General

There are an amazing number of general introductions to drawing these days.  The following suggestions are recommended because they either offer a novel approach to beginning drawing or have stood the test of time, in part by going through several revisions during which they have been improved based on actual use in teaching studios across the country.

About the most comprehensive introduction to drawing available, this book has gone through several editions over nearly two decades and it’s steadily improved with each subsequent version. It does an excellent job of covering the vocabulary of drawing applications (e.g., "subjective" versus "objective") as well as the standard technical and formal issues (gesture drawing, positive and negative space, picture plane, value, line, texture, perspective, etc.). The authors’ attempt to discuss these matters in the context of contemporary art is especially noteworthy and sometimes productively thought-provoking (e.g., "Dominance of the Edge," "Continuous-Field Compositions") and the book concludes with some practical advice for the emerging artist regarding such questions as developing a body of work, looking at contemporary art, as well as useful appendixes on drawing materials and preparing completed drawings for exhibition. My only complaint about the book is the quality of the reproductions which are occasionally blurry or washed-out.

Here, too, is a book that has been admirably seasoned by having gone through several editions over the course of more than forty years. As the title suggests, the book places particular emphasis on the expressive possibilities of drawing right from the beginning. It touches nearly all the technical and formal matters (line, value, perspective, volume, color, media and materials, etc.) before devoting chapters to "expressive issues," "envisioned images," and "finding your way." There’s also an interesting chapter on "pathologies of drawing" that explores some common errors in novices’ drawings and how best to detect and correct them. The book is richly illustrated with a fine range of old master, contemporary, and student drawings that are very effectively selected to demonstrate the author’s points.

This book is in a class by itself because it relies in large part on a novel approach to drawing based on the right-brain/left-brain theory about the nature of people – those who are naturally creative and imaginative (right brain) versus those who are naturally logical and analytical (left brain). Edwards uses this theory by offering examples and exercises that help those who tend to be more analytical –and thus presumably have more difficulties drawing– to use visual analysis and logic to overcome creative deficits. Once she gets past the first few chapters in which these observations are illustrated, Edwards moves on to a series of chapters in which she applies the tools of visual analysis to various drawing issues and subjects (contours, negative space, perspective, proportion, cast and contained shadows, portraiture, etc.). Some consider the book very useful for students who are either totally stumped by drawing or who lack the confidence to pursue it in the first place. If you fall into one of these categories, it may be just the book for you and, once you’ve waded into drawing for awhile, you can move on to texts that delve into drawing techniques and issues in greater and more meaningful depth.

Perspective

Linear perspective is difficult to learn from books alone and all of the texts I have seen appear to assume the reader has some level of prior knowledge.  With these reservations in mind, the following two books are among the more accessible texts available for students struggling with fundamental perspective techniques.

This is a very concise and relatively short (eighty-seven page) book that covers all of the essentials with clear examples and accompanying descriptions.  It offers several sensible methods for handling basic perspective problems and I particularly like its emphasis on observing perspective effects in typical still-life or landscape drawing settings -- the kinds of situations beginning drawing students are likely to encounter.  It also has one of the best treatments of cast shadows in perspective around.

A more typical and longer text, this book also covers all the basics but with more emphasis on creating drawings of imagined settings or objects.  It is organized around a variety of exercises which are sensible, addresses topics that are particularly appropriate for beginning drawing students, and gives more attention than usual to landscape problems students will probably encounter.  I particularly like the author's advice on troubleshooting and his section on how to spot and fix "Common Goofs."

Figure Drawing

Drawing the human figure is one of the oldest traditions and greatest challenges in art.  In general, students ought to develop a strong command of still-life drawing with particular attention to such fundamentals as scale and proportion, perspective, volume, and cast and contained shadows before moving on to the far more demanding tasks of rendering the human form.  The best books on figure drawing assume their readers already have a fairly sophisticated command of essential drawing skills -- the following texts are no exception.  One other point, it is impossible to learn figure drawing without drawing from life. 

Clint Brown and Cheryl McLean, Drawing from Life, 2nd edition (Fort Worth, Texas: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1997).

This is a particularly well-organized book for the purposes of self study.  It progresses in an orderly fashion through the basics of sketching as a structural basis for more developed drawings, proportions and perception, and the function and expressive possibilities of line and value before moving on to the essentials of human anatomy: the overall structure of human form, limbs, and heads and portraiture.  The book concludes with overviews on composition and the uses of various formal approaches ranging from the somewhat conceptual to expressionistic.  The book is richly illustrated both with technical examples rendered by the authors, anatomical images from medical-school anatomies, and exemplary drawings from the history of art and by contemporary artists.  All the illustrations are intelligently selected and clearly make the authors' points.

Nathan Goldstein, Figure Drawing: The Structure, Anatomy, and Expressive Design of Human Form, 6th edition (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2004).

While this book is a bit less clearly organized than the Brown and McLean text, it is far more detailed and analytical with regard to the nuances of human anatomy.  The discussions and accompanying illustrations related to the bone and muscular structure are more extensive, and the author uses photographs of male and female models throughout the anatomy sections to complement his use of medical-text illustrations and diagrams (see, especially, final chapter: "A Gallery of Visual Resources").  As he suggests in the book's subtitle, the author also devotes a considerable amount of attention to the key elements of expressive drawing, including composition and various rendering techniques ranging from very controlled and realistic to very gestural and suggestive.  Here, too, the author illustrates his points with an outstanding selection of works by old masters, as well as modern and contemporary artists.