Customer Reviews

Lessons on Shading (Dover Art Instruction)

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

 

 

In the 19th century artists at all skill levels learned how to shade a form correctly. Many even well known artists of today have less technical skill than a so-called amateur artist of the late 1800's. This reprint from Dover Books was published in 1900, way before the attack on "Academic" art in favor of the propoganda espoused by 20th century artists, museum curators, critics and teachers that proclaimed that classical drawing was passe and that artist's didn't need to learn technique before "expressing" themselves. Well, if you want to learn to expressive yourself masterfully when you shade a form, I would heartily recommend this book. Although concentrating on charcoal shading primarily, and pencil hatching in a secondary sense, the information presented here is clear and will translate well into any media. It's a very reasonable price, easy and quick to read, and has information that is rare to find in the rash of "how to" books of today written by artists with barely passable skills in drawing and shading.

I hate to leave negative reviews, but this little book is just about useless to me. I don't know about anyone else-but as an artist; I don't have time to flip through pages of text trying to find the illustration that goes with it when I am trying to study. Nor do I have time to read over pages of defunct source list and art supplies that no longer exist. I know that this thing was first printed in 1900-my question is whats with the re-print? There is better instruction to be found-I'd send it back to Amazon- but the books not worth the postage it would take to do so! Sorry to disagree with the other peoples reviews-but Lessons on Shading is one of the least useful art instruction books I have forked over money for in a long time.

From what I have read so far in this book I like. Easy to understand & has taught me a few things on how to shade & where which is where i was having my problems. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to draw.

After painting for a year, I became frustrated with my ability to draw original landscapes and still lives. My compositions seemed lacking something, so I bought several books on lighting, shading and perspective. This is one of my favorites as it is through, detailed and yet well organized and easy to understand if followed in order. I still have lots to learn from this book and am quite pleased with all I've been learning from it. Good choice, in my opinion!

I was hoping for more out of this book, but have found it helpful in some ways.

this book on shading is what it says, a lesson on shading, it would be a good book for someone jsut beginning to learn