Bert Dodson

Many drawing and art instruction books are filled with finished drawings that talented, experienced artists have crafted. These types of books inspire one to learn to draw out of admiration for the beauty of the finished works, but often fall short of teaching to draw. At worst they ultimately discourage because those beautiful drawings are too hard to achieve immediately, especially for beginners.

Keys to Drawing is different from those books, not because it doesn't have some beautiful finished works, but because it also provides many messy drawings and exercises that disarm you and coax you into actually putting marks on paper. The goal throughout the book is to loosen up, play, and learn.

The progression of the book is well thought out and meanders through core topics like proportion, values, depth, and composition. There is a chapter that studies masters and one that develops strategies for flexing imagination. Again, unlike typical books, it weaves humor and playful drawings throughout that demonstrate many of the concepts. There is a good balance between stating rigid rules and breaking those rules.

One area that I feel the book doesn't touch upon enough is that of construction and developing drawings from forms. This book focuses more on drawing from observation than it does on staging subjects in your drawing and playing with them from imagination and rules of form. This topic is essential in animation and gesture drawing when one needs to draw a subject from a new view without being able to observe the actual scene. Artists study anatomy to be able to have this skill in figure drawings.

Overall, this book is the red pill for drawing. If you do even a few of the exercises, they will get you making marks and slowly improve your ability and inspire you to keep drawing.… (més)

For anyone who feels stumped with routine sketches and wishes to go beyond mundane doodles, this book provides the starting point. The author suggests many contrasting approaches to heighten the visual texturing of any drawing. I particularly like the variety of examples with adequate text to explain various technique, style, and theme. The self-paced exercises, however, do not build upon one another, so for the beginner, it is a daunting challenge. Yet for those who have some skill already, and need the extra mental muse, this key to drawing is highly recommended.… (més)

My review from Amazon:

I loved to draw as a little girl until my grade 5 art teacher held one of my "creations" up in front of my sister's class (she was very talented) and said, "can you believe they're sisters?". I was crushed and other than in art class, I never picked up a pencil again.

Fast forward 20 years where I see Bert Dodson's book "Keys to Drawing". I remembered how I used to love to draw and bought it on impulse. I started at page 1 and progressed through the book. The day my sister (the artist) walked into my house and seeing the drawing I was working on said, "nice drawing of Louis Armstrong" was one of the best moments of my life. By the way that was a drawing of Satchmo I was working on.

What I learned from Bert Dodson was that drawing is mostly about technique which anyone can learn. Although my masterpieces will never hang in a museum, they do hang in my home and my husband is very proud to have them there.

If you've always wanted to draw but thought you had no talent - buy this book. You will surprise yourself.… (més)