Watson-Guptill Drawing For the Absolute and Utter Beginner, Revised: 15th Anniversary Edition

I haven't done any of the lessons yet but flipped through it because I want to get through a few more things in my Keys For Drawing book first. The lessons seem to be very good for beginners with no drawing experience starting with basic and easy and progressing to more challenging as you go along. There's everything from still life to portraits to landscapeing. I was surprised at the thickness of the book and the binding seems very sturdy. It also covers different media and how to use them. Honestly, I couldn't find anything I disliked about the book.

This is the perfect beginners' book for sketching.

I unreservedly recommend Claire Watson Garcia'’s “15th Anniversary“ revision of her seminal book for beginning (and advancing) drawing students.For “new” beginners - this edition offers the superb organization and lucid explanations that characterize Claire’s first edition. Her exercises, tips and sample drawings continue to reflect her deep understanding of the ambitions (and frustrations) of new artists. Her students’ comments which accompany their drawings helpfully reinforce Claire’s lessons. They inspired me to think, “I can do it, too."For those who already know Claire’s first book, this extensively revised version is well worth its bargain price. She has included new chapters on “Adding Dimension to Contour Drawing” and “Drawing the Face - Three-Quarter View”. Her edits and additions provide greater flow, logic and clarity. And her revised graphics and layout are cleaner, more spacious and even better correlated with her text.In short, I believe this is a great book for beginners, and can carry them further than her first edition. Aspiring artists should be grateful that Claire has given us the benefit of her last 15 years of teaching.Kitty S.

This was a good book and I bought it because of the great reviews, there are lots of exercises...however I found them to be uninspiring and not much fun - there was no information or practice about drawing animals or plants or even rural scenes. It was all about Humans and inanimate objects and very matter of fact...the author clearly understands the psychology behind drawing and I'm sure that if you stick with it you will improve - but I think this could put complete beginners off particularly if you already have some natural ability, I just found it uninspiring and will probably give it away.

I borrowed a copy of this book from the library and loved it so purchased this copy. It is a very good tool for learning to draw. Sadly, Amazon crammed it into my mailbox which damaged the cover. It is permanently creased and does not lay flat. I hesitate to return or exchange because they threaten to not refund entirely at their discretion.