How to Draw: Insects

Sept 13

Here is the latest title in the popular How To Draw series, this time focusing on a more unusual subject--the wonderful world of insects. If you haven't seen any of the other titles, this is a series that shows you how to draw a set of themed subjects in about eight stages. It starts with the simplest shapes, with each new stage showing what has been added to the drawing in a different color. The final two pictures usually show the image shaded in with pencil, and then painted in color. This book shows the insect as a line drawing in black ink, and then the same inked drawing with the addition of colored pencils. Some of the titles leave out too many stages between the last simple stage and the first shaded pencil depiction but not this one. The clear, crisp lines of the ink are ideal for these slightly simplified but attractive studies of insect life, although the colored pencils are a bit pale to truly capture some of the lovely hues of the brighter specimens. Apart from a brief introduction this is, like all the others in the series, a book where the pictures do the talking. There is a list to help identification, and you can then choose from a lissom dragonfly, ball-rolling dung beetle, impressive hornet, huge goliath beetle and my own favorite the beautiful oleander hawk moth, plus twenty-three others. This is one of the best titles in the series, truly suitable for a beginner and a lot of fun to work through.

Mar 13

I've been ignoring this series for too long. The reason for not reviewing it before was that there are no words, and how do you review a book that is just a collection of pictures? Well, you can't, or at least, I can't. What I can do, though, is talk, not about the individual volumes but the series as a whole. The structure is simple: a single page of developing outlines culminating in a finished (colour) drawing. There are no instructions, just an introduction that is more about the subject than the techniques, so you're completely on your own. And yet. The series must be successful because it's been around forever and new volumes appear almost every month. The latest is about insects and that's what's stimulated this write-up. I contend, your honour, that if a series gets to insects, it must be striking a chord with its public. I'm pretty confident that this is the only book you'll find on drawing insects, and also that there won't be any more along any time soon. To cover such a niche subject, the publisher has to be either very sure of their ground or a bunch of complete idiots. I'll admit to having doubts about the sanity of some publishing decisions, but not usually those of Search Press. As sure-footed a crowd as you'll come across, they are. So, see if there's something here for you and, if you like things as basic as they can be, there probably will be.

June 13

With virtually no text, this simple step-by-step book will have you drawing bugs, butterflies and moths in a flash. Each insect is reduced to its simplest form, before being brought to life with well-considered pencil lines that are clearly shown.