Drawing Essentials: Rendering Form is a beginner's course on drawing that focuses on geometric shapes. The idea is that most objects you'll draw from life are based one way or another on geometric shapes. And by learning to draw geometric shapes first, you'll be able to apply the techniques to draw other objects.

The instructor is Charles Valsechi, an artist from Denver, USA. He also teaches still life and figure drawing.

The seven lessons in the 135-min course are

1. Simple Geometric Structures - 15 min
2. Complex Structures - 21 min
3. Understanding Light & Tone - 19 min
4. Local Tone & Edges - 21 min
5. Hatching & Form - 21 min
6. Forms in Space - 14 min
7. Drawing a Scene - 24 min

The medium of choice for this course is the pencil. The main technique is on using the pencil to create shades so as to render form, light and shadow. Other techniques would be blocking in the subjects for drawing so that they form a pleasing composition, hatching, and understanding tones.

The course is simple enough and starts with the sphere, cylinder, cube and cone. It then moves to drawing of a still life scene that includes drapery and flowers.

Actually, I've reviewed a rather similar course on Craftsy before. That's 10 Essential Techniques for Better Drawing by Patricia Watwood. Valsechi's course feels like a subset of Watwood's course. In other words, Watwood's course covers content and hence is more worth the money, and is the one that I would recommend more. I find it strange that Craftsy would have two courses that are quite similar in topic.

Check out more reviews for Drawing Essentials: Rendering Form on Craftsy.

Disclosure: This course was provided to me by Craftsy for review purposes. You can support Parka Blogs by using the affiliate links as I get a little commission from each sale. :-)