Amazon.com.au:Customer reviews: Drawing Is for Everyone: Simple Lessons to Make Your Creative Practice a Daily Habit - Explore Infinite Creative Possibilities in Graphite, Colored Pencil, and Ink (Art is for Everyone)

There are 0 reviews and 1 rating from Australia

Woodlynch

Kateri Ewing has done it again, in Drawing is for Everyone!!!

Reviewed in the United States on 22 July 2021

I would say I am an experienced artist, but this book and the other two books of Kateri Ewing, just keep teaching me new techniques and things I never would have thought to do. I am only into a couple of the simplified lessons that anyone could do, but already I have had that ah-ha moment a couple of times. This is the book for anyone who thought they could never draw a straight line, and as Kateri points out, there are no mistakes, no right or wrongs. I highly recommend it!

22 people found this helpful

Johann

A graceful, gentle, beautiful introduction to drawing

Reviewed in the United States on 21 July 2021

Verified Purchase

This is a graceful, gentle, beautiful introduction to drawing. With just a few pencils, paints, and markers, the author leads even the most tentative new artists through short and easy but expressive lessons that leave you realizing you actually do have artistic ability. Having already tried some myself, I think this would make a gift for someone who wants to get started drawing, in whatever medium, but doesn’t know where or how to begin.

16 people found this helpful

Roxbnak

Fun book!

Reviewed in the United States on 14 January 2022

Verified Purchase

This book makes drawing a specific style easy. Inspired me to actually sit down and make art

6 people found this helpful

Process breakdown

Reviewed in the United States on 10 August 2021

I think the author did a great job by breaking down the process and teaching you how to see the figure, how to construct it, and finally how you should apply these techniques. Each lesson is summarized then followed by tools you need to gather for that lesson then further breaks down the steps.
I feel like this book would be perfect for a beginner but also a little fun to dabble with different mediums as an advanced artist.

16 people found this helpful

Mr & Mrs Bottoms

finally a drawing book with realistic standards!

Reviewed in the United States on 11 August 2021

I am usually hesitant with drawing books because often they are so unrealistic with their instructions. They always go from two circles and a box to some magnificent landscape portrait with full color. This book, however, is more on my level. It doesn't just show one specific outcome, but multiple options done by other "real" people (it even names them, how adorable)! I love how simple yet beautiful some of the art examples are. It's something I can sit and do with my 8 year old and not have him stress about his art not looking like the end result in the book. Anyhow, I'm excited to really dive into this book, I read through it thoroughly and was so relieved with the simplicity and skills it teaches.

12 people found this helpful

A. Dauria

Good for newbies and those looking for inspiration

Reviewed in the United States on 10 August 2021

I've read through all 21 lessons and have started playing around with a few of the exercises. Overall, this book is a very painless entry into the world of drawing (graphite, colored pencil, and ink - 7 lessons on each).

I am little more experienced, though by no means good, but still found inspiration in a number of the exercises. They also include the kinds of things I might want to doodle at a boring business meeting or just do for semi-mindless practice when I don't want to create a proper drawing.

The author clearly has a certainly style, and of course the lessons and exercises will reflect that to some extent, though she also does a great job of providing the reader freedom to be creative and deviate from her instructions. Many of the exercises and lessons focus on free, creative drawing rather than representing things realistically.

While there are a few examples of drawing things that look semi-realistic, much of it is interpretive or abstract. If you are looking for something to give facial/body proportions, still life, or perspective studies, this isn't the book for that. But in that there's some freedom, even for an experienced artist, to try something more creative and free and see where it takes you.

Overall, a worthwhile addition to the art library.

14 people found this helpful

S. B.

Genuinely achievable drawing exercises

Reviewed in the United States on 2 February 2022

This is the kind of drawing book I’ve been looking for. It starts out very simple, then gently guides you through exercises to learn techniques that will make it possible for you to create something that you could proudly call “art,” even if you are as unartistic as I am.

The book starts out with lessons in pencil (graphite). For this, the author recommends that you have these supplies:

Artist-grade pencils in 2H, HB, 3B, 5B, 7B, 9B
Eraser (such as kneaded or putty, stick eraser, or white plastic eraser)
Pencil sharpener
Paper-blending sticks or tortillons
Drawing paper (90# or higher cotton with vellum finish preferred, about 5x7 inches)
Feather or soft brush

So you can see that you’ll have a bit of a shopping list for this section. These supplies could be had for around $35 and up.

The next section is colored pencils. You’ll need colored pencils, a sharpener, and drawing paper (in white or a variety of pastel colors).

Then there is the ink section. For this, the author says you don’t need artist-grade; you could just use any pens you have on hand (or raid your kids’ markers). You’ll also need a round watercolor brush in size 6 or 8.

A resources page goes into more detail about the supplies the author recommends.

Overall, this is an excellent and very, very non-intimidating book for beginning to draw things. The supplies needed will cost you a bit of money, but they should last a while and will be a good investment in developing a relaxing, satisfying hobby.

6 people found this helpful

Book lover

A beautiful and useful book

Reviewed in the United States on 9 November 2021

First off, I must disclose that I am an absolute beginner (always felt that I have absolutely no talent, so why bother? only humiliation!) at drawing and any form of artwork.

I have truly enjoyed working with this book, and plan to go right back to the beginning and redo the exercises when I finish. That won't be for a while, because I am so enjoying my slow, easy pace through the book.

The exercises are fun and quite doable. I was immediately drawn in with the very first one, exploring shading and gentle touches with the pencil. I found myself so enjoying just the physical motion of applying a little color to the page that it quickly became almost addictive and very relaxing, kind of in the way that knitting and crocheting, etc. can be.

I found the exercises to be very simple and well explained. Where things seem a little more advanced, I just gve myself lots of leeway, and try to learn all I can from my humble efforts. I have loved trying to imitate the examples given, and I feel that it has helped not only the way I see things in the present, but my visual memory in general.

I love the layout of the book, and the cover, with its gentle soothing images, and I love the examples and lessons in the book. It has been almost literally eye opening to look at the examples and see so much in them to learn from and play with.

Most of all, I love the author's attitude, which she sets out in the introduction, and maintains throughout the book. She offers beautiful and gentle encouragement and warmth, seeing drawing as a deeply personal, meditative activity, and down playing harsh self-criticism or unfavorable comparison with other artists. All of this good stuff shines through the book, and kept me motivated and intrigued.

This is a beautiful and heartfully written book, and a wonderful introduction to drawing from someone who clearly follows her own instructions for drawing, rest and release, and for adding beauty to the world. Most highly recommended.

3 people found this helpful

Not for the Rank Beginner

Reviewed in the United States on 5 October 2021

I have an interest in drawing and over time I have accumulated a modest collection of books on the subject of drawing - mostly basics but also some specific books on different topics. I was interested in this book and selected it with the idea of getting a fresh perspective.

I disagree with some of the other reviewers here in that I don’t consider this a book for newbies and/or absolute beginners. Most books on drawing start with some foundational lessons - basic shapes, very simple drawing techniques, perspective and more. This book seems to rely on the reader to have these basics down already. That’s not a problem but can come as a surprise for the unprepared. This is foundational stuff on which other concepts rely, and without these skills the process is harder. If you’re looking for a book that teaches the absolute basics of drawing, this isn’t it.

Not everything in this book requires such skills, though. There are a number of interesting concepts presented that require more of a creative eye and a desire to experiment than the ability to draw a realistic object. A good example of this is a section entitled “Word Play” which uses less concrete technique and more creative vision to build something creative from hollowed letters.

I look at this book more as an idea book than a book on learning how to draw. There’s value in that, though not what someone who wants to learn how to draw in the first place will need. There are presentations on drawing certain types of scenes and animals, of course the lettering as mentioned above, and quite a bit of abstracts as well.

This is a nice book and it will help someone looking for ideas of what to draw to get a creative nudge. What it will not do is teach the beginner how to draw in a more general sense and does not present the basics as do many other books.

3 people found this helpful

GardenCat

Instructional, projects build skill and confidence

Reviewed in the United States on 13 August 2021

This is a large/tall paperback. It's a good book for teens and adults who want to increase their drawing skill. It's really not a how to draw this or that book, but rather a series of projects that are designed to increase skill and confidence.
It reminded me of my college Drawing 101 class. For instance, one of the projects is to draw found botanicals. We did this sort of project often, and it really increases observational skill for details.
The book has a good review of materials, too. The projects use a range of them. The book and it's projects are not really exciting- they are more like work, but doing projects like these can really increase skill
level quickly.

3 people found this helpful

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4 star		21%
3 star		3%
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1 star		4%

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