Customer Reviews

Drawing Landscapes in Pencil (Practical Art Books)

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I am a retired electronic engineer, and have taken up art as a hobby. According to what I have read, drawing should be studied before going into painting. Mr. Petrie's book has been an excellent launching pad for learning to draw. In the past 3 months I have purchased 13 books on learning art, but none has proved as useful to me as this one. I copy his drawings and am surprised on how well they turn out. I can heartily recommend this book.

This book is without a doubt the best single book I have ever seen on basic pencil techniques, esp. drawing scenic landscapes. The methods he teaches are simple and easily learned, yet yield excellent results.

I wouldn't term this book as 'good for beginners only'.

To begin with, the book features Mr. Ferdinand Pertries style of drawing landscapes and is replete with completed drawings. And, he, the author, isn't a beginner definitely, as you will know.

Yes, the landscapes are not `photo-realistic', because they are not meant to be. They aren't amateurish either. One should have a look at the cover of the book itself to know what I'm trying to say.

Personally, I found that each of those drawings were 'wish you were here' type of drawings. They have a dreamy kind of look; and what's more better than that, they're very easy to create. You will be surprised at how beautiful landscapes can be rendered with simple pencil strokes within an hour or two; from photos or from life.

After a brief introduction to materials and strokes, the book jumps right into examples wherein Mr. Petrie demonstrates how one can render various elements like trees, mountains etc., all accompanied with an actual *finished* drawing. The last part of the book features the Artist's Portfolio of drawings.

Most importantly, the book does not drag you into overt technical language (which to my preferences seems boring). It will get your hands down and dirty in no time.

Inspiring; if it only were for the landscapes in this book, even then I would go ahead I buy it!

Cheers,
FF


p.s. having said this, a word of caution to the `I want a photo-realistic drawing' types. This book is NOT for you.

The book is full of sketched pictures. The particular style of the artist was exactly the style I appreciate. So, all of his drawings in the book are ones I would like to pattern myself after. He gives shading examples for trees, grass, bark of trees, etc. AWESOME BOOK and a GREAT HELP to me!!

This is one of those volumes beloved of amateurs everywhere who are no so much interested in exploring art as they are in producing drawings. If you studiously follow the instructions in this book, you will be able to produce drawings that look EXACTLY like the illustration in the book. And if you're interested in doing that, it's a fine book.

But if you're intersted in seeing as an artist sees, and drawing the world as you see it, and not as Petrie sees it, you might want to look elsewhere.

I have owned this book from the first time I saw it, which must have been in the 1980's or 90's and still think it one of the best teaching tools I own. I've found that it can't be judged as a beginner's or advanced book because it is all of these and more rolled into one. The beginning gives you tools, materials, and the basics. As challenges are presented, illustrations of how to acheive the result are given. "Pencil Art" is actually a tutorial.....a style book. It is the type of instruction that helps the student discover his own areas of skill and preference. Drawing in graphite pencil involves the whole being of the person executing the work. Authors of books like these have a passion to help the student develop their skill and often rely solely on the author's original pieces to direct the instruction. Many of the drawings presented in this book are vingettes of the author's, not entire pieces. The instruction presented is vital to accomplishing certain necessary techniques that capture the essence of what the artist sees. Trees, a variety of rustic housing, varying types of landscape, industrial scenes, boats, multiple component compositions, and to my mind one of the most challenging, flowing water, are among many vissions presented for interpretation and instruction. This book is not meant to be photorealistic BUT it is definately a prerequisite for the person who wants to draw photorealistic images. If the artist can't "scan" what he/she sees on these pages into a drawing in a few short minutes they will never, repeat, never be able to draw "photorealistic" anything. Fortunately, for many of us, we don't need this in order to draw what we wish. However, drawing takes practice, lots of it and then lots more. It takes coordination of the eye, the hand, and most of all the mind. It takes the ability to represent what is in front of you in an individual way. It is not about copying. BUT, as with all forms of art, you learn to do it by copying the masters until you get it right. Then and only then will you have the skill to do it your way. These comments, these flat out statements aren't original. They don't strictly apply to drawing either. Surgeons practice over and over again before the operate even though each surgery is individual. The same is true with lawyers, webpage designers, or plumbers. It's all the same. Excellence takes practice. Even if your goal is to draw like Salvadore Dali, you still need to start with accuracy. Drawing IS fun! For me it is a way of breathing, dancing, singing. I no longer do this as well as I once did, but I still do it and this book is a great help. You do not have to do this overnight for it to be fun. Doing a little bit consistantly will lead you to some amazing results. Now that I am not able to draw as well or as often, I still go back to my book and check on how I did something, where it was accurate, where I went wrong. If my drawing matches the one in the book then I have acheived a photorealistic drawing. If not, then perhaps, I have found my own style, for now. Styles do change. But no matter what my goal, this book will help me to get there. All art, demands a sense of perspective, accuracy, proportion, shadow and light. How you ultimately get this across to the viewer is highly individual. This book makes getting the information I need down deep in my brain much easier. I also use portrait techniques/skills learned from "Drawing on The Right Side of The Brain," by Betty Edwards when I want to do a portrait but my love of landscape brings me back to a few favorite refrence books for refreshers and to help my students learn. This one is at the top of my list.

Picked this book up recently and have only begun to dig into it. I am relatively new to drawing and wanted to expand from portraits to landscapes. So far, it looks to cover many aspects of drawing from materials to techniques to value & composition choices. If you are looking for drawing help with portraits, still life, or gesture drawings, etc, this is NOT the book for you. The focus here is landscapes and the coverage is excellent. The step by step drawings cover a lot of ground between steps but the accompanying text is well written to explain what has happened in each step. Many samples have zoomed-in pictures to highlight techniques used to create the desired effect seen in the sample landscape. Overall, this is a great resource and I really like the artist's drawing style.

This is exactly what I was looking for! I draw landscapes, and it is so hard to find good books written about drawing the landscape in pencil. Most books are about painting, or some other medium, so I was happy to find this one. I recognized the name of the author, so I took the chance it would be a good choice. It was! I am reading it cover to cover, and have found it to be extremely helpful. I would definitely reccommend this book.

Drawing Landscapes in Pencil (Practical Art Books) -- I love drawing in graphite and pen-and-ink...this book has wonderful information, examples, and ideas. I would recommend this book to anyone who's a pencil-drawing aficionado!

My strongest skill as an artist has been the ability to draw realistic images. For many years, I aimed for photo-realism until I came to feel that the style was much too rigid and limiting. It was something I wanted to break away from. Petrie's book presents landscape drawing in a loose, stylistic form that brilliantly conveys a mood that feels complete but stops far short of photo-reality. He includes just enough detail to capture a scene while leaving large areas of white space that gives the image a tranquil feeling. He does not use the standard cross-hatching technique; instead he lays down parallel lines that cover the light/shadow spectrum beautifully. It is this command of values and tone that gives each image punch.

I agree with some of the other reviewers that his landscape choices tend to be quant and picturesque, but that is his personal choice. What inspired me was his technique. There is very little pencil smudging and smearing, his lines show confidence and boldness. But at the same time, he uses only a few marks to suggest reflections and light.

This is my go-to book when I feel that I am working too hard on an image or making too many. Now, my goal is to use as few pencil lines as possible in order to get a more artistic image. This book has helped me tremendously. I would recommend it for anyone searching for a drawing style that allows them to break free of the mind-numbing focus needed for photo-realism. If this is what you want, then this book is for you.