Another Review at MyShelf.Com

Just Draw It!
Sam Piyasena and Beverly Philip

Search Press
14 January 2013/ ISBN 9781844488988
How-To Books/Drawing

Amazon US || UK

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde

Can’t draw but always wanted to?  Grab a pencil, some paper and a copy of this book, and there might well be nothing stopping you…

When is a course not a course?  When it is designed to be like anything but, with a strong sense of fun and a feel for the many situations of everyday life that can be enhanced with a spot of art.  Divided into six chapters, this book goes from making marks through tone, composition, patterns, observation and beyond.  Start simply by getting back to basics (what you lost when that first teacher told you that you were no good at art) and drawing like a child again.  Listen to music and make marks to it, go outside and draw what you see on paper or in the sand, make a picture out of a piece of string to show where a line can take you.  Each double page has a task on it illustrated with examples and often with things to look up or artists to go and take a look at.  Some good web links might come in handy here, but I guess that might be lazy.  There are pictures to make from dots a la Seurat, pictures from torn paper, making drawings of objects like stones and chocolates, watching a strawberry decay and recording each stage and more.  I like the way it involves the reader with ordinary things that anybody can find, and the parallels it draws between each task and the art that you see in galleries.  This is not the way I learned, but it is perhaps a good way to teach an adult bite-sized lessons that can be fitted into an average day.  If you have always wanted to draw but feel daunted by the more traditional approach in many art primers, this might be for you.

UK Reviewer: Rachel Hyde's work can be found in Sewing World, Sew Hip, Popular Crafts and other magazines. Her craft blog is Green Thoughts

Reviewed 2013
© MyShelf.com