Complete the draft and then upload it.......

one of the images in the book
It's a 2 minute contour drawing,
done in a life class

Today is upload day - via Dropbox.  My book about drawing and sketching has started its journey to the Editor.........

Not quite sure when that journey is going to end as.....

It's going very slowly.........

1. Complete draft of book about drawing and sketching (done)
2. Get all your images in from contributors (done)
3. Get the copyright form from all the contributors of images (very nearly done - only people away from home to do)
4. Find all your own images (very nearly done - I thought I knew where they all were!!)
5. Realise that your own images need a new scan @300 dpi or a better photograph (expletives deleted!)
6. Create all the new drawings for the "how to" sections (virtually completed - placeholders in place)
7. Create new "Chapter / section / subsection folders" on Dropbox so 300+ images can be found easily by the designer
8. Upload or copy/move images to new folders (this takes a looooooooong time)
9. Maintain control sheet for number of words, number of pages, number of double page spreads, number of figures, what's been uploaded etc. etc. etc
10. Upload text to folders.

That's not forgetting that I also need to keep making cups of tea and giving my back and eyes a break!

Favourite quotes about drawing and sketching

Tell me what's your favourite quote about drawing or sketching.

Do not fail, as you go on, to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is, it will be well worth while, and it will do you a world of good.
Cennino Cennini

I'm a lover of quotations and I'm trying to include some in the book I'm writing - however I want some really good ones!

Below are the quotations which are contenders for inclusion to date.  I'll add any of your suggestions which I particularly like into this list.  That's not to say they aren't all good - but I am trying to find the best ones!

[This list has now been updated with quotations from the suggestions and others I've subsequently found- please keep the suggestions coming. I've also changed the images to be ones relating to the artists quoted]

 

Dutch artists

"I sometimes think there is nothing so delightful as drawing."
Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890) Post Impressionist painter

"In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing."
Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890) Post Impressionist painter

 

French artists

"The first things to study are form and values. For me, these are the things that are the basics of what is serious in art.
Jean Baptiste Corot (1796-1875), French painter

“Faites des lignes. Faites beaucoup de lignes.” ("Draw lines - draw a lot of lines")
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres - 1780 – 14 January 1867) French Neoclassical painter.
(This was his advice to a young Degas who had announced he wanted to become a painter)

 

Dancer Adjusting Her Slipper (1873) by Edgar Degas
Graphite heightened with black and white chalk on pink wove paper (now faded);
squared for transfer
Height: 330 mm (12.99 in). Width: 244 mm (9.61 in)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

"Drawing is the artist's most direct and spontaneous expression, a species of writing: it reveals, better than does painting, his true personality."
Edgar Degas (1834 - 1917) French artist

"Drawing is not what one sees but what one can make others see"
Edgar Degas (1834 - 1917) French artist

Originality depends only on the character of the drawing and the vision peculiar to each artist.Georges Seurat (1859 - 1891) French Post Impressionist painter

L'Écho, study for Une Baignade, Asnières (Bathing Place, Asnières)
by Georges Seurat
Conté crayon on Michallet paper. 31.2 × 24 cm

 

"I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies."
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris a.k.a. as Le Corbusier (1887-1965) French architect 

"Drawing is putting a line (a)round an idea."
Henry Matisse (1869 - 1954) French artist 

"Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation."
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908 - 2004) French photographer 

"One must always draw, draw with the eyes, when one cannot draw with a pencil"
Balthus (1908 - 2001) Polish-French modern artist 

 

Italian Artists

"You can never do too much drawing."
Jacopo Tintoretto (1518-1594), Venetian painter

 

Spanish artists

“In drawing, nothing is better than the first attempt."
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Spanish artist

"Drawing is the honesty of the art. there is no possibility of cheating. it is either good or bad."
Salvador Dali (1904 - 1989) Spanish Surrealist Painter

 

Swiss artist

"A drawing is simply a line going for a walk."
Paul Klee (1879 - 1940) German-Swiss artist

 

UK artists

"Drawing takes time. A line has time in it"
David Hockney (1937 - date) English artist

Drawing is rather like playing chess: your mind races ahead of the moves that you eventually make.
David Hockney (1937 - date) English artist

 

Sketch of Henry Tonks (1918) by John Singer Sargent

USA artists

"You can't do sketches enough. Sketch everything and keep your curiosity fresh."
John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925) American artist

"Drawing is the basis of art. A bad painter cannot draw. But one who draws well can always paint".
Arshile Gorky (1904- 1948) Armenian-American painter  

"I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen"
Frederick Franck (1909 - 2006) Dutch American sculptor 

I'm writing the book this week

Just to let you know that I'm writing the book this week (see I've been asked to write a book....). I've got a deadline to meet - hence the gaps in posting the last few days.

To all those artists who contacted me, I'll be writing very soon!

I think this week may see a few call for entries posts if I can fit them in....

Portrait of Ben
11" x 14", coloured pencil on Saunders Waterford Hot Press
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I've been asked to write a book....

It's nice to start a post with the fact "I've been asked" - rather than "I've decided" - to write a book!

That's because, following a meeting with representatives of a publisher last week, I'm currently going through a formal process which will lead to me being formally commissioned to write a book by an international publisher of practical books for visual artists.

The invite to consider writing a book for this publisher came out of the blue and is on a topic I absolutely adore - drawing and sketching!

Title and the name of the publisher are under wraps for the time being until we've 'done the deal' and tied up loose ends.  I'll let you know more as an when I can.

Below there's an invite to get involved and maybe have your images in the book!

What goes around comes around

This year I started contributing to books and magazines for the first time.  In the next three months I've got:

• an article in "Discover Art" - a brand new bookzine for visual artists in the UK which is due to publish this month. I gather my article is listed on the cover
• 5 sketches about drawing in art galleries and museums published in Playing with Sketches: 50 Creative Exercises for Designers and Artists (Rockport Publishers - 1 December 2013) 
• 5 sketches about drawing gardens and parks published in Sketch Your World: Drawing techniques for great results on the go (Apple Press - 2 Jan 2014)

The process of making these contributions prompted me to think again about writing a book - which is something I've been saying I want to do for a long time.

Consequently when I was suddenly asked to write one, it didn't take too long to think about it - and I was ready to say "Yes"!

It wasn't the payback I'd expected - but I guess it was the one I hoped for - but didn't expect!

It goes without saying I'm very excited about it!

So - what's the book about?