The Drawing Breakthrough Book: A Shortcut to Artistic Excellence [Paperback]

John Hastings (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 25, 2007

The Drawing Breakthrough Book: A Shortcut to Artistic Excellence builds on and transforms standard drawing concepts. It presents a practical approach to creating line drawings that will enable nearly anyone to see in a fresh way and to draw more accurately. In Part One, you'll learn many of the secrets to seeing and drawing like an artist. In Part Two, you will master the building-block lines. To assist you in this mastery, you'll use breakthrough techniques to practice drawing squares, circles, and ellipses. As you progress, you'll choose and practice drawing simple objects in more and more advanced arrangements. In Part Three, you will first learn how to apply basic principles of composition. Then you'll apply those principles plus your mastery of the building-block lines to composing, seeing, and drawing objects with all types of lines.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Learn or improve basic drawing skills as you create line drawings with easy to read step-by-step instructions, exercises, and tips. The observation and drawing techniques in The Drawing Breakthrough Book are ideal for students at any level from age 13 to adult.

From the Author

The Drawing Breakthrough Book helps you improve your ability to draw with lines, but there are many other important aspects to drawing. In addition to using this book, explore more ways to learn how to draw. Consider taking classes, using kits and other books, and drawing from your imagination.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 103 pages
• Publisher: Draw Three Lines Pub; 1st edition (July 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974941824
• ISBN-13: 978-0974941820
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,197,429 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lucid step-by-step drawing manual, September 18, 2007

By 

E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Drawing Breakthrough Book: A Shortcut to Artistic Excellence (Paperback)

I took several classes in watercolor, participated in exhibitions, and sold a painting before I realized that I would have to learn how to draw before I could take my painting to the next level. I liked to paint animals, but all of my cats ended up looking like a cross between ferrets and potatoes.

The range of introductory drawing books is quite astounding, including some that should be called `Introduction to Drawing Tools and Media' since they are mainly concerned with physical tools such as pencils and papers. Others purport to teach the student how to draw categories of objects, such as fruit or wild life. "The Drawing Breakthrough Book" is a step-by-step instruction manual that will take a beginning artist to the point where he or she can draw anything with basically, a pencil, an eraser, paper, and a ruler (the author includes an introduction, "Getting Organized to Draw" on the tools you will need).

This book employs techniques that can be found in other books, e.g. "The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" contains many of the edge and contour learning methods as this author's "Chapter 1, The Magic of Seeing Lines and Shapes." However, "The Drawing Breakthrough Book" enumerates the techniques in a more logical, step-by-step fashion that the left-brained, engineering-types among us will welcome, and even the hopelessly right-brained can employ.

"Working with Guidelines" is the chapter in this book where I achieved my breakthrough. The technique is simple, but without it my cat heads were too long and my human heads were too cut-off and lumpy. It really amazed me how much the methods in this book (simple though they may seem) improved my drawing ability.

"The Drawing Breakthrough Book" isn't embellished with color, or drawings by da Vinci and Rembrandt (which tend to discourage rather than encourage me.) Its photographs, drawings, and text are meant to teach. And that's what they do.


Review copy supplied by author

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WHAT A HELPFUL WORK AND ON SEVERAL LEVELS!, August 12, 2007

By 

D. Blankenship (The Ozarks) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Drawing Breakthrough Book: A Shortcut to Artistic Excellence (Paperback)

To be able to create, to be able to express ones self, and pass impressions and thoughts on to others is a gift, and a gift which can bring much pleasure. Art, in the many forms it comes in, is one source of this pleasure I refer to. To be able to create a piece of art, is a nice thing and gives a real sense of accomplishment. Drawing is one of those art forms that is particularly rewarding, and the better you are, the greater the pleasure.

John Hastings has given us a wonderful little work here that, and if used, can actually improve your skills in this area as well as adding so much more pleasure to other artistic endeavors, other than simply drawing. Hastings' methods of teaching the student to draw actually works, you just have to do it! Like any other text, simply reading it will not do the trick; you actually have to follow his instructions and actually have to practice. This I think is the down fall of so many folks when trying to use a teaching method such as we have here.

In this work the author takes us from the simple to the bit more complex. The emphasis is seeing parts of the subject, learning how to place them in the whole, and the relationship of the different parts of each picture to the whole. This is actually most helpful and while it seems obvious, it really is not. It is something we simply overlook. It is something we have to be conscious of and this work helps greatly in this area.

The book is very well designed, organized and well written. The author has not, thank goodness, overwhelmed us with technical jargon which so often throws the new student off. He is simple and to the point. His black and white illustrations are very well, executed, explained and the logic behind each lesson segment is also addressed. Again, this is very helpful. If the lessons and advice from this author are followed, I cannot for the life of me see how it cannot improve your drawing skills.

I have been fortunate enough to have had some formal training in this area. I have had access to some wonderful teachers. Had I not been so fortunate, I would have loved to have had this work available. It certainly would have given me a different perspective in the beginning, and made my life much simpler.

I mentioned that the methods taught here go much further than just drawing. These same methods can be, and are very applicable to oil painting, and photography as well as sculpture, three area I constantly work in. But, even if you never draw or paint a picture, the lessons here are still of great value simply because they make you more aware of your surroundings. It is like when you take up landscape painting. Suddenly, when you view a green hillside, you no longer see just "green," but you become aware of literally hundreds of variations and shades of green. With Hastings' work, you suddenly become aware of thousands of lines and their relationship to the whole that you may not have been aware of. This is valuable stuff folks! It enhances your life!

This book is not only great for the individual, but would be ideal for the home school people. The author has given you a perfect set of lesson plans and with slight modifications, this would make a great text book and study guides.

Overall, I highly recommend this one. It is just one more excellent tool to add to your artistic tool box.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Bootcamp for those who draw. Buy It., August 16, 2007

By 

B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Drawing Breakthrough Book: A Shortcut to Artistic Excellence (Paperback)

`The Drawing Breakthrough Book, A Shortcut to Artistic Excellence', by John Hastings has at least two things which, on reflection, are obvious components of a really sound book on the elements of drawing. The first thing I notice is that the book reveals things about drawing which the unassisted novice would probably never think of themselves. These suggestions ring true because they sound almost exactly like the `secret' I hear about putting in golf. The professional does not aim at the cup, they aim at the point which, when the ball stops moving, will take it to the cup when the golfer hits it with the putter. The analogue in drawing is that one looks not only for the shapes one wishes to draw, but the spaces between and inside the shapes.
The second aspect of this book which rings so true is the similarity to the famous scene in `The Karate Kid', where Pat Morita teaches Ralph Macchio the basic moves of Karate by having him apply wax to his antique cars, then shine the wax off. The exercise seems so unconnected with actual Karate, and yet it is exactly the thing which trained the novice's mind and arms to Karate. Master Hastings gives us similar exercises which seem to have nothing to do with drawing figures, yet when one practices them faithfully, you will, in fact achieve artistic excellence.
If I were to find any lapse with the book, it's in the fact that when you reach the end of the book, you feel you have become expert in all the mechanics, but the author never really showed you how to draw! It's as if you went through football training camp or boot camp, and never took part in a scrimmage or actually fired a weapon.
Therefore, it seems this book needs at least one of two things. Either the reader has already tried their hand at drawing and has subjects and models of results in mind, and simply needs the right exercises to get his eyes and fingers to accomplish their tasks. Or, the reader needs an additional volume, so the novice knows what to do once their boot camp skills are mastered.
One thing you need to do is to pay serious attention to the title. The book is entirely about drawing on white paper with a pencil. There is nothing here about painting with oils, watercolors, or even charcoal. It doesn't even go so far as to suggest that you use a Number 2 pencil.
So, as far as this book goes, it is really great. Just get one of the books mentioned in the bibliography to round out your introduction to drawing things.