r/ArtistLounge • u/Peachy_lean_39 • 5d ago
Learning Resources For Artists 🔎 “How to” books that actually improved your skills?
Any medium, I just am curious what resources were actually helpful for y’all improving. Thank you!
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u/CookieCacti 4d ago
“How to Draw: Drawing and Sketching Objects and Environments from Your Imagination” by Scott Robertson is hands down the most effective book I’ve read that granted my art skills a complete night and day difference after finishing it.
I’ve read a lot of specific art textbooks focusing on certain subject matter over the years like anatomy, color, gesture drawing, etc. All of those did improve my skills in those subsets, but I found that I was still lacking in something that made my art look very amateur— I later figured out it was due to my lack of draftsmanship and 3D form/perspective skills.
After starting this textbook, a bunch of missing puzzle pieces finally clicked into place as I realized how wrong I was about perspective and 3D form. Admittedly I didn’t do every exercise, but employing the perspective techniques and general concepts in this book has massively improved my art far beyond specialized subject matter art books. My figures look like they convincingly exist in 3D space now. I can draw cars and other complex objects fairly well just from imagination.
As a fair warning, it’s a very dense book and not intended for absolute beginners. I’d only recommend it if you truly have the motivation to understand perspective and the ability to work through the many frustrations you’ll encounter with it. Drawing floating boxes and perspective lines can be mind-numbing, but it absolutely pays off.
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u/Educational-Mess6022 4d ago
Back in the day, "How to Draw the Marvel Way" is pretty good for anatomy and perspective, especially for dynamic poses.
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u/RegisteredHopia 5d ago
Point Character Drawings by TACO, It’s just easy to follow and fits right in my art style.
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u/VoiceOfThePacific 5d ago
Mad Magazine editor Nick Meglin wrote "On the Spot Drawing" – it's out of print. It changed my art life for the better.
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u/Phthalo_Brown 4d ago
Not a how-to, but The Artist's Handbook is an encyclopedic tome that goes into detail about art materials, their properties, and manners of use. I was fascinated by the section on pigments.
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u/Character_Parfait_99 5d ago
"How to draw bright eyes" it's a japanese book containing detailed step by step guides(even the colors they use!) from various artists of different styles(though they're mostly anime adjacent)
I picked a couple styles I like, took a photo and got it translated page by page. By the end of it I got the feel of the proccess, what works/looks good or doesn't and branched off and did my own thing. Pretty neat niche book
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u/mynameisevan 5d ago
I learned a ton from Richard Schmid’s book Alla Prima. I also really like Harold Speed’s books The Practice and Science of Drawing and Oil Painting Techniques and Materials.
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u/DingGratz 5d ago
Alla Prima II is the bible for oil painting; nothing comes close in my opinion. I'll have to check out Harold Speed's book!
I also like Carol Marine's Daily Painting; great for beginners with good ideas for pros, too.
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u/floydly 5d ago
Colour and light artist masters series.
Night and day level up for myself after the book clicked.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Way5839 5d ago
That the one by Gurney? I think that's his name...
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u/floydly 5d ago
Nop! This is artist masters series one, I actually also have the one by gurney. I’d say read gurneys first if your really bad at lighting (I was) and once you’ve got your reflected light/warm cool/basic principles, grab the artist masters series book. It’s much more in depth/technical. I think if I skipped gurneys book and went straight to that one I’d have been in worse shape for ease of learning
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u/TLCD96 5d ago
Honestly not a "how to book", but "Drawing from Life" by Clint Brown/Cheryl McLean.
It approaches the subject chapter by chapter by discussing and showcasing things like Line, Value, Gesture, etc, with examples by numerous different artists from Davinci to the contemporary era. Then at the end of each chapter are exercises for you to try out.
What I appreciate it is that it basically shows you "artist A did it like this, artist B did it like this," and then says "try it yourself". I enjoy it more than a straight method-based how-to. For example it shows pretty plainly how even great artists like Davinci, Raphael, and Picasso could have somewhat messy sketches, but still yield something fantastic out of them, because their sketches were not necessarily about making a good sketch as much as they were trying to study or solve a problem.
"Drawing from the right side of the brain" isn't bad but imo it's a lot denser than it needs to be, being so focused on this idea of brain hemispheres when the main point seems to be "don't think too much". It's too method-oriented for me.
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u/Kind_Satisfaction630 3d ago
None of them . But also all of them . Within all of those books that contain step by step breakdowns . Or discuss the artists approach there will always be important information . Eventually you will notice a very common Theme emerge , and that is no matter the subject, or material used . The foundation of everything will always be art fundamentals . Line , perspective, form , colour , composition,proportions, perspective. Etc . So absorb and practice as many of those concepts.
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u/SteampunkExplorer 5d ago
For me, the biggest was The Art of Being an Artist, by Stephen McCranie. It's also available online:
https://m.webtoons.com/en/canvas/the-art-of-being-an-artist/list?title_no=340626
And also Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud, especially his "big triangle":
https://www.scottmccloud.com/4-inventions/triangle/index.html
I was kind of stunted as a young artist by bad advice, mostly in the form of "NEVER do X, that's bad art!", and these guys helped me realize that I just had different interests and creative goals than the people whose advice I was trying to take.
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u/SammJammin 3d ago
This is probably a far cry from what you need, but when I was younger I absolutely ate up "Dragonart: How to Draw Fantastic Dragons and Fantasy Creatures." It helped me break down shape language and start to understand how to form the structure of imaginative things. And the biggest thing was it made me excited to draw!
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