ZEN OF DRAWING ZEN OF DRAWING Peter Parr CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER ONE – THE SKETCHBOOK A sketchbook in the hand is worth two in the bag CHAPTER TWO – NEW HORIZONS A method of breathing and drawing fresh air CHAPTER THREE – DEVELOPING DRAWING SKILL Speaking lines without words CHAPTER FOUR – TOOLS Finding the right tool for the job CHAPTER FIVE – MARK-MAKING Breathing sensuality and life CHAPTER SIX – LIFE FORCES The mountain imitates the dancer CHAPTER SEVEN – MAKING A PICTURE Rise to every occasion CHAPTER EIGHT – A GROWING ARCHIVE From the back to the front INDEX INTRODUCTION HOW TO TAKE A PEBBLE FROM THE BEACH Barton Beaches Brush pen and watercolour, 2012 42 x15cm (16½ x 6in) Becton Bunny Beach Black pencil, 1986 21 x 58cm (8¼ x 22¾in) My aim in this book is to introduce you to a stimulating new approach to drawing that combines mark-making with inspiration taken from drama and dance. It will offer you a radical change in the way you look, think and draw, so I hope the book will encourage you to pick up a sketchbook and pencil and really go for it. Today we live in a world of ever-decreasing attention spans and demands for high-speed responses which make it increasingly difficult for us to find the time to refresh our senses through observational drawing and reflection. However, if you are willing to create the necessary space, you will reap the benefits. In the following pages I would like to share with you the value that can be found by keeping a sketchbook: taking time out and stopping to consider, to look, and then to really see. Many of the illustrations I have used were created spontaneously, catching a moment in time or made in a period of reflection. It has been my aim to encourage students to nurture their skills through observational drawing, and on many occasions they have said that my sketches look like finished artworks. Although the initial inspiration may have been something fleeting that caught my interest, my sketches are indeed finished artworks that now wait for their moment as inspirational reference in future projects. The practice of gathering information, by first looking and then drawing, is always beneficial, no matter how or what you have gathered; your sketches will in some way inform and improve your skills. Sketching is a pleasure; what I would call the ultimate experience of ‘taking a pebble from the beach’, but this new method of drawing leaves the pebble in place and untouched, while the captured sketch goes on to inspire your future work. The reward and pleasure gained from engaging in the act of seeing and then drawing cannot be overestimated. So I invite you to collect your pencils, pens, paper or iPad and take part in a new and exciting way to draw. Christchurch Old Mill 2B pencil, 1986 21 x 29cm (8¼ x11½in) Avebury, Wiltshire Stone Circle Coloured pencil, 1986 21 x 29cm (8¼ x11½in) CHAPTER ONE THE SKETCHBOOK