Customer Reviews

Perspective Drawing Handbook

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

D'Amelio has laid out the basics of mechanical perspective drawing in easy to follow steps with clear illustrations. Readily adaptable to instruction for the general audience and eminently practical with illustrations for many basic and more complex perspective problems, the text is well organized as well as intertaining. I have used this text to teach perspective in high school drawing classes for 15 years.

"PERSPECTIVE DRAWING HANDBOOK" by Joseph D`Amelio

Amelio really packed this book with well-illustrated covering of Perspective in Black & White. Better still, D`Amelio manages to keep text down to the bare essentials, preferring to illustrate the point rather than describe it. Fascinating. Nicely put together, and very concise at 96 pages. I really liked it.

Suggested retail at $8.95 this is a good reference, and eminently affordable. It seemed quite deserving of FIVE STARS for making an obscure subject clear to the general public with a direct, no-nonsense approach. What Stephen Rogers Peck does for anatomy, is what D'Amelio does for teaching PERSPECTIVE.

This is currently my favorite perspective book!

I love this book because it's clear, concise, slim & to the point. It's very enlightening! In my opinion, Joseph D' Amelio was a genius in his understanding of perspective & his ability to communicate this to others. The text may be a little academic by today's standards, but it's still easily worth getting. He uses the words "parallel" and "perpendicular" a lot, because he's being precise in his communication. Because this book is so slim, clear & reasonably priced, I highly recommend this to anyone & *everyone* interested in learning about perspective-based drawing. Even if it doesn't become everyone's favorite overall, it's certainly worth having in any collection, as perspective is such an important topic that it's really best to buy a number of books. And if we're going to buy a number of books, it might be helpful to know which are the *best* while at the same time being reasonably priced. This is at the top of my list!

Three-point perspective is covered here, although he actually avoids this term and instead calls this "looking up & down". It's simplistic in its approach, but that's what great teachers are about: taking difficult concepts & making them easy to understand. And as mentioned, while the writing may at times be a little stiff, this book relies mostly on visuals, which are entirely in black & white and mostly in pen & ink. Perspective Drawing Handbook: my highest recommendation!

P.S. My current Top 3 perspective books include: Perspective Drawing Handbook; Perspective Made Easy; and then Perspective! For Comic Book Artists.

P.P.S. An interesting observation: there is at least one visual error in this book. On page 55, there are common objects depicted in 3-point perspective, as often seen when we're looking down. The bed on this page has vertical lines converging in the wrong direction(!). In every other picture on this page, the vertical lines are, accurately, converging downwards. With the bed, we get the opposite(!). How this found its way into print is beyond me, but I still think this book is great.

I've listened to, watched or read many instructors trying to teach perspective in simple terms to budding artists and have always had a nagging suspicion that they had it wrong, but couldn't explain why. When is the CORRECT time to use one, two, or three point perspective? When are edges that are not dead center in front of you CORRECTLY portrayed as parallel? Complex perspective texts meant for draftsmen with ruler and t-square didn't do it for me. Finally I stumbled on this book originally printed almost 50 years ago. Joseph D'Amelio does an excellent job of explaining the complexities of perspective to us artists that must deal with it using only a pencil and our own eyes and judgement.

For the teacher that thinks this text is too complex for beginner's, use it as a resource for YOU to correctly teach these concepts to your students. For all who think this is too complex and wordy, I can only guess that we are reviewing completely different books.

This book is a great resource. Sometimes I have to read and re-read it to understand what the author is talking about. But it's a great, robust resource on perspective. It was recommended by my art teacher and I've been pleased with it.

I was trying to draw a picture of a building with an extended cover over the driveway from a kind of different point of view and this book really helped me out. Good, understandable info on perspective drawing.

Detailed Perspective drawing instruction book.
A great thing for the Professional, but a difficult
Hell for the Amateur who is trying to get a grip on
the problem. It looks more like a Blueprint than
anything else. I am saying that this looks so
professional drawn for professionals that an
amateur will have problems trying to handle the
drawing. I cannot recommend this for an amateur.
Only for another professional who already knows
what he is doing. It is, a complicated book.----
Luisa Felix, FelixHoboken@aol.com

Too much text, not enough drawing. I much prefer Perspective: space and design
by Louise Bowen Ballinger

I bought this book to help me teach basic perspective to my drawing classes - a subject I've avoided myself through the years. I found it a challenge and a bit too complex for beginner drawing classes. then I realized - o - it's written by an architect. Duhhhh - it would be complex.

Please don't buy this inaccurate text. It has at least one major flaw. The author incorrectly claims that the horizon is always at eye level. It's easy to see that's false. Walk into the Grand Canyon and you'll notice that the horizon is well above eye level.