In light of recent reviews, I feel compelled to advocate it. I've taught university life drawing for over 16 years. If you follow the exercises and do as many as required, your drawings WILL improve immensely. While I agree it is in complete opposition to hard edged, refined type drawings--it is so only as a means.

The Natural Way to Draw by Kimon Nicolaides is a classic book on drawing that offers a series of exercises to help readers develop their artistic skills and express their creativity. The book is based on Nicolaides' teaching method, which emphasizes the importance of observation, gesture, contour, mass, and rhythm. The book is divided into 64 lessons, each with a specific goal and a suggested time limit. The lessons cover topics such as drawing from memory, drawing from life, drawing the human figure, drawing animals, and drawing landscapes. The book also includes examples of Nicolaides' own drawings and those of his students.

The book is suitable for beginners and experts alike, as it challenges readers to improve their work and discover their own style. The book is not a set of rules or formulas, but a guide to help readers develop their natural way of drawing. The book is inspiring and encouraging, as Nicolaides writes with passion and enthusiasm about the joy of drawing. The book is also practical and realistic, as Nicolaides acknowledges the difficulties and frustrations that come with learning to draw. The book is a valuable resource for anyone who wants to learn to draw or enhance their existing skills.

I normally do not review art books, as there are others who do better than that beside me, but in this book, Nicolaides is the exact archetype of the nonsensical art educator: Teaching you to draw without any basis of actual observation.
To give you a good idea, Nicolaides asks you to do three main types of exercises, which become harder with time, they are: Gesture, Blind Contour, And his "Mass exercises"; Problem is: First of all, Gesture drawing is intended for artists to use to relieve the stiffness in their drawings and to capture life in the figure, Problem for Nicolaides: THESE ARTISTS MUST FIRST KNOW HOW TO CONSTRUCT THE FIGURE AND/OR OBSERVE IT. As for Blind Contours, I have never met a respected art educator who'd recommended them; His mass-excercises show no conception at all of "Mass"; He does not even understand what Mass is, Turn to page 77 if you have the book, and you might possible see the worst "Mass" drawing ever done.
Drawing, on the other hand, should be based on actual understanding of form, observation and actual drawing. If you keep making scribbles for 360 hours [The time Nicolaides allocates] You will end up creating scribbles.
The one thing this book can teach you is to always meet deadlines, and even then, meh.

A well written book. Enjoyed reading it.

The author is quite emotional.

Possibly the best book ever written on learning to draw. It's simple: here is an exercise that will get you started; now draw for three hours, then come back for another exercise. When you're done, you have a firm foundation to go figure out how you want to draw. If that method of learning doesn't excite you, then you might want to learn knitting or something else instead.

The book is definitely amazing, i like it.

This text was used as a loose framework for my college level drawing course. I say loose because we did use many of the exercises but we did not follow the exact progression, time requirements, or employ every exercise.

I found it an extremely effective method to teach observation and drawing. I have had the chance to be a part of other courses taught using other methods and find this one superior. I am now reading this text again after 30 years since my first reading. In light of my education and over 40 years of drawing experience, my opinion remains the same. I would add that the exercises outlined therein still hold value for the most seasoned visual artist and are the equivalent of scales for the musician.

I have been drawing since I can remember, and I have been seriously studying art for the last five plus years. I have spent a lot of time focused on the crisp, controlled line and form, carefully trying to copy without seeing. I avoided books like this like the plague because I could never "wrap my brain around that abstract thinking gobbledygook."

But recently, I realized that I wasn't progressing. My drawings were lacking something important. That was when I was ready to break away from stereotypes and explore this book. I read through the whole thing first and foremost and he explained exactly what I wanted in my drawings--I knew it, but never knew how to get it. Technical knowledge is great, but without the emotion of the human heart, drawings become stiff, mechanical and lifeless. I wanted *life* in my drawings.

After reading the whole book, I went back and started doing the exercises. Sometimes, they were hard to understand . I hate mysticism-type talk. That whole "feel and don't think." So it wasn't easy. However, I figured out that it isn't exactly mysticism. Really, everything is made of a gesture--if you think about the atoms and energy that naturally flow from all objects, it makes perfect sense. Even an inanimate object is full of energy as the atoms race around.

This book is not the be-all end-all to learning to draw, but it is an important part of drawing. If you couple this with more atelier style lessons, your art will definitely improve and faster than you thought. Balance in everything.

The book is absolutely amazing.

This is incredible book

These books are definitely awesome.