"First Lessons in Drawing and Painting" is a great way to begin your quest of becoming an accomplished artist. This book will help you understand how other famous drawings and paintings were "built", by focusing on the creation of Still Life. Jack goes through many lessons in both drawing and painting, such as how to create space and depth in your drawings, working with values, keys to good composition, light and shadow, basic painting techniques, working with a pen, etc etc... If you have no idea what all of this has to do with good artwork..., then I'd highly suggest starting right here. After you learn the basic formula, Jack take you step by step through a realistic chalk drawing, creating texture, an intro to abstraction, and even teach you floral drawing and painting (you'll learn how to draw realistic roses in here as well).

I bought this book after I had already purchased Jack's other four excellent books, this was a mistake on my behalf. I became frustrated when I reviewed my drawings as they visually reminded me that I was 'still a beginner'! So, I bought this book. I've only had this book a week and already my lack of experience is becoming harder to trace, it also helped to boost my self-confidence when I re-read Jack's books and re-tried the excercises. Conclusion: I've learned from my mistakes, so you can save yourself unnecessary frustration. This book is a great easy to follow starter book for the aspiring artist, I'd really consider this book trying to take on figure drawing, landscapes, etc... all of Jack's books will help indefinately, but this book makes you both visually, AND mentally prepared for them!

I used Jack Hamm's Handy Clip Art Book while in the USAF in Sicily....I would take a pair of scissors and cut-out any piece of art that I felt would illustrate the message of the week, and tape it to the bulletins....they were attractive drawings, and there were hundreds of them! Now bear in mind that this was before the age of computers, but it was quicker and easier, also! All you needed then was a typewriter, scissors, tape, and you had yourself a nice-looking bulletin. Mr. Hamm had a variety of illustrations that went so well with the church bulletin that I used his book every week. I'm amazed that all this work came from one man. Richard J. Bennett

I must say that I love the book, the many illustrations, and guides to drawing cartoons in different styles are a great reference. This was my first book on cartooning, and I would recommend it to anyone now starting off in the cartooning world or as a great desk reference.

However keeping the book thin also keeps the content as compact as you could get it. When you're ready for heavier meat you will need to move on to anatomy books and even books on different drawing styles, so you're going to start looking for books by Burne Hogart at this point. I'm not trying to say that this book is in anyway weak, the topic is just so vast that it can't adequately be covered in one book. However it is a necessary book for any beginning cartoonist's arsenal.

Yes... pure gold! Just imagine a HUGE directory of expressions, noses, hands, feet, sports poses, old man and women, you name it! It may not cover all the styles of cartooning, but it covers all the bases... I need a dictionary, there aren't enough good words that I can say about this book. I think [they] should give us the opportunity to 6-rate these book.

The greatest thing about this book is the fact that it's suitable for both the expert and the beginner. With over 127 side view noses, 73 frontal view, 135 eyes, 46 brows, 156 mouths, 122 ears, 105 hairstyles, 33 hats, and MORE -- it's not only excellent for learning new styles, it's also a great 'source' book for ideas! Definitely a 'must have' if you're looking for fresh ideas or want to learn cartooning.

This book has excellent coverage of how to draw animals. Before this book, I couldn't draw a thing. Now, I can't stop drawing animals!

I found this book to be incredibly helpful for me. I have learned how to draw numerous types of animals from this book. Personally, I especially liked the section on horses. Buy this book you cannot go wrong. Why you ask? ....Answer: Jack Hamm is the man when it comes to drawing!

I am so surprised to see this beloved old book for sale years after my sister purchased a copy and let me borrow it from time to time (at 13 years old I was only to be trusted occasionally with the property of my sister!). The cover hasn't changed and the format is just the same.

It's a classic - laid out wonderfully with comparative anatomy with a system of geometric shapes that help you remember how animals are put together. I still have that 20 year old copy - it's acidifying a bit - probably need to buy a new one!

Have fun drawing and don't doodle too much (he encourages doodling and creates the addiction, I swear!)

Are you fed up with the books that merely demonstrate how much better the author is at drawing than you are? All you can do is try (and fail) to copy their examples without really knowing the how and why of making marks and coming up with your own compositions?

Jack Hamm tells you what marks to make, how to make them, where to make them, and why. And it turns out that it's easy to draw good pictures. Whodunnit in the end? Youdunnit!!!

His landscapes book was the first I bought in the series. I was so impressed with it that I subsequently bought ALL his other books in a single batch. And I've been just as pleased with each of them.

I bought this book to learn the principles of drawing scenery. My interest is in creating both comic book line pencil art and 2D computer game graphics (bitmap -Photoshop and vector - Flash). While the book's description of the many tools and papers isn't directly applicable, they gave me a few ideas on how the techniques could be translated into forms suitable for comics and 2D computer graphics.

The book's target audiences are fine arts students or 'true' artists and some of the lessons presented and jargons used aren't readily understood by hobbyists like me. However, this didn't stop me from enjoying the book because of the specific content I was looking for: drawing trees, rocks, mountains, clouds, reflections, water correctly and many more.

I was hoping the book would have a few pages dedicated to 'cityscape' drawing but I am assuming that if you can draw nature, you can draw non-natural subjects like buildings. The book also didn't have lessons on using colors but it did stress on perfecting black and white values/tones before jumping into colors. If you want colored scenery drawing, get another book. (But this is just me being my usual picky self.)

Buy this book! It's a steal! As in you'll probably never need another drawing scenery book (unless of course you want to enhance your skill on a specific form such as oil, watercolor, acrylic, airbrush, etc.).

"Empowering" and "amazing" are words I've heard in reference to Jack Hamm and his books. The vast majority of "how to draw" books (sorry, but it is true) are self-indulgent galleries by people with poor skills. Jack doesn't show off. He tells you what he has tried, what usually works and what usually doesn't, and he gives you the confidence -- indeed, the urge -- to go out and try it yourself. And, oh -- his drawings are magnificent.

The layout of the book is unexpected. Sure, there is the expected list of trees and the panels of water reflections under different conditions. But the bulk of the book speaks to composition, particularly landscape composition, in ways that has made me recommend it to friends of mine doing Bryce and Terragen (computer landscape art).

As is typical of Jack's books, you read it once, then you pick it up again and again every time you need a little help, a confidence boost, or a kick in the pants.

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This is an excellent book for the beginner to get started on drawing the human body right away.

Pick up a pencil, charcoal or whatever (ballpoint pen is a real tool too!) and start drawing what Jack says. In no time you will be amazed at what you can draw.

The lessons are profusely illustrated but the text is very concise and hence one has to focus on what he says carefully.

It begins with the head, moves to the body , details the hand and goes on to clothing, dealing both the female and the male equally well. There are hundreds of *tips* that one can learn in this book.

For example the author talks about the 'T' technique. Using this very simple observational method one can capture the realism of an object in terms of how the edges of the objects are all made of different forms of the letter 'T'. And using this technique one can depict the 3 dimensional illusion on paper. Especially this helps is drawing the human body. (if you are wondering what the hell this is, pls take a look inside the book)

There are countless number of such practical tips, using which one can, not only start drawing right away, but also learn how to approach drawing the body on their own.

The secret of using Jack's book is to pick up a lesson, one at a time, follow the tips and practice that lesson until one can draw that particular piece without seeing. Also 'Read what he says very carefully', 'Pay attention to every word'.

A more personal approach and continuity in the conversation with the student as one progresses thru the pages and more 'exercises' and a note on how to use the book, which one takes a while to figure out would have earned it 5 stars.

But.. it has *practical* tips and techniques to make anybody with the desire, to draw a human body with ease and confidence......Right away!

I'm basically a manga artist, but I like to mix techniques when I draw to create something somewhat of my own style. I've had my eye on this book for quite some time, because a few years ago I had purchased a 'how to draw animals' book by Jack Hamm as well.
When I buy an art book, I look for the following things: clear instructions, extra tips, nice artwork, understandable text, easy to follow steps, plenty of info on any given subject pertaining to the title [lips, hair, eyes] and something that I can not only follow, but learn from and expand upon. This book met my criteria, even perhaps going beyond doing so. I recommend this book for people looking for a simple yet sophisticated and detailed way of learning how to draw the head and figure. If you're looking for something that shows you how to draw bodies and heads, but aren't looking for something complicated and complex, then this is an excellent buy, especially for the price.

I own many artistic-anatomy and figure-drawing books and this is one of my favorites. I can't say that this is the only book you should buy if you want to learn to draw the figure, but it should absolutely be one of the books you buy. Maybe even your first.

This book gives you so much information that other books lack. There are hints for drawing every part of the body, including the shoulders, necks, noses, mouths, eyes, arms, elbows, hands, and legs. These hints are practical and directly applicable to your drawings. The book isn't full of highly finished figure drawings that are beautiful to look at but don't help you actually learn to draw; instead, the drawings are more like "illustrations" but the principles contained here are what's important. You can produce your own finished figure drawings in your own style after you've learned what this book has to offer.

There is no perfect book and you can never have enough figure drawing books. Each one has something to teach you that isn't discussed in the others. Other recommendations include every book by Robert Beverly Hale and Terrance Coyle (Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters, Master Class in Figure Drawing, Albinus on Anatomy, etc.), Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist by Stephen Rogers Peck, An Atlas of Anatomy for Artists by Fritz Schider, and books by Barcsay, Hale & Richer, and so many others. Buy them all. Enjoy them all.

In short, I can't praise this book enough. Buy it. Use it. You won't be disappointed.

What to do if you're trying to make something as stupid and boring as the bible into something that a poor gullible child will accept? This is the problem faced by the authors, and they do a half-way decent job of presenting bible idiocy as something partly entertaining as a comic book. Should be useful for gullible, brainwashed parents attempting to produce gullible, brainwashed children. Start them with Santa, and if they believe that, move on to the bible in comic book form.

Great idea with uneven results. Some superb art in places, but not always as an appropriate counterpoint to the accompanying Scriptures. The parts that do succeed are worth the cover price alone.

This book was well received by me and my teenagers. There needs to be more artistic interpretations like this that tackle scripture. Not every translation done in this book is accurate to the Word of God but every piece is brilliant in its own right. Bravo! Encore!