Customer Reviews

The Joy of Drawing

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This book is filled with examples that have you actually drawing from the very first page. The theories are very well explained and understandable. Examples are easy to emulate and you receive instant gratification from the many fine examples of techniques and theories.

but the lessons on those pages are taught with such clarity they will stick with you and help when you go further with your talents into areas like colored pencil, watercolor, pen and ink, acrylics or even oils.

The lessons include things like perspective, a lesson taught in just about every book on art written today. It seems so many books cover this topic because it is such a hard topic to teach - notice I say teach and not learn. If it was easy to teach then more of us would learn it and would not have such a hard time with the concept. Bill Martin has touched something in his lessons on perspective, at least for me, and I will never have the same difficulty with perspective again. At least if I do in the future, I will have this little gem to pick up and refer to! He does not cover this topic quickly, but goes into it slowly and covers it quite completely, as he does most difficult topics. I will no sell the four or five books on my shelves devoted to perspective, books purchased to help clarify a topic once so unclear.

The only downside about his book is the section on color theory, which could be much more indepth. There is only a small chapter covering it at the end, almost as though it was an afterthought. It would have been great to see Mr. Martin tackle the important and often difficult topic of color with the same skill he had handled perspective and so many others in this great little book!

This book is what got me started in art. Loaned out and never returned I was never able to find it again until now. It's as good as I remembered.

I had found Mr. Martin's oil painting instructions on his website and felt he was an incredibly astute instructor. On reading that people who had used his book to improve their drawing skills were very satisfied, I decided to purchase it and embark on a 30 minute a day practice of the lessons in it. Couldn't be happier. His explanations remain remarkably understandable, and a great complement to help me get my head around the technicalities of drawing, which I had always done by instinct, but never been able to get things like perspective correct. He teaches "rules" for understanding why drawing basic shapes on the plane of a canvas or drawing board do or don't work that my mind can remember while my hand can continue to work by "feel." Very, very helpful instructions. Other women in my painting group are waiting in line for me to finish using the book so they can finally get their heads around understanding perspective too.

I took oil painting classes from Bill Martin 40 years ago and still think of him as the best art teacher I ever had. Why? Because he had a knack for laying out an organized and readily understandable structure...step by step. One of those steps is drawing. Don't think you can't draw; it's just that no one taught you the basics. How wonderful that Bill Martin wrote it all down...that his gift for teaching lives on. Plus he was such a good guy. Now all you have to do is practice, practice, practice.

This little book provides one of the best reference on perspective (rendering convincing lifelike images on canvas) for beginning/intermediate artists. Whether its one point or two point vanishing points, cast shadows, reflective light, concave, convex, ellipses, clear glass, water, etc. Great for painters also. Bill Martins excellent use of drawing examples really gets the point across (a picture is worth a thousand words). Also you can't beat the affordable price.

Very good reference for those studying art, design, and fashion illustration. It explains how you can acquire the skill to draw even if you don't have natural artistic abilities.