Editorial Review
On a simple piece of paper, a fierce bird of prey can swoop down upon its terrified victim, an adoring father can share laughter with the infant daughter cradled in his arms, raindrops can glisten on the hood of a vintage sports car, a lightening bolt can cut across the night, offering a glimpse of trees ominously silhouetted against the blackness. Drawing can enrich your life in extraordinary and unexpected ways. Drawing your everyday experiences can change how you and others see the world, while drawing from imagination can give rise to fantastic new worlds. And, despite what you may believe, it’s something just about anyone can learn to do.
Drawing For Dummies offers you a fun, easy way to learn drawing basics. Its author, professional illustrator and long-time art educator Brenda Hoddinott, has a simple philosophy—that only you can teach you to draw. With that in mind, she arms you with the tools you need to explore the basics and then coaches you through 30 hands-on drawing projects. You'll quickly
- Conquer the basics of line and shading
- Develop an eye for basic shapes and contours
- Discover how to create the illusion of three dimensions
- Render still-life subjects and landscapes
- Bring animals and people to vivid life on the page
Brenda helps you tune into your right brain and see the world as an artist does. You’ll discover how to break things down into basic lines and shapes and then reassemble them on the page. Other topics covered include:
- Understanding and exercising the basic skills of drawing lines and shapes, adding life and depth with shading, and rendering textures
- Mastering the fundamentals of composition and planning drawings
- Creating lifelike doodles and cartoon characters
- Drawing the natural environment including both plants and animals
- Keeping a sketchbook and drawing from memory
- Drawing people, starting with babies and exploring the human face from childhood to old age
It’s never too late to unleash the artist within. Let Drawing For Dummies put you on the road of discovery and self-expression through drawing.
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Customer Reviews
Exceptional Read 
2008-07-14
Drawing for Dummies is a great drawing guide. I am somewhere between beginner and intermediate but no where near advanced in my drawing skills. I found this book to be of great help in learning new things and sharpening skills that I already have.
It offers many exercises to improve and enhance your drawing style.
It is a simple read; the author doesn't make it all technical and boring.
I think this is a book that every aspiring artist should have on their shelves.
very Pleased !! 2008-06-26
Drawing for Dummies was a gift for my nephew, who likes to draw comic chacters.As you might expect, they are all out of proportion and child-like.He is a teenager now and is looking for some guidance to improve his drawing. When I first received this book, I thumbed through it and read the chapter headings. I'm sure he will profit from this book. I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.
A.R.
Starts off good, but then...... 
2007-07-26
Well, I really wanted to learn how to draw well, so I picked this up. The first few chapters really help, but then it became was to hard for a beginning artist. Some of the stuff she wants you to draw is insane, and I just gave up on this book. If you want a good drawing book for beginners, don't look at this one.
mixed 
2007-03-06
I like this book on some levels. On other levels...erm...there are problems. I agree that there are a lot of cartoony drawings, as well as some more realistic ones where she seemed to go through a looong period of giving people strange looking round clown type noses. The effect is off putting...not charming as I think was hoped.
She also uses what I think is a lot of inappropriate hatching..making her subjects sometimes seem kind of...hairy looking.
But these are all style issues...I really can't find fault with her technical ability. In fact, many drawings are beautiful.
As for blending, she feels it is more difficult to do well , and that's why she doesn't really approach it here. On her website she states more or less that to blend or not should be up to the individual artist and gives a reasonable tutorial on blending correctly.
Her examples are often not illustrated enough...and written instructions seem hurried, without details on how to do what she is talking about.
Also the pics in the examples are far too small...
But this is a good book as far as being approachable goes.
It gives good solid info, and does cover many subjects.
One book is rarely definitive in any endeavor one tries to learn...and often you can't cover everything in one book.
Publishers sometimes have to think about the larger market and what it will pay for.As far as we know she may have a limit on how many words and images she can use!
These books are designed to be inexpensive and general.
Given that fact, I think this particular "Dummie" book, does pretty well.
Good basic drawing book 2007-01-25
This is a nice basic drawing book. This book teaches you how to do tonal drawings by crosshatching. She doesn't smudge her drawings to save time and you can tell by the finished piece. This would be good practice for someone interested in printmaking.
a good book for starting out 
2007-01-09
On a simple piece of paper, a fierce bird of prey can swoop down upon its terrified victim, an adoring father can share laughter with the infant daughter cradled in his arms, raindrops can glisten on the hood of a vintage sports car, a lightening bolt can cut across the night, offering a glimpse of trees ominously silhouetted against the blackness. Drawing can enrich your life in extraordinary and unexpected ways. Drawing your everyday experiences can change how you and others see the world, while drawing from imagination can give rise to fantastic new worlds. And, despite what you may believe, it’s something just about anyone can learn to do.
Drawing For Dummies offers you a fun, easy way to learn drawing basics. Its author, professional illustrator and long-time art educator Brenda Hoddinott, has a simple philosophy—that only you can teach you to draw. With that in mind, she arms you with the tools you need to explore the basics and then coaches you through 30 hands-on drawing projects. You'll quickly
- Conquer the basics of line and shading
- Develop an eye for basic shapes and contours
- Discover how to create the illusion of three dimensions
- Render still-life subjects and landscapes
- Bring animals and people to vivid life on the page
Brenda helps you tune into your right brain and see the world as an artist does. You’ll discover how to break things down into basic lines and shapes and then reassemble them on the page. Other topics covered include:
- Understanding and exercising the basic skills of drawing lines and shapes, adding life and depth with shading, and rendering textures
- Mastering the fundamentals of composition and planning drawings
- Creating lifelike doodles and cartoon characters
- Drawing the natural environment including both plants and animals
- Keeping a sketchbook and drawing from memory
- Drawing people, starting with babies and exploring the human face from childhood to old age
It’s never too late to unleash the artist within. Let Drawing For Dummies put you on the road of discovery and self-expression through drawing.
The Best 2007-01-08
Great! Even for this Dummie. I found out I CAN draw. I really enjoyed going through the different levels of techniques.
Try another one. 
2006-05-24
This book is alright for certain aspects of drawing, but the book itself has some of the worst drawings I've ever seen. And, if you are truly a beginner, you'll want to recieve more instruction than this offers. I wouldn't suggest this to anyone.
Funny and helpful book! 2005-12-02
I love to draw, and when I got this book for Christmas, I was a little discouraged by the title. Of course, the old saying "never judge a book by it's cover" came into play. I decided to open it up and skim through the pages. This book was GREAT! Drawing for Dummies covers all of the basic and advance techniques of drawing ANYTHING! Catergories it covers include perspective, 3-D drawings, shading, texture, and more! There are picture examples along the way incase you don't know what the auhor is really talking about. There are many exercises from the simple practicing shading, all the way to drawing a VERY REAL looking three demensional teddy bear (listed in easy to follow steps). I really enjoy this book, and anyone who loves to draw or needs to improve, this is the book for you! 5 stars!
Try another drawing book first! 2005-08-16
I have taught drawing on a college level for approximately 25 years and this book is about the least helpful one I have encountered. The reader is asked to devote time to "cute" cartooning and therefore spends less productive time on the more important aspects of learning to draw. I do not think cartooning itself is wasted time; some of the world's greatest draftsmen have been cartooners. Learning to look at something with full consciousness is the basic trick to drawing what one is seeing, and far too little time is devoted to avenues for achieving that result in this book. The illustrations are not the best, suggesting a less-than-stellar result for the reader. Even picking up a book of great drawings with no instruction included would be a better way to learn to draw, in my opinion. For solid instruction, however, look at books by Betty Edwards, Robert Beverly Hale, Kimon Nicolaides, Daniel M. Mendelowitz, or Nathan Goldstein.
