Book Review: Expressive Drawing: A Practical Guide to Freeing the Artist Within

The multiple 5-star reviews on Amazon lead me to get this book. Unfortunately, it wasn't what I expected.

The book teaches expressive drawing as compared to representational drawing. Whether or not you'll like this book will depend on which drawing style you like.

Representational drawing aims to create a likeness to what's seen. Expressive drawing, at they teach in this book, aims to link the artwork to your ideas and emotions.

The guided lessons cover the art basics such as line, shapes, balance and others. There aren't any lessons on rendering shadows (representational art) or composition (e.g. golden arc/rectangle or guiding the eye).

Many lessons are give ideas on loosening up and playing around with art, with respect to the particular subject taught. However, the emphasis is on enjoying the drawing process, rather than worrying about the end product. Maybe because of that, many examples fall into the category which I'm not particularly fond of -- abstract art. I feel that it's difficult to appreciate these artwork unless you're the one who create them.

You can preview more pages on Google Books - I wish I had - before deciding if it's your type of book.

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