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How to Draw: Drawing and Sketching Objects and Environments from Your Imagination
How to Draw is for artists, architects and designers. It is useful to the novice, the student and the professional. You will learn how to draw any object or environment from your imagination, starting with the most basic perspective drawing skills.
Early chapters explain how to draw accurate perspective grids and ellipses that in later chapters provide the foundation for more complex forms. The research and design processes used to generate visual concepts are demonstrated, making it much easier for you to draw things never-before-seen!
Best of all, more than 25 pages can be scanned via a smartphone or tablet using the new Design Studio Press app, which link to video tutorials for that section of the book!
With a combined 26 years of teaching experience, Scott Robertson and Thomas Bertling bring you the lessons and techniques they have used to help thousands of their students become professional artists and designers.
This book is indispensable for anyone who wants to learn, or teaches others, how to draw.
Early chapters explain how to draw accurate perspective grids and ellipses that in later chapters provide the foundation for more complex forms. The research and design processes used to generate visual concepts are demonstrated, making it much easier for you to draw things never-before-seen!
Best of all, more than 25 pages can be scanned via a smartphone or tablet using the new Design Studio Press app, which link to video tutorials for that section of the book!
With a combined 26 years of teaching experience, Scott Robertson and Thomas Bertling bring you the lessons and techniques they have used to help thousands of their students become professional artists and designers.
This book is indispensable for anyone who wants to learn, or teaches others, how to draw.
208 pages, Paperback
First published December 15, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
September 23, 2014
Well, 1.5 years later I finally finished it. Probably the best book in technical perspective I have read. The author is so rigorous! Very impressive effort!
Ironically the reason it took me so long to finish it was that the more I read and was impressed with his iron discipline it presented the more I felt it was worthwhile to return to the 3D gfx I had abandoned years ago. Funny when you think about it, that a great drawing book would push me away from drawing, but I guess it fits with my hypothesis that sometimes a great civilization will probably produce it's most impressive works even as it's slowly being replaced by another. I'm betting if this book could be sent in time even just a few decades it would be considered THE manual for perspective drawing.
Reading it I was left with a great appreciation for the effort and motivation to put in that extra effort to make something professional. Great book. Great addition to his superb youtube channel tutorials and as if that wasn't enough the book also comes with it's own series of explanatory videos. A unique book full of great thoughts and analysis of perspective angles, techniques and many inspiring beautiful designs, all elegantly drawn.
Ironically the reason it took me so long to finish it was that the more I read and was impressed with his iron discipline it presented the more I felt it was worthwhile to return to the 3D gfx I had abandoned years ago. Funny when you think about it, that a great drawing book would push me away from drawing, but I guess it fits with my hypothesis that sometimes a great civilization will probably produce it's most impressive works even as it's slowly being replaced by another. I'm betting if this book could be sent in time even just a few decades it would be considered THE manual for perspective drawing.
Reading it I was left with a great appreciation for the effort and motivation to put in that extra effort to make something professional. Great book. Great addition to his superb youtube channel tutorials and as if that wasn't enough the book also comes with it's own series of explanatory videos. A unique book full of great thoughts and analysis of perspective angles, techniques and many inspiring beautiful designs, all elegantly drawn.
December 1, 2015
This is an excellent book if you want to learn to draw objects in perspective, but the caveat of course is that with all drawing books, you must actually take the time to do each exercise to truly get it. I find that most artists understand the concept of perspective but to actually draw it accurately is a whole other thing. Scott Robertson's techniques will teach you how to draw not only accurately, but quickly, once you understand how it all works and learn his method. Again, it's very important to do all the exercises and practice them more than once, particularly the stuff at the beginning on drawing straight lines and ellipses. It seems easy just to draw some lines and circles, but when I moved on to the more complex stuff, I found that unless my lines and ellipses were very accurate, I couldn't draw the more difficult shapes well so I'd have to go back to practicing straight lines, drawing from point to point, ellipses, etc. A bit boring and tedious, but well worth mastering.
The second half of this book is mostly tips and tricks on how to draw buildings, cars, and planes, which in my understanding is Scott Robertson's area of expertise (he's an industrial designer turned concept artist and seems to specialize in cars, planes, machinery, etc.). This part of the book explains concept art and design to beginners, but doesn't really provide exercises, it's more to give you tips for designing your own things.
Definitely an excellent drawing book with a lot to offer, particularly if you're into drawing and designing buildings, cars, planes, and any sort of machinery.
The second half of this book is mostly tips and tricks on how to draw buildings, cars, and planes, which in my understanding is Scott Robertson's area of expertise (he's an industrial designer turned concept artist and seems to specialize in cars, planes, machinery, etc.). This part of the book explains concept art and design to beginners, but doesn't really provide exercises, it's more to give you tips for designing your own things.
Definitely an excellent drawing book with a lot to offer, particularly if you're into drawing and designing buildings, cars, planes, and any sort of machinery.
April 27, 2015
I took a look through this book and it's mind-boggling good, I bought a copy. For one thing it covers several forms of perspective not covered in older works as well as more traditional perspective. There is also 10+ hours of video already associated with this book with the possibility of more in the future. These videos can be viewed automatically by a tablet by pointing them at the page in question, neat! You could learn sketching from this book alone and even you're advanced, you will learn something.
January 19, 2020
Extremely good for rigorous foundations in perspective, thorough and well-structured. Exercises and methods are worth doing by hand, but as a means to develop a good heuristic approach and as a way to debug issues when perspective looks wrong, rather than to be used on a day-to-day basis. In a world of easy 3D, it is still important to understand how perspective works and to be able to do it by hand if necessary, but many of the techniques after chapter 5 or 6 are probably not necessary for the vast majority of artists out there.
October 12, 2017
An excellent textbook on drawing from imagination! Drawing from imagination is easily the most difficult thing to draw, this book gives sound advice and techniques to simplify drawing from your mind to make sketches become completely realized drawings. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to learn more than just how to draw from life.
September 26, 2019
Great book on perspective drawing but dense and lot of information to take in. It’s a great book if you want to do technical drawing like mech, buildings and vehicles but unfortunately I can’t tolerate technical drawing so I will just give it 2 stars.
January 8, 2014
The go-to book for any question about how to draw anything in perspective.
April 9, 2016
Great book, although the title doesn't describe what it is with great precision - so it's worth having a look inside if this is what you need.
The book focuses on drawing - yes, from your imagination - but almost exclusively those are machines, robots, industrial settings. It puts a lot of emphasis on correctness (in terms of proportions and perspective), so a lot of time is dedicated to getting those right.
The author shares his thoughts on the creative process of conjuring up ideas, which I found insightful, discusses some ways in which digital and mechanical tools can help you to draw precisely, and dedicates several pages to various techniques you may want to consider using.
The whole thing is printed on high quality paper, and gives an impression of a well-thought-out initiative, quite specialised one, so not for everyone.
The book focuses on drawing - yes, from your imagination - but almost exclusively those are machines, robots, industrial settings. It puts a lot of emphasis on correctness (in terms of proportions and perspective), so a lot of time is dedicated to getting those right.
The author shares his thoughts on the creative process of conjuring up ideas, which I found insightful, discusses some ways in which digital and mechanical tools can help you to draw precisely, and dedicates several pages to various techniques you may want to consider using.
The whole thing is printed on high quality paper, and gives an impression of a well-thought-out initiative, quite specialised one, so not for everyone.
May 10, 2020
Best bang for your buck
July 19, 2017
Tough. Written like a textbook, but lacking many answers. Not for the faint of heart. You must practice, practice and practice. But even then this does not teach you how to "design" with a "cool" aesthetic. Hopefully, his upcoming design book will cover this extensively.
March 5, 2020
How to Draw begins almost immediately with delivering its ambitious titular promise of solid fundamental drawing theory, but early on accelerates, eager to depart for the realm of design, with many intermediate topics on perspective drawing left underdeveloped.
For instance, three-point perspective is only afforded three short paragraphs, with the recommendation to use 3D software to achieve it. The reason? Real designers rarely have the time for three-point perspective. The result is a feeling of having signed up for a four-year degree program majoring in drawing with a minor in design, but ending up with the inverse.
The design topics covered are without doubt of immense value to students and hobbyist interested in concept art and industrial design, and it's evident on every page of the book that design is a passion and disciplined professional quality a serious commitment of Scott Robertson's, but regretfully, the much anticipated, albeit unadvertised, new standard among perspective drawing textbooks lands with an ambivalent but undeniable thud, unmistakably shy of marrying perfecting the art with encompassment, owing to its own overexcitement about its destination.
As scathing as this criticism is, How to Draw deservedly earns all its many praises: The book offers unparalleled quality in teaching perspective drawing techniques with empowering lessons that any student of the subject would be sore to miss. Those harboring ambitions of joining Scott Robertson among the ranks of professional concept artists and industrial designers have here an introductory textbook for the decades. And that's its intended purpose; those who understand this will not be disappointed.
A more broadly descriptive title, however, might have been that of the yet-unpublished denouement of Scott Robertson's "How to…" trifecta with How to Draw's subtitle retained: "How to Design: Drawing and Sketching Objects and Environments from Your Imagination".
For instance, three-point perspective is only afforded three short paragraphs, with the recommendation to use 3D software to achieve it. The reason? Real designers rarely have the time for three-point perspective. The result is a feeling of having signed up for a four-year degree program majoring in drawing with a minor in design, but ending up with the inverse.
The design topics covered are without doubt of immense value to students and hobbyist interested in concept art and industrial design, and it's evident on every page of the book that design is a passion and disciplined professional quality a serious commitment of Scott Robertson's, but regretfully, the much anticipated, albeit unadvertised, new standard among perspective drawing textbooks lands with an ambivalent but undeniable thud, unmistakably shy of marrying perfecting the art with encompassment, owing to its own overexcitement about its destination.
As scathing as this criticism is, How to Draw deservedly earns all its many praises: The book offers unparalleled quality in teaching perspective drawing techniques with empowering lessons that any student of the subject would be sore to miss. Those harboring ambitions of joining Scott Robertson among the ranks of professional concept artists and industrial designers have here an introductory textbook for the decades. And that's its intended purpose; those who understand this will not be disappointed.
A more broadly descriptive title, however, might have been that of the yet-unpublished denouement of Scott Robertson's "How to…" trifecta with How to Draw's subtitle retained: "How to Design: Drawing and Sketching Objects and Environments from Your Imagination".
May 31, 2018
I have no background in the Arts, and I needed to improve my technical sketching skills to better formulate my ideas to paper before going to CAD and final fabrication. The book was basic enough to get me started, and easy enough to read to not lose me. As a self-help book it is OK.
February 12, 2017
good book
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 25, 2017
Chock full of beautiful sketches and plenty of good instruction, this is more of an advanced refresher than for beginners.
Read
February 5, 2021Esse é o melhor livro de perspectiva linear quando o assunto é construção de volumes complexos. Ao apresentar seus designs veiculares, Scott Robertson constrói um sólido argumento de que a perspectiva linear pode (e deve) ser usada para criar e recriar quaisquer objetos dinâmicos e complexos de forma espacialmente coesa. O fato do livro fugir dos exemplos simplórios e estáticos encontrados na maioria dos livros de perspectiva é, ao meu ver, o motivo de tamanha autoridade da obra na área.
Ainda assim, não temos um livro ideal de perspectiva. How to draw foge em explicar como construir corretamente cenas cuja câmera está em posição de mergulho ou contramergulho (as famosas cenas em 3 pontos de fuga) e, no geral, não me parece dar a atenção devida à construção de cenas em si, para além de objetos unitários.
Essas críticas não invalidam a quase obrigatoriedade da leitura desse livro para quem se preocupa em ter o domínio do volume entre seus instrumentos compositivos e isso inclui não só a criação de objetos, como também o planejamento "cinematográfico" das cenas no papel.
Ainda assim, não temos um livro ideal de perspectiva. How to draw foge em explicar como construir corretamente cenas cuja câmera está em posição de mergulho ou contramergulho (as famosas cenas em 3 pontos de fuga) e, no geral, não me parece dar a atenção devida à construção de cenas em si, para além de objetos unitários.
Essas críticas não invalidam a quase obrigatoriedade da leitura desse livro para quem se preocupa em ter o domínio do volume entre seus instrumentos compositivos e isso inclui não só a criação de objetos, como também o planejamento "cinematográfico" das cenas no papel.
May 9, 2022
Honest to God, one of the best perspective and draftsmanship books in publication today.
This book is a bit technical for middling-skill artists, but it is accessible with some effort. If you're trying to improve your perspective and background/prop-drawing skills, you NEED this book.
Scott also has a YouTube channel under the same name which helps to illustrate the concepts shown here.
This book is a bit technical for middling-skill artists, but it is accessible with some effort. If you're trying to improve your perspective and background/prop-drawing skills, you NEED this book.
Scott also has a YouTube channel under the same name which helps to illustrate the concepts shown here.
Want to read
July 23, 2018Awesome book for anyone who is starting to learn to draw from the basics. I actually followed the exercises and realized that - hey, I DO have artistic talent. Now I wish I continued doing the exercises but for someone who is more dedicated they will see a lot of improvement.
May 7, 2021
ESSENTIAL for a complete beginner artist. Will teach you how to construct any form from imagination and with proper perspective. I recommend you study each page and repeat, only moving on when you've understood what came before. Will improve your art massively.
Read
March 30, 2023A great technical book
This is an amazing book. But I must warn you. It is very very technical. This is not the “drawing if fun, enjoy it, make a mess” kind of book. So, with that in mind you might make the best out of it. Enjoy.
This is an amazing book. But I must warn you. It is very very technical. This is not the “drawing if fun, enjoy it, make a mess” kind of book. So, with that in mind you might make the best out of it. Enjoy.
October 3, 2023
A super helpful book on perspective drawing. Definitely not one to pick up if you don’t know the basics, but it is a really helpful toss into the deep end of perspective drawing.
Only issue is some of the accompanying videos don’t work.
Only issue is some of the accompanying videos don’t work.
July 19, 2018
thumbs up!
February 5, 2020
Aspirational. currently above my skill
April 9, 2020
Excellent book about perspective and technical drawing. Even though i couldn't complete and draw along with it much, i think it is really useful for concept designers.
June 12, 2020
A masterpiece!
August 29, 2021
Great
November 9, 2021
Lixo de livro caro e ruim scott Robertson não tem capacidade para ensinar porcaria nenhuma, não vale a pena gastar dinheiro com isso
June 1, 2022
The best book there is for an intermediate artist. All perspective basics revised and more advanced stuff included. A total must have!
July 28, 2023
AUTISM!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews