Drawing Scenery: Landscapes and Seascapes

Jack Hamm's three books "Drawing the Head and Figure," "How to Draw Animals," and this volume together form what I consider a complete course in commercial illustration but for color theory, which you can find in many other art books. Drawing well is the basis for every other art form especially in illustration. This is the most difficult of those three volumes. Prepare to spend some time reading and studying it. I felt like I was back in college, and progressed through it one page at a time doing sketches on index cards with a soft pencil to test the ideas and theories he put forward -- and unlike many other art books I've read or classes I've taken, concepts like composition, balance, light and perspective made sense to me after studying this book. It's not a light read but it's so rich. Jack Hamm's style is engaging but it's very content-dense. His books are the peak of the example-heavy content-rich concise style of art instruction. Step by step projects and long personal essays on technique and feeling aren't what Jack Hamm is about, although his style is engaging he doesn't seem to have the ego that many art instruction writers do. He doesn't claim his methods or compositions or styles are the best. He describes as many different ways to do things as they are and constantly encourages imagination, originality and personal style. He distinguishes realism from artistic exaggeration and explains effectively why you can't just rely on a photo or even on what you see to create a good believable picture. I'm a writer who has spent a lifetime trying to learn self-illustration and his explanations have successfully broken some mental barriers like overdetailing, lack of focus, bad composition, inconsistent lighting. He encourages boldness and daring. He has specific examples and details of everything I'd need to use in a scene, from clouds and waves to rocks and trees and houses. Most of all he shows how to create drama within a scene, no matter what the subject is it can be rendered a little bolder than life, it can convey emotion and tell a story. I'd recommend this without reservation, order all three of them if you don't have them. All of these books have one quality in common. Even after they're read, they are great permanent references with examples of trees, waves, houses, styles of clouds -- the cloud chart pages are great -- so if I'm doing a drawing I can flip to the right section and get ideas for how to handle the sky or what I can do to make the gnarled tree look like endurance. These books are the kind that will wear out from constant use and need replacing if you're at all fond of drawing, because there's always something new and interesting to find for any future artwork. This is why these classics are still in print. Check out the other two and consider his cartooning book as well if you have any interest in cartooning.

All you need to know starting with composition followed by drawing objects from landscaped with a lot of drawings/sketches. Old print but very useful

This is an amazing book that teaches how to draw scenary. When we look at Landscape as a subject it becomes essential to look at composition of the picture. This is an extremely important aspect of creating a drawing, whether landscape or not. more so when its a landscape, since there are bound to be multiple subjects present in the picture. The book deals in great detail on the various approaches to composing a picture. Learning to look at the whole, creating space within the boundaries, separating /arranging the subjects, creating a path for the eye to flow. these are difficult topics, but essential for a successful picture. Numerous details, and tips are presented on this topic which will enrich ones ability in composition. These can all be employed while drawing figures/still life or any picture. There is a lesson titled "Putting subject matter out of the mind" where the author introduces an interesting experiment of trying to compose pictures, with the basic elements such as the line, tone, etc.. but without any specific explicit subject. Its a wonderful exercise that opens up our ability to compose pictures. This is probably similar to the Gesture drawing that Kimon Nicholaides prescribes for capturing action. There are tons of such useful exercises on composition alone that will make the book worth possesing. Of course the book deals is awesome detail on the specific subject of scenary. classified into following sections Trees and Foliage Rocks and Mountains Clouds and Skies Water : Ocean, Lakes, Rivers Building Each one of these contain simple examples, several variations, approaches to capture the particular element. This pretty much takes care of all that one needs in creating a place for the story a picture tells. Whether one wants to explore pure landscape as a subject, for painting, or for story Ilustration/ graphic story telling, where one needs to create the space for the characters to live, this is undoubtedly a great book to learn from.

Hamm's Drawing Scenery book was published in 1972, yet it is still full of useful advice to the artist today. As an author, he makes no assumptions about the reader's drawing skills, and gets right down to basics. This book is broad enough to be written for the general artist, whether you are an illustrator, commercial artist, or fine artists. While it has a slight comic book artist feel about it, the tips and advice are not limited to just comic book art. I've only taken one star off for its unusual layout - but then it was written BC (before computers).

FANTASTIC BOOK! Absolutely free of pretense, gets right to MAJOR important lessons in composition that can change the quality of your work instantly, and it just doesn't stop. This is a book for artists by an artist who is ONLY looking to teach; Simply, clearly, deeply, and enjoyably. Lessons are presented as a blend of small pictures surrounded by handwritten text, all perfectly integrated -- sometimes several lessons on a single page. You can pick the book up, look at a page, put it down, and you've learned something. Maybe something you never knew, or maybe something you always sortuv intuited, but now you've got a concrete comprehension of that thing that was only previously foggy in your mind. That new comprehension = POWER. This is an undauntingly thin (and affordable) book so you don't feel physically (or psychically) overwhelmed picking it up. Thin, but JAM-PACKED with nothing but the good stuff. Put this thing in your Cart and go right to check out. The friendliest art instruction book I've ever seen. Get it, or have someone get it for you!

As a new starter to sketching I decided to purchase this book. Although it was very interesting it did not help me as much as i thought it would.

If you want to learn landscape painting this is the book! I have had this book for a while and it’s really helpful in teaching me the different techniques of landscape painting. The book hoes in depth about the different techniques of landscape painting. So I am able to do many different types of paintings from this one book. It is pretty thick and the cover of the book I received was yellow which I don’t mind the only thing that I think is an issue are the pages are super thin and easy to tear. But that’s nothing compared to all the information provided within.

As a beginner I’ve struggled a lot with drawing just about anything, so one day I bought maybe 2 dozen books for learning to draw landscapes and nature. This one was the single most useful of all of them. The key to how this book did more for me than others is that the examples shown in the book are simple and direct. You can replicate them just by looking at them and imitating what you see, and in doing so learning new approaches to drawing. The author provides you with dozens of examples of how to approach everything from clouds to mountains to rocks and trees. There are also sections that provide step by step methods for drawing things like rocks and mountains. The author shows examples that are nothing fancy, and you can see how it was done just by looking at it. I’ve improved more than ever in a short time thanks to this book.