In his introduction to this book, Richard McDaniel says that, like many young artists, he decided to be a painter because he was seduced by color. "The act of painting was where all the excitement took place," he writes. He became a nonrepresentational painter concerned with color, rhythm, and composition, but, he admits, he couldn't draw very well. Like other such painters, he was convinced that drawing would interfere with the spontaneity of painting. But when he needed new challenges, he ultimately learned that drawing "increases your freedom as a painter." It helps you become familiar with a subject, and it "releases you from working out so many things on the canvas." it also makes you look at a subject more intently. Faced nowadays with these same questions about drawing from his students, McDaniel describes in this book his approach to the medium. This volume is an entire college course, with information on materials and tools, plus a detailed discussion, with easy-to-follow step-by-step demonstrations of how to draw with line and tone and with color, as well as how to paint from a drawing.