Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals

I lIke the books contents, but it is thin and was packed without any support, and was bent at the spine when it arrived. It is not repairable, I am so disappointed. Anyone with book experience would know to put some kind of reinforcement in with the book, as have other vendors.

This book is a fantastic gift for a child - or, indeed, anyone who struggles to get started on the road to drawing animals. Emberley takes elementary shapes and shows you how to put them together, step by step, to create stylised but character-filled drawings of animals. His selection is eclectic and the little drawings are great: giraffes, porcupines, raccoons, wolves, dogs, cats, lions, tigers...! It'll kick-start a budding artist, break the 'I can't draw anything' mood everyone sometimes finds themseleves in, and is a valuable tool to get kids over the initial inability to draw things that 'look good'. I love it. I use it every now and then when I need to 'get the gist' of an animal I am trying to capture on paper. It's beautifully simple and effective.

As a kid, I loved to draw, and I loved this book! The author provides simple, step-by-step pictorial guidelines easy enough for young children to follow: if they can read the instructions, they can draw the animals in the book. At each step, there is a basic instruction such as "make a green triangle" or "add two squiggly lines." The instructions are accompanied by both a drawing of whatever it is to be added and a drawing of the animal-in-progress as a whole. Not only is this book fun for children, it's great for book reports and other school projects. Even adults will appreciate the ease at which this book helps them to produce realistic-looking animals while also enjoying the author's humorous style. This favorite book of childhood has become a cherished adult possession.

My children love all the Ed Emberley books. They discovered one at our local library and then found several at their school library. By the looks of these well-used library books, many families have shared the joy of drawing with Ed and each other! He makes it so simple that my 5-year-old can readily render this art; I think Ed made these books remembering his love for art when he was about 5. My 9 year old and my 5 year old also enjoy these books; we are getting our own copies today!

When I was in first grade, I had an art teacher who tried to show us how to draw using circles, lines, perspective, and so on, and I remember distinctly the experience of knowing that I could draw circles (and to an extent, straight lines) but there was no way I could put them together in a way that would look anything like the teacher's work.This book was my salvation. Within these pages you'll find instructions on how to draw all kinds of creatures, from the lowly ant to an elaborate dragon, all by adding easy shapes (traingles, circles, linnes) one-at-a-time.There is considerable truth in this book (and the author's others, which I unfortunately didn't discover until recently). How simplicity can communicate. How you can tackle something big by working in small steps. How you can make something you imagine come to like.To this day I can take pleasure in drawing pictures, even though they're simple and I've never taken an art class since first grade, and I attribute a lot of that joy to this book. And nothing compares to giving a frustrated five-year-old an Emberly book and watching his face light up as he realizes that maybe he can make his drawings more than just scribbles.This book (and the others) cannot be recommend too highly.

Ed Emberly's Drawing Book of Animals is a book that crosses age barriers. Whether you are a kindergarten student or an adult who has a phobia about drawing anything, with this book you can achieve success. I have used this book in my kindergarten classroom with great results. All my students thought they could draw anything and I found out by following the simple directions that I could too. I highly recommend this book as a gift to your young friends. Make it a complete gift with a pack of colored pens or pencils and a pad. Will keep them occupied for hours. It is good family fun for all to sit around the table and draw together. Even older kids quit feeling self conscious about their drawing and begin to enjoy creating a picture that looks like what they want it to look like. Now if you don't have any kids in mind don't let that stop you. If you know someone who does crafts, or needlework they will enjoy it too. Many ideas for decoration. Check out Ed Emberly's other titles too. Each book is based on the same principle of reducing all pictures into the basic shapes and lines we all can draw when we doodle. Ed makes your doodles into something else. Art!