Customer Reviews

Ed Emberley's Big Red Drawing Book

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Every year as the holidays approached my daughter requested this book from the library. Ed Emberley's books are still the best books for easy step-by-step drawing instructions - simple lines and shapes accumulate into a satisfying whole. My son rarely picked up a drawing utensil, but he'd be down on the floor, right beside his sister drawing away - satisfied and rarely frustrated. Emberley's "Big Orange Book" also recieved a lot of use in our house around Halloween.

I think now we have all the Emberly drawing books and this one is far-and-away the toughest. Ed's son Michael, in particular, favors more complex drawings that will be harder for the youngsters to emulate, though older kids will probably appreciate the step-up after mastering the other books. (Even Ed's stuff largely seems tougher.)

Also, just so you know, this isn't a "red" drawing book like the green and orange: a wider variety of colors is used, and more subtly than in any of the other books, even the Animals book (which also uses color, but not to this degree).

I'd still recommend it, but more for 7 - 10 year olds.

This book is from a series of 4 books from Emberly are the easiest books on drawing there are, period. Anyone young or old can learn to draw some great critters and vehicles from these books. ANYONE! All of his Big Color books are great, (They are a series, each named after a color). This one is famous for the easy way it shows you how to draw step by step, what appears to be a complex fire engine, but it is simple when you do it his way. THis book includes a number of fun ideas including Uncle Sam, police cars, ships and boats, Christmas holiday drawings. He even shows you how to make yours unique rather than a copy of his drawings. You can be the doodle hero of your classroom or office after using this book. He does it simply using very simple steps, lines, and basic shapes to start you off. My favorite in the series would be the Purple Book or the Green Book, then Orange, then the Red Book.

If you want to move up from here and learn the terminology of what you are doing, and really become an accomplished artist, the next step after these are the terrific books by Jack Hamm. If you just want to have some fun, get this book!

Ed's books on thumbprints...and simplier drawing books would probably be considered the *first* steps while i would consider this the *first and a half* step... there are more complex (more steps to some pictures) drawings... there are still pretty easy ones and if this isnt your shilds first book and they are at a stage where they are ready for something a bit more challenging this would be a good second line of art books.. it still is writtne in the same way and there are still easy easy things to draw BUT for those wishing to increase their skill/hardness level..there are pictures with more steps. the pictures are still broken down into easy to follow steps and it is STILL much easier and more understandable than most art books out there for kids... and there are so many things to choose from!

This is the fourth Ed Emberly Drawing Book we've bought, we have the Orange, the Green and the Purple and so far, my son says this one is his favorite because he loves to draw Christmas pictures.

Like the previous books, the book starts out with the easiest step by step drawings, first off drawing fruit; strawberries, cherries and watermelon are shown in quick procession from a circle, then lines connecting then voila!

The techniques used, breaking everything down into basic shapes, circle, oval, square, triangle and rectangle is not only a simple way of drawing complex things like Santa Claus, but it has turned out to be an excellent tool for drawing things not included in the book. I guess it's an artist eye thing, but after having the images broken down into their parts, drawing anything seems possible now.

Like the other Emberly books, each page is dense with step by step drawings, so many in fact that it has taken multiple look throughs to catch them all, this has been a problem I've found with other drawing books, too little content and lots of skipped steps! Imagine if cookbooks did that, recipes would have directions like 'put it in a pan, whatever size, bake it at whatever temp seems reasonable and for however long floats your boat, good luck!'

But the drawing approach in these books is that each step, no matter how tiny, should be shown, in close up, so that it can be emulated and if desired, changed. That's another thing I love about this book, the steps given are really tools that can be combined in an endlessly fascinating variety, change the truck into a camper or the camper into a bunch of logs, totally brilliant.

I can't recommend this book enough.

Used this library edition from the '80s to create a wonderful Christmas poster/picture with my 6 yo granddaughter. Her Papa is a fireman so the 4 variations of fire trucks will be welcomed in the future. Easy to follow and fun. This seems to be the only one of his drawing books that has not been re-published. I felt fairly lucky to find an old edition! Diana H.

I bought this book for my daughter who wants to learn how to draw more things, but I also love it. It's great for doodling little pictures on the notes I leave her. And we have fun together drawing all kinds of pictures. Great book for kids or anyone who wants to learn to draw in such an easy way. Highly recommend !

Fantastic step by step directions. Easy for elementary students to follow. Ed Emberley has the best beginning drawing books.