Customer Reviews

Keys to Drawing with Imagination: Strategies and Exercises for Gaining Confidence and Enhancing Your Creativity

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This is a great how-to-draw book, because it has a very smart strategy: finesse the negative self-criticism that keeps most of us from even beginning to do anything smacking of `art.'

When a six year old once asked her father, a college art instructor, what he did for a living, he said, "I teach people how to draw." Incredulous, she replied: "You mean they forget!?"

We all know why that is-- a censorious voice inside our heads keeps up a murderous barrage of intimidation: "You suck! You can't draw!" And we knuckle under.

Most books on how to draw just reinforce this anxiety. They aim to teach you how to draw realistically, which for most of us means there is just one way to get it right, and a thousand to screw it up. How to solve this problem? Cookie-cutter schematic diagrams are given for drawing everything from portraits to horses, but every time you draw one of those almond shapes for a head, then put in a cross on which to put facial features, you've become a robot and art, an assembly-line production. That's a far cry from the utter fearlessness we all had when armed only with crayons.

This book blows by all this tomfoolery because it cares little for cheap realism but much for real creativity. By not focusing on the "what" but the "how" this book lets you not only think like an artist, but become one. In its pages learning is doing as rules are jettisoned in favor of principles, suggestions and exercises that gently immerse you in the experience of drawing, so that before you know it, you're scribbling away as intently as any six-year old... or Van Gogh. Getting the terminally self-conscious to believe in themselves as artists is no mean achievement--it's damn hard to do as a matter of fact--but Bert Dodson does this beautifully. (Even more experienced artists will learn much from perusing this wise and thoughtful book.)

But don't misunderstand one thing. Dodson's emphasis on creativity isn't an injunction to just "do what you feel." Drawing books like that leave you hanging in the air with no chance for traction and forward-momentum. This book is not one of those. The format in Keys to Drawing with Imagination not only generates much artistic material to work with, but will channel your growing understanding, concentrating it, so that a genuine mastery emerges, confident enough to undertake its own experimentation and exploration. This book is designed to be like the Buddha's raft--once it carries you over the river, you leave it behind to go on your way. For, ultimately, making art is about being free.

I have only one small cavil to make about this superb drawing book. The title bites. With a subject as exciting as creative drawing, this title is like giving Marilyn Monroe a name like Norma Jean. It obviously hopes to cash in on the success of Mr. Dodson's earlier book, Keys to Drawing; I sense the money-grubbing hands of the publisher's bean-counters. My condolences to the author, a most witty and engaging man, who must be suffering grievously.

Thank you, Bert Dodson, for Drawing With Imagination. It is a much needed elixir for both my creative and professional life. I've been an Art teacher for thirty years and I know from experience that you can teach almost anyone how to draw and paint well. Learning to use the tools is the easy part. What's hard is stimulating the imagination and the confidence to be creative.
Dodson's new book is a brimming reservoir of inspirational projects and ideas for the artist or teacher. Some of these exercises are so freeing, blocks to creativity seem to melt away leaving a fresh landscape of fertile ground. Using Bert's book as a basis for lessons my high school beginning students are stumbling onto originality and my advanced "Portfolio" students are discovering new directions for their work.
Every teacher and artist needs a copy of this book at their fingertips if only for an infusion of energy for your classroom and studio. I didn't realize till I got my copy, I've been waiting for this book for a long time.

While I am not a beginner, I thought this book might offer creative drawing exercises and ideas, something to feed my imagination. I was right. The chapters are brief and to the point with exercises that stretch beyond the usual. The illustrations of finished work as well as those of the actual exercise steps are excellent. A worthwhile book, not just a showcase of an artist's work... but not one for a beginner. Some of the chapters show nearly finished drawings as illustrations of the concept presented; there's no useful step-by-step instruction. But overall, most of the chapters are very good. Not a must-have, but still worth the money.

Length:: 0:25 Mins

Keys to Drawing with Imagination is a book that focuses on the thinking, more specifically on thinking differently and conjuring ideas. The many short concise exercises provided comes with practical tips that you can mix and match on your own. He makes drawing fun with the interesting and stimulating exercises.

For beginners, well, this is not a technical drawing technique book with step-by-step tutorials, so you won't learn any technical drawing skills.

This book can be picked up at any time to any page for some inspiration, no matter how many times you've read it before.

It's recommended to artists who want to have more fun and freedom with their art, or who have constant drawing blocks.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

As a sculptor by avocation I find Bert Dodson's book delightful in its exuberant enthronement of imagination. As a biologist by vocation I'm equally pleased at how much this book evokes the experience of the scientist. The scientist keeps a sharp eye out for mystery in nature, imagines plausible explanations, devises experiments to test his ideas, and emerges with insights. The artist, similarly, observes, experiments interprets and brings forth something new. For both, imagination is a powerful key to success in discovery.
I am particularly impressed by Dodson's use of metaphor as a potent artistic explanatory device. In many different situations he discusses and illustrates ways in which "metaphoric seeing" " - looking at something and seeing something else - "awakens our ability to bring our own interpretation to reality."

I got this book as an antidote to the "follow-these-steps-and-make-a-picture-exactly-like-this-one-I-Drew" books that I've been buying, and that are so common on the market for art instruction books. I wanted to "loosen up" a bit and get a feel for my own artistic voice and creativity. It's definitely helping.

I like the fact that he starts with the simple idea of "doodling" and expands from there. Other drawing books start with "how to make marks" with the media, and then you use the marks to draw like the author. "Keys to Drawing with Imagination" gives you examples of "doodling algorithms" (categories)and then assigns exercises wherein you take these ideas and create your own patterns and drawings.

Bert Dobson has obviously done his homework, too, and created a logically consistant, naturally progressive drawing instruction text. There are eight chapters: 1. Doodling and Noodling, 2.Drawing a New Reality, 3.Stretching the Truth, 4.Visualizing Ideas, 5.Storytelling, 6.Exploring Pattern, 7.Mining Culture, and 8.Exploring Themes. There is also a helpful glossary and an Index. A total of 36 Exercises are scattered throughout the chapters. I really like the way these are set up. He gives [copyable] examples, and then an assignment to implement some of the ideas on your own. It would actually take a very long time to work through the whole book thoroughly, but it is also possible to skip around and do what you like.

In addition to doodling, I am reading some of the wonderful chapters later in the book wherein Dodson does a two-page bio and art examples from specific very creative artists. I enjoyed the section on cartoonist R. Crumb and the inspiring story and works of Elizabeth Layton, for example. Dodson also borrows ideas from many other artists he knows (and credits them) to expand various points, and create exercises along the way. For example,there's a part called "Escher Tiling" wherein you can try out making interlocking drawings to fill a whole space. (ie, no background)

Lastly, the construction of the book itself is excellent quality and practical for use. It is a heavy hard-back book with glossy-print pages. There is more artwork than text. Most of the illustrations are black and white, except where the artists have done color work. The book has an enclosed spiral binding, so that when you open the book, it will lay flat. This is extremely helpful.

Keys to Drawing with Imagination is a wonderful book for someone who loves to draw but doesn't feel confident. This book helped me realize that my doodles have the potential for beginning my journey into my imagination. I like reading into the mind of Bert Dodson, the artist, which helps me understand what drives at least one person's creative vision.

This book is very easy to use; a great help with improving the imagination process. Useful exercises that actually help you improve with each new excerise. Would recommend you purchase this if you want to draw using your imagination and are having a hard time.

For months I have been taking this book out of the library when I realized that it was something that I needed to have on my shelf. Bert takes doodling to a whole new level and helped me turn my average art into something spectacular. Best of all, he reminded me of things that I used to do naturally when I was younger, that I didn't appreciate at the time, and consequently forgot about as the years went on. Thank you Bert for being a great artist and a great teacher. Please write a part II to this book!!!

Bert Dodson's new book on drawing from the imagination liberates drawing from its shackles and empowers all of us to make a strong visual statement in our own unique way. Thank you Mr. Dodson for expanding on your classic work, Keys to Drawing. You never stop inspiring us but most of all you make us believe in ourselves!