Not an attractive book, but very helpful. Taught my young self much about visual literacy. ( )

A classic so I decided to give it a try. It contains many helpful suggestions for illustrations and working out ideas using drawing techniques. I think it works better as a reference book to look things up in when needed rather than a book to be read cover to cover. ( )

If you cant "draw" but want take advantage of simple illustration to work out and communicate ideas, this is the book. It's instructions are dateless. It's methods doable for anyone with a controllable hand and a very little patience. Much our brain power is visual, few make much use of it. This little book is loaded with pathways to access visual creativity and expression.

Nelms argues that drawing can help one think through a problem as well as communicate information easily to others. He begins with some basics: we may need data to make a reasonable drawing (in a human head, the eye is about halfway from the top of the skull to the chin); there are some conventions (solid lines as real or visible, dotted as imaginary or concealed); we can make it easier (to draw and to read) by eliminating unnecessary information, drawing aids (with a ruler one can divide, make parallels and perpendiculars), construction (any figure is composed of combinations of rectangles, triangles, and circles).
Nelms talks about materials, practice, using drawing to collect information (as we listen to directions, for instance) or to depict abstract ideas such as how one might derive a formula such as (a+b)2= a2+2ab+b2:

Charts and diagrams, says Nelms, are either grids, webs, or some combination of the two. It will be necessary to think through matters such as how to order information in a grid and how to group items or classify them. Charts tend to be nonrealistic and static, diagrams pictorial and dynamic. Nelms suggests all non-pictorial drawings such as maps, charts, diagrams, and graphs should be called by the general term schematic drawings.
He gives a lot of tips about tracing techniques, and he illustrates how a flat-looking contour can be turned into a depth-producing line by varying the weight of the line and stopping lines before they go behind crossing ones. He suggests assembling parts of drawings from different sources when possible.
On proportion, he reminds us that length, area, and volume have squared and cubed relations and we need to choose the right quantity for comparison graphs (blocks indicating the volume of paper consumed by the government in 1940 versus 2000, or two sheets of paper showing the comparison in area? Neither would be as effective as a comparison of the height of the stacks). he gives tips about changing the scale of drawings and suggests a squared transparent ruler for getting proportion in a drawing from life. He also elaborates on his earlier point about using geometric shapes to construct free-line drawings.
In “Visualizing Numerical Data,” he points out that any quantity can be expressed as a number, and any number can be graphically represented by a length, an angle, or “a set of glyphs.” Here he gives a lot of technical detail about handling graphs.
Nelms discusses mechanical aids for drawing—t-squares, triangles, French curves. He talks about adding the third dimension, controlling distortion, more detailed drawings of people and animals, and “rendering,” by which he means using line quality and value to suggest solidity and color. He concludes with a chapter on lettering and layout.
A supplement talks about equipment and materials, and he provides a bibliography and an index. In the course of his text, Nelms provides almost 700 drawings. ( )