The Natural Way to Draw: A Working Plan for Art Study (Paperback)

First, this is a book of exercises. You either do them or you don't. But anyone who "flips through the book at the library," then complains it has nothing to offer is like someone who goes to the gym, watches other people work out, then leaves feeling unimpressed with a gym's ability to help him get in shape. Making a judgement about this book without "working" it is exactly as foolish.

Second, there's nothing "modernist junk" at all about "The Natural Way to Draw." You'll be moving into anatomy studies and reproductions of the masters soon enough. Nicolaides is all about observing the details of life and recording them well. Again, such an ignorant comparison of the techniques Natural Way to Draw with a sloppy draughtsmanship and "modernist junk" only reveals the reviewer (who admitted he only "flipped" through the book) didn't flip very far and with little understanding of what he was holding in his hands.

Third, there's a story further down about an art school where the teacher mocks this book. Too bad. I studied at that school. And I'm glad I did: I learned a lot. But that school ultimately is not enough. Their students draw well rendered work, but it's also flat, uninspired, and repitative. "That Natural Way to Draw" gives you the tool YOU need to draw the way YOU want to draw.

Look: there's no easy path to drawing and painting really well. And this book guides you to drawing and painting really well. So, yes, it takes time; it takes effort. But at least all your effort is focused and fruitful. This book gives you the fundementals in a series of exercise. It's like doing exercises at the paino before you can play a concerto. And there's nothing wrong with that.

If you want to apply yourself and become great, check this book out.

If you want a method to help you learn to "feel" your work and move you beyond mere rendering, I highly recommend this book. But along with that desire should come a commitment to practice the exercises with an open mind if you want to get the results. I have learned for myself that having a lot of head knowledge about art techniques hasn't made my work vital, nor his it given me the itch in my bones that I need to truly create. Even though this may sound silly, I used to consider myself a good drawer, but now I feel that the door to being an "artist" is opened to me.

If you are more interested in a book to help you practice techniques with less of a time/effort commitment, I recommend Bert Dodson's Keys to Drawing. It is more of a "how-to" book for beginning students. It takes a very different teaching approach, more practical, but I like it for the many visual examples, the broad range of fun exercises, and the sections on drawing faces and proportions.

Nicolaides book is often compared to "Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain. Now I understand why. They are both complicated, overly-intellectualized approaches to drawing. Nicoliades writes the better complication however, because his book is approximately 60% wordy text/40% pictures. Betty Edward's is approximately 80% wordy text/20% pictures.

The quote from the back cover, with the full page photo of Nicoliades shows how narrow an approach he holds:

"There is only one right way to draw and that is a perfectly natural way." -Kimon Nicolaides

Anyone who knows anything understands that there are as many approaches to drawing as there are people. If Nicoliades is simply telling us that all ways of drawing are "natural ways" it is a redundant statement, because nobody is arguing anywhere that anyone's drawing is unnatural. Such tautological complications of basic drawing show Nicolaides approach as wordy and intellectualized.

The gesture drawings in the early chapters are uninspiring. The rest of the sparse illustrations seem to come from either student drawings and master reproductions. There are just too few of them. Nicolaides' approach to art is tedious and discouraging and nobody should be expected to read through 221 pages of boring text.

There are much better books on the market with less text and more illustration.