Learn to Draw Military Machines

Learn to Draw Military Machines: Step-By-Step Instructions For More Than 25 High-Powered Vehicles Author/Illustrator Tom LaPadula      Paperback Book:  64 pages    

I saw this title and thought, Cool!  My younger nephews love to draw military tanks and stuff.    I can learn how to do it so my boxes on top of circles can get a little more clarity instead of being the stick figures of vehicular art.    The intstructions and illustrations here are so subtle and good, you will be an artist in no time polishing your skill set with really professional looking end results that start out as you guessed it, boxes on top of circles.  J    Even professional artists have to start somewhere, right?   By the end of this book you will be drawing Humvees with the best of them.    Tanks were what I was going for and jets of course, too.   But these step-by-step drawings will have you drawing stealth fighter jets, Black Hawk twin engine helicopters,  B-52 Bombers, watercrafts, heck you will be a whiz with these illustrations to go by and the end products look amazing!   I am going to get such big points with the Kiddos for drawing true to life looking air, land and sea crafts.   They really are cool.   I highly recommend this book for any one wanting to learn to draw with realism whether for your nephews or just for the fun of doing it for yourself.   This is a really good book with awesome confidence building renditions of current, former and those taken out of use military transport machines.   Excellent book.

 - Shirley J.

Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book: Make a world

Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book:  Make A World                       Hardback Book:  38 pages                    

Ed Emberly’s concept is simple drawings broken down step-by-step to teach you how to literally draw an entire world.   Instructions from start to finish on how to draw vehicles (cars, trucks, fire engines buses, trains, etc.),  machine equipment (bulldozers, forklifts, etc.),  people (in all sorts of careers – cowboys, policemen, eskimos, pilgrims, vampires, band members, , angels, etra-terrestials),  sailing vessels (boats, stern wheelers, gondolas, pirate ships, etc.), flying vehicles (planes, helicopters, rockets, space capsules, blimps, etc.)    animals ( jungle beasts, sea creatures, dinosaurs, birds, etc.)  and people performing lots of activitities (running, jumping, kicking, swimming, etc.) ,  furniture ( refrigerators, washers, desks, etc.),  buildings (houses, skyscrapers, teepees, churches, greenhouses, castles, barns, gasstations, lighthouses, circuses, etc.) other types of construction ( iron fences, barbed wire,  bridges, roller coasters, ),  miscellaneous things (barber pole, traffic light, mail boxes, beach umbrellas, parking meters, etc.) nature items (trees, flowers, cactuses, volcanoes, etc.)  flags (U.S.A., Canadian, French, English, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Hungary, etc.)  so many simple yet intricate details.   Fun for making posters, illustrating homework, greeting cards, letters, making your own games,  mobiles, creating your own graphic stories, comic books, books, even patterns and borders.    Love all the examples the author has showing marching bands, life in the arctic, all the rooms and activities going on in a home,  a circus parade, a city street view with a view of the businesses on different floors of a building, an ocean liner, a farm, firemen putting out a building fire,  an animal trainer with animals, clown juggling balls with a dog beside him, acrobats doing a formation, a stunt rider, aerial performers, a complete town with homes, businesses, a huge church, a lake with sailboats on it, forest with deer, a train tunnel with a train complete with various types of cars getting ready to enter the tunnel as a plane and a hot air balloon fly over and a farm complete with out buildings and huge greenhouse complete with a tractor and several work vehicles (a cement truck, a school bus, another flatbed truck going down the road past it headed for the city.    Great stuff this.   So intricate yet so easy.    Anyone can amaze themselves by practicing the lessons taught in this book and doodling out amazing full scenes.   No prior artistic ability necessary.   FUN BOOK!!!

Vitamin D2: New Perspectives In Drawing

Vitamin D2: New Perspectives In Drawing  351 pages, 2013


    The second installment in the Vitamin D series (and there is also a Vitamin P for Painting), this is an excellent selection of contemporary drawing.  The layout and images of the work are clear, and there are short essays accompanying each artist's work that is featured.  When I was in graduate school, the first volume was invaluable to my research and studio practice, and this second volume should be no different for anyone interested in looking at a serious monograph that presents a wide array of what people are drawing now, and how they are drawing.
   Drawing as a medium is a serious endeavor these days, and this book gives the reader an idea of just how versatile drawing can be. Vitamin D2 is a book for anyone interested in contemporary drawing, at any level.  There are some really lovely images and exciting ways that artists are approaching the medium.