Michael Dobrzycki

Here be Dragons
Michael Dobrzycki demonstrates how to draw a variety of dragons in his book The Art of Drawing Dragons, Mythological Beasts, and Fantasy Creatures: Step-by-step techniques for drawing fantastic creatures of folklore and legend. A little over half of this book is dedicated to dragons in their various forms. Each creature has a brief description of where they originated, and what their primary traits are. The drawings themselves range from cute to creepy. For example, the Naga has a man’s head on a snake’s body, and there is only so much you can do with those qualities. Drawing the mythological beasts and fantasy creatures in the second half of the book, seem more like bonus content than a continuation of the book’s theme. The drawings themselves are a little harder than the step by step process the book promises. So, this book may be better for artists with some experience drawing. There are about five to seven steps that start with basic shapes, and jump to a full shaded drawing. The text does give clues to what pencils and shapes to use when creating the drawings. Overall, this is not a book that teaches how to freehand draw dragons, but how to draw Michael Dobrzycki’s designs. It is always fun to learn new techniques and shapes to draw dragons. This book is great for artists that love drawing creatures, and want to try their hand at a different style.… (lisätietoja)

Thanks to NetGalley, I was able to read a digital ARC of Drawing: Dragons by Michael Dobrzycki.

This booklet begins with about eight pages on choosing tools and materials, shading techniques, creating textures and constructing creatures. The remaining 30 pages or so are divided into projects showing how to construct and detail nine different types of dragon or drake.

This is a very spare book, and for my personal tastes not detailed enough. The pages on shading techniques and creating textures were very interesting and I wish there had been more on those topics. My tastes aside, I think this is a book kids into drawing dragons would love and have a lot of fun with.… (lisätietoja)

Art "how-to" books are difficult things. Often they either don't show the basic steps at all, or they show several basic steps and then presto! a finished piece! I think this book did a pretty decent job of showing the basic line-art steps for the creatures without overdoing it much in either direction; however, this book has a feel of being a very beginner's basic type, and as such I think they shirked on providing proper details for shading. The beginning does have some examples of how to do textures with pencil, but in a book on the basics at least one intro page or later step in the figures is needed to demonstrate highlights/shadows and how to properly utilize them. Also, the last few figures of the book, once it switches to using color, suddenly lose the basic line-art and assume you're suddenly an experienced artist, it's like a completely different book. That said, I think this is a decent resource for beginners looking to draw dragons/fantasy creatures.… (lisätietoja)

REVIEW

The Little Book of Drawing Dragons & Fantasy Characters
More than 50 tips and techniques for drawing fantastical fairies, dragons, mythological beasts, and more

by Michael Dobrzycki, Bob Berry, Cynthia Knox, Meredith Dillman, Kithera of Anevern

A Walter Foster art book is a prize. I remember looking through my mother’s art books by Walter Foster that dealt with fashion illustration and wanting to become an illustrator...but those were the dreams of childhood. I also remember seeing the books in art stores when we would go after school for my mother to pick up paint or brushes or other art supplies. More recently I have purchased original Walter Foster art books to assist me with drawing I have picked up later in life and they are definitely keepers no matter whether old or newly on the market!

In this book I learned more about the fantastic beings that populate fantasy worlds and fairy tale lands. And, as adults are also reading fantasy and fairy tales and learning to draw these creatures sounded intriguing I was thrilled to be given the chance to look through and try my hand sketching a few...and...they are not quite like in the book but were fun to create.

I also learned a bit about some of the creatures while learning to first draw them by putting basic shapes next to one another, smoothing the shapes into lines and then add texture, color and more to make them pop off the page.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I buy this book for my collection? Definitely

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing – Walter Foster for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars… (lisätietoja)