Half Hour of Pencil Power: Fast and Fun Drawing Lessons for the Whole Family!

This book is fantastic! Mark Kistler introduces each drawing with an anecdote about what inspired him to draw that picture. The opening mouse drawing was inspired by a trip to the Louvre! These easy drawings not only give kids instant gratification in their newly discovered art skills, it teaches Mark Kistler's famous "12 Renaissance words" of drawing in 3-D in a really fun way. Your kids (and you) will get an art education out of this book without even realizing it. Highly recommend!!

I recently discovered Mark Kistler through a course on 21Draw dot com. From there, I found him on Youtube. He has a ton of videos that include the same lessons from this book, but don't let that stop you from buying it. The book is filled with heartwarming and sometimes funny stories of his travels and inspirations for the designs in the book. The same personality he displays in his videos can be noted in his books. When you dive into Half Hour of Pencil Power, you'll find that an hour or more has passed, but you don't realize it, because you're so focused and enjoying the process of creating art! I'm a self-taught artist with experience in traditional and digital design. I never learned the basics of seeing things as shapes and using shapes as the basic structure of art design, which is why I joined 21Draw and why I've purchased his books. So who is this book for? If you're not familiar with drawing at all, I would suggest his book Learn to Draw in 30 Seconds a Day. This books is what I'd say to be an intermediate level learning book for someone who's had experience with drawing and are familiar with the building blocks of using shapes to form drawings. If you're brand new to drawing you may struggle a bit if you don't understand that concepts, but all brains are different! Other than that, it's an awesome book for skill building and if you struggle you can always find the corresponding lesson on his Youtube channel. Mark is a great teacher and makes learning concepts easy and simple!

This course is not only fun but helps to reinforce the foundations of drawing, and I would recommend this book of drawing lessons to anyone. If you can write your name, you can draw. That's how simple it is.

Easy to follow instructions, detailed follow along examples and funny stories that give each drawing context. Great for expanding the skills needed to draw from imagination.

I love this book. I did some of Mr. Kistler's class on-line at 21Draw. I can hear his voice as I go through the pages. Very relaxing and easy to follow.

my kids loved watching Mark Kistler on PBS and had the opportunity to attend a workshop by Mark 25 years ago in the midwest. they have a few of his other books; on a whim i bought this book for ME!! what a blast to doodle in the evening after a looong day at work. loved the critters/buildings and crazy shapes, while learning the secrets of art and perspective. so worth the price and all you need is a pencil and paper!

Very good book to teach 3d drawing.My family enjoys it very much

Short, quick exercises to get you going with drawing techniques that culminate in a finished drawing or elements for a finished drawing. Easy to understand, enjoyable and simple shapes and characters. For all ages. Text and step photos could stand to be a bit bigger.

This is officially my second Mark Kistler book of magic and I absolutely love it. Being a BFA recipient and waiting too long in my life to pursue an art career Mr.Kistler brought it all back, and brought me back to my goal in the art world. I Totally love his tutorials..Looking forward in future purchases on his other books tobuild my collection.

… amateur artists who are learning how to shape their drawings.

Zelfs mijn 6 jarige kleinkind tekende met me mee met de stap voor stap uitleg en voorbeelden in dit boek en bekwam ook een verbluffend resultaat. Leuk boek om samen te leren tekenen.

Good book. Used in conjunction with his excellent online teaching... bought separately..