I was looking through my drawing books earlier this week, and I came across a really old book that was handed down to me by a relative. I remember when I was in school I thought it was a great resource, so I started looking through it again. It’s called Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth by Andrew Loomis. I looked at it again, and it’s still awesome. It shows an author with a talent for teaching drawing without the pretentiousness that I remember from instructors in art school. His work also shows an appreciation for the classic pinup, and that attracts me.

So I started digging around online and discovered that Loomis wrote a total of 6 books. All are out of print, considered rare, and usually sell for $80+. But the good news is that they have been out of print for so long, that they are considered public domain. So I looked a little deeper and found that I could download them as e-books, although some were difficult to find. I thought I would clean up the pdf’s and re-post here along with some short reviews.

The first of Loomis’s books is called Fun with a Pencil. And it lives up to its name. It’s written in a light, approachable tone, and it’s a short and relatively easy read. But when you dig in and start looking in detail at all the sample illustrations and measurements, you’ll see that this is really detailed stuff. He covers all the basics needed for good drawing, and he makes it easy to understand.

Whether you are working digitally or with traditional media, in 2d or 3d, a solid understanding of art theory will go a long way to helping you make the most of your abilities. I can’t imagine a better basic resource than this book.

I’ll be posting more of Loomis’s books in the coming weeks, so stay tuned. For now, click the link below to download:

• Download Fun with a Pencil