austinkleon:

People often ask me to recommend books on drawing.  My favorite drawing book is Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book: Make a World:  It’s a collage-like approach to drawing: if you can draw simple shapes, you can use them to create pictures. Here’s an example of one of the spreads: The other classic book I might recommend is Betty Edwards’ Drawing On The Right Side of the Brain: The book features several gems, like her “upside-down” exercise, which recommends copying drawings upside-down: 

Familiar things do not look the same upside down. We automatically assign a top, bottom, and sides to the things we perceive, and we expect to see things oriented in the usual way - that is, the right side up. For, in upright orientation, we can recognize familiar things, name them, and categorize them by matching what we see with our stored memories and concepts. When an image is upside down, the visual cues don’t match. The message is strange, and the brain becomes confused.

These are, of course, not the ONLY books about drawing, but I think the two together will give you two complimentary approaches.  Feel free to share with me your favorites. Filed under: drawing

The Emberley’s book looks especially good.