Customer Reviews

Keys to Drawing

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In high school, my best friends were the Artist and the Musician (I was the Writer), and while I learned to produce something approaching music, I was never able to draw anything recognizable. I never wanted to paint in oils or acrylics, or anything that advanced; I just wanted to be able to create good representational drawings and sketches. This apparent artistic inability has been a deep annoyance to me for more than thirty years -- aggravated by all the people who insisted that "anyone can learn to draw." Unable to find a class for adult beginners anywhere, and being the autodidact type, I've tried to teach myself from how-to books. I've read through dozens of them and have spent serious time trying to learn from at least five or six, but none of them turned out to be very useful, at least not to me.

Then I happened across Dodson's book and everything changed. He doesn't spend the whole first chapter describing the tools you need. He doesn't launch into a zen discussion of the "is-ness" of art or play amateur psychologist. He just tells you to sit down, cross your legs, and draw your feet -- and he explains, in very simple terms, just how to go through the process. Look, hold, draw. Look, hold, draw. And it works, it really does. I'm sure all this is old hat to you artists out there, but Dodson is exactly the sort of teacher I've been looking for all these years! There are about fifty exercises on methods and techniques throughout the book and I'm taking my time with them. After three months, I'm about a quarter of way through the book, and my sketch book is looking pretty good. I've learned to restate rather than erase, and I'm getting along just fine with two pencils (HB and 4B) and a Micron pen. I cannot recommend Dodson's methods too highly to anyone who, like me, just wants to learn to draw!

I loved to draw as a little girl until my grade 5 art teacher held one of my "creations" up in front of my sister's class (she was very talented) and said, "can you believe they're sisters?". I was crushed and other than in art class, I never picked up a pencil again.

Fast forward 20 years where I see Bert Dodson's book "Keys to Drawing". I remembered how I used to love to draw and bought it on impulse. I started at page 1 and progressed through the book. The day my sister (the artist) walked into my house and seeing the drawing I was working on said, "nice drawing of Louis Armstrong" was one of the best moments of my life. By the way that was a drawing of Satchmo I was working on.

What I learned from Bert Dodson was that drawing is mostly about technique which anyone can learn. Although my masterpieces will never hang in a museum, they do hang in my home and my husband is very proud to have them there.

If you've always wanted to draw but thought you had no talent - buy this book. You will surprise yourself.

I looked over and purchased KEYS TO DRAWING on the recommendation of one of the reviews here. I don't have the resources or time for an art class, but I like to sketch for a few spare minutes a day. The book is perfect for someone like me.

Dodson teaches the basics with an emphasis on relaxation and creativity. You really learn how to think about drawing. His exercises are designed to help you master skills (composition, proportion, shading) rather than the perfection of the end result. Oddly enough, the end result of all of these lessons are more perfect drawings!

Now that I'm finished with the book, I still go back mentally to each of Dobson's lessons to help me through the challenges of creating drawings, and I still work on the exercises. To me, this more than earns a 5 star review.

"Keys to Drawing" by Bert Dodson is one of the first drawing books that I bought after I got back to doing art after a break of over 15 years. It opened my eyes, stimulated my enthusiasm for drawing again and provided me with some really excellent guidelines about what to think about when drawing.

My edition is a North Light Books paperback published in 1990. Amazon indicates the current edition was updated in 2001 and, although I've not seen that I think it unlikely that it departs much from the sound advice provided in earlier editions.

I see the synopsis on Amazon says that it "Describes the drawing process, discusses proportions, light, depth, texture, pattern, design, and imagination, and tells how to evaluate one's work." And it does do all of those things - but it also does a lot more. He has 55 keys to drawing which are introduced as he goes through each of the topics in turn - and he provides lots of practical exercises to see how they can be applied.

It needs to be pointed out that this book is NOT a manual for how to draw in a hyper/photo realism manner - there are other books that do that.

What I like most about this book is it starts by encouraging people who want to develop their drawing to develop their own 'handwriting' for their drawing. Dodson explains:
* how we draw is as individual to us all as how we write.
* all artists combine freedom (intuitive, looser, sketchy drawing) and control (analytical, precise, careful drawing) in their work - they just do it differently
I just loved the idea that this author wanted me to be me - and not like him or somebody else. What's more in illustrating the different ways in which people draw he introduced me to a better understanding of how different master artists, such as Delacroix, Rembrandt, Matisse, Van Gogh, Degas, Morandi and Kollwitz approached their drawing. Consequently I began to understand an awful lot more about how drawing is done and why it looks as it does. What's more the images of their drawings in his book impressed me so much that they have stayed firmly lodged at the front of the drawing bit of my brain over the years.

One of the especially helpful bits about the book is that it encourages the development of self-evaluation right from the start. This means that the things one needs to think about when drawing become internalised that much quicker. It really helps the budding artist to become much more self-reliant and less dependent on others for insight into how they are doing.

This is a book that I can pick up and reread and dip into over and over again and never ever get bored. It's one of the best 'how to' books on drawing that I've ever read and I can highly recommend it to all of you who are:
* interested in the art of drawing,
* wanting to develop your own skill in self-evaluation and/or
* wanting to develop your own individual style of drawing.

Interestingly since first writing this review on my weblog I discovered that lots of my fellow artists also rated this book very highly as well!

I don't believe there is one perfect book on drawing but if I was asked to recommend one for someone either just beginning or needing to improve their abilities, "Keys To Drawing" would probably be it. Generally well written and complete; the author offers good ideas without being intolerant of other approaches (apparently a rarity in art instruction) or of doing thing slightly out of sequence. It's especially helpful for someone who is not in an academic setting. My next suggestion would be to begin to put together a small library over time of the very best books on drawing including Nicolaides' "The Natural Way to Draw"; some of Hale's anatomy works; Guptill's "Pen and Ink..."; etc. Drawing well demands a sincere desire to learn, some knowledge and a certain amount of real practice; this book will help on your journey - from someone who's "been there".

I am a professional artist. I began art teaching 6 years ago. My students have progressively gotten older so the challenges of teaching drawing increase. When I first began teachin, I found the Kaupelis book which has been a bible for me. It was also obvious to me that my teachers used the Kaupelis book back in the early 80's.

But back to the "Keys" book, there was one bad review of this book and I want to address that one first. It went on and on about how bad the drawing examples were in the book. If you are anything like me, by the time I get the book I forget what the reviewers wrote specifically. My first reaction to some the drawings was that they were pretty bad, but this book is excellent despite this.

What the first high school teacher writes is right on the money. This book is thorough and I find myself referring to it more than all of my 25 drawing books (smile) I have in this house... and am most enthused with my lessons that are inspired my the "keys", which improves my teaching even more.

He includes words on thought process while drawing. He breaks down drawing to these small, bite size ideas that are very easy to understand and translatable. Of course, as you teach, you learn. This is a book for reading, then application. If you want a book to look at filled with beautiful drawings, I suggest, John Biggers, Charles White and Pontormo.

anyone who would say that the drawings in this book are "sloppy" is CLEARLY MISSING THE POINT. Dodson teaches you to "loosen up" and stop the overly critical attitude that holds people back from learning to draw. There are PLENTY of examples of well detailed, carefully rendered drawings alongside the loose ones, showing that Dodson CAN draw skillfully and accurately. The loose drawings are just one style he adopts to show you the attitude of freedom and play that is KEY to tapping into your powers of creativity and observation.

I first heard of this book while taking a sketchbook drawing course, and it has been a constant reference source for all of my drawing and painting efforts. The medium is drawing, but the instructions are universal -- seeing vs knowing, organizing a piece, composition, balance, unity, variety, movement, tension - there is nothing here that I can't use in other media. Must have for anyone developing their compositional eye.

This was the text used in my beginning drawing class in college and I love it. It teaches you how to draw what you actually see, instead of what you think you should be seeing. I had never taken a drawing class before but now I can draw anything that I have enough patience to sit in front of for a few hours. If you are a beginner, get this one. It's the best. (I still can't get through the first chapter of the left brain/right brain book. Boring.) Another fun book for beginners is Mona Brooke's Drawing With Children (fun for adult beginners too) and Drawing With Older Children and Teens. Helps you overcome your fears if you have any.

As a high school art teacher I have used this book for 2 years in my art classes. It introduces concepts in each chapter and gives clear instructions and goals on drawing. This is not a how-to book where your are told how to draw faces or animals. Each chapter builds on the previous chapter. Even experienced artists will find some of the exercises fascinating. I have drawn right along with my students and have found my skills improving too. The text is clear and the drawings accompanying the text are very descriptive.