Rating: 
Summary: A pretty good book, not necessarily a "stand- alone" text
Review: Based upon Freudian-Shrimp's careful and exacting review of the scope and purposes of this book, I bought it. I am satisfied. It is a good book to have, though I feel that it must be supplemented by other portrait books, and essentially I reaffirm Freudian-Shrimp's review.
Rating:
Summary: A pretty good book, not necessarily a "stand- alone" text
Review: Based upon Freudian-Shrimp's careful and exacting review of the scope and purposes of this book, I bought it. I am satisfied. It is a good book to have, though I feel that it must be supplemented by other portrait books, and essentially I reaffirm Freudian-Shrimp's review.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Instruction for Drawing Realistic Faces
Review: Carrie Stuart Park's 'Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces' is the best book on drawing realistic faces I've ever found. I'm an artist who's been searching for the perfect book and this is the closest. This book is easy if you're a beginner, you can start rendering amazingly real faces and self-portraits. The author has proven techniques and tools and hands-on exercises to help you be a well-trained artist without taking a class. The examples in the book are before and after works that will help the artist achieve success in no time. There's lots of illustrations for practice. Forget about what you maybe learn the old way of drawing a certain geometric form. Throw that out! This book help you to draw what you actually see. The techniques will help you draw in a short amount of time. You'll surprise yourself how you can produce a fantastically real portrait. And, the price is just right, too!
Rating:
Summary: Wow, this book really really helped me!!
Review: I am going into 8th grade, and last fall my cat passed away, I was very depressed (as I'd had the cat my whole life) and so to help me cheer up my parents took me on a camping trip. We went shopping in a nearby town and camped near one of the great lakes. (Keep reading, this is leading up to my review) Well anyway, we went into a bookstore and I wanted a drawing book so my mom helped me find "How to Draw Realistic Faces". Originally I'd had (pretty good) line drawings of faces, yet I couldn't figure out the shading or draw what I see. I bought all of the supplies that this book says are needed, and since then my pictures have become awesome. I can now look at something and draw it exactly as it is. The people I draw look like portraits, not cartoons. I took my sketchbook to school and everyone was very impressed at my work. I lent the book to a few of my friends and now they are just as good (if not better) than me at drawing realistic people. This book is easy to understand, and is incredibly helpful. I would recommend it to anyone!!
Rating:
Summary: Change Over Night
Review: I have to admit, I was highly skeptical when the author says she can teach people to draw (and some of the student drawings are amazing) in 3 classes of instruction. However, since my interests were cartooning and simple sketching (both of which demonstrated I had no talent whatsoever), I thought it might be fun to see what she was saying. I had already gotten bored with Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain -- it was too long, it had so many excercises, it should couldn't hold my attention span. I wanted a quick fix solution.And this book gave it. The author says she's not an artist, but a police sketch artist who basically winged it coming in and took a class or two. She had the opportunity to see lots of faces and measure them. And she breaks down the mental block of why you can draw somethings and not others. Finally, you learn all the tricks to make soft portrait-like pictures that lift off the page. About 3 hours of entertaining reading and I was able to produce very realistic faces that I'm proud to show off. I *highly* endorse this book. Now that I have some fundamentals, I feel like I can go back to the dry reads since I know what to look for.
Rating:
Summary: Change Over Night
Review: I have to admit, I was highly skeptical when the author says she can teach people to draw (and some of the student drawings are amazing) in 3 classes of instruction. However, since my interests were cartooning and simple sketching (both of which demonstrated I had no talent whatsoever), I thought it might be fun to see what she was saying. I had already gotten bored with Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain -- it was too long, it had so many excercises, it should couldn't hold my attention span. I wanted a quick fix solution. And this book gave it. The author says she's not an artist, but a police sketch artist who basically winged it coming in and took a class or two. She had the opportunity to see lots of faces and measure them. And she breaks down the mental block of why you can draw somethings and not others. Finally, you learn all the tricks to make soft portrait-like pictures that lift off the page. About 3 hours of entertaining reading and I was able to produce very realistic faces that I'm proud to show off. I *highly* endorse this book. Now that I have some fundamentals, I feel like I can go back to the dry reads since I know what to look for.
Rating:
Summary: it's good but it could have been more explicit
Review: i think this is a great book, but the problem seems to be that the author doesnt explicitly tell you all of the guidelines, she gives excellent information about the shading techniques, it's true, but she could have given more information about the baselines that she uses in her drawings(you'll know what i mean by "baseline" when you actually see the explanation in the book) i may have reviewed it a little harshly, but i prefer books that arent as confusing.
Rating:
Summary: Art for the Non-Artist
Review: I've always wanted to do ANYTHING artistic and at 48 years old was finally convinced it would be impossible due to my engineering background. This book is amazingly simple and straight forward. It is almost like I am in the classroom with the author. When I drew my first eye I was amazed what a few simple techniques and tools could do and soon I had pages full of eyes....I was as delighted as a child discovering ice cream. If you're like me (artisticly challenged)BUY THIS BOOK. Cudos to the author.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent resource
Review: This book is an outstanding resource for any artist who is interested in improving the accuracy of their drawings. The author's techniques apply to all subject matter, not just faces. When drawing portraits, I have always had difficulty with certain areas of the face, namely the curve of the jawbone area and the curve of the nostril. As the author explains, this is because my mind is drawing pictures from a memorized pattern of these facial features. She then gives many effective techniques that are designed to help you overcome these patterns and actually draw what you see, techniques that I had never thought to use before. Her ideas for checking the accuracy of your drawings help you to produce your most realistic work ever. I think that this book, in combination with Lee Hammonds' How to Draw Lifelike Portraits from Photograpsh, will give anyone (including those who can only draw stick figures) the ability to produce beautiful pencil portraits in a short amount of time. I should know, because I am one of those stick figure people myself! I enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone who desires to draw more realistically. The ideas contained in this book are extremely helpful and this book is well worth its price.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent resource
Review: This book is an outstanding resource for any artist who is interested in improving the accuracy of their drawings. The author's techniques apply to all subject matter, not just faces. When drawing portraits, I have always had difficulty with certain areas of the face, namely the curve of the jawbone area and the curve of the nostril. As the author explains, this is because my mind is drawing pictures from a memorized pattern of these facial features. She then gives many effective techniques that are designed to help you overcome these patterns and actually draw what you see, techniques that I had never thought to use before. Her ideas for checking the accuracy of your drawings help you to produce your most realistic work ever. I think that this book, in combination with Lee Hammonds' How to Draw Lifelike Portraits from Photograpsh, will give anyone (including those who can only draw stick figures) the ability to produce beautiful pencil portraits in a short amount of time. I should know, because I am one of those stick figure people myself! I enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone who desires to draw more realistically. The ideas contained in this book are extremely helpful and this book is well worth its price.
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