Lee Hammond

Most of the book is a gallery format of human portraits by Lee Hammond supplemented by brief instructive comments. It's a good book if you're new to portrait and colored pencil drawing. Nothing about it is overwhelming. In fact, at my stage of learning it's more underwhelming. I would've liked more tutorials. There are tutorials for an eye in graphite, noses and lips in colored pencil and graphite, and an ear and a hand in colored pencil. Many pages are dedicated to drawing clothing, yet there's no tutorial or some other step by step. That's minimal compared to art books I like beyond GoodReads's three star "like". I've noticed other books by Hammond have the same problem, as I call it in my case. However, I can see how this book would be more popular with other artists. Others may like the descriptions of technique in chapters based on type of paper instead of tutorials.… (más)

Lee Hammond’s All New Big Book of Drawing
By Lee Hammond

January 2018
Nonfiction

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

A beautiful book for those artistically inclined or wish they were. The drawings are simplistically broken down so that you earn to draw it yourself. Of course, if it were that simple we would all be artists!

I like that some focus is given to “details” and “features” using a grid format. For example, drawing a nose or mouth or fur. The book starts with graphite and then moves to colored pencils. My daughter has been doing a lot of drawing with colored pencils and will find the illustrations fascinating.

The book covers a variety of subjects that will appeal to almost anyone. Thank you for allowing me to review this great book.… (más)

If you haven't heard about Lee Hammond's books and you want to create realistic drawings, you have been missing out. She uses the grid method to accurately achieve realistic drawings. This is a time tested method that works really well, specially if you are a beginner and struggle with wonky proportions when drawing from reference (a picture or someone/ something in front of you).

The fist part of the book teaches the fundamentals of drawing using graphite and after that there is a huge repertoire of 3-step projects (if you own any of his previous books, it is the same style but new projects) of common objects, nature, animals, portraits, body parts, fabric and clothing. Part two tackles colored pencil techniques, followed again by many projects with relevant instructions and tips.

Keep in mind that the book focuses on teaching techniques to achieve realism from a reference (drawing from observation). This is not meant for those whose main focus is to draw from memory or learn art fundamentals (like perspective, anatomy, etc.) If you own the Big Book of Drawing from 2004, this one covers the same subjects with the good old stuff plus new tips and a different set of projects to work with. I would strongly recommend for art students and hobbyists alike. I got my eArc from NetGalley… (más)