- Paperback: 221 pages
- Publisher: Houghton Mifflin College Div; Later Printing edition (Jun 1975)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0395205484
- ISBN-13: 978-0395205488
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 17.5 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 389,280 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you are aiming at drawing becoming the main activity in your life, then this is definitely a book for you. Nicolaides takes his time to gradually introduce you to all the secrets and mechanics of drawing. He prepared nothing less than 64 drawing exercises arranged into 25 15-hour lessons, an equivalent of a whole year study at his Art Students’ League somewhere in 1930s.
For me drawing has always been more of a fun then a hard work. It must be for this reason that the book was a slight disappointment for me. I find its title slightly misleading: a natural way of doing something must surely be more spontaneous. I also expected more of master-level drawings hinting at what one could possibly achieve with such a laborious approach. However, the selection of pictures is limited to illustrating the text.
On the other hand, I am glad I bought the book. If drawing is the basis of fine art, then Nicolaides has his place in an artist’s library.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have had this book for several years and constantly turn back to it for advice.The examples of gesture drawing are especially helpful to beginner and experienced artists alike.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is one of the all-time classics on drawing, and rightly so. However, I seriously doubt that many people have (or will) work through the course as it's set out in the book.
There's a lot of good advice and excellent material here, but if you're a normal human being, you're going to get VERY tired of reading a short paragraph, then being told to go and spend three hours doing the exercises - especially as they'll be almost identical to the previous four three-hour schedules that you've already slogged through - and that's before you even get to Chapter Two!!!
Kimon Nicolaides died before completing this book, and it was put together from his notes. The message of the book is clear and essentially simple - you learn to draw by drawing. All the exercises in the book break down into one of three distinct approaches - very slow 'contour' drawing, very rapid 'gesture' drawing, and tone studies.
Initially I loved the book, and was happy with the idea that I was going to be doing hours and hours of drawing. I can't honestly say I felt the same after the first 20 hours or so, when I discovered that the next 20 hours (and the 20 after that, and after that) were going to be much the same - one-hour contour drawings done without looking at the page, thirty scribbled one-minute gesture drawings, and all of them just 'exercises', done and thrown in the bin (because the exercise is about getting an 'experience', not about making a finished drawing.)
I certainly won't be working though every 3-hour session in the book. I may be the loser for it, but dammit, I'm only human, and I have a life. And I want SOME time to spend on producing REAL drawings of things that I like, rather than endless exercises for the bin.
So my three-star review reflects the book in its current off-putting format. Personally I feel that someone needs to re-edit it, to make it usable in the real world. It certainly deserves to be put into a more user-friendly format, because some of the teaching material and insights are absolutely wonderful.
There's a lot of good advice and excellent material here, but if you're a normal human being, you're going to get VERY tired of reading a short paragraph, then being told to go and spend three hours doing the exercises - especially as they'll be almost identical to the previous four three-hour schedules that you've already slogged through - and that's before you even get to Chapter Two!!!
Kimon Nicolaides died before completing this book, and it was put together from his notes. The message of the book is clear and essentially simple - you learn to draw by drawing. All the exercises in the book break down into one of three distinct approaches - very slow 'contour' drawing, very rapid 'gesture' drawing, and tone studies.
Initially I loved the book, and was happy with the idea that I was going to be doing hours and hours of drawing. I can't honestly say I felt the same after the first 20 hours or so, when I discovered that the next 20 hours (and the 20 after that, and after that) were going to be much the same - one-hour contour drawings done without looking at the page, thirty scribbled one-minute gesture drawings, and all of them just 'exercises', done and thrown in the bin (because the exercise is about getting an 'experience', not about making a finished drawing.)
I certainly won't be working though every 3-hour session in the book. I may be the loser for it, but dammit, I'm only human, and I have a life. And I want SOME time to spend on producing REAL drawings of things that I like, rather than endless exercises for the bin.
So my three-star review reflects the book in its current off-putting format. Personally I feel that someone needs to re-edit it, to make it usable in the real world. It certainly deserves to be put into a more user-friendly format, because some of the teaching material and insights are absolutely wonderful.
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