The Creative Drawing Course: How to Develop Spontaneity and Style - Tapa dura

After a brief introduction to drawing tools and materials, the first section of the book explores drawing as a means of recording the world around you. The emphasis is on drawing through observation in order to create realistic representations of your subject. It covers tried and tested means of sharpening your observational skills such as measuring with a pencil, looking at negative shapes and so on. The next chapter examines the physicalities of drawing. This is something that many drawing books overlook: drawing is actually a very physical process and you can use this as a means of getting a greater sense of energy and emotion into your drawings. Some subjects - botanical illusrations, for example - require very tight control of the drawing materials, while others - such as brooding skies in a stormy landscape - simply cry out for great sweeps of charcoal to convey the swift movement of rolling clouds. This chapter will help you assess what type of approach is best suited to the mood you want ot express The final chapter is all about developing new ways of seeing - taking an everyday subject such as a kitchen still life, for example, and homing in on a small area so that you're forced to look at textures and interlocking shapes in a way that you wouldn't normally do. This helps you to discover what it is that excites you visually about your subject matter - whether it's the colours, textures, shapes or patterns - so that you can take the first steps towards creating images that express what You as an artist want to say, rather than merely copying what's in front of you. Packed with easy-to-follow exercises, useful tips and inspiring images. The Creative Drawing Course will help you build up your skills and confidence step by step.

Richard Taylor is a well-known artist, author and teacher whose previous books include Natural Watercolours and The Watercolourist's Guide to Painting Buildings (David & Charles) and The Watercolourist's Year (HarperCollins), His articles have appeared in a number of leading UK art techniques magazines, including Artists and Illustrators. The Artist and Leisure Painter. He is also the consultant editor on The Art Course, a major new art techniques partwork.