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17 November 2020

Drawing Tuesday - books

Books offer plenty of  observational drawing possibilities, open and closed, old and new, big or small, stacked or scattered or on shelves - and parts of books - bindings, covers, illustrations, the text itself. More imaginatively, consider artists books, books being read, or characters/scenes from (childhood?) favourite books. Other possibilities are drawing on books or in books or on pages torn from books (sacrilege!!). 

Or, make a book of the "sculptural object" sort ... have a google of the phrase "book object" to see some examples. Googling "book structures" might also give you ideas for working outside the confines of the regular sketchbook.

This little video for kids, showing how to draw a pile of stacked books was quite soothing to watch, but there's probably no need to watch the colouring in! 

Two artists who come to mind are William Kentridge, who drew trees on pages from an encyclopedia, and Fiona Banner, who - when not sculpting or using other media - meticulously copied the covers of books. 




From Joyce - all the sketchbooks I’ve used since I started coming to the Tuesday group in December ‘15. The one on the top is a continuous sketchbook which is why it looks like it might topple over!


From Judith - Sacrilege [to cut up a book]



From Hazel - I was lucky enough to visit St Kilda a few years ago where I was fascinated by the many cleits built on Hirta. I drew many of them (see photo) and when I got home decided to use my drawings and writings to make a small edition of 20 handmade books. I sold most of them to the St Kilda Club members. It was a labour of love! This is the cover and endpapers of my small book and pages from my sketchbook.


From Sue B - some of my books on bookshelves


From Ann - A couple of pics from a kids book I was creating on a course and a mixed media still life! 




From Mags - from Collage class at City Lit  with Simon English:   "Dinghy Ownership for the Non - Racing Man"(  by the same author " Dinghy Sailing for Boys - or girls") 
Bought for £1 specifically to alter, it still took a deep breath before cutting, ripping and applying lots of ink. 



From  Gill -  Three of my favourite art books.


From Carol - My drawing for the last couple of weeks has been exclusively to illustrate a new Duck, Tiger and Giraffe book in which they buy ‘unsuitable’ bikes online then have accidents and finally sell them to buy a tandem for 3 (whatever that is called). Here are some of the drawings (text still to go in) my fav is Tiger running to practise his first aid.



From Jo - "my contribution needs the 'covers' tweaking forward slightly so they come forwards butterfly stye, and it needs photographing sanding up so ther is a bit of daylight behind it"
Jo also sent "Artists in Crime", a "Shelf-Portrait" oil painting by Roo Waterhouse Art, the spines darkened by years of exposure to the light -



From Sue S -  found a book on Upholstery which l ‘defaced’ on on Simon English’s Collage course. Had mixed feelings about the wilful damage l inflicted. Looking at it laid pen for shapes & shadows was easier on my conscience. Caran d’ache & wash.


From me - That silly video about drawing a stack of books (see above) did get me going - I folded a paper in 8 and quickly put a book on each page, then made a couple of cuts and VOILA, a book of books!


I drew it in two ways - "writing" pencil position, and "drawing" position -


"No eraser allowed" was my own rule - part of the incentive to have a long hard look at tones and angles. Next time, more attention to contrast.

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