Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces

Rating:
Summary: Practical instruction on drawing faces from photographs
Review: This book is based upon Ms. Parks' one week, 40 hour, course teaching composite sketching to law enforcement officers, a skill which they then use to identify suspects. This course entailed much material and as she writes in her book, "I had to figure out how to teach people to draw well in an extremely short time." She later broadened her teaching to civilians and children. I must admit that she has done an admirable job of condensing and presenting this method in ten short chapters. Chapter one lists the materials needed, chapter two defines the problem of teaching yourself how to draw what you see by overcoming the mind's preconceived preceptions about drawing faces, chapters three through five present a cornucopia of methods and techniques on how to see and draw accurately, and chapters six through ten address drawing the individual features of the face. Ms. Parks' writing style is conversational, easy to follow and often funny. She's managed to not only assemble and condense this vast material but to make it accessible, clear and complete. Ms. Parks clearly knows her material and has a knack for teaching. SECRECTS TO DRAWING REALISTIC FACES is a near perfect primer on drawing faces from photographs, especially useful to young persons and drawing hobbyists. Her book does deliver on its promise, up to a point. But taking these techniques past the photographs to drawing a living, breathing three dimensional person will prove difficult and this transition receives a cursory mention in the book. Also, the drawing style presented here is lacking. All the illustrations LOOK like composite drawings or mug shots-very dry and mechanical. In that sense, they're very limited and have none of the subtler technique and skill of fine art work, neither are the finer points of drawing mentioned. There are no beautiful works of art or visual poetry here, but that's not the author's intent, alas. Ms. Parks has succeeded in her mission with her book. Anyone who studies this book will be able to copy faces from photographs and this isn't a bad FIRST step to learning to draw well.

Rating:
Summary: Practical instruction on drawing faces from photographs
Review: This book is based upon Ms. Parks' one week, 40 hour, course teaching composite sketching to law enforcement officers, a skill which they then use to identify suspects. This course entailed much material and as she writes in her book, "I had to figure out how to teach people to draw well in an extremely short time." She later broadened her teaching to civilians and children. I must admit that she has done an admirable job of condensing and presenting this method in ten short chapters. Chapter one lists the materials needed, chapter two defines the problem of teaching yourself how to draw what you see by overcoming the mind's preconceived preceptions about drawing faces, chapters three through five present a cornucopia of methods and techniques on how to see and draw accurately, and chapters six through ten address drawing the individual features of the face. Ms. Parks' writing style is conversational, easy to follow and often funny. She's managed to not only assemble and condense this vast material but to make it accessible, clear and complete. Ms. Parks clearly knows her material and has a knack for teaching. SECRECTS TO DRAWING REALISTIC FACES is a near perfect primer on drawing faces from photographs, especially useful to young persons and drawing hobbyists. Her book does deliver on its promise, up to a point. But taking these techniques past the photographs to drawing a living, breathing three dimensional person will prove difficult and this transition receives a cursory mention in the book. Also, the drawing style presented here is lacking. All the illustrations LOOK like composite drawings or mug shots-very dry and mechanical. In that sense, they're very limited and have none of the subtler technique and skill of fine art work, neither are the finer points of drawing mentioned. There are no beautiful works of art or visual poetry here, but that's not the author's intent, alas. Ms. Parks has succeeded in her mission with her book. Anyone who studies this book will be able to copy faces from photographs and this isn't a bad FIRST step to learning to draw well.

Rating:
Summary: I hope you enjoy this book-author's comments
Review: This book is the end result of years of training police officers to draw correct composite faces. I had been using other drawing books and found there were errors in the materials--incorrect proportions of the nose, pupil not centered in the iris, too large an iris and so forth. I also needed a way to teach the face in an extremely short amount of time. Dr. Betty Edwards introduced seven drawing tools to help you see and draw better. I uncovered about 27 tools to help you as an artist. I hope you enjoy and learn from its pages and it will help you grow as an artist.

Rating:
Summary: I wish I had this growing up!!!
Review: Wow. This is probably my favorite drawing book. Period.

I must have at least 20 or 30 books on drawing - each one of them have different ways to teach or guide people on doing different techniques. But this book really really REALLY looks far more realistic than the others. And DOABLE too!!! I can tell a 500% improvement in my own art based on what I've learned from this book.

The author gives excellent tips, and her blending technique is easy to follow and she only gives you a tiny list of things you need (special pencils, bristol paper, kneaded rubber, and a blending stump - which all adds up to less than what you'd pay for lunch).

I was a fairly decent drawer to begin with, so I was actually VERY relieved that she didn't spend pages and pages talking about the really basic stuff like other books do. She gets RIGHT INTO how to do it, and how to do it well.

She uses amazing drawings as a way of SHOWING you how to do it, rather than just writing it all out. I am a visual learner, as are a lot of people... and anyone can follow this.

My sister and I both really enjoy this book and have gotten loads of inspiration and tips from this book.

Even advanced level artists can learn a few things from this.