Whenever someone says they can't draw I don't believe them. Everyone has the ability to learn to draw. True, there are people who are born with the natural ability to draw, but that doesn't mean that everyone can't learn to draw. It takes effort (oh, yes effort) to learn to draw well, but almost anyone can do it well with practice. Whenever asked about the subject I always come back with the same response, "Get yourself a copy of 'Drawing the Head and Figure' by Jack Hamm."
This book won't teach you to draw everything, but it is an excellent resource for those who want to learn figure drawing. In fact - this is a book that every single artist must have in their library. It has everything in it that a person would need to know to draw the figure well.
This book is fully illustrated and there are several examples for every description. The skeletal and muscular system are completely explained. I love how Jack Hamm give the explanation of how the muscles work and how the proportions of the body change as it moves.
The details that he gives for every example are simply amazing. The planes of the male face are explained as is aging and youth. He devotes whole pages to lips, noses, hair ears, hands, and feet. He also goes beyond the human body to explain clothing and drapery. The one thing I would like to be added to this book is more about drawing children. Even then I would give this book my highest recommendation.
If you are interested in buying this book you can go to your local bookstore or buy it here: Drawing the Head and Figure (Perigee)
I love fiction, I really do, but I've made it a habit to keep a large amount of non-fiction in the house. That's actually an understatement. I have a bookshelf (a shrine really) that is dedicated only to Non-Fiction books. Most of these books have to do with drawing, writing and a few of them are for the creation of Children's Books.
Since I have such a large collection of these books I've decided to share them here. Every week I will reviewing a book related to the creation of art on this blog. There will be a link at the bottom for anyone who would like to purchase said books through Amazon.
Before I get caught up in this blog thing I'd like to introduce my readers (as fictional as they may be at this time) to illustrations I've done in the past. The first four were done in Photoshop, while the last 5 are in more traditional media. I believe water colours were used in all of these. Other media include acrylics, pastels, pure pigment, various water-based mediums (or is it media?) and ink.
Though many of these images work on their own, I would prefer to have a more cohesive body of work. Most of the work I will be doing here will not be digital because I have little access to decent photo/painting software. I hope you enjoy the following illustrations:
An eternity will have gone by and I will have done nothing.
That's what will happen if I just keep thinking about this blog.
Dani Duck's Children's Illustration/Writing Blog (or some such).
Days, months, maybe even a year has gone by with me just thinking about how I'm going to make this blog work. That's the kind of person I am. I'm a thinker. I usually do fairly well when I go right out and do something, but I usually don't. Like I said: I'm a thinker.
This will not be a sketch blog. I planned that for 365 days - did it for 189 days and stopped. I had a baby, and other things happened. Life happened. Now here I am starting over.
I will be sharing my art and the development of my portfolio. I'm also going to share my experiences on the road to being published. There will be a certain level of insanity involved, and many things will be thrown out the window. All explosions will be imaginary, but I promise this blog will remain loosely based in reality.
I hope you will join me along for the ride.
(the real) Dani Duck
