Freehand Sketching Book Review

One of the books that I have recently found very usefull and would highly recomnend to anyone interested in learning freehand pen and ink drawing. The book is Freehand Sketching: An Introduction by Paul Lasaeu. He has a very good step by step approach.

I did some of the exercises in his book and tried soem of them in my small sketch book to see if I could mimic his style a little.


This is one of the first, using a still life arangement. I copied this from his book.

















Next he did a simple landskape example step by step and this is my mini attempt at that exercise.

















Those were followed by a slightly more complex landscape in the same fashion.













These are some of my own attempts with a little bit of color added.
















A house I have always thought would be great...Overlooking the ocean with a wrap around porch.

I am amazed at how well this little Strathmore sketch book holds up to watercolor - maybe I have figured out the right amount of water to use and have become a bit more patient.

"Fast Sketching Techniques" Reviewed

“Fast Sketching Techniques” David Rankin has clearly mastered the art of fast sketching and he presents his approach to this skill in a very easy to follow and interesting book. In his book he describes very affective ways to increase sketching speed as well as improving observation and recognition skills. He presents an approach and provides exercises to hone these skills, describing the tools and techniques required. I, a novice, found the book enlightening and inspiring. I felt the book provided an approach using pencil sketching that I could also apply to other media, like pen and ink or charcoal. Improving recognition skills using David’s exercises would improve sketching, drawing and painting techniques. It is a book well worth having.