Customer Reviews

Drawing Realistic Textures in Pencil

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Of all the art technique books I've ever looked at, this has been one of the most useful to me. Graphite is and always has been my favorite medium for drawing, and though I've tried others, I always find myself falling back on the trusty generic pencil. So when I saw this book in the store, I picked it up and thumbed through it and was so impressed by the author's example drawings alone that I bought it. The author is a magnificent artist, and the book has turned out to be a great reference. I've noticed a marked improvement in the realism of my drawings since I started using it.

Hillberry begins by introducing us to various materials - graphite pencils, charcoal pencils, carbon pencils, types of erasers, blending tools, types of paper, and other miscellaneous items that can prove helpful - and describes the use and effect of each. He goes on to offer tips on choosing a composition, using light for different effects, using different pencil strokes, blending techniques, layering media, masking, and other helpful methods.

The bulk of the book contains instructions on achieving realism when rendering different types of objects: metal, eyes, human hair, glass, broken glass, wood, leather, barbed wire, clothing, and fur. He even offers instructions on little details such as knots in wood, protruding nailheads, etc. At the end he talks about how to put all these methods together into a complete composition, and gives tips on working from photographs. I have not yet tried all of Hillberry's techniques, but the ones I have used have helped me immensely. I would highly recommend this book to any intermediate to advanced level artist.

I rarely read how-to books and think most of them are pretty lame, but this one is a clear exception. I hadn't read a how-to book on the pencil for decades (and I vaguely remember getting the basics from a couple of good books by Ted Kautzky and Paul Calle) and found this book by accident while looking for something else. I was instantly drawn to it (sorry...).

Seriously, though, this is one of the best how-to books I've ever read. Hillberry sets out to do, and does, exactly what his title says it's going do. I can't imagine someone working with this book and not getting something valuable from it. The author's prose style is like his drawing style, very clear and straight ahead. It's not verbose or vague and it's not too terse either. In chapters 1 and 2 he describes the basic tools and general methods of using abrasive media (not ust pencils but powdered graphite, charcoal, graphic blocks etc.). Then he moves on to some tutorials, well chosen to explain the problems of rendering general types of things - metal, wood, he human eye... There are many little gems within the tutorial that will reinforce the general technical points in chapter 2. Like all how-to books there is kind of a jump involved, a certain point where to the naive (most of the market for how-to books, probably) it seems like the author goes from point a, b, c... to point r. That's inevitable. How could it not be? If this stuff was easy, then everybody could do it. Drawing is not easy, but it's the most direct means of creating art, an irreplaceable core skill, useful to painters and sculptors as much as anyone else, and potentially a wonderful end in itself (think about it... think what Raphael and Michaelangelo did with a pencil; look at Henry Moore's drawings, look at... no, there's too many great works of art that are drawings to even consider listing them).

This book can help you with your drawing even if you're not a realist. Highly recommended.

In this book, J.D. Hillberry gives detailed descriptions of techniques for drawing a wide range of textures. A background in drawing is recommended, because the author does not "waste" time on teaching sketching, or basics of drawing, generally, but filling space with a texture is explained in very detailed way, including many examples.
Another advantage of the book is an introduction to drawing tools and mediums, which is very detailed, also.
I personally liked the approach of the author, he's always giving more than one way to achieve some realistic texture and everything he wrote is an advice or a recommendation, while he's calling the reader to experiment alone, also.
Very detailed and very useful book. Recommended!

This book had everything I was looking for. He gave detailed instruction consistantly so after several projects I started to see the pattern of how and why he chose a medium for a certain effect. Good stuff.

This book was recommended to me by an artist as one of the best, and it truly is. It has helped me achieve more realistic textures in my drawing.

It is easy to find books that try to teach you how to draw, but this book goes way beyond that. If you need something beyond the basics, I highly recommend this book! It is very detailed and has simple steps to help in rendering very realistic textures. Great buy!

I am a beginner drawer and find that this book is a must-have. I think that everyone, beginners and pros alike, will learn something valuable from Hillberry's book. He's a master artist and I am thrilled to be able to find out his "secret" techniques of which combination of paper, pencil, eraser and blending tool is used to create each texture.

Get this book and you won't be disappointed.

Of all the many "how to" art books I own, this is the one book I would grab if my house was on fire. The explanations as well as the illustrations make it delightful to recreate a 3 dimensional setting with all its textures and depth. And it's possible with simple, basic drawing implements. It inspires me.

My daughter received this book for her 13th birthday and my whole family loves it. Even a beginner can benefit from this book. It's true that this is not a how to draw book, but how to make your drawings much better. My daughter had already studied online tutorials to learn to draw the basic figures from shapes. This book is teaching her to refine those drawings into a real work of art. J.D. Hillberry has a drawing forum link on his web site where you can post your drawings for critique or just ask questions about how to draw hair, eyes, etc. His site, of course, is jdhillberry.com. If you are an art lover with an interest in improving your drawing skills, I highly recommend Mr. Hillberry's book as well as paying a visit to his web site.

I found this book very useful in learning about the various belnding techniques and rendering textures. However I would prefer to have seen more material on clothing, hair and skin textures.
If you are already drawing fairly well in pencil or charcoal then this book is a must have, however if you want to learn the basic fundamentals of drawing such as proportions, shapes etc then you might go for some thing else.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book and am a great fan of JD Hillberry. He is a master graphite artist!