You Can Draw in 30 Days, by Mark Kistler - Large Print Reviews

Large Print Reviews

You Can Draw in 30 Days
By Mark Kistler

You Can Draw in 30 Days
The Fun, Easy Way to Learn to Draw in One Month or Less
By Mark Kistler
Read How You Want, (2011)
EasyRead Large Print, in 16 Point Font
(Originally Published in Standard Print by DaCapo Press)
ISBN: 978-1459617308
Genre: Art

Reviewed by Simone Bonim - December 22, 2011

A little over thirty days ago I embarked upon a new adventure to see if I could really learn to draw in a month. I had great doubts that I could, after all I've been around for more decades than I care to say, and I've never learned to draw before - and I've tried. So using Mark Kistler's book You Can Draw in 30 Days as my guide and teacher, I set out to see what could be done. Now here I am, thirty days later, and I can draw, Yippeeee! Granted I am still very unskilled and would be the first to say that I am not yet an artist - but I can now sketch a basic picture and it actually looks like what I'm trying to portray. This is such a vast improvement to what I could do before I worked through this book. So much so that I have to declare the book a complete success!

The lessons in You Can Draw in 30 Days are designed to take about twenty minutes a day. I found that I need a little more time to complete most of the lessons, but I can be a slow learner. The book teaches you the foundations of drawing from learning how to render landscapes and copy pictures to creating two- and three-dimensional pictures. In the realm of tools, all you really need is this book, some paper (the book calls for you to use a sketchbook or blank journal, but I found that regular copy paper worked just fine), and some pencils and perhaps an eraser. Kistler also recommends that you get your hands on a date planner so that you can schedule your drawing time in advance. Once you master the pencil techniques used in this book, you should be able to start adding some color to your work or maybe even advance on to oil paint, watercolors, or other more technical techniques.

This book assumes that you have never drawn anything before, and so starts with the very basics - with a circle. From there, Kistler explains, in clear and easy steps more advance techniques such as drawing more complicated spheres, cubes, koala bears, roses, cylinders, houses, tubes, waves, rippling flags, pyramids, volcanoes, trees, and even the human face. Along the way he also teaches you the one-point and two-point perspective drawing. Throughout he provides amble encouragement, advice, and hints on how to develop your creativity. Kistler provides so much practical advice throughout this 'course' that you feel at times that you have a real teacher in the room.

Kistler has been teaching both children and adults to draw for many years. He has had a long running PBS drawing show called Mark Kistler's Imagination Station, and he has written nine drawing books. While this book does contain a lot of repetition and Kistler's writing style is more geared toward young adults rather than adults, this 'easy' style makes the book much less intimidating to those of us who thought we could never learn to draw. At the same time, this writing style also makes the book accessible to young children. With a little extra help from a parent, I think that even first and second graders could make good progress using this book. In conclusion, I highly recommend You Can Draw in 30 Days to anyone, of any age, who wants to learn how to draw.

You Can Draw in 30 Days is available from Read How You Want, an on-demand publisher that makes books available in a variety of formats including Braille, DAISY, and five different large print formats. This range of formats makes this, and other books, available not only to visually impaired individuals, but also anyone with a reading or physical disability that makes reading standard print books difficult.

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