Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces (Paperback)

by Carrie Stuart Parks (Author) "You will quickly notice in this book that I approach drawing faces from a very different direction..." (more)
Key Phrases: optical indexing, paper stump, circle template

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
Artist Parks claims that even beginners can draw faces realistically by perceiving proportions and accurately rendering, via facial mapping, the features that make one face distinct from another. In Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces, the author isolates individual features for detailed examination, using many black-and-white drawings to illustrate a range of techniques. Her useful and far-ranging discussion of materials includes an evaluation of pencils' graphite grades, kneaded and electric erasers, blending tools, and papers. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description
This book will have beginning artists of all ages drawing faces that are strikingly realistic and detailed. Artist Carrie Stuart Parks honed her fast and effective drawing skills as a professional forensic artist. Here she makes drawing fun and easy, showing beginners how to render vivid self portraits and portraits of others, all in a matter of hours.

Artists will successfully learn how to master proportions and map facial features accurately. They will then study shapes within a composition and learn to draw them realistically. Lastly, artists will study the subject's values and use them to bring life and accuracy to each portrait. A final "checking" step helps artists capture heightened realism and accuracy.

This book features clear step-by-step instructions, before-and-after examples from students, and proven drawing exercises used to train artists throughout the country.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books; 1 edition (January 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581802161
• ISBN-13: 978-1581802160
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,172 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

95 of 95 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Change Over Night, September 13, 2003

By	Walter Stoneburner (Ashburn, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have to admit, I was highly skeptical when the author says she can teach people to draw (and some of the student drawings are amazing) in 3 classes of instruction. However, since my interests were cartooning and simple sketching (both of which demonstrated I had no talent whatsoever), I thought it might be fun to see what she was saying. I had already gotten bored with Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain -- it was too long, it had so many excercises, it should couldn't hold my attention span. I wanted a quick fix solution.

And this book gave it. The author says she's not an artist, but a police sketch artist who basically winged it coming in and took a class or two. She had the opportunity to see lots of faces and measure them. And she breaks down the mental block of why you can draw somethings and not others. Finally, you learn all the tricks to make soft portrait-like pictures that lift off the page.

About 3 hours of entertaining reading and I was able to produce very realistic faces that I'm proud to show off. I *highly* endorse this book. Now that I have some fundamentals, I feel like I can go back to the dry reads since I know what to look for.

63 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Practical instruction on drawing faces from photographs, February 3, 2004

By	Freudian Shrimp "Proud to be the stupidest pe... (Roundabout Seattle, Close to the Edge of Mt. Tahoma.) - See all my reviews

This book is based upon Ms. Parks' one week, 40 hour, course teaching composite sketching to law enforcement officers, a skill which they then use to identify suspects. This course entailed much material and as she writes in her book, "I had to figure out how to teach people to draw well in an extremely short time." She later broadened her teaching to civilians and children. I must admit that she has done an admirable job of condensing and presenting this method in ten short chapters. Chapter one lists the materials needed, chapter two defines the problem of teaching yourself how to draw what you see by overcoming the mind's preconceived preceptions about drawing faces, chapters three through five present a cornucopia of methods and techniques on how to see and draw accurately, and chapters six through ten address drawing the individual features of the face. Ms. Parks' writing style is conversational, easy to follow and often funny. She's managed to not only assemble and condense this vast material but to make it accessible, clear and complete. Ms. Parks clearly knows her material and has a knack for teaching. SECRECTS TO DRAWING REALISTIC FACES is a near perfect primer on drawing faces from photographs, especially useful to young persons and drawing hobbyists. Her book does deliver on its promise, up to a point. But taking these techniques past the photographs to drawing a living, breathing three dimensional person will prove difficult and this transition receives a cursory mention in the book. Also, the drawing style presented here is lacking. All the illustrations LOOK like composite drawings or mug shots-very dry and mechanical. In that sense, they're very limited and have none of the subtler technique and skill of fine art work, neither are the finer points of drawing mentioned. There are no beautiful works of art or visual poetry here, but that's not the author's intent, alas. Ms. Parks has succeeded in her mission with her book. Anyone who studies this book will be able to copy faces from photographs and this isn't a bad FIRST step to learning to draw well.

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I wish I had this growing up!!!, October 21, 2004

By	Isabella Valentine - www.IsabellaValentine.com (Bloomington, IN) - See all my reviews

Wow. This is probably my favorite drawing book. Period.

I must have at least 20 or 30 books on drawing - each one of them have different ways to teach or guide people on doing different techniques. But this book really really REALLY looks far more realistic than the others. And DOABLE too!!! I can tell a 500% improvement in my own art based on what I've learned from this book.

The author gives excellent tips, and her blending technique is easy to follow and she only gives you a tiny list of things you need (special pencils, bristol paper, kneaded rubber, and a blending stump - which all adds up to less than what you'd pay for lunch).

I was a fairly decent drawer to begin with, so I was actually VERY relieved that she didn't spend pages and pages talking about the really basic stuff like other books do. She gets RIGHT INTO how to do it, and how to do it well.

She uses amazing drawings as a way of SHOWING you how to do it, rather than just writing it all out. I am a visual learner, as are a lot of people... and anyone can follow this.

My sister and I both really enjoy this book and have gotten loads of inspiration and tips from this book.

Even advanced level artists can learn a few things from this.