Learn to Draw Now!

Purchased 4 yrs ago. I gained a steady hand and confidence to keep learning. Fun book. Sit, draw and gain skills for the big leagues. I recommend this book for starters.

"Learn to Draw Now" by D. C. Dubosque "There's no reason to go through life saying, "I can't draw!"--from the cover of "Learn to Draw Now" This book would fall into the classification of Drawing-For-The-Absolute-Beginner. I do not want to be unkind to this book, for it is a nice set of lesson materials on working with the basic shapes. Author D. C. DuBosque covers this basic material and covers it well. For example, the author covers elementary perspective so well that any beginner could acquire sound knowledge very quickly. The book covers elementary lighting and shading with a nice introduction to techniques that work. The books is very affordable and it is a good buy, especially for those who are frustrated and want another book covering the basics. Another thing to admire about this book is that it avoids using an excess of wordy text. There is brief instruction and good illustration. Author D. C. DuBosque could expand this book I think, into sections that move beyond the elementary. The author's grasp of how to write a book specifically for discouraged beginners is evident. This book has no instruction concerning figure drawing, but for a concise book of 64 pages it is okay. I think it is just the sort of thing that a parent might want to introduce a child to basic drawing, or that an adult might use for self-teaching; but the student will soon find himself needing still more books.

This book is somewhat mistitled. Learn to sketch would be better. Very good introduction that will have you sketching the basic shapes and having fun with it. He has cool little rules (he calls them strategies) that he hammers home. He will state a strategy on page 3 and then just when you have forgotten it he will tell you to draw something and use "strategy number 1." You scratch your head then start flipping pages back to see what the rule was. But next time you read a strategy YOU MEMORIZE IT so that you don't have to keep flipping. That is exactly his plan of course. I like this book - give it a try.