Sketching the Countryside: How to Draw the Vanishing Rural Landscape (Dover Art Instruction)

I’ve never drawn or painted a barn in my life but a customer wanted a barn scene on metal saw blades. I used the book as an instructional tool and the customer was really happy!

After retiring I wanted to start a whole new life! I wanted to rediscover the true me and start doing my pen & ink artwork again. Frank J. Lohan is my #1 choice of teachers in the pursuit into self-taught pen & ink art & illustration!! I love his examples and descriptions. I am collecting all of his books for my art reference library. I especially love my country backroad drives to take photos of barns, farms & farmland...and scenic countrysides. I am particularly blessed to live in an area still known for such travels. I would highly recommend this book and other books by the same author!!

I really liked this book and the drawing instructions provided. Please note that the book leans to pen and ink style rather than pencil.The author goes over drawing the various things you can find in a rural landscape including old barns, stone walls, houses, water.

I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 because this is a reprint of the book that falls a bit short when it comes to the drawing examples. They aren't as sharp or clear as they should be (I've seen an original copy of the book). But...Aside from the somewhat disappointing reproductions of the art examples the book shows good examples of techniques for both pencil and pen drawings. The details are not as clear as the original drawings showed, but still very useful. His directions are very clear and you can see what he means in the drawing examples. The various types of line use are shown well enough to get the point across and he does a good job explaining how to use contrast to draw the eye to the important in scene. I wish I could find a used copy of the original printing from 1989, but none seems to be available. Oh well, all in all I found this to be an excellent teaching tool for a beginning artist.

Arrived in good condition and well packed. Will use this book to add to my knowledge.

A gift to an inmate

As a beginning watercolor hobbiest I found that learning to sketch what I see was helpful. Those of us who are self taught can learn much from this wonderful book. Mr. Logan lays out the steps to a successful drawing making it understandable and fun! He appreciates our vanishing rural countryside scenes and makes them easier to keep in whatever medium we choose. I am happy to have him as my teacher!

My son really enjoys this.

Like most Frank J Lohan's books content very good, but Amazon packaging dreadful, nearly falling out as it wasn't sealed at all.

This is an excellent instructive book with great suggestions for shading and catching the textures of buildings and life in the outdoors.Arrived on time and in the condition it was advertised to be.Thank you.

Good pen examples but pencil drawing not great .

A gift to my daughter for her newly found interest: art. She really liked it!