How to Draw: Drawing and Sketching Objects and Environments from Your Imagination by Scott Robertson

How to Draw: Drawing and Sketching Objects and Environments from Your Imagination Reviews

• 
  Void lon iXaarii

  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.
• 
  James

  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.
• 
  Jim

  The go-to book for any question about how to draw anything in perspective.
• 
  Harry Sean

  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.
• 
  Q

  Best bang for your buck
• 
  Magnus Oxlund

  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".
• 
  ayanami

  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.
• 
  Michal

  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.
• 
  Sonya Ball

  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.
• 
  Rodger

  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.
• 
  Oscar

  Chock full of beautiful sketches and plenty of good instruction, this is more of an advanced refresher than for beginners.
• 
  Arthur Marques

  Esse 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.
• 
  Reggie

  Awesome 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.
• 
  Shaz

  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.
• 
  Ravishing_rick

  thumbs up!
• 
  Dee Renee Chesnut

  Aspirational. currently above my skill
• 
  Orkun

  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.
• 
  Min Tran

  A masterpiece!
• 
  Ayla Markovisk

  Lixo de livro caro e ruim scott Robertson não tem capacidade para ensinar porcaria nenhuma, não vale a pena gastar dinheiro com isso
• 
  Fonsu

  The best book there is for an intermediate artist. All perspective basics revised and more advanced stuff included. A total must have!
• 
  oni

  highly informative but tough to get through. would recommend reading the first chapter and then skipping to whichever parts are most relevant
• 
  Alan Tsuei

  Art Center of Design所教授的概念設計基本功之一，大凡來說此書較偏重透視的理論，也許有人認為3D軟件可以取代2D手繪或電繪，但卻不知道如果對3D空間不能先有所認知的話，對後續設計的課程與學習會相當吃力…
• 
  Rio R. Islip

  [••••] A “perspective” textbook. Target skill level. Medium-to-Expert(3/5-5/5).
  
  EDIT: Okay so I’m a dummy. Originally I gave this a 3/5 because I wrongly thought that many of the techniques described therein such as the visual ray method were complicated enough that you aren’t going to be able to execute them properly without 3D drawing software or a comical supply of traditional drafting tools. This is incorrect! It DOES take some figuring out, but the visual ray method can be done with a simple ruler and projector.
  
  (The definition of the 60° cone of field of view as it relates to the station point is simply that if you draw the circular field of view you want ad hoc, there will exist exactly one point dropped down from its center that forms a 60° angle when straight lines are drawn back to the outer edges of the circle. This means we can do the visual ray method at any size and scale without worrying about whether we have drawn the station point at proper distance from the canvas, as having the station point correctly is crucial for drawing our vanishing points from it.)
  
  It DOES take figuring out and the book definitely doesn’t hold you hand by explaining every part, but it is entirely possible to figure out, and once you fundamentally understand the behavior of the visual ray method, understanding the theory behind 1, 2, and 3 point perspective as outlined in the book becomes very straightforward.
  
  TLDR; this is the best perspective textbook on the market right now. Only giving a 4/5 and not a 5/5 because it does take some banging your head against even if you’ve read other perspective books, but once you do it really is the case that you don’t need complex tools to understand and use the theory being offered here.