have a masterpiece suitable for world exhibition on the family refrigerator. So enjoy the slow process! Drawing in 3-D is not just a quick lesson, it's a life adventure!
Once you finish the first lesson on page 46, work your way through each letter A drawing lesson. I've written the lessons for the letters A and B as the main teaching components for you to learn the most important basic drawing in 3-D skills. The lessons for letters C through Z have minimum text, focusing more on the line-by-line instruction. While you are blasting across the paper, drawing lessons A and B, be sure to read carefully the text I have written next to the specific steps. These helpful basic concepts will prepare you for the other three hundred-plus drawing adventures to follow. A few of the more advanced lessons in one-point perspective will appear in later chapters. For examples of these more advanced lessons, look at Dirk's Declaration (page 84), Forest of Freedom (page 97), Kazoo Kingdom (page 133), and Question Queue (page 177).
While creating this book, I wanted it to be useful as a viewer's guide to my children's how-to-draw public television series, Mark Kistler's Imagination Station. At the beginning of each episode I introduce the thirty-minute lesson with the title of the day. When I say the title, viewers can turn to the Dynamic Drawing Directory, find the appropriate lesson adventure, and turn to that page. Now you can watch me on PBS and follow along with me in the book! Pretty cool, eh? If this children's public television series is not currently broadcasting in your area, you may call the programming director of your local PBS station and suggest they include the series in the broadcast schedule. I donate this children's television series of sixtyfive episodes to PBS stations across America. Millions of children are having daily "art attacks" with me from their TVs. You can find the phone number on my Internet Web site at www.draw3d.com, or look in your local phone directory. Your phone calls, letters, and faxes to PBS stations across America have made it possible for me to broadcast these children's television series over the last fourteen years. Thanks for sharing my dream of art TV for kids.
Copyright © 1998 by Mark Kistler
