The Best How-To-Draw Book You've Never Read

Let me guess, you like art and your mom or another well-intentioned relation bought this book for you, thinking it was like all those other crappy How-To-Draw books with insipid drawings of puppies, mythical creatures or busty amazons.

Well it is your lucky day, my friend, because you didn’t get one of those terrible books, you got this one.  This one will teach you how to draw well.

First lets pick apart why How-To-Draw books are just the worst.

Here’s a typical excerpt from a How to Draw book.

YOU can draw amazing dragons, too!

First, draw a circle/triangle/square.

Then draw a triangle/circle/tetrahedron for the head and tail.

Now add scales and fire.

Amazing!

Apart from stifling creativity, it also produces a pretty shitty drawing of a dragon.

How to not draw a shitty dragon.

Step 1. Draw 100 dragons.  Make each one different.

Step 2. Draw 100 more dragons.  Make each pose different.  

Congratulations!  You’re now a pretty awesome dragon drawer.  If you don’t think so; good!  This means you’re not content with your level of skill and will not stagnate like your more easily appeased peers.  Draw dragons every day until you are happy with your level of skill and then draw dragons every day because you are awesome at it.

How to become a Master Dragon Drawer.

Step 3. Spend 10 hours drawing one dragon.

Step 4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 endlessly.

Probably not their first dragon. by Dragolisco

For whatever reason the people who make How-To-Draw books are solidly mediocre artists.  Or maybe they’re dumbing down their art for the simple masses.  Either way, if you only learn from them, you can only get as good as they are.