[ebooks] Drawing Realistic Pets from Photographs by Lee Hammond at Arts-Photography

Review

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Not great examples and scant instructionBy Echo TwoI expected much more from this book. Like other reviewers. I looked at the examples on the cover and thought this book would provide good information on developing animal eyes. noses and general expression - all of which are key to a good animal (or human) portrait. The best examples in this book are on the cover and the remainder are relatively poor and somewhat generic-looking portraits and the instructions given (except for using a grid system) were fairly scant. I also felt some of the commentary (such as the bit about a particular dog having been hit by a car) were not relevant to the topic at hand. The book would be an ok starting place for an absolute beginner who wants to only work in graphite drawings. but if you want to push your work past the most rudimentary basics. youd be better served by the many YouTube videos out there or by taking a beginning drawing class through a community college. Frankly. any good book. video or class on human portraiture would serve a beginner better. since the drawing concepts are basically the same.10 of 11 people found the following review helpful. Low production quality. too-narrow focusBy FeliciaPIm surprised at all the gushing reviews. Perhaps the print quality was better in previous runs. But in my copy. purchased new. there are only two useful finished drawings (both on the cover: the two that havent been obscured by blue. green. or orange dye) that indicate the actual quality of the work the author and artist creates. None of the drawings within the book are anywhere near that quality (I want to stress here this is the fault of the printing. not the artist). If I were the artist. and this book was out there representing my work. I would be enraged. The production quality. printed in China on grainy paper. is so bad that neither the finished drawings nor the reference photographs have anything like the necessary detail for an art book. Considering how much of the book is given over to illustrations --- this is not a text-heavy book. but relies on visual examples --- failure to accurately reproduce those visuals is a fatal and unforgivable flaw. On many of the final drawings the lack of tonal variation in the printed piece is so bad it makes the work look amateurish at best; bland. flat and lifeless at worst. As a teaching tool you need to be able to see detail in order to learn anything: pencil strokes. gradation of shading. variation of line thickness. etc. The author mentions these things. but the illustrations meant to show them largely dont. Only the early stage line drawings are relatively clear. but that is precisely because they are not detailed. The photographs are even worse. To use them as exercises. the way the book suggests. is impossible. I suspect most of the reviewers who enjoyed the lessons simply substituted photos of their own. as the photos in the book are small gray blobs of uselessness. As to teaching technique. this book is basic and very narrowly focused. I find this approach too limited. although clearly keeping it very simple works for some people. The artist teaches one and only one method: create a line drawing using a grid. shade in the dark areas. smudge and blend the midtones. erase out the highlights. (its interesting to note that the student artwork showcased early in the book looks very much like the teachers. Theres something too generic and mechanical about the whole approach. although Id be perfectly willing to admit that whatever individual expressiveness and depth might have been real in the actual drawings gets blurred out of existence by the awful print job.) For contrast look at Drawing: Dogs Puppies: Learn to draw a variety of canine companions step by step (How to Draw Paint) by Cynthia Knox. Much larger illustrations printed on higher quality glossy paper --- the detail is much easier to see. And its half the price. Anyway. the grid technique works as far as it goes. its taught to beginners the world over. but as other reviewers have pointed out you dont need an entire book to teach it. and it is only one of very many possible techniques for creating realistic pencil drawings. Practically every exercise simply repeats the same procedure and the same instructions over and over again. After youve read the first five pages. youve pretty much read the whole book. A few bits of beginner advice pop up from time to time. but mostly its repetition. repetition. repetition. and more bad photographs. Do an internet search on drawing with a grid and youll already get further than this book will take you. While youre at it. Google "pencil drawings of dogs" (or cats or whatever) and youll find much clearer. more detailed (and hence more expressive and more alive) representatives of technique and finished artwork online. You can learn a lot from studying quality work well rendered. Too bad theres none in this book. To sum up: the grid and blend technique may be a revelation to an absolute beginner. although one size never fits all and even a good technique doesnt suit every circumstance. But whether or not you find the level and style of instruction satisfying. and clearly many reviewers here do. there is absolutely no excuse for the lousy quality of images in this book. Its an art book. If being able to see the art doesnt matter. what does?4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Bringing your Pet back from old photosBy Frank L. Hicks Jr.I have some old photographs of a dear old friend no longer with me. There will never be any other photos and some of the ones I have are pretty sad quality. I wanted to remember "Buffy" with some fun drawings using what photos I had blowing up little photos into large wall size with greater detail. This book helped tremendously. Using the grid method really does work and allows me to "blowup" photos that would suffer from physically enlarging the photo by converting them to a drawing. And it had a side affect I liked. Buffy was suddenly back in my life and I realized I still remembered details of her face and body I hadnt caught in the photos. I cant really say I have turned into an artist but I think I could do much better using this book if I did the one thing this book doesnt do. make me practice. The more I spend time actually drawing the better it gets. No your first attempt at a drawing is not going to work unless you are really an artist already. The book really offers the chance to draw from photos but it will not happen over night. it is not a miracle book. But practice over and over and over some more and you will really create some wonderful drawings of pets whether still with you or not. And you can start to even change those drawings with different expressions and posses. It is truly a fun adventure and this book provides the missing piece.