The Exceptionally Simple Theory of Sketching (Extended Edition)

This book is fantastic. It's well organized and focused, with tons of helpful examples of what the author is talking about. Sometimes the visual aids in art books do not demonstrate the concepts of the text very well or do an adequate job communicating the reason why you're looking at the picture to begin with. Not so in this book. Every visual aid is well paired with the text and they complement each other brilliantly to form a full picture of the concepts demonstrated.Some people complain that the book is small but I think it's as big as it needs to be for the author to have gotten across what he wanted to get across. It has a very specific focus, that is teaching the basic principles behind effective ID sketching. It doesn't waste time trying to cram in info irrelevant to the point like perspective. I can't tell you how many "drawing" books I have that only gloss over the basics of WHY some drawings look better than other drawings. No matter how much technical training you have, if you don't understand the way people perceive pictures your art will always be lacking that final punch of quality. This book is here to teach you that and it does it concisely and comprehensibly.Even if you are not interested in ID sketching, this book will help you make better drawings because it is more about understanding principles than it is about teaching techniques. I can't praise it enough. This is one of those books you're going to be going back to time and again to brush up on concepts.

Great, brief guide with useful exercises to get you sketching effectively! Useful for established artists, new artists, or people who are interested in effective visual communication without all the "fine art" trappings.This is a very short book that clearly and succinctly teaches exactly what's in the title. You can read it in about 10-20 minutes and immediately improve the look of your drawings. It isn't concerned with the basics of drawing or perspective, just the elements of a sketch that make it appealing, including but not limited to line quality, the right arm motion to use when drawing, and using construction lines and quick shading to give your drawings depth and readability.It includes illustrated demonstrations of the techniques the author discusses and provides practice pages for readers to try the demos themselves - very useful! The sheets come in a pocket inside the front cover. I recommend photocopying the pages and practicing on the copies so you aren't limited by the number of included worksheets.

I teach drawing to engineers and this book contains the essential skills to make drawings work. It is concise, short and does a very good job of communicating. Not an art book.

for the price, not so helpful. would be interesting read for about $5. Otherwise, I can sum up his "discovery" for you here. People will fill in the blanks for you when you sketch, so practice a lot and sketch quickly and with confidence and your stuff will look better. Done.

This book is fantastic. The author is concise and clear and offers up gems of highly intelligent information on every page. Simple bits of truth in understanding the science of objects and how we mark them down. Simple things that your mind can grasp forever, because they were explained so clearly and well.The book is beautifully designed, and much of what he talks about is that last bit of panache that makes a drawing really read. Some of it is about nuance--about that last five percent of confidence that one more or one less line will make..This book has changed my drawing dramatically. I treasure this book.

This is an exceptionally short book on sketching. The author thinks that our brain works to decide what looks good based on the flow of the line and the confidence with which the line is drawn; thus, two or three confident lines that are nearly on target are better than one slowly drawn line that is accurate but not confident. The book then shows the reader, in a few pages, how this all works out.The ideas are simple and well expressed; however, the author does NOT tell us what studies or research led him to his conclusions. He presents them as facts and that is that. He states that construction lines make the sketch look more intelligent as it gives the viewer the idea that the sketch has been planned. Once more, no research is discussed. It makes the reader wonder if he is right or just stating his ideas as proven facts.The book includes a loose packet of pages with sketches for the buyer to practice on. This is not a good idea. A disc or web page with these same drawings would allow the buyer to print off dozens of practice pages, PDF's can be printed from nearly any computer - including tablet computers. It would also allow the drawings to be transferred to a computer program so the buyer could practice their shading and whatnot on their computer. Computer art is coming of age as the programs allow pressure to vary the lines and perform a bit like the real drawing materials from the non-digital world. This book would have been far more useful if it had included chapters on computer sketching and drawings that could be imported into Sketches, Procreate, Notebook, Sketchbook and other popular programs. This particular oversight is major in our digital age.Finally, we have the price. The book is outrageously priced. To say it is not worth the money is an understatement.Not recommended.AD2 -t

This is s very short book, which is good. I've been a professional designer for 30 years. This is by far the most important sketching book I've ever read.It is short is sweet and has examples that has practice sheets. Buy this book today.Short Sweet Paradigm Shift.