drawing books
The Sierra Club Guide to Sketching in Nature
By Cathy Johnson (Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1990)
By Cathy Johnson (Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1990)
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Though the focus is nature sketching, this book is applicable to all who want to improve their ability to draw the world around them. It's a good overview of basic drawing strategies and concepts. Also has a great overview of drawing materials and tools, composing your drawing, and more. I found my copy at a used book store; there are also still copies available on-line here and there.
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The Drawing Projects: An Exploration of the Language of Drawing
By Mick Maslen and Jack Southern (Black Dog Publishing, London, 2011)
By Mick Maslen and Jack Southern (Black Dog Publishing, London, 2011)
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Written by two artists with years of experience teaching drawing, this is a fantastic book of exercises that will immeasurably improve your drawing skills. It is full of things like drawing with your pencil at the end of a long stick, blind drawing, super-imposed drawings, and more -- all sorts of mark-making exercises that might make you feel like a crazy person while you are doing them, but if you do, they will build your foundations if you are a beginner, and expand your range if you are already experienced at drawing.
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Perspective Made Easy
By Ernest Norling (Dover Publications' reprint of the Macmillian Company 1939 edition)
By Ernest Norling (Dover Publications' reprint of the Macmillian Company 1939 edition)
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A fantastic overview of the principles of perspective, written for artists. I always struggled with perspective during my architecture-school years because the explanations seemed very math-y and technical. I couldn't keep track of what was meant by the left diagonal vanishing point and right this-a-ma-giggy and the that-a-mer that were supposed to help you show depth accurately. This book saved my life, because it explained the principles in terms of railroad tracks and bricks and things that made intuitive sense to me. It is a great help for field sketching, and drawing from your imagination, including sketching your architectural design ideas quickly in 3-D.
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An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration from the Private Sketchbooks of Artists, Illustrators, and Designers
By Danny Gregory (HOW Books: Cincinnati, OH, 2008)
By Danny Gregory (HOW Books: Cincinnati, OH, 2008)
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A really fun compendium of different drawing styles and subject matter, plus some words from each artist about their sketchbooks and how and why they use them. I have had it for years and re-visit it frequently. It is the kind of book that helps me remember that there is no right way to draw, and that sketchbooks are a place to test ideas without fear of failure.
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The Art of Urban Sketching: Drawing on location around the world
By Gabriel Campanario (Quarry Books: Beverly, MA 2012)
By Gabriel Campanario (Quarry Books: Beverly, MA 2012)
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Another gorgeous book of sketchbook drawings, this time with a focus on field-sketches of urban environments. The drawings are inspiring in their technique, diversity of style, and global scope. I love it because it makes me feel connected with people from all other the world who also draw. There's also a picture of the sketching kit used each of the sketchers, which is a nice education in technique. There's a network of Urban Sketchers around the world; for more info, click here.
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A book of drawing exercises, plus lots of examples of student work, from the drawing curriculum for architecture students at the Cooper Union, where the author is professor emerita. There is also a nice introductory essay by the late Dore Ashton that argues for the importance freehand life drawing for architecture students. To my own architecture students who are interested in self-study outside our own curriculum: these are great exercises to do. They are more than worth the time, and easy for you to do at home or in the field.
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