A few years ago I read a line in novel extolling the
virtues of writing with a Dixon Ticonderoga pencil. My wife will tell you that
I have more than a passing obsession with writing implements and have acquired
an outsized collection over the years; so the thought of using something as
simple as an old school wooden pencil struck me as odd. I gave in and bought a
ten pack of these skinny black sticks and something I can only call magical happened;
words began to flow out of the tip of these oddly cool pencils, a stack of
which lay within reach on my desk.
I have always been intrigued by these books and
articles featuring marketing plans sketched out and illustrated, often on a
white board. I had the thought that I would look for a more portable
alternative to the white board, and began carrying a hardback sketch books to
meetings. Soon the combination of the book and the pencils became an obsession;
meeting doodles became illustrated plans to move marketing projects forward.
Of course every other page or so, also featured the odd,
stray drawings of the things and people in the room at the time. So when I came
across Felix Scheinberger’s new book, Dare
to Sketch: A Guide to Drawing on the Go, I was intrigued by what he might have
to say on the topic. I was pleasantly surprised that Scheinberger a prolific
designer and artist did take a hardline tone in the book and really just
encouraged folks to have a go a putting implement to paper.
Scheinberger doesn’t really tell you what to do or how
to do it; he takes a rather hands off, but supportive approach to getting
people to take a swing at sketching. While he is clearly a skillful
practitioner, Scheinberger’s work from his own sketchbook, that populates Dare to Sketch isn’t the artist perfect
work you might expect from an art book. He showcases works with roughhewn edges
and stray marks rather than artistic renderings of what’s in front on him at
the time.
His take on the proprietary nature of the sketchbook,
that it is a personal thing that the sketcher can choose to share or not; made
me chuckle inwardly when I thought what the subjects of my renderings might
think if they ever saw my take on things.
“Reprinted from DARE TO SKETCH Copyright © 2017 by Felix Scheinberger. Illustrations copyright © 2017 by Felix Scheinberger. Published by Watson-Guptill, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.”
No comments:
Post a Comment