Cover Image: Draw Like an Artist: 100 Realistic Animals

Draw Like an Artist: 100 Realistic Animals

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A great book that facilitates learning how to draw animals. Strongly recommend this for beginner and even intermediate artists. The simple breakdown into shapes and step by step instructions are very helpful.

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Draw Like An Artist: 100 Realistic Animals by Melissa Washburn leaves me with mixed feelings... on the one hand, when I attempt to draw from it, I feel like I'm missing some important component -- the one that makes the drawing actually look like a real animal. I believe that comes from practicing from life, over and over, actually drawing real life animals.

On the other hand, I like this book much more than many others of the oval and circle type -- and I feel like my results actually look like more like a real animal and not just a cartoon figure.

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Draw Like an Artist: 100 Realistic Animals
by Melissa Washburn

Step-by-Step Realistic Line Drawing
A Sourcebook for Aspiring Artists and Designers


Wondering how to draw domestic and/or wild animals and make sure someone knows what you have drawn? This book might be the one for you.

What I picked up:
* Watch real animals at home, outside and in places like zoos.
* Minimal detail is to give the idea of fur, feathers and such
* Get down the basic shapes and distances from say head to body and then refine and add in connecting lines to bring it all together
* A new to me idea was to draw the parts of animals that are NOT seen (back legs) because that way you will know where the part is and it is more likely to be in proportion
* That hard pencils should be used for sketching as they are lighter and easier to erase and then a soft pencil is to be used later to finished
* That I should be sketching more than I do now.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I like to have it in my library? I think so

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Quarry for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

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I love drawing books and especially love drawing animals so this is the perfect drawing book. It's easy to understand and following the tips and directions. This is a great book and recommend it

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Draw Like An Artist: 100 Realistic Animals: Step-by-Step Realistic Line Drawing may be a mouthful of a title, but I can assure you that it delivers on the one major promise that it makes. This is a guide that will show you how to draw hundreds of different animals.
The artwork inside Draw Like An Artist is simple, but in this case, that’s a good thing. There’s less distraction going on. And if we’re being honest, the simple line art is significantly less intimidating for those just starting out.
I cannot stress this enough; Draw Like An Artist has hundreds of drawings for reference material within its pages. We’re talking about a huge variety of animals, from birds to horses, and everything in between.
This is a book that is both perfect as an instructional guide, and as a reference book. It’s one you’re going to want on your shelves, if you think there’s any chance you’ll be drawing lots of animals in your future.

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Draw Like an Artist: 100 Realistic Animals is a step-by-step tutorial guide for artists in the Draw Like An Artist series. Due out 17th Dec 2019 from Quarto on their Quarry imprint, it's 112 pages and will be available in paperback format.

These books all follow the same format. A very short introduction (10% of the content) gives some basic tips and very (very) brief overview of recommended materials. The following chapters contain short step-by step progress illustrations for line drawing 100 animals by category: household animals, domestic animals, wild animals, birds, reptiles/amphibians/cephalopod (octopus), and a final chapter with specific studies which incorporate perspective and specific parts such as fur.

These are very simple single page 5-8 step illustrations. The finished drawings are not part of a composition, and there is no written direction involved. All of them are simple enough to not really require directions. None of them are beyond the ability of keen amateur level. Correspondingly, there is little here which will challenge advanced artists.

This would make a superlative choice for young artists or adult learners, especially bundled with drawing supplies. There are several other companion volumes available also (flowers, faces, and some others probably).

Four stars (given the limitations).

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I have really enjoyed the Draw Like an Artist series. This book is no exception. With just a few supplies, the author shows you how to take simple shapes and turn them into more complex drawings of common animals. There is not a lot of text, but if you are a more visual learner, you should be able to catch on quickly.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a digital ARC!

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This is an art instruction book on using graphite pencil to draw realistic line drawings of animals. After the brief introduction to her method, the author provided step-by-step drawings for 85 animals with one animal demonstrated per page. She then had 15 pages of close-up details for dogs, cats, and horses (heads, paws, fur, and such). There's no text in the demonstrations, just 6-8 easy-to-follow steps leading from basic shapes to help block in angles and positions to adding details and cleaning up the guidelines.

The author demonstrated how to draw a wide variety of animal types so you can apply the lessons from one animal to similar animals. She covered common animals like dogs, cats, and other pets, farm animals, wild land animals, marine animals, and birds. Overall, I'd recommend this book to beginning artists who want to improve or learn how to do realistic line drawings of animals.

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Thank you to NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy of this book. I received this in exchange for my honest review.

This "book" has 4 pages of tips and then a hundred pages of showing you how to boost up a line drawing with a little bit of shading... with NO words. I wouldn't say this has any direction in detailing to animal faces or being realistic at all. I will agree that it is helpful with form, anatomy and spatial relationships but I wouldn't recommend this book to any one becoming an author who would be interested in expanding their knowledge on these topics. As a self learned artist, there are a lot of books that do these lessons in a much better way.

Apparently, this author has a whole series like this with flowers and humans. I am not motivated to recommend any of her books in this series.

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If you want to draw any animal then this book will give you the basics. But don’t expect it to be anything more than a generic image of a cat, a wolf or a horse. The soul of the animal you can only achieve by drawing from life. Having said that, this is a good book of it’s type. That is, breaking forms down into basic shapes and then working them up to representations of the animal. It doesn’t work for me but it will for others. If it gets you drawing then it’s good.

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I got this book from NetGalley and the publishers (thank you, kindly) in exchange for an honest review.

It is good. I assume it is not designed for complete beginners (although it could absolutely be used as one!) but it is wonderful. The species covered vary a lot from domesticated to wild, birds, fish, and mammals.

I love the detail put into the step-by-step schematics of what to do, although I wish it contained more "details" as to how to add details. Personally, I could improve with this, so think.

I love the motion shown in the final pieces of art and the presence of simplified anatomy lessons. This is brilliant and deserves a place in libraries and book stores, if not in art classes.

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This book is a terrific resource for drawing so many different types of animals! Melissa Washburn breaks down complex animals, which can seem a bit intimidating, into manageable shapes and parts, allowing the drawing to come to life in easy steps. If you've ever wanted to draw animals but didn't know where to start, this is a perfect book for you. The introduction has a lot of helpful hints and instruction, and I was really impressed with how many animals were included, ranging from the small to large, dogs to birds to turtles, and even an octopus! There's even a helpful section at the back to help with wings, feed/claws, and fur to assist with the ending details for your drawing. So many different creatures and all much easier to approach with this great reference!

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Love the simplicity of this book. Simple but so useful, making it easy for anyone to follow. Love the drawings showing all the steps how to create the drawing.
This is one of the best books I have seen about how to draw animals. It is accessible for anyone, no matter how much or how little experience they have of drawing animals.
Highly recommend this book

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As someone who feels as if I’m not as talented in the drawing ability, this book is an awesome and fun way to learn some new skills. Plus, it’s really fun to learn how to draw animals. It’s also a great resource for teaching kids.

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Excellent book for learning to draw a variety of animals. There is no waffle just step by step progressive drawings to follow. The book can be used by complete beginners or established artists as a quick reference guide. It is simple to follow and well structured with a wide selection of animals to choose from. Some more difficult than others. Definitely a great book to keep for reference.

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DRAW LIKE AN ARTIST: 100 REALISTIC ANIMALS is a very good primer for drawing simple but realistic animals. Easy and well laid out. I especially liked that this one could be shared with my granddaughter. She's already doing much better than I am at drawing them. We've tried a number of the various different animals; but right now she enamored with horses, so she has spent a good deal if her time practicing those.

Recommend for budding artists and those who think they can't draw.

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This book was sent to me to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

What a fantastic book to start off learning about art and drawing.
This book gives amazing graphic pictures in step by step visual instructions that are easy and simple to follow on each pafe for each animal.
I loved the pictures in this book and have really got in the mood to have a go at these animals as I've read through the book .

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Very nice art instruction book for animals. Highlights include detailed page just for some tricky parts like cat paws and horses legs. I tried to draw the squirrel and dog, pretty pleased with my first attempt. I like that the guide lines are shown in all the steps so you can see what changed. Thanks to net galley and the publisher for the digital ARC to review.

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Draw Like an Artist: 100 Realistic Animals features step-by-step instructions on drawing a wide variety of animals, 100 in fact. It's likely your favorite animals are included. There are pets, farm animals, zoo animals, and wild animals. The drawings are simple line drawings, but that makes them perfect for coloring with pencils or watercolors or your favorite medium, should you wish. I immediately started drawing one of the animals as soon as I finished paging through the book. It looked that easy, and it really was. The book is somewhat reminiscent of Lee Ames' Draw 50 Animals, from many years ago, but that book was aimed more at children and I think this one is more for adults although older children would certainly enjoy the book. I plan on buying the print version of this book when it is released. I really like it that much. It's perfect for those of us who like to draw but often don't know what to draw.

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This book is excellent and very well presented. The drawings are not too complex but still detailed enough for more advanced artists. Excellent reference and I will be looking for more from this author. I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.



































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