Guest Reviewers Draw Animals in 10 Easy Steps - Book Review

10 Step Drawing - Animals 

Author: Heather Kilgour
Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: Search Press Ltd (13 Jun. 2018)
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1782216605

https://amzn.to/2zBO7eP

Ever fancied yourself as an artist but never really knew where to start? Welcome to “10 Step Drawing - Animals” by Heather Kilgour.I’ve not drawn anything since my school days, so am probably exactly the target audience for this book, which claims you can draw 75 Animals in 10 Easy Steps.The first thing that strikes you is the wide variety of animals. Under four main categories of Wild Animals, Aquatic Animals, Woodland Animals and Farm Animals & Pets there is something to suit everyone. Whether you want to create a Ladybird, Giraffe or immortalise the family pet you will find helpful tips here.
The book talks about proportions and the best equipment to use and most animals start with a series of circles. These basic rules will help you recreate everything in the book and give a solid basis for drawing other creatures in different poses.So was it easy? Yes, reasonably so. I armed myself with a set of my son’s pencils and gave myself 30 minutes to see what I could achieve. Three animals later I felt quite proud. I confess I couldn’t quite get the pig right (hence the creased paper from all the erasing) but that’s what practice is all about!

Review by Angela for Not Compulsory ↑

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This beautiful book features 75 drawing projects, in which with '10 easy steps' one can produce pretty good pictures of animals. Asthetically pleasing and beautifully laid out the book is divided into 4 sections, Wild Aminal, Aquatic Animal, Woodland Animals and Farm Animal & Pets. There's a short introduction regarding proportions, equipment, following the steps and colouring. It all seems very straight forward.I flicked through enthusiastically but then panicked a little. The pictures look amazing and I really wasn't sure I'd be able to do them justice. I picked the image that looked the easiest, recognising that proportion was likely to be my biggest downfall. I picked the dolphin but even as I was following the instructions in pencil I was unsure, however, once the lines were penned in, and the pencil was rubbed out I was pleasantly surprised with the result. The materials I chose to work with were basic cartridge paper, a soft pencil, pencil crayons (which happened to be watercolour), and I used a felt-tip with my first image, and an artists ink pen with the second.
After the drawing was done I started on the colouring and thankfully I had a good selection of colours to use. The book contains very little guidance on the colouring, but this is step 10. I coloured the dolphin as best I knew how but then decided, as I'd happened to use-water colour pencils, to complete a wash over it. The result was ok, the colouring was quite clumsy so I think more patience and practice would help, but it was a good start and the 9 steps at least had worked well in creating a reasonable looking dolphin from scratch.
Next I attempted a Chameleon with the same 10 step technique. I found this a little harder. My proportions weren't quite right and it was looking frighteningly like some sort of tree rat at first! I had to re-draw step 6 after step 7 to make his feet sit properly on the branch and I still hadn't got the shape quite right, as you can see from the pictures. I liked the option of colouring with lots of different colours and the final details added in steps 8 and 9 did make it obvious that I was at least trying to draw a chameleon and not a tree rat!
The book suggests ideas to get proportions correct, including the option to use a ruler. I'm slightly impatient so didn't get the ruler out, but, as I can see that the book and the 10 step technique has so much potential I will definitely be spending more time on this. I'd also use better quality paper which would give me more better results if I decided to use water/paint again. The surface texture on other papers would interesting too. I will also be getting my children involved. I think this book would be suitable for all ages, and I think my children would go about the projects with a less critical eye than I did towards my own work probably producing some fun and lively results. As there are 75 possible projects I think these might be great for creating small works of art for greetings cards, or to accompany a poem or some homework. The line drawings could even be used to make colouring sheets. The potential use of mastering these techniques is exciting.I do think its a fantastic book and I think even the most unsure 'artist', with time, could produce some really pleasing pieces. Apart from choosing the book for yourself at £8.99 it'd make a great gift for most age groups, with the potential to release the artist in a friend too! Enjoy!

Review by Cheryl for Not Compulsory↑


Also available from the publisher is Fantastic Dragons and How to Draw Them. See here


and at Amazon UK