Litercurious Book Review
| Title | Learn to Draw (Almost) Anything in 6 Easy Steps (Mini Art) |
| Author | Rich Davis |
| Publisher | Race Point Publishing (May 26, 2020) |
| Format | Paperback |
| Page | 128 |
| Language | English |
| ISBN# 10/13 | 1631067168 / 978-1631067167 |
AUTHOR
Rich Davis is the author and artist who created Learn to Draw (Almost) Anything in 6 Easy Steps (Mini Art). Click on his name to find out more.
WHO IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE?
Davis is an artist who’s illustrations in this book appear directed towards helping children learn to draw. Parents looking for some child bonding exercises would do well to use this book to create some art with their children.
SYNOPSIS
Re-visit your childhood with this tiny 128 page book of some basic drawing methods for you and your child to make art together. The publication delivers this through a well structured 6 step method to assist in creating simple original illustrations.
Davis has focused on identifying the minimal shapes required to create the base drawings. There are double page spreads with inspirational tips to keep the aspiring artist on track and help improve their skill set. The content is laid out in a conventional pattern beginning with Animals and concludes with People. The graphics are lively and vibrant. For children, the images are raw, exciting and original works. Each of the eight chapters is:
Animals
Birds
Fish
Architecture
Transportation
Garden
Great Outdoors, and
People
The pages have high visibility name bars on the upper header portion of the page with the name of the subject in large, bright, and clear writing. Each chapter concludes with “Try these too!” ideas for the young artist to use with the six step process. This method makes creating line art fun and simplifies the construction of more complex subjects by utilizing basic forms, squares, circles and triangles.
CONCLUSION
There are two areas of creativity that are the most difficult to learn; the first is deciding how to begin and the second is how to finish your work. Davis understands this dilemma and provides practical help and advice through a structured six step process. Yet he has achieved much more than that, by creating this method he allows the child to focus on one step at a time. The structured method reduces the complexity of the subject into easy bite sized chunks. This transforms the overwhelming prospect of drawing an entire rocket into a modular sketch.
I particularly like the helicopter. As my husband, a 25 year veteran helicopter Instructor Pilot and Instrument Examiner, likes to say “A HELICOPTER – A million parts rotating rapidly around an oil leak waiting for metal fatigue to set in.” In reality they are so intricate, yet Davis has managed to condense them down into a beautiful set of basic shapes that create a cogent and believable illustration.
Young children will no doubt adore using this book to pass away happy hours learning the basics of how to draw anything.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Race Point Publishing , NetGalley, and Rich Davis for affording me the opportunity to review Learn to Draw (Almost) Anything in 6 Easy Steps (Mini Art).
