Friday 29 January 2016

Sketching People: My Book is Here!


The advance copies of my urban sketching book just arrived - hurrah! They should have been here a couple of weeks earlier it turns out, but they went astray in the mail and the publisher didn't realise I hadn't had them. 


It's been a bit fraught with technical hitches to be honest because, when they resent my package this week, someone put in the American edition and one by a Singapore publisher (below), but left out the UK one (above). Never mind - they look gorgeous and glossy and I am very pleased. The contents on the inside of the different editions are more or less the same, it's just odd words and grammatical variations - it's mainly the covers which look different.


It's lovely to see how all the content looks, in it's proper form. I spent so long putting it all together and now here it is, looking like a real book! 

I thought I'd take some snaps to give you a sneak preview, though you probably have a pretty good idea by now, since I've talked about it in progress often enough (hit the Sketching People label on the right, if you're interested). 

There a section which looks at art materials, with a specific eye on how you choose tools which are appropriate to the problems of drawing people out on location:


I look at how you choose your subject, which is hugely important. There are some locations and activities which are virtually impossible, but plenty of others which make things a lot easier for you, especially if you are cutting your teeth:


Then there are the different possible angles to tackle. I would rarely advise drawing people front-on. It's much more interesting and far easier on the whole, to tackle them in profile or in three-quarter view, particularly when you are concentrating on faces:


I write a fair bit on techniques to deal with the fact that people move about a lot, which is of course one of the main things which makes them so tricky. I can't stress enough the benefits of trying contour drawing, both for warming up your arm and eye and for tackling your subject as swiftly as possible:


Plus another technique, handy particularly if you are drawing groups of people or people passing by, is using composites - sketches made up of a little of one person and a bit of another, with maybe the head of someone else again!


There is a lot more too, of course. I tried to think of everything I know. It's hard when you have been doing something for so very many years. It all becomes second-nature. Writing the book has been really interesting, because it has helped to make me analyse what I know. Which has actually really helped for when I am teaching workshops, like the ones I am doing at the moment for the Morgan Centre as part of my Artist-in-Residence year, and of course the work I do with Urban Sketchers.

8 comments:

jimserrettstudio said...

Congratulations, I will have put my hands on it.

lewerentz said...

Congratulations ! I'm going to buy your book.

Demi-Louise Procter said...

Books like these really helped me when I was younger, this one looks really great, I'll be keeping an eye out for it!

Irena said...

Congratulations Lynne, ordered my book yesterday from Amazon. Can't wait to read it.

Inma Serrano said...

Looking forward to see and read all that pages in my hands!

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Beth said...

Is there a plan to release an electronic version of this book? I am really enjoying it but am trying to go digital as much as possible.

Lynne the Pencil said...

Beth - I'm afraid there are no plans to make this electronic as far as I am aware.

Why do you prefer that format, out of interest? I always feel that, with an art book especially, being able to see it clearly in a full-page format is more helpful than focussing in on bits and pieces on a screen.