“The Drawing Breakthrough Book” Book Review by ChristineMM

Title: The Drawing Breakthrough Book: A Shortcut to Artistic Excellence
Author: John Hastings
Format: Softcover Book
Full retail: $15.95
Publisher: Draw 3 Lines Publishing
Publication Date: June 2007
ISBN: 978-0-9749418-2-0



How this book came to rest in my hands: The author of this book found my Amazon Customer Reviewer profile and offered to send me a complimentary copy of this book for possible book review.

Artist John Hastings says that after taking drawing lessons and art classes, he was frustrated. Influenced by positive-reinforcement trainer Karen Pryor, he developed a simplified process to learning to draw. By breaking down the steps of drawing into small parts, he developed a system which he shares with readers in his new book “The Drawing Breakthrough Book: A Shortcut to Artistic Excellence”.

Rather than being large chunks of dry text, Hastings combines small photographs and illustrations accompanied with step-by-step written directions. The book is broken into three parts, and each part has lessons for the reader to read and practice.

The reader is guided through exercises which first, open our eyes to see things in real life with the eyes of an artist. We are given useful tips for drawing in proportion, using guidelines and reference points as tools. Later we practice drawing lines: straight, round, and curved lines. Lastly the book has a short primer on composition and a little bit about drawing more complex compositions.

All that is needed to begin drawing with Hastings’ method is paper, pencil and an eraser.

The book is easy to read and the small steps and short exercises are not intimidating. The reader is then able to practice drawing in the comfort of their own home, repeating lessons as needed and progressing at the pace that they desire.

The book is not overly full of repeated information. It is not too skimpy either. I have a feeling that if a person goes through the entire book and does all the lessons and repeats lessons to strengthen their weaknesses, they will be well on their way to drawing well.

I have never seen a book about the technical aspects of the learning to draw process that is so approachable, logical and non-intimidating. I have already begun using the lessons in this book and am excited to progress through the entire book.

This book is fine for use with adults. These same exercises could also be done with children.

I am glad that more books are coming on the market to simplify the learning to draw process. I applaud the fact that this book attempts to enlighten and empower more people to learn to draw. This book is down-to-earth and sincere in its tone. If you have always wanted to draw better or more but were afraid or intimidated, I encourage you to buy this book and give it a try.



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