Lifelike Drawing with Lee Hammond

I bought this book for a class I am taking. It is great for someone just getting into sketching. It has helped me a lot already with understanding things like perspective, how to create folds, and even do a basket weave that looks realistic.

Great detail. Lots of examples and process.

This book is great for those who want to just do one-off projects where realism is important. Hammond shows you how to square up a photo onto a piece of paper, carefully draw it, and shade it in, using stumps to blend to perfection. You will surely make the most realistic-looking drawings with this technique. I like Hammond in that she's a humble practitioner and artist who can find beauty in drawing anything, including a simple scallop shell! Here's a pic of her photoreal shell, and one I drew from life. Mine has some charm, sure, but the photoreal one she did is very impressive! Hammond shows you how to render any photographic image in graphite, so you can do portraits of your family or pets, and "impress your friends". But if you want to learn how to really draw, however, this book is not for you. I recommend Gene Franks or Barrington Barber, who teach you how to grasp form from life, and in simple steps, how to work up the contours and tones to make a realistic (but not photographic) drawing. They also do not use stumps or polish their work--but if you're serious about being more than just a "photo-copier", then look at their books. But Hammond sets out what she aims to do, and for many, it works. I also like that (in her earlier books, at least) she did not use color, since color is a complication best saved until one has mastered tone (the grayscale of a drawing). I'd rather see a Hammond on the wall than a Bob Ross! There is something humble about caring enough about an object or image to copy it from a photo, after all.

I never knew how much joy one could get out of a 2B pencil, some tortillons, and a kneadable eraser. That constitutes the complete kit you'll need for this marvelous book. By carefully following Lee's instructions, you'll be amazed at what you can create. By way of background, I recently decided to teach myself how to "paint" with colored pencils. The ability to draw is obviously a prerequisite for pulling this off, so I picked up some of the more popular drawing books: Betty Edwards, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, and Bert Dotson's Keys to Drawing, among others. The typical book spends a lot of time teaching techniques for rendering a scene, but much less on toning. Indeed, to judge from the scribble drawings in the Dotson book, it appears that he does not place much value in toning at all. As a result, I was pretty good at rendering a scene as a line drawing, but had a very hard time making my pictures seem three dimensional. For monochrome drawings, the only thing I found reliable was to use washable graphite and rely on applying washes or produce something halfway decent. Lee Hammond's book inverts this formula. She is concerned with rendering, and recommends the graph method for solving this problem, but the book is really about toning. The key insight is that less is more when it comes to toning. By only applying graphite to the darks and then using tortillons to move the pigment into halftones and lights, my work is vastly better. I also appreciate the attention to detail in the book. For instance, she suggests applying graphite along the same direction as the surface, ie rounded strokes on the edge of a sphere. The direction makes a difference to the results. I tried making my shading lines the other way--perpendicular to the direction of the surface, and found the result to be less good. I really appreciate such attention. Reading other reviews, there is a great deal of controversy around her blend method for toning. Apparently, purists view the tortillon smear method with disdain. So be it, but I measure the value of a technique by the results it produces. Having struggled with hatching as a way of creating tone, I can tell you that the smear method produces vastly better results for me. While it may be possible, with years of effort, to perfect the hatching method, I want to make nice things now and not five years from now. Bottom line: if you want to take your toning to the next level, this is the book to buy.

Is ok I guess they try put all in one book but very good for beginners and people that have problems with details I have read other Lee Hammond books and as I can tell is not different from the others

Lee Hammond is an excellent artist and instructor! This book is huge and very thorough! I got it for a great deal through an Amazon Marketplace seller using Amazon Prime! Wonderful! Fantastic!

Even if you own Lee Hammond's other drawing books, there is still a wealth of information to be gained from this one! The author provides clear instructions on a variety of topics -- from drawing stunning glass objects to producing the most technical architecture renderings -- it's all here, in the unique Hammond style. If I had to choose one drawing book to keep, out of my entire collection, it'd likely be this one. I'm thoroughly enjoying the reading of it and looking forward to practicing the many tutorials it offers. I give it a resounding A+. Jan (...)

After looking at every book I've been able to find on pencil drawing, and purchasing WAY too many of them, I can honestly say that this is one of my favorites. While Ms. Hammond's artwork is sometimes a little too soft-edged and "finished" for my personal tastes, I have found her explantions and exercises to be incredibly useful. I think that she is probably a really great teacher. I wish I could find the time to take one of her workshops. . . but for now using her books will have to do.

J'adore en général les livres de Lee Hammond. Elle a une manière d'aborder le dessin qui fait malheureusement défaut aux livres que l'on trouve en français. En fait si je ne lui pas mis 5 étoiles c'est que je dois traduire et que ça me prend beaucoup de temps (lol). Sinon c'est très bien construit et ses livres m'aident à progresser !

Lee Hammond covers a wide enough range of subjects in this book. I would recommend this book if you like realism. Pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, grids (both on paper and overhead projectors film) and acid free tracing paper and Bristol paper is all you need.

Habe das Buch für Bleistiftzeichnen bestellt, weil ich von dieser Autorin schon die den beiden Bücher für Buntstiftzeichnen und für Wachsmaler sehr gut fand.Von diesem Buch bin ich ebenfalls begeistert. Ich übe jeden Tag damit. Auch wenn es in Englisch ist, kann man es gut verstehen. Kann es nur weiterempfehlen.

I have several books on drawing, but wanted to improve on my "realistic" drawing so my wife purchased this book for me and it's very good, it covers everything still life, glass, landscape, building's, water, clouds, animal's, and portraits and shows you how to shade properly to produce those realistic pictures. The book was produced in 2005 but the contents are as valid now as then. I will certainly buy more books from Lee Hammond.

Another excellent book by Lee Hammond. She covers each subject masterfully and clearly, this book is exactly as the seller describes it. It arrived on time securely packed. I have now several of Lee Hammond's books and is looking forward to the next one. This lady puts time and effort in her books.