I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and I honestly really enjoyed this book.

It's not a gripping novel, of course: it's a how-to book on how to draw cute animals. It's a "how-to" that teaches how to draw through the examination of the shape of different animals before we try to draw them. It breaks down the shapes of dogs, cats, horses, foxes, wolves, etc. into their component parts: heads, faces, bodies, ears, etc. And it's an effective method of teaching drawing. I'm not great at drawing, but using the shapes from this book I was able to draw a variety of animals.

The aim of the book is a modest one: to teach you how to draw cute animals and it does a very good job. It won't teach you how to add color to the animals, but with colored pencils, it's not hard to do.

Highly recommended: 5 of out 5 stars. I want to practice more drawing, so I'm going to get this book when it comes out.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group/Quarry Books for the ARC. I am NOT an artist at all. But i would love to be able to draw some cute animals. This is supposed to be a beginners book=but sadly it failed. LOL I don't think that there was enough detail. I think us beginners basically need a trace. I mean a step by step. Cute but not basic enough for me. 3 stars.

Drawing books are so difficult for me to review. I think everyone has such a different style of drawing, and there is really only so much you can learn from a book. While the drawing in these books is accurate, its also a very simple style which is good for beginners. It is also only teaching the sketching side of the drawing. So every drawing in the book is finished off with coloring and shading, but none of that is actually taught in the book. Just the curves and lines of the sketch. I will say, the book covers a plethora of animals. Some that I had never even heard of, so that was quite thorough. But some of the animals, like cats for example, were stated that they could be drawn in varying positions because they are so playful, but then only a couple poses were actually taught in the book.
Like I said, it's difficult to review books like this because in my opinion it's difficult to learn drawing things that aren't stationery in books like this. So for what it was, as a beginners book, I'd say it was pretty good. Just not great.

We loved this book! Was really clear to help us draw the cute animals. We did this as a family and it was a lovely thing to do with all ages.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy to read and review.

This is a great drawing book for common animals. I really appreciate the visual instructions, including arrows for directional lines. I also really liked how there were instructions for eye placent and head and body proportions. A great book for gifting young or new illustrators.

Drawing Lessons for Beginners: Cute Animals is a brilliant little step by step guide to drawing cute but realistic animals. There are all kinds of animals and and even different breeds within some of the animals. It is a fun book that will help anyone (even those who think they can't draw) to produce cute and recognisable animals. I loved the format, the step by step instructions and the appealing drawings.. Perfect for all ages and an excellent book overall.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a thorough book!

Akikusa starts with basic shapes of animals and shows step-by-step how to draw them. I haven't seen different dog breeds broken down by shape in blocks before and it was a really helpful exercise to see. There's a lot of animals included in this book and little facts about each. The step-by-step guide is helpful, but still requires some basic skills to be there to follow along.

Overall a great find!

This book is a visual reference for drawing a huge variety of adorable animals. It introduces figure drawing concepts and provides step-by-step iinstructions for each animal. I think kids will love going through the book and drawing each animal. Overall, a pretty cool book for those looking to learn how to draw new cute animals!

Thank you Quarto Publishing Group – Quarry and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

This was a fun book! Ai Akikusa teaches you how to draw a variety of animals (including but not limited to domestic, farmland, woodland and aquatic animals to the safari big five, monkeys and Austrian marsupials). I should straight away admit I am not a good at drawing though I love giving it a go. Akikusa’s step by step guides were easy to follow and I found the information given to think about shapes while drawing helpful. While I think this book will suit people with a good basic artistic ability it really is fun for anyone to give it a go.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This fun little book delivers exactly what it promises. It takes you through step-by-step how to draw a large variety of animals with simple outlines and then finish them off with colors and simple details. I really appreciated the beginning section where they had you really study the differences in animals' eyes, heads, body shapes, legs, feet, etc. For instance, they show that predators tend to have eyes in the front and show you those, and then show some common prey animals with eyes on the sides of their heads. Of course I always knew that, but seeing them illustrated all in a row really emphasized the point and reminded me to draw my eyes in the right place for animals. It does the same with close ups on the feet and ankles and you can see how simple lines really show that this animal is what it represents.

I also appreciate that the animals are shown step-by-step with just drawing, not that annoying "draw a circle, then four rectangles for legs, then smooth them out, then erase all the early lines...." way that so many beginner drawing books do. Here you just draw the simple lines, starting with the eyes or ears perhaps and then adding this curve and so on. They are easy for adults or kids to copy and actually get good at showing what each animal really looks like with a very simple sketch.

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

A fantastic book filled with great tips, especially things like how to get the feet right on different animals, or the markings on big cats, which other books quite often don’t touch on, and shows you step by step, though sometimes some of the steps are bigger than other steps. I can’t say what I produce looks like the authors, but it’s much better than anything I could’ve produced myself, for which I’m grateful

I’m drawn (pun not intended!) to step by step drawing books, especially if they involve cute animals! This book really does feature nothing but cuteness overload. I tried following some of them and they didn’t turn out too bad though I am somewhat rusty. Practice like everything else can only result in at least better.. Each animal is completed in mostly 7 to 8 steps and a completed drawing in colour is useful as a guide too.

Nice book. Great to give as a gift bundled with some art supplies. Good too to work through together with a child who likes art. A good addition to a reference collection for someone who likes to decorate their journals.