Resources for improving your drawing skills

Our goal at the Academy of Art is to help you to reach the professional standards that are required for success in your chosen field. To that end, I will regularly post links and portfolio samples from skilled professionals that will help you to envision exactly what "professional level" standards are. I hope these will inspire you to keep your sketchbook close at hand, continually honing your skills. Also, although the books listed below are not part of the required reading material, I HIGHLY recommend them as resources that can improve your work in every art course you enroll in. Great draftsmanship skills are the foundation of great art, and with a bit of study and a lot of practice you'll find it possible to exceed even your own expectations in time!

The New Drawing on the Right side of the Brain by Betty Edwards :http://www.amazon.com/New-Drawing-Right-Side-Brain/dp/0874774241/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1283815398&sr=1-1

"Translated into thirteen languages, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is the world's most widely used drawing-instruction guide. People from just about every walk of life--artists, students, corporate executives, architects, real estate agents, designers, engineers--have applied its revolutionary approach to problem solving. The Los Angeles Times said it best: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is "not only a book about drawing, it is a book about living. This brilliant approach to the teaching of drawing . . . should not be dismissed as a mere text. It emancipates."

Free Andrew Loomis Art Instruction downloads : http://escapefromillustrationisland.com/2010/01/07/free-andrew-loomis-art-intstruction-downloads/

Full free downloads in pdf format of the following classic Andrew Loomis Art Instruction books: Creative Illustration, Drawing the Head and Hands, Eye of the Painter, Figure Drawing for All it's Worth, Fun with a Pencil, and Successful Drawing. These rare, out-of-print books are free to distribute because of their public domain status.