A Graphic Novel That Teaches You How to Draw - The Drawing Lesson

This was quite an interesting book. I thoroughly enjoyed it! So basically Mark takes you on a journey with young David. David is a young boy who meets a lady at the park. The lady is an amazing artist. David is impressed by her work and begs her to teach him. She hesitantly agrees. David turns out to be an eager learner. He constantly pops up out of nowhere begging for another art lesson. I got quite a few giggles out of the story line! The ending has a slight sad turn and than a happy turn.

Alongside David you learn some valuable drawing skills such as shading, negative space, measuring things with your eyes, and even a tip on how to ease the excruciating pain of drawing faces and hands. This was the winner for me as I hate drawing faces and hands! The tip was so simple yet really helped my artwork. It wasn't odd to find me and a child of mine staring at a pencil, at 8 in the morning, trying to draw detailed yet simple "what we see."

Mark did an excellent job at illustrating the story. You can really see what is going on. The visual aid brings to life the lessons and characters. I'm impressed with the book and think it would be an excellent add to your Do It Yourself library.

I recieved a copy in exchange for an HONEST review.

What a brilliant way to teach drawing! This isn't like your typical art books for kids where you learn how to draw a horse, a dog, or a lion. It's a graphic novel with a story about David, a boy that wants to learn how to draw. He meets Becky, who reluctantly gives him several drawing lessons and teaches him about proportions, shading, and negative space, among other things. After each lesson, there is a challenge for the reader to complete.

I love the approach this book takes. I love the way it doesn't follow the same format as other art instruction books. It's informative and well planned out. The art instruction is well written and because it's completely illustrated, easy to understand.

While this isn't a comprehensive book about drawing (things like perspective and concave lines aren't addressed), it's a fantastic starting point. Kids and adults that are jumping into the fray will find this helpful and entertaining guidance. It's very similar to a real art lesson where the teacher instructs, corrects, and critiques your work.

Highly recommended for budding artists ages 8 and up.

Content: Clean

Source: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

THE DRAWING LESSON by Mark Crilley is a wonderful approach to learning to draw. A graphic novel combined with an art tutorial, the author/illustrator does a fantastic job weaving his drawing lessons into the story of David and Becky and the time they spend together. David is a young boy who desperately wants to learn to draw well. Becky is an artist who isn’t looking to be an art teacher, but who can’t resist David’s eagerness and his talent.

Crilley’s drawings throughout the novel are simple, but effective. The characters' emotions shine through, and the story is well developed despite how basic the narrative is. David and Becky aren’t overly complicated artistic figures, and that allows the real star of this book to shine: the art lessons. As Becky teaches David the basics of drawing, their relationship grows along with his skill, and the lessons broaden to show the reader how to navigate life as well as how to complete a drawing: patience; recognizing mistakes and correcting them; and putting time into what you love are highlighted. These are important lessons for readers of all ages, but particularly Crilley’s target age group.

As for the drawing lessons themselves … I can’t rave enough about them. I haven’t seriously tried to draw in over 25 years (though my sitting-in-a-meeting doodles have a fan base), but if I’m reviewing a book on how to draw, I don’t feel I can do it justice without trying to follow along with the book’s lessons. Crilley does an AMAZING job teaching the techniques necessary to draw and draw well. As I did each exercise with the most rudimentary of tools (a mechanical pencil and my college ruled notebook), I produced sketches that had my children dazzled—something that it’s not easy to do. Those same children have artistic talent, and I look forward to giving this book to them to see what they can do with it. I’ll also be sharing it with any kids on my gift buying list, and I’ll be recommending it to anyone who will listen.

I can’t stress enough how awesome I found this book to be. Be sure to check it out, and check out Mark’s YouTube channel too. He’s generous with his instruction there as well, and he obviously finds joy in helping others find their inner artist.

Every so often you come across something that just amazes you. That is this book. In some ways, it's two books in one. You can read it just as a graphic novel or you can use it as how to book for drawing. I loved David's enthusiasm as he returned for each lesson and how each lesson built upon the previous ones. While this book won't teach you advanced drawing techniques, it's perfect for those who are just starting out, young and old alike. Follow along with David and as you master each technique, open the book back up and see what Becky is now teaching him! I may not be an artist, but this book is one that will happily be joining my other graphic novels on the shelves and one that I will recommend to any art teacher who will listen.

The premise of this book is intriguing: a graphic novel that teaches the reader how to draw. The book is easy to read and has great basic drawing lessons woven into a storyline of a boy who seeks knowledge from an impromptu drawing mentor that he has met at the park. The feedback from his reluctant mentor, Becky, is actually drawing lessons for the reader. The storyline is interesting and draws the readers attention from the fact that they are actually learning while enjoying the story. The illustrations are presented in sepia-like tones and showcase Mr. Crilley’s skill in shading and illustration.

I think this would be a wonderful addition to the library of tweens who have even an inkling of interest in drawing. Adults could learn something too just like I did. Each chapter ends with a challenge to the reader to get them drawing. I love that the challenges can be accomplished with just regular pencils and paper. This is truly an unique book.

I received this book for free from BloggingforBooks.org’s Blogger Program in exchange for an honest review. I was not obligated to write a positive review.

ABsolutely and YES! This book definitely deserves a five-star rating.

This book is genius. I love how the author systematically gives a step by step approach to beginning drawing and steadily challenging yourself to improve. My 14 year old son hates to draw and thinks he has no talent for it. He really enjoyed this comic/graphic novel approach to teaching him how to draw and how to grow skills as he went. I especially loved how the author got into the reader's head with whatever arguments or mistakes might come our way and easily talk us through them. There is no reason why anyone reading this book can't learn from it and grow. My 16 year old daughter who loves to draw was repeatedly seen reading through this book for both content and teaching moments as well.

The boy in the story's enthusiasm was definitely contagious in the best possible way! A winner for all ages and skill types!

I received a free copy of this book from Blogging for Books, for my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

I read Mark Crilley’s books before. He makes his books exceptional with the events and plots in each story, plus his art work brings his characters in a notch higher…. Love his work.But this one is story within story, a book within book, if it makes sense.

This book follows David, a very determined young artist, who wants to draw better but doesn’t have a clue how. Once he saw used books for sale, but it turned out he didn’t have enough money to buy a drawing book about cars. When he was shooed off, he walked through a park where he found a lady drawing the landscape. He got curious, and when he talked to her his drawing adventure began…

Though I found the lady character resembled Akiko a lot.

I was looking forward to reading this book because I was curious to know how the author was going to present the information. I was so impressed. I love this book and I have recommended to friends. I can be read by young and old. It presents the lessons in a fun, sweet and concise way. I love the characters and the illustrations. I actually follow the book and try my hand at drawing. I felt inspired to draw everyday objects. It has become one of my favorites books.

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The Drawing Lesson by Mark Crilley is a new take on how to approach drawing for children. Focusing in on the current "hot topic" of graphic novels, The Drawing Lesson creates a storyline that allows children (and adults alike) to discover drawing in a new way.

An ambitious young boy repeatedly seeks out the "realest artist [he's] ever met!" in order to have her teach him to draw. His interests shift from video games to drawing and he spends all of his free time perfecting what he has been learning.

Cons: The young boy meets up with this stranger in many places (park, mall, beach, art museum) without talk of safety. This lady also seems quite perturbed when he asks for more lessons.

Pros: This story shows children how to draw in a fun, light-hearted way. It introduces drawing in a way that will meet them where they are at and help them to become better artists.

Overall, I think this is a delightful book for children. I will be putting my copy in my classroom for my students to enjoy!

I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.

Our teenage son is a very gifted artist. Although we have not wanted to stifle his personal style and creativity by a formal art class, we do encourage him to learn techniques to enhance and perfect his craft.

This book is really great in that it teaches using a comic book format versus a textbook one. That makes it very easy to read and follow along with, which is especially helpful with those who would rather draw than read. Some concepts covered are shading, negative space, starting with a loose sketch, and proportions.

So, although I chose this book for our artsy son, I would recommend it for anyone who is interested in learning to draw.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I was provided a free copy of this book by Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest opinion.

Bought this at a local brick and mortar store last weekend. It's a pretty quick read. I love the style of the drawings and the tips were helpful. If you read this and do the little assignments at the end of each chapter you will be a better drawer. I'd say this book is at a level appropriate for ages 8 and up. Not sure that this book would be as nice in a Kindle version since it is all images.

Probably good drawing lessons but what kind of dude thinks a woman would be okay giving drawing lessons to someone who stalked her, even if it was a kid? He follows her home from the store, and she's like "well that's creepy and not cool but I'll give you what you want and invite you into my house for drawing lessons". What? The whole time, I was yelling at her to stand up for herself because she looked so annoyed and bothered, and why wouldn't she assert her boundaries and say no, stop stalking me.

What a fantastic book!! I highly recommend this one! I wasn't sure what to expect as it didn't seem like the traditional style drawing book - and it's not, but it's excellent. What Mark has done is created a narrative story in comic book form which follows a kid called David who really wants to learn how to draw and his lessons with an artist he meets in the park - Becky. As an art student currently, I can say, this is good stuff! It's written very simply but effectively pulling out the important aspects of being able to draw so anyone can learn.

He covers:
* Drawing what you see
* Shading
* Loose sketches
* Light and Shadow
* Negative Space
* Checking Proportions
* Simplifying
and more.

The way this book is written it would work for all ages giving the essential keys to drawing well. All you'd need to do after this is practice!

Please note that I was sent a copy of this book for purposes of review however the opinions expressed are entirely my own.