Book Review - Pencil Magic

With Pencil Magic, readers will learn to improve their artistic skills with just two simple tools: pencil and paper. Featuring invaluable instruction, this guide will help beginning and advanced artists master the fundamentals of drawing, including: -The spectrum of basic strokes, including sharp, crosshatching, and directional strokes -Drawing styles from quick sketches to blended-stroke drawing -Strategies for capturing measurements accurately -How to paint trees, shadows, paths, and other landscape elements -Various methods of approaching perspective With ten step-by-step demonstrations, Pencil Magic appeals to artists at all levels of artistic ability, while making learning the basics easy. This book is definitely a hidden treasure! The first half of the book goes over basic skills and techniques, design, perspective...the essentials. Then each subsequent chapter tackles a specific aspect of landscape drawings; trees, water, buildings, animals...I mean it covers it all. I am currently a Landscape Architecture student and picked up this book as a way to boost my skills. If you read through it and follow the tips you will be surprised at your progress. Once again, Highly Recommended!