I found this to be a good book for inspiration and reference drawing. I was anticipating your standard step-by-step, how to guide, but as I don't find them very helpful for me, I wasn't disappointed that it wasn't.

When requesting for this book, I imagined the author will give instructions such as "draw this first, and bla bla bla." Instead, she gave the instructions at the very beginning of the book, and let your imaginations and creativity roams free, with some examples that she drew. I believe that children of any age have their own imaginative way, and this book can do them good.

At first I thought it was a guidebook on how to draw 500 animals but it is actually a sketchbook with line drawing of animals for inspiration. While it wasn't what I was expecting, I thought it was a good idea. Of course, I wasn't able to try it out since I received it as a digital ARC from Netgalley.

This book is full of images of different animals, all of which have been simplified so that you can attempt to copy or imitate them. The artist encourages you to experiment and it is a useful starting point for budding artists

Draw 500 Awesome Animals was filled with great, simple drawings for people of all artistic skill levels to try and master. However, besides a short two paragraph introduction of how to use the book, there was nothing to accompany the drawings and to inform the reader. Usually in these types of books there is a ‘tools used’ section and simple step by step processes for mastering the drawings. The drawings were cute and awesome, but without some sort of process to guide the reader, I didn’t feel very confident that I could recreate the drawings myself. Though, maybe that’s the point. Maybe the author wanted to stress that art is our own and it shouldn’t look exactly like what she had drawn.

Draw 500 Awesome Animals is a basic collection of line drawings of different animals by Julia Kuo. Released 2nd Nov 2021 by Quarto on their Chartwell imprint, it's 208 pages and is available in paperback format.

I love to draw and doodle. Despite not being super advanced and skillful yet, I find drawing very relaxing most of the time. This is an accessible guide full of very simple animal drawings. The animals are mostly stylized, they aren't overly realistic. There is no tutorial instruction; the pages are laid out very roughly thematically (but not labeled, there's no table of contents or index). Animals with similar shapes are often shown side by side for comparison purposes and inspiration: a pig from behind stands next to a similarly positioned skunk, pigs and sheep with similar outlines are arranged together, etc.

The book includes the line drawings alone. There is no introduction or step-by-step tutorials. There isn't any text. Most of the drawings are greyscale monochrome but there are some (roughly 10%) which are rendered in colored pencil.

Great selection for a gift for a young artist, perhaps with some added sketch pads and pencils. This would also make a good classroom or library book.I would also recommend this book to babysitters, grandparents, parents, and basically anyone who spends a fair bit of time with small kids in order to up their 'draw with me' game. I will use these to decorate journals and notes for friends.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This isn't a "how to draw" book, this is a book of inspiration, different animals in different styles to promote you to draw your own.

I honestly don't see much worth in this book. It's essentially a flashsheet you'd peruse at a tattoo artist's shop. At the beginning it gives you a little paragraph about using this book to draw inspiration or to copy them. I thought this book would provide it's readers with a little more knowledge. You can get the same quality of images just by googling zebra or lion. Not worth it in my opinion and it only get's two stars because the pictures were pretty.

This book contain drawings of 500 animals and not how to draw step by step. It is a good reference for daily drawing practice as the drawings are made from simple shapes and doesn't intimidate to replicate.

Draw 500 Awesome Animals, A Sketchbook for Artists, Designers, & Doodlers serves as a reference book for those interested in a large selection of simple animal designs. I feel that maybe the title may confuse people thinking it will walk beginners through the steps of actually drawing the animals, as it doesn't do that. The animal illustrations fill the book and serve as a reference for those looking for simple designs to work from. The beginning of the book suggests tracing the designs or breaking them down into simple shapes. I think this would be a great visual reference book for an art classroom or any classroom incorporating creative work to act as a springboard for ideas! My daughter loves looking at pictures and drawing them, but kiddos or adults looking for step by step instructions may be frustrated.

An easy book for children or budding artists with lots of doodles that they can copy and elaborate on. There are no instructions, just simple drawings and space on the page to practice on. This is definitely not a how-to book, but it could be useful for inspiring a child's imagination or understanding of how shapes make up the different animal forms.

'Draw 500 Awesome Animals'' is a book of illustrations. Julia Kuo is a great illustrator. With this book, the author proves that there are many ways to doodle, sketch and draw animals.

This book can be used as a source of inspiration for doodling in general. It gives the (hobby) artist many creative ideas about how to draw. The drawings in the book have different characteristics. Some are drawn with simple lines, others are colored in with a pen. Some are colorful, others are black and white. Some use more rectangles, some are round, etc.

The drawings are of animals, so they can also be used as reference material when practicing drawing an animal.

I would like to have some more tips or extra text about the different methods the illustrator/author used. But this book is definitely fun and creative to read for other artists or people who like to sketch (animals).

This book is teaching you to really look at a subject animal and study it's lines and shapes

It isn't really going to actually teach you to draw as such

There's plenty of ideas for you to use, but overall I was a little disappointed

Thank you Netgalley for the Arc

This lovely little book does exactly what it says on the cover. There's a small little note from the author at the beginning which encourages readers to examine the lines and geometric shapes that make up each animal. From there on, you're on your own. This book won't teach you to draw, but it will teach you to examine the shapes that make up our world, and you'll have some great little references the next time you find yourself needing to draw either a jellyfish or a zebra. The author provides some space in the book to practice your drawings so if you're out an about it means you won't have to drag around this handy little book and a sketchbook because everything's there for you. All you need is your pen or pencil of choice and you're good to go!

A simple book of drawings to inspire doodlers or even embroiderers who want to outline animals for projects. A good book to inspire new artists who need prompts when opening a blank sketchbook.

This books is exactly what the title suggests! There is a brief note at the beginning, but otherwise the book is simply packed with doodles of different animals. The artist’s note at the beginning encourages readers to draw right on the book’s pages as they study the simple shapes of the doodles and learn to draw their own animals. This would be a great book for anyone who loves animals, or loves to draw!

Extremely disappointing book! I was expecting more step-by-step images, but this is a book of what can only be described as clipart. some of it has been coloured, some of it is black and white.

I received this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This is more a sketchbook than a traditional book. There is an introductory page and then about 100 pages of stylised animal drawings for the reader to take inspiration from, and fill in the rest of each page.

I expected more guidance and more of a structure, maybe moving from really simple drawings to much more complex. This book wasn't what I was expecting, it might be good for children.

This isn't a how-to book as much as just a book showing 500 animals or animal parts (think feathers and such), a few to a page, in a variety of styles. There's a lot of white space. Many of the drawings are minimalist or geometric. For instance, a llama is shown with a lot of curved lines to show the face, a few dark areas to show the nose and eyes, its ears, and most of the body missing. You can definitely tell it's a llama and you can pretty easily mimic it, but it's not a "do this, then that" kind of book. Some drawings are in B&W while others are in simple pastel colors.

This isn't a book I'd buy for our arts center library though I'd probably buy a poster of the top 100 of them. It's a re-release of the same book by another publisher in 2014. Fun inspiration, but there were few that I'd really adopt for my own drawings.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

Simple instruction with plenty of pictures of animals in different styles and poses

Handy to have a circular and oval stencil and ruler if you’re a beginner.

No step-by-step approach.
Simple drawings of animals where you focus on the larger geometric figure first, then the smaller details
Could use some additional steps-by-step diagrams for some of the animals.

Great for doodlers who are interested in incorporating animals. Great reference for different art styles.