Draw Buildings and Cities in 15 Minutes: Amaze your friends with your drawing skills

Product arrived on time and good condition, but absolutely not what i expected. Purchased as a gift for 14-15 year old (secretly thought I might enjoy as well. Completely off the mark. A collection of finished sketches 95% done. Not interesting nor instructing.

If you are a beginner at drawing, this book is for you. It gives good advice in a straightforward way. If you are beyond the novice stage, look elsewhere.

Exactly what I needed

Easy to follow and well organized. Great info and ideas.

Not what I expected. Not a book for beginners.

Having sketched most of my life, I lack the rigor to be a “true artist”. When I was in high school, I loved to draw, but had little patience to really learn to do it well. I then spent 20 years on a drawing board drafting mechanical parts and schematics. Trust me, this is not “artistic”. However I still did “hand-done” 3D machine sketches to provide with estimates or to describe something, I was working on. So you see where I’m going. These two parts of my brain were very separate. Orthographic projection (most mechanical drawings) deals with a lot of detail, but even then you don’t dimension or include everything. So where am I going with this? This book discusses the mechanics of drawing pictures of cityscapes and brings in some fundamental drawing principles.Many aspects of a good drawing are:**** What are the boundaries of your drawing?**** What level of detail do you plan to incorporate?Items such as this; despite knowing enough to do this in mechanical drawing, I never put in practice in my hand sketches, so often I had unbalanced sketches, of way too much detail in areas, I did not care about. Maybe you do too. This book if you put some of the ideas in practice will help you sort that out.Some of the way it does that is in the chapters below.INTRODUCTION:Exploring why you want to draw and the equipment necessary to do so.FUNDAMENTAL DRAWING SKILLS:I found this section essential. There are somethings as a sketcher, I have never done properly. This gives you a whole bunch of common sense tips and tricks, that to be honest, never dawned on me. I and maybe you start sketching and then wonder what happened. This section helps you frame what you want to draw and helps you make those decisions upfront, so by the time you are drawing you have a clear path. None of it is hard.BEGINNING THE DRAWING:Imagine this, starting with a rough framework and then steps to work to what your desired end product is.COMMON CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES:What makes this book work is all the sketches inside showing what the artist means. It helps with the why and when.LIGHT AND SHADE:This is a great section that no beginning artist thinks through fully. It helps you do understand why, good artists drawings look better.ENTOURAGE:All the other stuff that is around buildings, trees, vehicles & people. Completes the drawing. However you get to pick or choose what you include. The drawing should represent what you want to portray, not a 100% faithful reproduction.CONCLUSIONIn the end it takes practice. You also need to learn from your failures. Essentially, what you might consider a failure is when you don’t achieve what you set out to do. This is a learning opportunity, not so much a failure as you are practicing. Further advice to try new approaches once you get into a rut, as it will only freshen up your skill set.Overall this is a great book with valuable advice and I hope to get cracking on drawing again, as I feel this has given me some great pointers.

This is a book that teaches the steps and basic abilities needed to sketch any object that you see. It begins by giving you a realistic assumption about what to expect out of it, which is to sketch objects 'roughly' accurately in 15 minutes i.e quick. To go further, the title is a bit misleading in that you are not going to learn to sketch in 15 minutes, rather after reading the book and following the methods, you will be able to sketch an object in 15 minutes. Actual reading-to-learn time I would estimate would take several days to get the jist down.The structure goes something like this:1. Learn what it is you are actually doing i.e. how to approach sketching, say, a building.2. Learn how to start from the basics -- shell -- shape -- structure -- details.3. Different types of contrast lines and how to draw them appropriately.4. The tools needed to sketch.In general, you *will* come out of this book with a different approach to drawing. Coming from someone who has a very artistic mind, but cannot, in anyway, relate that onto a page by drawing, this book allowed me to approach drawing in a different way that will allow me to focus my thoughts on drawing bit by bit. You will, then, be able to sketch quite well following this book however don't expect complicated drawing aspects explained. This will only teach you a very basic and straightforward sketch. I would say this is perfect for a traveler who, instead of wanting to take pictures, has the urge to draw a place they are at, or an event they are experiencing. You can then look back and be 'there' again -- albeit roughly.Good book overall, just don't expect detailed instructions on minute details of sketching.

The title doesn't mean that you can learn to draw buildings and cities in fifteen minutes, it means that you will be able to draw a building or cityscape in 15 minutes after learning the techniques in this book. And it's true! The author explains everything you need to know about drawing what you see in urban areas with respect to architecture. Everything is included--materials you will need, how to select subjects to draw, how to measure and sketch, selecting a composition, perspective, light and shading, drawing at night (really cool chapter), and so much more. Particularly helpful to me is his instruction for drawing non-linear elements with reasonable accuracy. It's one of many great tips throughout the book.Not only does Mr. Brehm give wonderful technical advice, he offers a great deal of wisdom and encouragement. He guides you into initial selection of your subject, through the preliminary sketching, shading, and onward to the final touches of your completed drawing.Although I did not learn how to draw in 15 minutes (my mistake), I am confident that--with enough practice--I will be able to draw a building in 15 minutes. Five solid stars!

It is full of drawings drawn on a computer pad, so no real pencil graphics, and the instructions for how to work or exercises are of little use.

Brilliant little book.. Clearly explains all helpful tips for measuring, perspective and many more useful aspects of drawing.

I enjoyed this for including much detail in simple examples. I can dip in and out and compare or reference easily as I think of drawing issues. It will never tire.

I bought this book yesterday, and already feel much more confident about drawing buildings after scanning through it. The author breaks down the process in a straightforward manner, and it all makes so much sense...Highly recommended for anyone wanting to try drawing city-scapes.

Very brief introduction to the subject with no projects to speak of.