More Early Drawing Adventures

As my mother noticed my interest in drawing, she got me a more sophisticated drawing book for young artists, Draw 50 Animals by Lee J. Ames, a former Disney cartoonist. This book was one of the best gifts I ever received. It helped to demystify a skill which seemed like magic to a young person. It made learning to draw so much more possible to me as a young person as I could grasp how to break what seemed impossible into manageable steps. I loved this book and all the books Ames has put out for drawing. He has over a dozen, showing how to draw all sorts of things- people, places, planes, etc. His technique is a good next step after Emberley's. He shows how to draw realistic representations on a step by step basis starting with basic shapes. You can find them used quite easily as they have been around for 30 years now. I have put up a link to one of his latest, a sort of greatest hits book which features examples from many of his other books. As a young person,I would spend hours drawing from these books and include them in my compositions.In recent years, I returned to them as I have found many students interested in learning to draw. When I was teaching English in the Bronx, I found that some who students who were not so interested in the regular classwork responded quite differently to learning to draw and I used Ames' books to reach such students. The drawing I included with this post was one of my sample drawings that I did with some students.
I still use them for my own drawing quite regularly as a sort of warm up exercise for drawing. I find that the process that Ames uses in his drawings is quite useful to take on board as an approach to drawing realistically and I have found his approach similar to other professional artists and instructors. I hope that those of you who are following this blog due to your interest in drawing and learning to draw will find his books as wonderful as I have.