Review: Simply Draw by Bob Parsons

I need to start off this review by letting you in on two things which may influence my review, and make it seem a bit fussy.

1. I am an experienced art teacher. I’ve taught art at a private school, in home school co-ops, and one on one. I’ve made Art DVDs, and I have artistic kids. So, I’ve seen quite a few art programs in my day.

2. My children have taken art classes most of their lives, not just through their artist mom, but also through Brother Don West of Christian Art For Kids. Your actual results may vary, as my kids could draw fairly well to start.

Every art teacher has his or her own way of teaching, and Mr. Parsons is no exception to this rule, and so we learned things from him that we wouldn’t learn from someone else. Each art teacher and each artist, if they are worth their salt, tends to learn quite a bit by simply drawing. I’ve learned techniques from different art teachers I’ve had, and I’ve learned techniques just from experimenting myself.

Mr. Parsons jumps right on in with some fairly complex concepts, such that the experienced art teacher in me recoiled in horror.

“This guy is starting off with foreshortening? Is he nuts? Many college art students don’t ‘get’ foreshortening!”

I was quickly breathing a sigh of relief, and was duly impressed when I saw how simply and clearly he taught a concept that has driven art students mad since the Renaissance. His main focus in Simply Draw is to explain and exercise those traditionally complex concepts, which help a picture to look as good as possible, using very simple examples (such as cubes, cylinders, and pyramids) build into the stuff that grabs a childs imagination (for example, stacking the cubes unendingly in the drawing, or creating a pencil spaceship).

Pros:

• Bob Parsons explains hard concepts in a clear and easy way in Simply Draw
• Simply Draw is very attractive to look at. The drawings throughout the book hold the attention of my children, ages 11 and up.
• This book actually comes as a shrink wrapped, 3 hole punched loose leaf book, which you put into a binder. For some of you, this may be a con. For me, I find it a pro, because it is easier to use this way. There is also a nice full color cardstock cover and a strip for the binding of the binder.
• The DVD contains printable sheets for further exercises.
• For most of the shading exercises, he provides a lightly-sketched drawing to help the student focus more on shading, without having to worry about first getting the contour drawing exact. This provides great practice for a student who is not as familiar with drawing, and is a technique I plan to use this fall in the art class I’m teaching.

Anastasia (age 13) used Mr. Parsons’ SPL Weave shading technique to shade the sides of these stacked cubes, based on a lesson in the book.

Cons:

• The DVD only plays on our computer DVD player, which means everyone piles into my office, and occupies my computer, making it impossible for me to do some work whilst they are busily occupied drawing. The techical reason is that on the DVD are also some printable files. I’d prefer a DVD that works in a standard DVD player.
• I believe the shading technique taught by Mr. Parsons is very frustrating and not so easy for young (or older) children. This is perhaps a fussy art teacher “con”, but just as I was typing this, instructing my youngins to make me some art based on his lessons, one of my children was reduced to tears because of how frustrating she found the shading technique. She had originally drawn the lesson he did, though she used a differnent shading technique (blending pencil), but I asked her to try to redraw it just as he was teaching for the purposes of display in this review. We had big, droppy, sad tears within a half and hour. (I relate. I cried during that class in art college.) Using lines and cross hatching to shade looks super cool in the finished product but is not so easy to acheive impressive results without much practice and patience.
• My son (age 15) pointed out to me that the way this program starts off right with shading, instead of building basic shapes, is also a “con”, making it frustrating for new artists. I agree, though it does help a student get the big picture from the start. For a student who is new to drawing (having never had a drawing class before) this may bring added frustration.

Judah (age 15) used Mr. Parsons’ Short Parallel Lines Shading technique for this stack of cubes, from a lesson in the book Simply Draw

In Summary

Simply Draw is a very well written art program for older elementary children. I love the simple examples he uses and the clear and fun ways in which he explains otherwise complicated drawing concepts, such as foreshortening. As with most art programs, this one offers a different perspective on how to create realistic looking drawings, and improve the quality of your drawings through techniques that have been in use by the masters for centuries. I feel this program would be especially good for a family whose children have some art experience under their belts already. Simply Draw can be purchased from the Timberdoodle Company for $37.50, and comes with an unbound, 3-hole punched book, cover and spine, and a DVD with videos and printable sheets.

Disclosure: The FCC requies that I let all of you know that I was provided with a free copy of this product by one of my favorite companies, Timberdoodle, in exchange for a FAIR and HONEST review. Receiving a product for free does not in any way influence my review, as I feel the only way to write a review that is beneficial to you, my readers, is to be completely honest in it.

If you have a product you’d love for me to review, please drop me an email. I’m always happy to do so.