Art Book Review: “The Art of Perspective” by Phil Metzger
What’s going on with this post?
Well since I’ve started borrowing library books again in July, and I’m currently venturing through non-fiction books about drawing whatnot [fiction books will be borrowed later and will be recorded in my social reading places!] And figured I might as well review a bit over how useful books I’ve borrowed are to me.
I am not paid to do this; I just want a record of this to myself and perhaps other people may find it useful.
I will only go over the book briefly in dot points though.
I don’t know if I should do this whenever I read an art book but there’s a first for everything!
First book:
“The Art of Perspective: The Ultimate Guide for Artists in every Medium” by Phil Metzger
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| My mobile photo of this book! |
FIRST IMPRESSION:
borrowed it because it looked like something I’d use; I’ve done perspective before during school but I wanted to see if there’s anything I’ve missed. And I know I can’t do watercolour landscapes like he can!
RESULTING NOTES:
So I ended up with four sides of notes. So I got something out of it. Most of it was what I knew from observation already but here it was in words on paper and thus there was a more conscious awareness of its existence so to speak.
POSITIVES and INTERESTING:
- it goes into perspective making the most: 1, 2 and 3 point perspectives and curved surfaces the most–loads of strategies, measuring and drawing landscapes from life [a lot of trees/houses]
- strategies of creating an illusion of depth and distance too [overlapping, scale, proportion etc]
- colour theory, reflected light, cast shadows, reflections in water are also touched upon
- projects at the back for you to practice your perspective making skills in your work [which I didn’t do because I want to apply it a project later]
- I skimmed through it a lot because there was a lot of personal ramble about the artist’s experiences in how he was learning this stuff while I just wanted to get to the point
- a lot of focus on watercolour and some pencil; traditional mediums
- there were frequent moments when I thought: “I know this already!! But you’ve put it in words so now I’m more conscious of it!” This book is probably great for beginners but also useful reminder with a few new techniques to those intermediate.
USEFULNESS RATING to me: 6/10
BOOK RATING: 7.5/10
Anyway, that’s all for this brief review!
I look forward to any feedback and thanks for reading!