Lifelike Drawing with Lee Hammond

March 15, 2005
Hammond is a prolific art instruction author with more than 15 books on drawing technique currently in print. Her work is seen regularly at the Kansas City Metro Police Department (she's a police composite artist) and on the FOX television program "America's Most Wanted". Hammond's mastery as a teacher is evident in this comprehensive volume for beginning and intermediate students. She makes the most difficult of subjects seem within reach of any artist. Her chapters take in transparent objects, metallic surfaces, fabric and other textures, nature, water, animals, and people. More advanced students will benefit from Jenny Rodwell's "Drawing: A Complete Course", which goes beyond traditional materials into color sticks, markers, and fiber pens. Highly recommended.

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2005
Hammond's self-described "drawing bible" encompasses techniques for rendering still lifes, portraiture, landscapes, and a variety of surfaces including fabric and transparent glass. With 20 years of art making and 15 published books in print to her credit, Hammond brings an authoritative thoroughness to her latest title, a guide suitable for beginning and experienced artists. She offers a useful orientation to tone, blending, shape, and light, followed by a three-step approach to drawing using grids for layout. Demonstrations of drawing rounded curves and flat edges lead to practice drawings using perspective before she introduces subjects by category, such as nature (flowers, trees, skies, clouds and more), water (complete with a study of lifelike reflections), animals (fur and wings), and people (with each facial feature examined separately). Filled with useful suggestions such as how to use statues and photo albums for ready reference and practice, Hammond's drawing how-to should satisfy a wide audience with a broad range of abilities.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)