Sketching textbook?

[Dark Star]

I know many people here have an interest in the arts outside of writing, so I thought I'd ask this question here:

Does anyone know of a sketching textbook (or something along those lines) they can recommend me? Preferably something that starts at basic level and moves to more advanced material and can be found used for cheap on the Amazon marketplace. I'm looking for something a bit more substantial than 'here's an object, draw it!' Ideally it will be something that is written at an adult level with instructions on how to improve one's technique along with examples.

For a bit of background: I'm a geology major that's currently out of college and geology tends to be a sketch-heavy field. I've decided that while I'm out of college I'll focus on improving areas where my skills are sub-par rather than just assuming I have no natural talent and will always suck at those things like I have in the past. Sketching happens to be one of these areas.

[BookBeauty]

My best advice to you is to look outside the books for improving your drawing skills.

However, there is one sketching textbook recommended by most professionals for beginners to improve their study.

It's called ''Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain'' By Betty Edwards.

There are also free materials available online. Look up Andrew Loomis.

I am also particular to the style of George Bridgman. I quite enjoyed his Constructive Anatomy.

[MystyrMystyry]

Odd question for around here, it being a mainly literary type place. I have seen a few of the sort you refer, but never actually owned one.

Basically the best teacher is experience - and a good teacher!

At school I had in instructor who knew what was what and gave good guiding advice at a practical level. She set up an intricate still life with fronds, lace and feathers and told the class of about twenty to sketch it - about half an hour to do so.

Once the bell dinged it was pencil's down and public criticism time.

Some kids drew what they thought they saw; some kids loaded their sketch with as many details as they could fit in the time; some forewent the detail to emphasise light and shadow; some added detail and elements that weren't there; and others were barely recognisable from their attempts at rubbing out and re-sketching.

I'd been happy with mine until she arrived. With a piece of charcoal she filled in and obscured areas (did it to everyone) explaining how one part could be brought out with shadow behind it even if it isn't there, and another should be illuminated - artistic license, and all to make it look like some preconceived idea she had.

I really hated her for that.

Anyway, next lesson was a surprise excursion to an old display town with carriages, farm and smithing equipment laying around - and we had to sketch with the 'knowledge' she'd imparted from the previous lesson. No more than five minutes each sketch or she'd come and move us on.

This time there were no corrections, no right and wrong - just try it again with only two minutes.

W did a lot of sketches, and were snapped out of our 'all the time in the world' attitude. Some things require time obviously, but some are better dashed off. I think the thing I got out of it was that you can let the natural texture of the paper/ pencil shading fill in a lot. You needn't try to put everything in, just occasional detail is enough. Also it's good practice to revisit the same subject again and again, over and over


In conclusion: there are probably some good instruction manuals - I don't know of any, but do a google and amazon search as well as visit art sites.

[stlukesguild]

However, there is one sketching textbook recommended by most professionals for beginners to improve their study.

It's called ''Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain'' By Betty Edwards.

No professionals that I know would recommend that book. Having browsed through it several times I will admit that Edwards promotes some practices that promote thinking in the manner in which an artist thinks when looking at his or her subject. Having said that, I would be hard-pressed to name a single solid introduction to drawing. Bridgeman, Loomis, Anthony Ryder, etc... The best education, as MM stated, is a good drawing teacher and experience. The rapid-fire drawings that MM refers to (gestures) are the traditional means of breaking the student away from looking at the surface details first, and focusing instead on the over-all structure. The usual analogy is that the beginner is like an architect who is focusing upon the wallpaper before the foundation has been laid. One practice that I would highly recommend is copying master drawings. This teaches you how to draw not what you see... but what you want others to see.

[Maximilianus]

What do you all think about the sketch tutorials at Dragoart (http://www.dragoart.com/)?
At a humble first sight, as I'm no sketcher myself, they seem tutorials in different levels of difficulty, though I have yet to test the actual effectiveness of the techniques they intend to teach (supposing it makes sense to try them).

[Harold251]

Odd question for around here, it being a mainly literary type place

[stlukesguild]

What do you all think about the sketch tutorials at Dragoart

Most of the artworks there seem to be in the cartoon/animation/anime style. The problem with that is that you are learning a specific manner of stylization as opposed to learning to draw what you see... even if you eventually develop your own stylized or abstracted take upon visual reality. I cannot tell you just how frustrated teachers are with students turning in endless piles of drawings of these cartoon-anime style drawings that have no personality to them... or rather nothing of the student. Walt Disney Studios used to recruit from my art school. They almost categorically refused illustration majors for the simple reason that illustrators largely learned how to draw in an illustrational style. Instead, they would draw recruits from those students working in a realistic manner in the drawing and painting departments. These students, the Disney representatives, did not need to "unlearn" bad habits of stylization and could far more rapidly assimilate to what the studio wanted for a given bit of film or animation.

[Maximilianus]

Thanks for your reply, stlukes. It's always useful to know an experienced artist's opinion.