Brims with information on drawing techniques, media, and artistic examples. Technical information and tips on perspective, measure and form analysis, rendering light, shade, and shadow, portrait drawing, figure sketching, and outdoor sketching.

Drawing is experiencing an unparalleled surge in the art world. Passé notions that once defined drawing as being a preparatory stage for painting or sculpture have long since been cast aside. Drawing is now fully recognized as its own art form—in the biennials, art fairs, museum exhibitions, and beyond. Drawing has come of age. Contemporary artists are increasingly discovering that drawing is something unique and different from painting. It is an intense, sensitive, compelling, personal, and utterly direct art form, one with its own concepts, characteristics, and techniques. In addition, contemporary drawing is not governed by any particular imagery, but rather encompasses a variety of approaches, including realist, abstract, modernist, and post-modernist. Contemporary Drawing delves into the essential and far-reaching concepts of this medium, exploring surface, mark, space, composition, scale, materials, and intentionality in turn. Key techniques, such as using nature to induce marks and working with a checklist to determine a drawing’s problems, are introduced throughout. Plus, an in-depth chapter examines a number of artists, such as William Kentridge and Gego, who are breaking traditional boundaries that separate one artistic discipline from another. Lushly illustrated by a wide range of highly accomplished contemporary artists, Contemporary Drawing offers a broad perspective on this expansive and energized field of art.

Discover the Keys to Creating Beautiful Drawings with Master Artists Between these pages, artists of all backgrounds will find anything and everything they need to know about drawing. With thorough explanations of materials and their composition, step-by-step demonstrations, and practical advice for creating compositions, The Big Book of Drawing is a comprehensive authority on the medium that is the foundation of all other visual arts. Learn how to handle charcoal, pastel, pencil, and an array of inks; master various shading techniques, including cross-hatching and chiaroscuro; and discover the secrets to constructing attractive and unique compositions. Aspiring artists will learn from the best, with a plentiful array of work by old masters, such as Van Dyke, Rembrandt, Gainsborough, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, and others. This combination of a detailed instruction book and folio of masterpiece art inspires and informs artists in a way that no other drawing book does.

A book for all ages who desire some kind of personal expression in the graphic arts and will welcome a teacher who can help them discover the most pleasant and practical means of satisfying their creative urge. The book presents a wide coverage of technical information which includes instruction in such important basic areas as perspective, proportion, form analysis, llight and shade.

Shows a variety of drawings of landscapes, buildings, and architectural details, and offers advice on papers, pencils, and erasers, as well as pattern, shadow, texture, and perspective.