I would definitely recommend this book to those that would like to be creative with their drawing and of course, to loosen up!

Subject-specific books on drawing are fairly thin in the ground, so this comes with a lot of expectations, but should certainly not disappoint. The only reservation would be that, if you're looking for a gentler, more placid approach ... well, the title gives it away. Materials include graphite, charcoal, acrylics, inks and pastel and subjects range from rocks and mountains to water, trees and structures. This is an exciting book creatively and technically. 

Author-artist Robert Dutton uses his expressive, loose style of drawing and painting to capture, with great emotion, the power and drama of the landscape. Robert combines media such as liquid graphite, inks, metallic inks, charcoal and water-soluble painting and drawing pastels, and also experiments with collage work.

Predominantly focusing on working in black and white, this book is a highly-instructive guide to the techniques Robert himself uses, with numerous exercises and larger step-by-step projects throughout the book showing how he works. Alongside these are numerous examples of the author’s finished artworks accompanied by informative captions explaining the methods used to create them, thereby providing both instruction and inspiration.

Of his work Robert says, 'Primarily my work is focused on landscape and my beloved northern wild open vistas, dramatic mountain peaks and and intimate hidden corners of moor and dale.

'Landscape is the great escape, a place where my creative vision is thoroughly released with a direct engagement and expressive response to my subject. I immerse myself in the landscape and allow the interplay between what I see but more importantly what I ‘feel’ to create each and every individual piece of work.

'More often than not everything is started on location. It has to - the physical engagement with the sublime landscape is so important. I plan for the weather but if it rains, so be it - it goes into the work as its all part of the process.’

I can highly recommend this book for beginners and experienced artists alike as there is so much to learn from it, it’s very interesting and covers using lots of different media and techniques with some very creative and expressive illustrations. The artist covers how to use different types of graphite including water soluble and liquid graphite, pastels, charcoal, paint and ink. He covers the use of different papers such as cartridge, watercolour paper and pastel paper. His work is very inspirational and there are lots of step-by-step tutorials. There are some amazingly dramatic illustrations of his work throughout the book.

Robert Dutton works mostly in graphite media – pencils, sticks, powder and liquid – but also charcoal, acrylics, inks and pastels. These latter for the most part provide accents and colour, but what he can do with straightforward monochrome will take your breath away. That’s what makes this such an exciting book.

Search Press are, of course, mainly publishers of instructional books rather than monographs, so there has to be a strong how-to element as well as the valuable featured work. They are well-practised, both in content and layout as well as selection of authors. It should come as no surprise therefore that this works as inspiration and creative encouragement just as well as straightforward technical lessons and demonstrations. The approach and style, however, make it less of a course and more of an exploratory tour in the company of an informed and competent guide. Robert has a teaching background and it shows – he is excellent at explaining what he has done, but why it was achieved that way.

Not everything in the book will be to everyone’s taste – you may prefer the sometimes dark graphite drawing, I may feel happier with coloured pencils and inked highlights. For all that, Robert’s explanations have a superb clarity and are always interesting – whatever your preferences, there’s nothing here you’d want to skip.