Modern Drawing

I'm a mixed media artist into all sorts of art like drawing, painting, etc. I look at many books to learn more techniques. I quite liked this book for many reasons. It has lots of sections to cover a variety of topics. It starts with supplies, some simple techniques to start. Then it goes into details for different type of drawings like architecture, people, animals, plants, etc. It also talks about adding colour, which is a nice addition. It's easy to follow. It also covers variety within sections. How to draw a cat from different angles, or a building. I think both beginners and people who draw already can benefit from this book.
My only criticism is I wish there was more landscape and nature, and maybe more content in each section.
All in all, I enjoyed the book and I'm sure I'll benefit from it more.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for granting a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book did a great job and breaking down the very basics of drawing and expanding into more intermediate levels. They go over all of the different tools and platforms you can use to make your drawing creations. This book gives wonderful tips and examples.

I loved this book. I reconnected to the drawing techniques and I learn new techniques that I can apply in my freelance painting. I recommend this book to any level of artist.

Modern Drawing is a great art book for both beginners and novices hoping to get some great and helpful advice on drawing. In many ways it was very similar to the drawing class I had in college, covering many of the basics and other essentials most intro classes would cover. Though I do feel compelled to point out that the author has quite a bit more humor than any of my instructors ever did (which is saying something).
Chelsea Ward covers a lot of ground on quite a variety of subjects, it’s actually quite impressive. Her introduction includes suggested supplies, the bare bones basics of drawing, how to maintain a sketchbook, and even tips on how to complete a drawing challenge (which are quite fun, for the record). She also covers the basics of color theory, drawing architecture and landscapes, people, plants, and animals. There are only a couple pages per specific subject type, but it’s enough to give one a great head start and isn’t overwhelming in the slightest (something that I find can happen with more technical guides).
Some parts of the lessons here stood out to me more than others; I was impressed by the inclusion of tips for completing a drawing challenge. That’s something I’ve never seen in a drawing guide before, and I found the idea oddly sweet. I also adored the succulent drawing section, and they’re a passion of mine. And finally I couldn’t help but notice that the section on architecture was the same size as the section on chickens. Please tell me I’m not the only one that found this adorably hilarious?
This was a great guide on the whole. Perfect for beginners or anybody hoping to get a refresher on all of the basics. The fun and light tone of the tutorials helps keep it engaging, which is greatly appreciated. I hope Chelsea Ward comes out with more guides, especially more advanced drawing ones. I would love to see that.

Modern Drawing is a fun and well presented introductory text. It looks at all aspects of drawing, including media choices and technique, and incorporates everything from still life to landscape to portraiture. With such a broad spectrum, it naturally only skims the surface in each topic, but it is still an excellent starting point for those new to art who are looking to dabble in different areas before they discover their niche. The book is beautifully laid out, with a perfect balance between text and illustration, and it would be an excellent addition to the library of any budding artist. 4.5 stars.

I loved this book, as an amateur drawing addict I found the playful explorations in this book quite influencing and encouraging. This book made me wish I had more time to draw and explore my skills! So creative.

A good book for beginners and novices. This book has some really good tips and techniques to help you start drawing.

I enjoyed this useful and comprehensive overview of drawing which leads the beginning artist through step-by-step instructions on how to draw everything from plants and animals to architecture and scenery.

This book introduces drawing to the novice but is also interesting for the more advanced hobby artists. I especially liked the detailed guides to drawing animals. I've tried it and might not have had an instant success but the cats I've drawn look more like cats than they used to before.

I'm recommending this book to anyone who wants to start drawing more than just stick people, or who wants to get past the immobile objects.

I found Modern Drawing: by Chelsea Ward book fun with illustrations throughout this book. It has chapters on adding colour, People and figures, Still life and everyday, Architecture and Scenery. Plants and Animals. I found this book easy to follow with clear instructions on how to draw items, with pencils, ballpoint pens, fountain pens etc Then add colour to your drawings.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to start drawing more than just lolly pops for trees and stick's for people,
Its a very good book for beginners and novices.

I received a Digital Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Walter Foster in exchange for an honest review.

Amazing book that helps even beginners like me learn to draw. The images are amamzing. I learned a lot about art and drawing from reading this book. Very nice instructions.

So recently I moved, and I knew that due to this move my paints and painting gear would be packed up for months...but I need to do art or I go a bit mental. So, I decided to pick up sketching again, after something close to a decade, however I needed a refresher, and lucky for me this book came up on Netgalley.

I really enjoyed this book, it acts as a wonderful refresher or a guide to someone totally new to sketching, covering pencil, pen, colored pencil (including water color pencils which was nice) and inks. I like how it uses everyday objects and shows the steps including the different way to achieve dimension with both pencil and inks. Also the book itself is very pretty, as an instruction in art should be!

I tucked into Modern Drawing to pick up a few new ideas and brush up on my drawing principles and techniques. The book is a step-by-step guide to drawing but a little basic for my needs. Highly illustrative, it has a lot of demonstrations and tips making the techniques easy to understand and action. Every key element of drawing from materials to perspective is discussed and shown. It really is a great starter! The one part I did really appreciate was Chelsea's challenge to draw every day, to make it a habit - this is one principle I can, and plan to, apply! I also really enjoyed the way in which she mixed her media - pens, pencils, watercolours - they come together to build a beautiful artwork!

If you are looking for a book to build your confidence, walk you through the basics and make art fun, don't hesitate to get this one! Five out of five!

A good book for beginners like me. Simply techniques to helps you get started and understand the basics. Even if you think you can't draw there is good exploration on a variety of styles to get some basics accomplished.

While not delving terribly deep into the technical process of seeing or technical drawing skills, Modern Drawing takes a looser approach to drawing that focuses more on general accuracy and mark making. I think this a great place for amateur artists to start and work on a unique style that's all their own.

Ward organizes the book into categories of things you may draw from animals to people to architecture and gives examples from her own sketchbooks. This is where Ward shines by encouraging the reader to keep a small sketchbook on them at all times capturing what you see. For someone starting out this constant practice of smaller pieces is perfect. However, she doesn't really touch at all on larger, more finished pieces.

She does break down some of her work into exercises where you are encouraged to find your own object or space and follow along. While numerous they are pretty loose. They are by no means a step by step breakdown but a basic overview that gives you an idea of what to draw and where to start.

Overall I think this is a phenomenal read if you love to draw and are just looking for a place to start refining your skills. Again, her emphasis is on basic proportions, basic technical skills, and sketchbooking. If that's something that interests you I think you'll love her friendly and simple instructions.

A lovely book, with comprehensive text and guide lines to get the most out of your artwork. A anyone wanting to learn or brush up on their drawing skills,

Modern Drawing provides plenty of knowledge and techniques on how to start drawing with the author mainly focusing on using watercolours to colour the images once drawn.

There are 7 chapters in this book, starting with the Introduction which covers Supplies, Drawing Basics, Mark Making & Line Work, Keeping a Sketchbook and Drawing on the Go.  The Mark -Making section shows different techniques from Stippling, Hatching and Crosshatching, providing details on gradients and shading in each style.

Adding Colour explains tools that can be used (the authors favourite is watercolours so this is the mainstay of her explaination) and colour techniques.  The colour techniques provides details on the colour palette and how certain colour complement each other on the colour wheel.  

The book provides details on how to draw everyday objects and life including: 

Animals
Architecture and scenery
People & Figures
Plants & Foliage
There are plenty of pictures to follow and I really liked the people and animal drawings, putting in gestures to bring them even more to life.

I found this book very useful as when my daughter wanted to start her drawing again, I was able to recommend ways to look at objects and build up images using ovals, squares and rectangles which she found useful and we drew some footwear using this method which worked quite well. We also discussed where eyes should go on a face when its drawn as this was also covered in the book.

Loved it. The ideas, clear illustrations, and finished artwork make this book a pleasure.

If you've wondered about recent trends in drawing and illustration, Ward's book is a treasure trove - from sketchbooks to architectural sketches, everyday objects, to figure drawing with various mediums ... you'll find it here and have fun following the lessons.

Interested in pursuing the basics? Here's a great start.

I love drawing it has been one of my favorite pastimes since I was a child. I find it super relaxing and enjoyable. So when I saw this book up for grabs on NetGalley, I just knew I had to request it. The book is divided into the following chapters...

-- INTRODUCTION (Supplies, Drawing Basics. Mark-Making & Line Work, Keeping a Sketchbook, and Drawing on the Go).
-- ADDING COLOR (Color Tools, Color Techniques).
-- STILL LIFE & EVERYDAY (Drawing The Everyday).
-- ARCHITECTURE & SCENERY (The Basics, Drawing Architecture, Drawing Landscapes, Architectural Portrait).
-- PEOPLE & FIGURES (Figure Studies, Sketching & Adding Color).
-- PLANTS AND FOLIAGE (Getting Started, Drawing Flowers, Drawing Succulents, Drawing Potted Plants).
-- ANIMALS (Shapes & Gesture Drawing, Drawing Chickens, Drawing Cats, Drawing Dogs).

The book is chocked full of visually pleasing graphics, and the chapters are well laid out and easy to follow. There are also plenty of hints and tips to keep any artist (beginner or more advanced) interested. My favorite chapter was the one dedicated to ARCHITECTURE & SCENERY since drawing buildings and monuments is one of my favorite things to do. A close second is the PLANTS AND FOLIAGE chapter. Who doesn't like drawing beautiful flowers and plants? So really I don't have too much more to say about this one. If you love to draw then, this is a fun little book that you should take a peek at. If you know someone that loves to draw, then this would make a great present.

This is a book about taking small steps through a journal to gain knowledge and confidence in yourself and your artwork. It is fun, informative and instructional - starting from the very basic of equipment, colour, drawing everyday simple things such as a cup or a lemon. Slowly moving up to paint, perspective, landscape and more ending with the knowledge that by practice, care and a will to trying one can learn to draw.

My family is artistic. I also consider myself creative, but the drawing gene skipped me. Unlike three of my four siblings who took advanced art classes in high school and beyond, I stopped in junior high, when it ceased being a required class. I enjoyed art, but my high school class requirements filled up quickly, and the art classes I was interested in had prerequisites I didn't have time for. My claim to fame in junior high was my art teacher telling me I was a natural with my charcoal figure studies.

This is all to say that I enjoy art, but I am not a natural at creating it. Enter Modern Drawing. This book engaged me. There are great details, what I imagine my siblings gained from classes in high school and college. Chelsea Ward tries to focus our attention, that when we notice objects, they can all be broken down into basic shapes. How we should notice where the weight is and what areas get the light.

Ward then shares resources and terminology, but she's quick to say she started with a basic pencil and paper; readers are encouraged to use whatever they have and not put off beginning until they have identical materials.

My older daughter is gifted at drawing, and she has amassed a collection of drawing books. However, this book is a step above, a natural stepping stone from those helpful beginning texts. In those copies, there's one way to draw an object. In this text, though, Chelsea Ward is preparing her readers to have an artistic eye to analyze what they see and translate it to paper. She does regular studies to walk us through her steps, but with her text, she lays out WHY she is doing each step so that we can internalize it for ourselves.

This book is visually appealing and I was captivated by it. All of her drawings caught my eye, but my favorites were her studies from travels (a page full of bicycles, or pigeons, or vases). I can see this book appealing to those with bullet journals who aspire to creativity but need some guidance, although . And I suspect it's only a matter of time until I start some pages in my bullet journal to test my newfound confidence (perhaps with the applicable pages of this book open next to me in the beginning).

This is a book I want to add to our home library, although I'm going to have to make sure my daughter understands she doesn't get to claim it for her own -- we're going to share this one!

Modern Drawing
Chelsea Ward
I love this book! It was an amazing drawing book. The examples we're very helpful and descriptive. The artist tips were so helpful and actually work. I really enjoyed the theme of the drawings and all the places she traveled. She used some beautiful colors. She had easy steps on how to draw many different things from flowers to people to place and many other things. I really enjoyed this book of modern drawing.

Modern Drawing: A playful and creative exploration of drawing and illustration for mixed media artists and other creative types by Chelsea Ward is a fabulous art book. This is a book I requested from NetGalley and the review is voluntary.
I really enjoyed this book! It shows a variety of art techniques, tips, and instructions. It covers animals, plants, architecture, and so much more. It also has some step-by-step in there too. It covers color and black and white. Nothing is really in depth or the book would be gigantic but it covers enough to give the reader a taste and a bit of knowledge of each area. I was very pleased with the book. I found it helpful in my budding hobby.

This book is brilliant, I loved it. The variety of techniques and the selection of projects to try were perfect. Everything was pitched at just the right level and I really felt inspired to have a go at many of them. I will definitely want a hard copy of this book. Beautifully illustrated with just the right amount of instruction. Perfect for any beginner artist, as you can produce excellent results right away. One of the best art books I have seen in a long time. Thank You

I enjoyed this a lot! It covers some of the basics about different techniques, like color pencils and watercolor, but then moves on to explain how to draw topics like animals, plants, landscapes, people... A nice mix of tutorials and artist tips

A very good drawing book for beginners, using modern tools (graphite, coloured pencil, ink, watercolours, felt pen) and combining them. Simple exercises to begin to draw without fear: furniture, a bycycle, plants, food, architecture, people, everything! It helps to unblock creativity and invites the reader to draw every time and everywhere, no excuses. Ideas for travel sketching. Lovely drawings, very enjoyable book.

If you're interested in learning to draw, this book gives you all of the necessary basics in a simple and readable style. Ward explains everything from the tools needed, to styles and specifics about how to draw people, animals and everyday objects in a simple, readable way with easy to follow images. This simple book is all you need to get started drawing, or re-connect with art after some time away.

'Modern Drawing: A playful and creative exploration of drawing and illustration for mixed media artist and other creative types' by Chelsea Ward was a completely inspiring book about just getting out and drawing.

From a discussion of portable tools to take on trips near and far, to techniques to add color, this book was very approachable. The discussions of different mediums like pencil, ink and watercolor made sense, especially when accompanied by the author's drawings. There are chapters on breaking down drawings for scenery, plants, people, and animals.

The drawings vary from loose to detailed, depending on the amount of time the author can spend on a subject. I like the idea of keeping a sketch diary of trips, and I fell inspired to draw more based on this ebook.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Quarto Publishing Group - Walter Foster, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a very good book for a beginner or intermediate artists focusing on drawing. This book gives a good introduction to the supplies you will need and step by step instructions for drawing. I found the section on shading very helpful.

I would recommend this book to any beginning or intermediate artist. Great for practice at any level.

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Ward's approach to Modern Drawing was charming and easy to follow. I think beginners could enjoy this without being daunted and intermediate artists would still appreciate her approach to instructing on technique.

This book was a lot of fun and left me want to pick up my tools and go outside and draw! It is also really simple and easy to understand, and a good enough place to start for beginners too, although it doesn't go into details when it comes to proportions or perspective. It gives you just enough to make a good sketch!

But the point of this book is having fun drawing and exploring and capturing on paper the outside world - there are tips and tricks, and it is full of inspiration and motivation to get anyone to start a traveling sketchbook!

I didn't get chance to download this in the allotted time - I was too busy! I have however had a look at it now and love it! I am thinking of buying it after looking through. I love teh way it is laid out, the illustrations and the fact that it is a comprehensive guide to drawing!

Modern Drawing is a great book if someone is trying to begin drawing or to reconnect with it. I really liked how the author explains the various drawing techniques and also provides wonderful tips.