THE CREATIVE DRAWING COURSE by Richard S. Taylor

A fantastically FUN book for focusing on the creative process of drawing by beginning on simple ideas and moving through to more complex ideas and projects. Taylor encourages and stimulates creative activity using a wide range of experimental techniques, surfaces, materials and combinations you may never have considered. Use The Creative Drawing Course to kickstart your creativity today!

KEYS TO DRAWING by Bert Dodson

An excellent book of exercises, all pertinent and simple, informative and useful, to teach you to SEE the way an artist sees. Dodson emphasizes loosening up, setting aside the overly critical attitude that holds most people back and pushes creativity while helping you master skills in composition, proportion, shading, negative shapes, texture, depth, etc. As one reader put it, “you master skills rather than the perfection of the end result. Oddly enough, the end result of all these lessons, are more perfect drawings!”

The Artist’s Complete Guide to FIGURE DRAWING by Anthony Ryder

Inspiring! This book is highly useful for shading reference and contains valuable information about checking for tilt, relationships of shapes, behavior of light and shadow, gestural rhythms, landmarking and non-parallelism, etc. Not a beginner book with formulas and is best for those who already have an understanding of how to build the figure. A great book to help you grow past those beginning stages!

FIGURE DRAWING WITHOUT A MODEL by Ron Tiner

An awesome find! This book will assist the artist in capturing energy, life and gesture into the human figure. Invaluable tips on body types, facial expressions, bone structure and using drawing from memory. Not a formulaic book for beginners, however a great addition to your library for referencing and incorporating expression to your work – beginning, intermediate or advanced!

MASTERING COMPOSITION by Ian Roberts

Powerful resource for understanding and applying use of value, shape masses, color temperature, cropping, leading the eye - you name it. Whether you create representational art, abstract art or anything in between - this book is a MUST HAVE for your library, especially if you struggle with composition. Get it, read it, DO THE EXERCISES and you can’t help but improve.

Even skilled artists can easily forget their compositional structure by losing themselves in detail, color, etc. This is a book that will help bring you back on track.

For beginners, this book is easy to understand, easy to use, easy to absorb, and masterfully articulate - plus it’s FUN! For the experienced Artist, this book is an excellent review and re-review tool.

The bonus DVD shows how subtle changes can make a huge difference and really helps to drive home the importance of how value and color can make or break a composition. I highly recommend this book.

DRAWING WITH YOUR ARTIST’S BRAIN by Carl Purcell

“Learn to draw what you see - not what you think you see.” This quote from Carl says it all. As beginners we often miss seeing what’s right before our eyes. Instead we see in terms of ’short cuts’ or symbols which cause distortion, misunderstanding of true values and the over use of details as a way to ‘fix’ what’s wrong with a drawing.

Purcell shows you how you already possess drawing abilities. He helps you to “train your brain” to see the way an artist sees (to see the things that the novice misses). This is one of the best drawing books on the market today! Kudos Carl!

ATLAS OF HUMAN ANATOMY FOR THE ARTIST by Stephen Rogers Peck

Still one of the best step-by-step break-down of human anatomy books on the market give in a visual and easy to grasp manner. From skeletal, to muscular, to fleshing out of the human form, this book takes you through a solid understanding of human anatomy as a foundation for figure drawing. Tucked into this book are a plethora of quick diagrams and handwritten notes – treasures from a classroom of study. A must for your studies!

DRAWING THE FEMALE NUDE by Giovannie Civardi

Giovannie Civardi’s books on anatomy are OUTSTANDING REFERENCE books for the serious artist who wishes to study the figure. Be aware that this is not “how to” book on drawing the female anatomy! It is, however, a excellent tool to for practice sketching and a quality of beautiful and inspiring poses. The sketches are clean and the lines beautiful, making this a perfect book to work from for figure drawing.

ANATOMY FOR THE ARTIST by Sarah Simblet & John Davis

This is a beautiful photo-reference book and will round out a collection of anatomy books for the serious student. The poses, lighting and photography are excellent with a few semi-transparent overlays of skeleton and muscles. This is not a foundational text and does not try to contain all knowledge related to anatomy and the human figure. Great for model sketching and study, mapping muscle groups, skeletal strength, balance and relationships between external appearance and internal structure.

DRAWING THE MALE NUDE by Giovanni Civardi

Civardi’s books on anatomy are EXCELLENT REFERENCE books for those wish to study the figure and this book is no exception. Be aware that this is not “how to” book on drawing the male anatomy! However, Drawing the Male Nude is a perfect tool to for practice sketching and carries a great variety of supurb poses. The sketches are clean, the lines beautiful, making this a gold mine to work from for figure drawing.