You Can Draw In 30 Days
by Mark Kistler · first published 2011
86% recommend14% critical
Why HN recommends it
Structured daily drawing lessons that explain concepts as needed, covering shading, lighting, perspective and hands. It is a practical, very basic starting point for beginners who draw from imagination.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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You Can Draw in 30 Days: The Fun, Easy Way to Learn to Draw in One Month or Less by Mark Kistler This was great.
on “Ask HN: Anyone here have good material for learning how to sketch from scratch?” ↗I think if you want this from an engineering perspective then Mark Kistler's You Can Draw in 30 Days is a good bet. It's not about how to see (unlike Drawing With the Right Side of the Brain) but if you want to draw certain types of things from your imagination, then it might do what you need and doesn't…
on “Ask HN: How do I learn drawing?” ↗I enjoyed the book "You Can Draw in 30 Days" [1]. It gets into practice straight away, explaining the concepts as you need them. The daily exercises range from 20~40 minutes. [1] https://www.amazon.com/You-Can-Draw-30-Days/dp/0738212415
on “Ask HN: How do I learn drawing?” ↗The book You Can Draw in 30 Days, Mark Kistler. It covers a lot of the theory and practice. Starts from things like shading and lighting, then perspective, and stuff like hands.
on “Related to: Ask HN: Anyone here have good material for learning how to sketch” ↗You Can Draw in 30 Days by Mark Kistler is a good, very basic, instruction book I think.
on “How to Draw Animals (1930)” ↗…other books, including SICP but TLS helped a tonne in the final clicking. Thinking in Type - great book that taught me quite a bit about typography. It showed me how important typography is to design. You can draw in 30 days - sounds very SAMS but actually the progress I made in 1 day is testimony to the book's bold claim. You won't be Da Vinci but you will have functional drawing and sketching skills if you go through this.…
on “Ask HN: Books Like 'Calculus Made Easy'?” ↗…a museum curator. The idea that someone could become a designer in 6 months reminds me of things like get rich quick schemes, get ripped in 10 minutes a week videos, or as was cited in the article, "You Can Draw in 30 Days". It reminds me of this comic: http://mccreavy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/owl.jpg You can't draw in 30 days. It is said that professional cyclists don't reach their peak for 10 years. This is also…
on “How to become a designer without going to design school” ↗