Drawing Digital

October 1, 2023

Illustrator and art instructor Bardot's book has the power to turn readers without drawing skills into artists. Via pages bursting with vivid colors--teal, yellow, tangerine--the book shows that the key is to use an iPad, an app called Procreate, which costs a one-time fee of $12.99 (there's also a free version with fewer features), and an Apple Pencil stylus. For budget-conscious readers, the book includes a sidebar list of apps with smaller price tags. Bardot also does an excellent job of encouraging and showing readers who don't have all these tools how to apply the book's instructions to drawing with a basic pen (or pencil) and paper. Clear illustrations on nearly every page guide readers through how to turn simple squares, circles, ovals, rectangles, and triangles into images of everyday objects (books, clocks, mugs, and more), plants, flowers, and progressively harder-to-execute animals, full scenes, and entire worlds. Readers will also gain knowledge about choosing digital brushes, layering, masking, mixing colors, lighting effects, stylizing, and creating palettes by importing photos into the app. The book includes an easy reference index and a list of additional resources. VERDICT Beginners will be drawing as soon as they start reading through this gorgeous, easy-to-follow book.--Jill Cox-Cordova

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