Customer Reviews

People & Portraits (Drawing in Color)

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

 

 

Excellent book - especially for those just learning the art form. An excellent adjunct to Ms. Hammond's books on drawing with graphite. Helps the beginning artist make the transition from grayscale to color.

I have learned so much from Lee Hammond! She is the best illustrator, telling you what you need, what paper to use and how to use all your tools of any book that I have ever read. I am trying to buy ALL of her books. She leaves NO details out! It is almost like being in one of her classes. Thank you Lee Hammond!

I had heard that it's always best to see if you like the art in the book before learning how to create a similar style. This is a great book if you like the style personally. I, however, do not. I prefer the MUCH more difficult style where the skin tones look buttery smooth but I like the book anyway as it's always helpful to know more technique whether you ever use it or not. So, if you like the style, you'll LOVE the book as it's well-explained and demonstrated!

i think that is a great book. it explains all the techniqes in detail. and shows you step byt step how to the drawing and coloring. Lee Hammond does great work and i love her books.

Ms. Hammond's pencil portrait book is not remarkable, but at least in that book she stuck to graphite -- not color.

This book shows a decided lack of colored pencil rendering technique. There are examples of awkward and somewhat untidy rendering coupled with mediocre drawing skills. This combination does not make for a good art instruction book.

Colored pencil can easily look messy and blotchy (or uneven) if rendered improperly. There were definitely some examples of that here. Also, one would assume that a portrait book would show, well, portraits that were well-drawn. Nope, not here. Some have misaligned features which are rendered with little sensitivity.

There also seems to be a lack of understanding about how to use color as well. Some of the shadows and dark colors are "overkill" and too harsh for the face.

However, to be fair, a few of the portraits were not bad. Some portraits used a deliberate "light touch" with a more limited color scheme (one portrait in particular springs to mind) and these looked better.

There was also little actual *drawing* instruction. Sorry, but just teaching the graph or grid method isn't going to hack it. That's just one tool used for drawing, and it very easily can become a crutch of that's all an artist knows how to do. What about drawing from life? How can someone use a graph or grid to draw from life?

I understand that the author is a very encouraging teacher and that's great. But my goodness! This certainly is not the best colored pencil book out there. A *much* better choice would by any colored pencil book by the fabulous Bet Borgeson. Now *that's* colored pencil done right.