You Will be Able to Draw by the End of This Book

One of the best books on the market in my opinion to walk you through drawing techniques quite simply with a positive 'can do' mood in the workbook, using pencil, pens, charcoal. I found an inexpensive set of felt tips with different size tips, easily in a local flying tiger. Jake Spicer has thought of everything including advice on your seating posture, but remains light and always encouraging. Really excellently laid out book with blank pages and plenty of prompting texts to show you where to 'test your pens', or leave blank, or 'practice here'. This is what I like, it helps. Organised. I didn't steam through the book, it provides hours and hours of practice and am on charcoal so need to get some. It is very fun, covers drawing objects, shadowing techniques, views and perpective, moving figure drawing etc This is done systematically. Having always been able to draw by copying, it gently moves you on. Yes the elastic closure comes off and was not useful, but drawing will help you calm down about this :) Absolutely recommend, love the book, would definitely buy another in the series.

So first, this book looks really nice, it has a simple look in a lovely colour. Their is a cut out on the right top and bottom with a band, you can use the band to hold the book shut, or as a bookmark to keep your place, great idea. Sadly for some reason they put a sticker on the band, sticking it to the book, and even being careful it tore some of the book cover and left a dark residue on the band - so feed back please the sticker is pointless and actually damages your product. The progression of the book, feels more catered to someone who has maybe been sketching / drawing a little before, a absolute beginner will get something out of the book, but it feels like a steepish curve. I bought some charcoal for one of the lessons, not really a medium I am interested in, and after the mess I made, pretty sure never will touch again. I can understand maybe wanting your readers to experiment, but that was not for me. The book is good, good points, observation, and lessons - just not for an novice.

I have been sketching and scribbling for maybe a few years now. It's mostly for fun, yet it's a sort of obsession as I do it wherever I go. I am always trying to improve, learn new techniques and understand where I'm going wrong and that's why I decided to try this book. I like to travel a lot and often find that's the time when I draw the most. I have taken this book with me on all my trips this year and every time I opened the book, I felt like I was being given a one-on-one art class from the man himself... Jake doesn't fit in my suitcase but this book did, and I learnt something new at every turn of a page. I can genuinely feel an improvement in my sketching technique and understanding. Specifically, I now take more time to think about composition, proportion, not making such heavy marks on the paper, and using negative space. This book would suit you if you are an absolute beginner who perhaps doesn't know where to start, or if you're a fanatic sketcher like myself, who wants to improve yet hasn't properly studied drawing, except for the odd short course or class here or there. I like the range of subjects covered in this book, from landscape to hands to pots and pans, encouraging use of different techniques such as subtractive tone and hints on how to build your perceptual skills. Jake also talks you through trying out different materials, including charcoal and ink, I had only ever used pencil in my drawings up until then! That's why this book was perfect for me, and I strongly recommend it to anyone who loves to draw or who has always wanted to.

All good so far, enjoying it. Not sure I'm getting any better yet ...

I don't think that this is a book for beginners at all. There isn't enough guided instruction, so all you can try to do is copy the pictures, some of which look a bit odd to me. For someone who is already fairly competent, this book would be great for improving the finer details of your sketches, but it's not for people looking to improve the basics.

Good book

Amazon delivered a bent up and damaged book, with dirty marks and fingerprints all over the cover. Not happy. This does not reflect on the book itself, as it is a lovely book. It's well laid out, and easy to follow and the unusual binding is very effective as the book lays completely flat when opened. Nice paper for drawing on and I like the elastic band for keeping it closed, makes it feel like an artists sketchbook. Just a shame Amazon can't look after their stock properly.

I’ve got a few sketchbooks like this, but this one’s a standout. Instead of just saying “draw this dog,” it shows you how to break animals down into simple shapes, understand proportions, and build up sketches with confidence. It makes animal drawing feel less intimidating. You start rough and then refine — really teaches the process. The tone is friendly too, not pretentious. Perfect if you’re into urban sketching, animation, or just want to improve your animal anatomy.

You already know how to draw. You did it as a kid. You just want to up the game. This book can help. It shows you how to use concentration of line to get a darker tone if drawing with a ballpoint. It shows you how to get perspective (in drawing, not life -- I have never found a good guide to getting perspective in life). It shows you how to approach a host of different subjects, including an animal. Well, not how to approach the animal, just how to approach drawing it. I suggest a cat. Everything is better with a cat. I would follow this with the Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain set by Betty Edwards. They would work together to bring most folk to the intermediate level. This starts easier, that ends harder. What I like: 1- This book starts at the absolute beginnng with mark making. Exercise 1: Grab a pencil. Draw lines all over the page. Done. The point is to then look and see what effects the variations of those lines has. What happens if you group them tight on one side and loose on the other? Is that different if they're parallel or not? Now you know something about shading, particularly with ink. It then moves to blind contour, and exercise by exercise, it grows more complex. You build on the skills that came before. 2- The book lays absolutely flat, which is good for drawing. 3- The paper in the book is actually good to draw on. It's not printer paper. It's a quality sketchbook paper. It can handle some wet applicaiton without buckling (not much). 4- It exposes you to a variety of skills and techniques, and the strengths and weaknesses of each. Subractive drawing, for example, whiere you cover the page in graphite or charcoal, and then eraset the lights, where you normally start with white paper and add the darks. 5- It builds a solid foundation for improving your drawing. What I don't like: 1- The rubber band closure. Mine is starting to break. I tend to lose it. It's annoying. I wish I could find a good replacement before the current one breaks completely. 2- Fairly early on you get something like a draw like a printer exercise. I think that was too hard for a beginner and totally unnecessary. It goes back to a better level after that. 3- It never tells you to keep an index card or scrap paper under your hand to keep from smudging. This is a basic introductory book. Someone should mention that. What you need: This book introduces supplies gradually throughout, which is a pain if you want to just pick it all up at once. The partial list on page 12 will carry you only a few pages. Comprehensively it is: 1- Pencils HB, 2B, 6B (Mitsubishi Uni are best of breed in my opinion) and a sharpener (I'll suggest electric if you want the best experience). 2- Erasers: white (Pentel -- that damages the pages least) and kneeded 3- Ballpoint pens (fineliners will also work) 4- Viewfinder. I went with Color Wheel The Artist's View Catcher, available on Amazon, but you can make one in about half an hour with cardboard, a craft knife, a steel ruler, a cutting board, and the instructions in the book. It's cheaper, easier and more accurate to just buy the thing. 5- Charcoal, a mix of vine and willow strips (Both Winsor and Newton and General's sell mixed sets, available on Amazon). A set of charcoal pencils (I'd recommend General's) is also good. These are what I suggested the electric sharpener for. Softer charcoal pencils tend to break in a manual sharpener. 6- Fixitive for charcoal 7- Cloth for smudging charcoal. I'm evil. I use paper towels. It's not like the cloth will be that reusable after you rub it in charcoal anyway. 8- Brush pens (Tombow rules the roost for those, but not the alcohol based pro) 9- Bottle of ink, ideally india ink. 10- Dip pen and a twig 11- Container for water. A plastic or paper cup is good for this or there are fancy ones for painting. 12- Paint brushes for ink. 13- An animal. Yes, that's in the supply list of the project on page 82. I don't suggest a fish (they don't stay still, where cats and dogs sometimes nap) although he says an aquarium is a fine place for this. I don't think he has fish. I have fish. Trust me. Don't use fish. If you don't have an animal, a squirrel in the park can often be bribed to pose, or try the zoo. 14- A person to pose. You'll need a head in profile and a reclining person. For profile, you could draw someone at a cafe or on the bus if you can't get a volunteer. For reclining? I just drew my roommate while she was sleeping. Don't tell her. 15- A scrap paper or index card to keep under your hand so you don't smudge the drawing. It never calls for that. Optional (sort of): A drawing board. A sketchbook for extra practice. I say sort of because if you stay with drawing after this book (and what's the point otherwise?) you will need these

Wanted to start drawing so picked this book to help out of the hundreds on offer. Really happy with it! I’ve only done a few of the first exercises but I’m finding it easy to follow and am really enjoying it. Great book for beginners.

Amo tutti i libri di questo autore. So già disegnare ma con questi libri miglioro ancora. Questo sugli animali è bellissimo

Good a - z book on learning to draw.

Esteticamente agradable y bien estructurado en el interior, con espacio para practicar ejercicios.