The Complete Book of Drawing : Essential Skills for Every Artist

This comprehensive drawing manual is an invaluable guide for beginners, improvers, and established draftsmen. It contains hundreds of examples as well as step-by-step examples for artists to follow in order to build up their confidence and skills. All the major subject areas are covered, from simple object drawing and still life, to landscape drawing, portraiture, and figures. The book also explores the wider challenges of drawing facing all aspiring artists, such as how to break down visual information, recognize form, and apply perspective. Author Barrington Barber is a renowned authority on teaching drawing and a practicing artist. What does an artist need to know about drawing? And what has to be mastered in order to achieve the drawings you want? In this book Barrington Barber shows you, offering advice and tips as he takes you through the various stages. From object drawing and still-life composition, the natural world and portraiture, to looking at form and shape, and assessing styles and techniques, The Complete Book of Drawing is a distillation of the many skills that the aspiring artist needs to develop. After training as a graphic designer, Barrington Barber went into advertising, working for top agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather, before progressing to freelance design and producing illustrations for a range of books and magazines. He taught art for many years, and now enjoys a successful career as a fine artist. He has written and illustrated a wide range of best-selling instructive art books, which to date have sold 4 million copies around the world. As Barrington Barber knows from his many years of both teaching and practising art, it is crucial for you as an individual to find your own style and way of doing things. And, uniquely among practical art books, this is what The Complete Book of Drawing provides, by revealing new possibilities and enabling you to look at the world around you with fresh eyes. What does an artist need to know about drawing? And what has to be mastered in order to achieve the drawings you want? In this beautiful book Barrington Barber shows you, offering advice and tips as he takes you through the various stages. From object drawing and still-life composition, the natural world and portraiture, to looking at form and shape, and assessing styles and techniques. It is crucial for you as an individual to find your own style and way of doing things. This book reveals new possibilities and enables you to look at the world around you with fresh eyes Title Contents Introduction Chapter One: First Stages Chapter Two: Object Drawing and Still-Life Composition Chapter Three: The Experience of Drawing Chapter Four: Form and Shape Chapter Five: Forms of Nature Chapter Six: Figure Drawing and Portraiture Chapter Seven: Styles and Techniques Chapter Eight: Composition Chapter Nine: Drawing from the Masters Index Copyright "From object drawing and still-life composition, the natural world and portraiture, to looking at form and shape, and assessing styles and techniques, [this book offers] a distillation of the many skills that the aspiring artist needs to develop"--Back cover