Sketching Masterclass

Here's a book on sketching published by Page One Publishing and authored by Ruzaimi Mat Rani.

Topics covered include basic skills like drawing 2D and 3D objects, perspective, composition and rendering techniques. It's for beginners so the book isn't too technical. The book focuses on drawing based on imagination rather than observational drawings. The examples featured are mostly drawn with construction lines and other aids.

There are many step by step tutorials to follow along. Most examples are on drawing inorganic inanimate items, like furniture, buildings with landscape. The figure drawing section is a bit too boxy. The lessons on perspective drawings are good enough.

The instructions are generally straightforward but they don't explain the why well. So it might be a bit difficult to absorb what's being taught. Certain sections aren't explained in full. For example, it teaches rendering techniques like hatching and shading but does not talk about tones even though the examples use them. The section on shadows talks about light source and direction but doesn't teach you how to draw them with the help of construction lines, so there's no way to know if you have drawn a shadow accurately. And the technique for drawing a straight line is to use two points as a guide and then connect them with a line?

This is a rather simplified book on sketching. Perhaps too simplified at times. It's more useful to beginners who want to learn perspective drawing since the coverage is more on perspective.

ISBN: 9789812459350