Book Review: Look Closer, Draw Better: Expert Techniques for Realistic Drawing

Look Closer, Draw Better is an insightful and very hands-on book with the goal of helping you elevate your drawing skills.

The author Kateri Ewing is an artist and teacher based in New York. I've actually reviewed some of her Craftsy online courses before and they were terrific. This book is sort of the physical version of those courses.

This book has several full-length step-by-step tutorials complete with instructions that you can follow along. A large reference photo is provided right at the start, and numerous in-progress pictures are provided. The instructions talk not only about the techniques but also explains the rationale behind them. This is a very detailed book. Everything is properly explained, all the tools are introduced and basic techniques are taught.

The drawing media used in this book are graphite (pencil), charcoal, pen and ink, and watercolour. You will need those tools to follow along. No point just reading since drawing is an activity.

Kateri Ewing has a rather delicate style. The example artworks are lovely.

This is a terrific instructional book. Highly recommended.

If you like this book, check out Mark Crilley's The Realism Challenge: Drawing and Painting Secrets from a Modern Master of Hyperrealism for more practice.

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Look Closer, Draw Better: Expert Techniques for Realistic Drawing is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | AU | JP | CN)

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