Basics of Drawing || Leonardo Pereznieto

There are plenty of reasons to like this thoroughly sound introduction to drawing. The first, and perhaps most important, is the clarity of the lessons. Each one is concise without being terse, and admirably clear, with the accompanying illustrations and step-by-step demonstrations not adding unnecessary complication. The next is the quality of the illustrations themselves – Leonardo’s work, mostly in pencil, is soft and sensitive and does full justice to the medium, as well as complementing the text perfectly.

Chapters move from mark-making and basic shapes to individual topics such as composition,, scene-framing, creating a visual path through the image, and an introduction to drawing people. There is an extended section on perspective, which considers its different aspects (linear, aerial and three-point) separately, making the whole a great deal easier to follow.

As well as being a solid introduction, this is also an excellent primer and a revision aid to a variety of techniques. I did spot a very few infelicities of execution, but by no means enough not to recommend it.

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Simple Techniques for Realistic Drawings || Leonardo Pereznieto

There’s a rather charming simplicity to this straightforward guide that offers exactly what its title promises. The only qualification that might be required is that “realistic” refers to things that look lifelike rather than to hyper-realism, but this should broaden rather than narrow its appeal.

The subject matter is mostly hard surfaces and the book looks at how to handle reflections, curves and highlights. However, the author includes flowers and also water, on which he is particularly sound, handling movement particularly well.

There’s nothing ground-breaking in the approach, which is no bad thing – virtuoso displays in basic instruction are usually only distracting – and the explanations and demonstrations are both thorough and clear.

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