Books
Below you can find a select list of books picked out by us as a recommendation to you. Each of the books is available on Amazon.com, with whom we're an affiliate with. That means that should you choose to purchase any of the books using the buttons below, we will get a small reward for the referral.
We hope these books are of benefit to you, and if you have any specific recommendations for us, email lee [at] drawninblack [dot] com. Happy reading!
How to Draw Animals by Jack Hamm
From the Amazon product review:
How to Draw Animals by Jack Hamm
Simple, clear instructions for drawing animals with more than 1,000 step-by-step illustrations. Basic fundamentals for the beginner, new principles and techniques for the professional. A detailed guide for everyone who enjoys–or wants to enjoy–drawing.
“Drawing: Horses” by Walter T. Foster
From the Amazon product review:
"Drawing: Horses" by Walter T. Foster
With assistance from Michele Maltseff, artist Walter T. Foster shows you how to render a variety of different horse breeds in pencil, with tips on adding touches with charcoal, crayon, and brush and ink. In this step-by-step book, he explains not only a number of drawing techniques and special effects but also his own method of developing a drawing to its fullest. You will learn about various breeds and their proportions, starting with their heads and then progressing to full bodies. And in addition to helpful drawing instruction, Horses also contains a wealth of beautiful equine drawings you can both copy and admire! It’s a fabulous addition to any artist’s drawing reference library.
“Draw 50 Horses” by Lee Ames
From the Amazon product review:
Draw 50 Horses by Lee Ames
Arabians, Pintos, Morgans and Clydesdales: jumping, bucking, rearing, grazing and kicking — all are in this collection of 50 drawings.
“How to Draw Lifelike Portraits from Photographs” by Lee Hammond
From the Amazon product review:
"How to Draw Lifelike Portraits from Photographs" by Lee Hammond
“The Artist’s Complete Guide to Facial Expression” by Gary Faigin
From the Amazon product review:
"The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expression" by Gary Faigin
Artists love this book, the definitive guide to capturing facial expressions. In a carefully organized, easy-to-use format, author Gary Faigin shows readers the expressions created by individual facial muscles, then draws them together in a
section devoted to the six basic human emotions: sadness, anger, joy, fear, disgust, and surprise. Each emotion is shown in steadily increasing intensity, and Faigin’s detailed renderings are supplemented by clear explanatory text, additional sketches, and finished work.
“How to Draw Faces” by Barbara Soloff Levy
From the Amazon product review:
"How to Draw Faces" by Barbara Soloff Levy
This easy-to-follow guide, with its step-by-step diagrams, makes it a snap to learn the basics of sketching the human face. By combining circles, ovals, squiggly lines and other shapes, would-be cartoonists can create realistic portraits of young girls modeling a variety of hairstyles; boys in baseball hats, curly-headed babies, older men and women, and more
“Facial Expressions: A Visual Reference for Artists” by Mark Simon
From the Amazon product review:
"Facial Expressions" by Mark Simon
All artists are tired of persuading their nearest and dearest to look sad…look glad…look mad…madder…no, even madder…okay, hold it. For those artists (and their long-suffering friends), here is the best book ever.
“The Artist’s Complete Guide to Drawing the Head” by William Maughan
From the Amazon product review:
"The Artist's Complete Guide to Drawing the Head" by William Maughan
In this innovative guide, master art instructor William Maughan demonstrates how to create a realistic human likeness by using the classic and highly accurate modeling technique of chiaroscuro (Italian for “light and dark”) developed by Leonardo da Vinci during the High Renaissance.
“Drawing Dynamic Hands” by Burne Hogarth
From the Amazon product review:
"Drawing Dynamic Hands" by Burne Hogarth
The most comprehensive book ever published on drawing hands uses a revolutionary system for visualizing the hand in an almost infinite number of positions.
“Drawing the Human Head” by Burne Hogarth
From the Amazon product review:
"Drawing the Human Head" by Burne Hogarth
In 300 extraordinary drawings, Hogarth shows how to draw the head from every angle, age the face from infancy to old age, and delineate every feature and wrinkle.
“Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators” by Mike Mattesi
From the Amazon product review:
"Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators" by Mike Mattesi
‘For animators or anyone exploring life drawing, this book is an inspirational choice.’ 3D World, Feb 2007 ‘Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators, 2e is key to understanding how to capture forceful poses with dynamic drawing. It is informative, concise, and packed full of inspirational illustrations…Force is not just another ‘anatomy for animators’ book – it assumes that the reader has experience of figure drawing. The focus here is to build on that knowledge and to use straight and curved lines to show the direction of force in the body. Every point in the text is thoroughly demonstrated with the help of superb, dynamically drawn examples.’ – Animated News, Oct. 2, 2006
“Figure Drawing: Design and Invention” by Michael Hampton
From the Amazon product review:
"Figure Drawing: Design and Invention" by Michael Hampton
Figure Drawing: Design and Invention is an instructional figure drawing book geared towards the novice and experienced artist alike. In approaching the figure, this book emphasizes a simplified understanding of surface anatomy, in order to allow for artists to understand invention and mechanics of the figure, creating a successful skill-set that can be applied in both traditional and computer-based fields. In addition, this book focuses very strongly on process. Unlike other drawing books that describe elements of the figure without a cohesive idea of how to assimilate them into an approach, this book is very heavy on practical usage. To this end, the figure is broken down into gesture, construction, anatomy, etc, all presented in the guise of understanding the human form while still favoring the artistic.
“The Drawings of Bronzino” by Carmen Bambach
From the Amazon product review:
"The Drawings of Bronzino" by Carmen Bambach
Drawings by the great Italian Mannerist painter and poet Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572) are extremely rare. This important and beautiful publication brings together for the first time nearly all of the sixty drawings attributed to this leading draftsman of the 16th century.
“Big Book of Drawing” by Lee Hammond
From the Amazon product review:
"Big Book of Drawing" by Lee Hammond
Now beginning artists can get all the drawing help they need in one convenient place.
Bestselling author Lee Hammond is known for her clear, basic methods for drawing nearly any subject. This giant book brings together the best projects from her other titles into one super-sized guide. Readers will find: – Popular subjects like people, animals, flowers and nature – An encouraging “You Can Do It” section – Clear step-by-step instructions to guarantee success – Chapters on choosing materials and mastering basic techniques
“Anatomy for the Artist” by Sarah Simbley
From the Amazon product review:
"Anatomy for the Artist" by Sarah Simbley
In Anatomy for the Artist, acclaimed artist and teacher Sarah Simblet unveils the extraordinary construction of the human body, and celebrates its continual prominence in Western Art.
The transparent body. Using superb, specially commissioned photographs of male and female models, together with historical and contemporary works of art, and her own illustrations, Sarah shows us how to see inside the human frame, to map its muscle groups, skeletal strength, balance, poise, and grace. Selected drawing superimposed over photographs reveal fascinating relationships between external appearance and internal structure.
“Classical Drawing Atelier” by Juliette Aristides
From the Amazon product review:
"Classical Drawing Atelier" by Juliette Aristides
Ateliers have produced the greatest artists of all time–and now that educational model is experiencing a renaissance. These studios, a return to classical art training, are based on the nineteenth-century model of teaching artists by pairing them with a master artist over a period of years. Students begin by copying masterworks, then gradually progress to painting as their skills develop. Classical Drawing Atelier is an atelier in a book–and the master is Juliette Aristides, a classically trained artist. On every page, Aristides uses the works of works of Old Masters and today’s most respected realist artists to demonstrate and teach the principles of realist drawing and painting, taking students step by step through the learning curve yet allowing them to work at their own pace. Unique and inspiring, Classical Drawing Atelier is a serious art course for serious art students.
“Keys to Drawing” by Bert Dodson
From the Amazon product review:
"Keys to Drawing" by Bert Dodson
A painter, teacher and illustrator, Bert Dodson is the author of the best-selling North Light book, Keys to Drawing. He’s illustrated more than 70 children’s books and worked as an animation designer for the PBS series, Intimate Strangers.
“Skulls” by Noah Scalin
From the Amazon product review:
"Skulls" by Noah Scalin
On June 4th, 2007, artist Noah Scalin came up with an ingenious idea: he cut a skull out of orange paper and posted it online with the note, “I’m making a skull image every day for a year.” His uniquely witty works became a wild success: five months later, nearly 250,000 people have visited the site, many sending in skull photos of their own and turning Scalin’s blog into one of the world’s top sites.
Why skulls? Noah answers, “why not?” He’s always found them fascinating, and these days, they’re found on everything from t-shirts to bumper stickers. But nothing equals Noah’s incredibly beautiful, odd, and often humorous pieces: they’re made from an astounding variety of materials, from toothpaste to melted candle wax, from tea leaves to plastic straws. One is even carved into a watermelon! (Yes, it was eaten.)
Each of the 150 skulls shown is accompanied by a brief description and fun anecdotal stories. As a bonus, there are four skull projects to make. Irresistibly merging pop, Internet, and craft culture, this fantastic collection provides an inspiring example of how to find creative potential in every aspect of daily life.
“The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” by Betty Edwards
From the Amazon product review:
"Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edward
A revised and expanded edition of the classic drawing-instruction book that has sold more than 2,500,000 copies.
When Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain was first published in 1979, it hit the New York Times bestseller list within two weeks and stayed there for more than a year. In 1989, when Dr. Betty Edwards revised the book, it went straight to the Times list again. Now Dr. Edwards celebrates the twentieth anniversary of her classic book with a second revised edition.
“Dynamic Figure Drawing” by Burne Hogarth
From the Amazon product review:
"Dynamic Figure Drawing" by Burne Hogarth
Figure drawing is the most essential–and the most difficult–of all skills for the artist to learn. In this book, Bruce Hogarth, one of the founders of the School of Visual Arts in New York, introduces his own revolutionary system of figure drawing, which makes it possible to visualize and accurately render the forms of the human body from every conceivable point of view. 300+ drawings & diagrams.
“Dynamic Anatomy” by Burne Hogarth
From the Amazon product review:
"Dynamic Anatomy" by Burne Hogarth
Praised by critics and teachers alike for more than 40 years, Burne Hogarth’s Dynamic Anatomy is recognized worldwide as the classic, indispensable text on artistic anatomy. Now revised, expanded, and completely redesigned with 75 never-before-published drawings from the Hogarth archives and 24 pages of new material, this award-winning reference explores the expressive structure of the human form from the artist’s point of view.
