REVIEWS

Description

• Paperback book, 144 pages, ISBN 1844034445, published by Cassell Illustrated.
• Author Susan Dorothea White is an artist based in Sydney who has exhibited since 1957.
• White's website describes her as "multifaceted artist, unrestricted in her use of media".
• Divided into five sections: Techniques and Materials, Skills, Universe, Human Nature, Conclusions
• Glossary explains terms you may not be familiar with, and who people mentioned are, such as Cennini...

The stated aim of the book is "to interpret da Vinci's vision, and to teach visual literacy under his guidance so that the reader gains know-how in artistic expression". It does this through the exercises, examples of Leonardo's work, and analysis of his skills and interests.

The first section of the book looks at the materials Leonardo used and modern equivalents, such as using a propelling pencil to hold silverwire for silverpoint drawing, and how to prepare a Renaissance recipe ground for drawing on. The second section "reveals" Leonardo's skills -- perspective, proportion, light and shade, and drawing from the imagination. It also looks at the type of line he used in his drawing. The third section discusses a selection of his drawings, e.g. animals, plants, and landscape, through reproductions and author interpretations.

Throughout practical drawing information and analysis is mixed with art history and techniques. Although Leonardo was left-handed, the book has been adapted to be suitable for both left- and right-handed drawing.

Leonardo himself recommended that students study and copy the works of the masters. With this book, you can do just that!

Marion Boddy-Evans, Book Review, about.com, August 2006

which makes it a good book in my opinion as it goes through alot of his old drawings and studies in an attempt to recreate the work side by side against another artist and this to me reads alot better than just seeing Da Vinci's drawings and that's the end of it, you can tell he practiced and studied his craft for years and that's what comes through in the book.

Draw like Da Vinci is one of them books that shows you how to draw, but in an offbeat way, first it shows a lot of Da Vinci's artwork with drawings, charcoal and pastel work and then Susan White takes over and shows you different exercises of drawing different ways, such as, the human proportions section which goes through and links to Leonardo's roots as an anatomist, perfecting the art of drawing anatomy, although it is all fairly skip through the processes type stuff, it is quite useful when it is compared against and inspired by the way Da Vinci worked and studied drawing.

A lot of the early chapters go through some of Da Vinci's special ways of drawing and his skills at getting what he wants down on paper, there is a particularly useful section on Fundamental P's, which is just another way of going through the most important points of drawing such as - Proportion, perspective, perception, position, placement, planes and priorities, all of these P words make sense when you understand drawing and Da Vinci's way of creating master drawings.

There are a couple of Da Vinci's most famous paintings given the once over analysis with The Last Supper with a quick look at the composition and perspective of his most famous work and also a few rough draft drawings he did to jot down ideas to create the complete last supper are to be found in the book.

Also the Virgin of the Rocks, another of Leonardo's famous works which recently revealed under an infra red scan a totally different composition to the original work, which just goes to show that master artists had their fair share of screw ups when it came to drawing and painting.

Overall, I liked this book, it was visually interesting and to see some of Da Vinci's study drawings of anatomy in context with the books subject, just made it an interesting read and to follow the examples made it quite worthwhile also.

And the brief overview of Leonardo Da Vinci's life at the beginning of the book was interesting to read and I felt it fit nicely with the overall them, I did however want the book to be at least over 200 pages, but that's just me, as I thought there was lots more small case studies of his work to be explored, but anyway I do recommend this book, if you like to follow master artists and follow a book that was written by an established artist and teacher.

Go check out the book on Amazon!

Wayne Tully, HubPages, October 2009