The Natural Way to Draw: A Working Plan for Art Study (Paperback)

If you want a quick, "no brainer crash course" that will get you up and drawing ASAP, then use first "The (New) Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards. The exercises in that book can be completed in less than a week; by then, you should be able to draw impressive lifelike portraits.

Now, let me warn you: Ms. Edwards' book teaches you how to COPY (draw) WHAT YOU SEE just as your eyes see it. You won't learn to draw from nothing; you will need a photograph or model to work from. Simply put: you will learn to copy whatever you look at.

Now, if after that, you find yourself wanting for more-- that is, you want to learn and do more -- then get this book by Nicolaides. This is a serious instruction manual that requires a lot of your time and energy. Using it is just like being in art class. You have to follow 25 schedules amounting to 15 hours of drawing each, and in all you will use more than 60 exercises. Each chapter builds on the previous ones, so it is necessary to do all of them in order, for as long as directed. This will take 6-24 months to "finish", assuming the student draws 1-6 hours a day.

Does that sound too much for you? If so, don't feel bad. This book turned me off, too, when I first opened it. It does take a lot of work; I understand why some people are disappointed by it. But if you keep up with it, you will definitely see the results at around Schedule 13. Several chapters after that, I found myself experimenting with all the drawing exercises I'd learned (Nicolaides, Edwards', Pogany's, etc.) to make the drawings I wanted. I also use computer programs that Nicolaides never even dreamed of.

That -- learning to combine and/or make your own drawings and nost just plain copying -- is what puts Nicoliades' book at a different class from Edwards'. That, and learning to experience the model in the natural, if old-fashioned, way.

So, my advice is go first for Betty Edwards or maybe "Drawing For Teens"(?) recommended below by an earlier review. If you want more than that, then come back here and get "The Natural Way to Draw". It might bore you at first, and that is nothing to be ashamed of. But give it the effort it deserves and you will know why this book has been called "not only the best how-to book on drawing, it is the best how-to book we've seen on any subject."

Later in my drawing career I found a school that taught foundational classic illustration techniques that have been passed down for ages. We were taught life drawing techniques using the four basic tones, proportions, light and form shadow, line quality quick sketch etc. One day my teacher who is an esteemed fine artist who has also created many well known movie posters you would recognize, noticed one of the students had a copy of "The Natural Way to Draw" on her drawing bench. He picked it up and asked all the students to take a look at the book. He opened it up high and actually began mocking it. My mouth was wide open as I assumed that this book was unquestioned in the art world. As he made his way through the book showing samples of the illustrations especially in the advanced stages, many in the class were laughing out loud at the pictures. I must admit at that moment they suddenly looked rather poor to me as well. I asked him isn't there anything in this book's teaching methods you feel is worthwhile? So many people follow it. His answer was a very flat and absolute "No." I was shocked. He asked me a question that I felt is worthy of consideration for anyone considering undertaking this book. He said "Look at these pictures." Would you like to be drawing like this after a year, or as you are drawing now after only a few months. As I looked at the book and examined my illustrations and those of the other students in the room, the illustrations in Nicolades book looked like primitive scribbles. To be sure the gestures and longer drawings had weight form and action, but so did the students work we were doing to an even greater degree, plus our work was capturing the personality and likeness of the model. In my case I much prefered the look of the drawings I was able to do using classical techniques. I had moved much closer to my personal goals in a much shorter amount of time.

Now I don't tell this anecdote to disparage Nicolades, because many people have truly become the artist they always wanted to be through this book. Flip through the book and ask yourself, after all the work you will go through, do the examples in the book represent the way you would like to be able to draw. Know that you when you are through you will not be drawing like a Norman Rockwell or in a classical, comic or animation style if that is your desire. These methods will not translate as these styles require different disciplines. Do you want to be an artist where your work will be looked at as an internal expression? Do you put a priority on how your work expresses an esoteric truth over a literal one? If the answer is yes then by all means go for this book. If you desire to draw illustrations that capture accurate or sleek stylized likenesses and express yourself with subtle light and shadow or beautiful linework you may find yourself happier with a book or class that teaches with more classical methods. To put it more simply, when people think of you as an artist, do you want them to think of you wearing a french beret at an easel or a baseball cap at a drawing table? You can learn greatly from this book. This book offers you a long arduous trip. Do make sure it is taking you to the destination you desire. If you are not sure, or you aspire to be an animation clean-up or in-between artist then perhaps should look into the easier Betty Edwards, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain series." She borrows exercises directly from this book and it might be a good guage to see if this method suits your personality.