Thinking with a Pencil

Beware: what Amazon is selling is "printed as an orphaned work by Girard & Stewart". Rather than try to recreate a clean copy, they just did a low-quality reproduction. The text looks like it has fur on it, better than a mimeograph, worse than a cheap ink-jet printer. Of course, this is worse for a book devoted to the visual, now full of grainy figures.Amazon should start prominently noting books with low-quality print-on-demand and sad reproductions like this one. I absolutely would have tried to buy an old used copy of the original book if I had known what I was getting here. $21.95 for a really bad reproduction of a classic book is way too much money, IMO. I assume the "orphaned work" bit means neither the author nor his heirs get one thin dime from this pricey production.OTOH, perhaps with the spread of POD, consumers are getting used to low-quality print. My only objection is to not labeling them so that people who care can avoid wasting their money.

I love this book. If you want or need to get a grasp on visual thinking, this is where you should start. Everything is practical and useful and covers a wide range of topics. You don't have to be 'artistic'. Just read it and follow the examples - try them all. It didn't take long to start picking up the knack of sketching out a thought that will also make sense to someone else.

I bought this book because, as an engineer, I tend to default to whiteboard explanations of concepts. As technology has made it easier to produce decent quality visuals, I felt that I needed to up my drawing game. In just a few months, I have been able to apply SOME of the lessons in this book. The effect is that I can now make simpler, more effective drawings on paper and the board. I think that this book is out of print, but used copies are consistently available. I have a copy at work, and another one at home.

This book, along with Jack Hamm's book on understanding image composition titled Seascapes and Landscapes are the books of communication with images. If Visual Communication is what you like.. Read these two books, read them again, read them again, read them again.. And then.. Read them again.

Despite our technology, NOTHING can outdo the basic pencil + paper + mind!

This is a very good book on drawing and problem solving. Clearly written and well illustrated. This version was in hardback so it will last a long time of continued use.Arrived well packaged.

Thinking with a pencil is a book that helps people in the action of thinking. This is the second copy of this book I have purchased. The first one got away.

A well-known masterpiece. The author is a real character. If you like to think this is a good book for you.

Hoped this book would be more about the "thinking" part than the "with a pencil" part, but it is mostly about drawing technique ~ design/ engineering drawing technique - and very dated it is too, in this age of computers. Still, if you're into developing your sketching technique it does contain a good few rules and guides, so well worth keeping for reference.

This is a beautiful book that is difficult to explain. It is mainly about how to communicate using sketching and drawing but it is also so much more. Arrived as described and I'm delighted with it