The book arrive on time for my first day of class. I cant thank you enough

I've got a fair pile of art books stashed around my home, and Bert Dodson's "Keys to Drawing" jumped to the top of the pile almost instantly once I'd opened the Amazon shipping box and I'd had chance to flip through a few pages.

Dodson doesn't bog you down with learning how to hold a pencil or asking you to draw lines and circles you are later told to erase. He has respect for his readers, and it shows.

It also bounces right back to him; Dodson has the amazing ability to make what looks impossibly difficult, possible. Right at the beginning, you start drawing SOMETHING, and that approach continues throughout the book. He shows you the importance of line and shading by asking you to draw what initially seemed to me to be way beyond my capabilities -- but once I simply followed his instructions [I expect he'd call them "suggestions"}, I suddenly discovered that I'd drawn something that has line and shading and the beginning of a personal style. That,in turn,creates in his readers instant feelings of capability in an area where you may earlier have fallen flat on your face. [Yes, I know that's an awkward sentence, but you get the idea.]

I started tinkering with the book last week [Tuesday, 6/2/10 to be precise] and by Friday Dodson had me emulating Van Gogh -- and I was 1) doing a very decent job of it, and 2) I realized that in just DAYS he'd taught me to do things that had flummoxed me for years.

The only area where I continue to be flummoxed is his system of determining perspective. I doubt that this is a difficulty he created in the way he suggests one determine perspective; I think that in this particular area we simply think in different ways. Which, in the end, turns out to be a good thing, because I realize that already, he's taught me to do things I never thought I'd be able to do in pencil or in any other medium.

I've also picked up his newer book, "Drawing with Imagination", which is utterly wonderful, and once again, Dodson knows how to push all the right buttons to get you thinking about ordinary things in very UN-ordinary ways. I really wish I could just leap instantly into that book, but I wanted to see what he'd published earlier to get a better "feel" for the way the man teaches, so I purchased "Keys to Drawing," and it's been a revelation. I'll finish "Keys" before I move into "Imagination," and not be unhappy about it, because I already know this man is GOOD.

To be precise, I think the man's a genius, and were I male I'd tip my hat to him. I really can't say enough good things about this book, and what I'll say to others will be simply: "Buy this book."

Once you do, you'll discover that you've launched yourself out into a marvelous adventure.

Because Dodson has chosen to boldly go where no one has gone before.

The best drawing book out there! I recommend this one to all of my adult and teen students.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R27B82B4AIGAX3 Here's a pretty good book for anyone who's thinking of picking up drawing. Bert Dodson has written it in a crisp straightforward manner. The are 55 keys of drawing, introduced at a very comfortable pace. Alongside are 48 easy-to-follow lessons.

The examples are all sketches from Bert Dodson, his students and selected pieces old art masters. They are all pretty sketchy but this book isn't about techniques on realistic drawings. It's also not about specific technical rendering techniques, although some are briefly introduced.

This book is really about the approach to drawing, which aims at helping students tackle any subjects confidently.

The principles are very similar to The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: A Course in Enhancing Creativity and Artistic Confidence. I prefer this book as the lessons are shorter but effective, and the book can be picked up at anytime after reading for some inspiration.

This book is recommended to beginner artists.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

I have purchased this book enthusiastically reading all the excellent reviews, and it is with mixed feelings that I write this review, since I was fooled by the good reviews which all lacked a neutral point of view. One thing that is crucial is do I want my drawing to be artistic, similar to painting, or do I want it to be illustrative, as in comic books? It is the difference between art and illustration. This is a book for illustrators, there is no doubt about it, and the author is an illustrator. This does not mean that the book is bad, but the book is a bad choice if you try to be an artist in the classical sense--it lacks information of the drawing's decomposition, upon making correct lines on the first try, detailed analysis on the changing of angles and on drawing the change, and it lacks the detailed discussion of the scope of the drawing tools, as would be needed for academic drawing. On the other hand, the author does not try to hide that this is a book on illustrating, and moreover that is a book mainly for beginners, so in a way my criticism is a bit unfair, since the ones to blame for the ill purchase I made of this book is not the author, but the reviewers.

Anyone who draws for some time know not only how to draw with an HB and a 4B pencil, but also how to draw with a songle pencil on any surface, but this could be a better subject than simple perspectives.

Or better to say, a book dealing with the analysis of the traces made by Escher or Kokoschka, i.e. what pencils did they use and how on which drawing would be more in the line of what I was looking for, and what the title suggested-- keys to drawing in my mind means tips on drawing, not drawing for beginners.

This book offers none of that. In my opinion, a better title would be ''Illustration for beginners'' or something similar, and in that case I would give it five stars, but the title is too badly misleading,and most of the reviews do nothing to correct the wrong impression one could have, so my final verdict is three stars: one star down for the misleading title and one star down for taking in account only the illustration part of drawing