One Drawing A Day: A 6-Week Course Exploring Creativity with Illustration and Mixed Media (One A Day)

Even if you are an experienced artist, this book is great to loosen up your style and try different media that you might not have used in the past or just forgot about using. Some of the exercises are basic, so even if you don't consider yourself an artist, but would like to expand your creativity, this book would work for you. In the end I had a very interesting, eclectic sketchbook, each page with a different point of view, in media and styles that I didn't know I had in me! It has become my favorite sketchbook to look at and get inspiration from. Just have fun with art again!

The media could not be loaded.  This is a book that grew out of the One Drawing a Day blog.There are 42 interesting daily exercises aimed at giving you ideas on what to draw, and encourages encourage exploration and experimentation. Some involves drawing simple subjects around the house, some encourages you to draw outdoors, drawing the nature or people at a cafe.The instructions are minimal but give you a good starting point to generate more ideas on things you can draw. The exercises require you to find a subject to draw, something you can see and use a reference, and not on conjuring ideas from imagination. The drawing style you can use are suggested by the exercises. We're not talking about realistic representational drawings but more on the loose and expressive.It's important to note that this is a mixed media book. There are lessons that require different materials, like charcoal, watercolour, crayon, bamboo pen, etc. If you don't already have them, it might be difficult to follow along. A lesson that requires using watercolour can't really be substituted with other materials without losing the point of the lesson.This is not a book for beginners with absolutely no idea on how to draw. You can be asked to draw portraits, and that requires observation skills that are taught not in the book. However, it's a fine book to pair with beginner drawing books.The ending gallery features the work of artists from Studio 1482, which author Veronica Lawlor is part of. Other artists includes Despina Georgiadis, Eddie Peña, Dominick Santise, Kati Nawrocki, Greg Betza, Michele Bedigian and Margaret Hurst.I'll recommend this book to those who want to keep their mind creative, and those who just want to have fun drawing.(There are more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

I absolutely love this book!If you're just beginning to draw and sketch, the author's gentle approach will appeal to you. Her own drawings are loose and sketchy, fully of energy and personality -- no tight, perfect renderings here. She starts you out with some valuable instruction on setting up a basic home studio and assembling a kit for working on location, and her first exercise is a very easy still-life setup. The author also suggests trying different drawing tools such as a dip pen, bamboo pen, charcoal, watercolor brush, as well as graphite pencils and pens. Her "try this" approach to teaching is engaging for beginners as well as refreshing and inspiring for more advanced sketch artists and illustrators.I also enjoy the fact that this book is full of eye-candy: lots and lots of colorful drawings and paintings by the author and other contributing artists, with a gallery of artists' drawings and paintings in the back.Whether you're a novice or a more advanced artist seeking new creative exercises to inspire you, I think you'll get a lot out of this book. The lessons are fun, practical and inspiring, the artwork is top-notch, and the accompanying text is not only instructional but provides fascinating insight into the background behind the art. After reading this book, I felt a kinship with the author and the seven artists who contributed their drawings and ideas.Each exercise challenges us to try something new, and to see our surroundings in new ways. For example, on page 59 you'll find exercise 20, drawing crowds of people. "The main thing is to look for the body language of the people and at how the crowd has a shape of its own. Don't find yourself drawing each person separately: Notice how one shape of a person connects to the other." What a fantastic way to approach drawing on location! I never thought of drawing "shapes of crowds" before, but I'm sure that I will do so from now on. And this is just one of the many tips the author shares throughout One Drawing a Day.As I said before, I really love this book, and I think you will too. It's definitely a keeper!Sharilyn Miller, author of Bead on a Wire

This is a nice book if you take it seriously. However, I would not go running to the art supply store to buy all the things they tell you to buy to start. I would suggest you begin with what you have at home and see if you get connected to the book and the explanation. it has really nice prompts and allows you to be free with no judgement on what you draw - although my kids were pretty judgemental "mom, that really does not look like a glass!!". Like all these books, it only works if you are committed to it.

Attempting to put the creative juices to work. Somehow fun plans are set aside for whatever. Planning includes a schedule with the need to block out/in the time to create in a constructive way. One Drawing A Day: A 6-Week Course Exploring Creativity with Illustration... identifies it perfectly. Provides useful exercises to move ideas forward and 'do something.' Always feel inadequate as a late bloomer and elementary in style. The message to myself is to keep at it, everyone starts somewhere and accept the profound position you are in. This writing by Veronica Lawlor pulls me along into my uncharted territory. It's been fun.

I found this a very good book. There is nothing particularly revelatory about it, but the idea is nice and the 42 exercises to take you through 6 weeks are varied (I've looked ahead). I found the illustrators contributing all interesting and highly professional (they are a group of artists who linked up at art school and still correspond). This is definitely illustration rather than 'fine art' and you'll be able to see the style of the contributors from the cover and sample pages - they use distortion and mixed media really imaginatively. I've started the 'course' this morning...

if like me you have lost the ability to draw after having a stroke,this book is helpful as the ideas get you thinking.Ive followed the lessons but I think it is going to take longer than six weeks.However,the main premise draw every day is good as practise may help me when Im thinking what shall I draw?Do have a go especially if you think you can't draw.Yyou may surprise yourself.

I like this book but my wife , for whom it was bought,does not. We are both experienced amateur artists. I have no problem finding subject matter all day every day but my wife seems to need more inspiration. I thought this book with its guiding format and examples of work ( which seems to me to be very much the sort of thing most of us actually achieve in sketchbooks ) would do the trick. It has not worked for her but I still think it is does what it sets out to do.A book for those starting on the drawing road perhaps.

As previous reviewers have said - this is not a 'How to book' but one to encourage you to get on and just draw. Wonderful illustrations and ideas for using different mediums. Good for those who are keen beginners or the more experienced artist who needs motivation.

I always look and read works about drawing from scholarly treatises to how to manuals, in order to enrich and complement my own practise. I have embarked in an ambitious drawing and text project that will take another five years to finish. I found this book help me keep things in perspective, a source for ideas and a companion when I am in the 'how can I do this' mood.ThanksSonia