Drawing Scenery: Landscapes and Seascapes

Jack Hamm's three books "Drawing the Head and Figure," "How to Draw Animals," and this volume together form what I consider a complete course in commercial illustration but for color theory, which you can find in many other art books. Drawing well is the basis for every other art form especially in illustration. This is the most difficult of those three volumes. Prepare to spend some time reading and studying it. I felt like I was back in college, and progressed through it one page at a time doing sketches on index cards with a soft pencil to test the ideas and theories he put forward -- and unlike many other art books I've read or classes I've taken, concepts like composition, balance, light and perspective made sense to me after studying this book. It's not a light read but it's so rich. Jack Hamm's style is engaging but it's very content-dense. His books are the peak of the example-heavy content-rich concise style of art instruction. Step by step projects and long personal essays on technique and feeling aren't what Jack Hamm is about, although his style is engaging he doesn't seem to have the ego that many art instruction writers do. He doesn't claim his methods or compositions or styles are the best. He describes as many different ways to do things as they are and constantly encourages imagination, originality and personal style. He distinguishes realism from artistic exaggeration and explains effectively why you can't just rely on a photo or even on what you see to create a good believable picture. I'm a writer who has spent a lifetime trying to learn self-illustration and his explanations have successfully broken some mental barriers like overdetailing, lack of focus, bad composition, inconsistent lighting. He encourages boldness and daring. He has specific examples and details of everything I'd need to use in a scene, from clouds and waves to rocks and trees and houses. Most of all he shows how to create drama within a scene, no matter what the subject is it can be rendered a little bolder than life, it can convey emotion and tell a story. I'd recommend this without reservation, order all three of them if you don't have them. All of these books have one quality in common. Even after they're read, they are great permanent references with examples of trees, waves, houses, styles of clouds -- the cloud chart pages are great -- so if I'm doing a drawing I can flip to the right section and get ideas for how to handle the sky or what I can do to make the gnarled tree look like endurance. These books are the kind that will wear out from constant use and need replacing if you're at all fond of drawing, because there's always something new and interesting to find for any future artwork. This is why these classics are still in print. Check out the other two and consider his cartooning book as well if you have any interest in cartooning.

This book is hands-down my favorite step-by-step tool on drawing scenery. It's clearly written, which makes its instructions very easy to follow and understand, and it's masterfully organized in six sections that clearly relate to one another, making it easy to go back to specific topics at any time. In its first section alone (Introduction to the Basics of Scenery Drawing) it includes very well explained drawing basics like composition, space division, picture elements, comprehension factors, materials and more. It also goes beyond most scenery drawing books in the market to include, beside the usual landscape and terrain composition techniques, other important concepts: Drawing Trees and Foliage, Drawing Rocks and Mountains, Drawing Clouds and Skies, Drawing Water (Oceans, Lakes, Rivers and Falls), and Drawing Buildings (in various shapes and sizes). Additional bonuses are the authors' constant tips on a wide variety of topics that go from shading and highlighting to artistic treatment and texturing of surfaces. This book is also fully illustrated with over 900 beautiful diagrams and pictures that work as invaluable examples, which accurately illustrate the instructions given by the author. Some people might be discouraged from purchasing this title due to it being completely illustrated in black & white, but trust me when I say that it doesn't need color images. It's so well written that you'll soon start seeing the illustrations in the colors your imagination and creativeness will give them. I used this book as one would use a textbook on a course, doing all the exercises and going back to all the lessons in each section after I had finished with it. In only two months my work has improved 100% and my drawings have won praise from friends and family. Buy this book if you are a professional trying to fine-tune your craft and buy it if you are a beginner serious about drawing, both will discover the benefits of applying to your work all the essential scenery-drawing techniques that it contains. --Reviewed by Maritza Volmar

Are you fed up with the books that merely demonstrate how much better the author is at drawing than you are? All you can do is try (and fail) to copy their examples without really knowing the how and why of making marks and coming up with your own compositions?Jack Hamm tells you what marks to make, how to make them, where to make them, and why. And it turns out that it's easy to draw good pictures. Whodunnit in the end? Youdunnit!!!His landscapes book was the first I bought in the series. I was so impressed with it that I subsequently bought ALL his other books in a single batch. And I've been just as pleased with each of them.

"Empowering" and "amazing" are words I've heard in reference to Jack Hamm and his books. The vast majority of "how to draw" books (sorry, but it is true) are self-indulgent galleries by people with poor skills. Jack doesn't show off. He tells you what he has tried, what usually works and what usually doesn't, and he gives you the confidence -- indeed, the urge -- to go out and try it yourself. And, oh -- his drawings are magnificent. The layout of the book is unexpected. Sure, there is the expected list of trees and the panels of water reflections under different conditions. But the bulk of the book speaks to composition, particularly landscape composition, in ways that has made me recommend it to friends of mine doing Bryce and Terragen (computer landscape art). As is typical of Jack's books, you read it once, then you pick it up again and again every time you need a little help, a confidence boost, or a kick in the pants.

This little miracle worker of a book should NOT be disregarded in anyone's expanding list of books related to drawing scenery. "Drawing Landscapes and Seascapes" can teach you what other books cannot, how to capture the breath-taking world we see around us without the aide of photographs, or actually being there (although outdoor sketching is highly advisable, as pointed out by Jack). The scenery in this book is very life-like, and you can learn how to do it all too. Jack, as with his other books, doesn't "showcase" or brag of his work, he teaches in every picture how he did what he did, and what you can do to do the same. I couldn't imagine anyone getting ever getting lost or being stranded, Jack is one the best of the best, read his reviews of his other books!Topics covered... Drawing trees, water, clouds, rocks, and buildings. There are topics within topics, example: You'll learn to draw Puddles under "water", or Mountain Ranges under "rocks", Moonlit Skies under "clouds", etc etc... You just can't go wrong. He'll show you how to capture the incredible dynamics of the earth and how to portray it into your own work. Learn to draw trees realistically without drawing them leaf-by-leaf!Of any book released to the market for drawing landscape or seascape, this book is the only one I feel empowered to read word for word. His teaching is so amazing, I couldn't recommened a newer, even more expensive book than Jacks'. Don't cheat yourself of what you can learn in drawing landscapes or seascapes, this book is so easy to read and the projects in this book so enlighting, if you only had one book to choose on drawing landscapes, I'd choose Jack hands down. With a price like this,... you can't go wrong by giving this outstanding book a chance.