The Big Book of Realistic Drawing Secrets: Easy Techniques for drawing people, animals, flowers and nature

This is the book that can teach anyone to draw (yes, even you!)

If you're not getting the kind of true-to-life results you want in your drawings (or if you can't even draw a straight line), Carrie and Rick Parks can help. As award-winning teachers, they have a proven game plan for helping artists of all levels overcome common problems and see immediate improvement in their work. As professional composite artists, they know the tricks and tools for achieving incredibly lifelike results. In this friendly, foolproof guide to drawing, they share it all:

   • Easy-to-master techniques for achieving a convincing sense of depth
   • How to draw challenging textures like metal and fur
   • Putting personality into your portraits
   • 40+ step-by-step demonstrations featuring a variety of people, animals and nature


Easy enough so that beginners can jump right in, and comprehensive enough to help more accomplished artists refine their skills. This book covers all the essentials, teaching you the secrets of realistic drawing one step at a time, building the skills you need to tackle any subject convincingly--even those you've always thought were beyond your reach. Before you know it, you'll be turning out picturesque landscapes, stellar portraits--any subject that inspires you to put pencil to paper!

Carrie Stuart Parks has been a professional artist since 1976 and a forensic artist since 1981. In 1986, she attended an FBI class and became a composite artist, later developing a portrait-drawing course for all ages. She is the author of Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces (2003, North Light Books), Secrets to Realistic Drawing (2006, North Light Books) and Secrets to Drawing Realistic Children (February 2008, North Light Books).