Cindy
Cindy Woods has long been one of my favorite sketchbook artists. I love the quality of her line, the clarity of her observation. And she is a strong exemplar of the fact that no matter what one's situation, drawing...
A sketchcrawl with Dong
I love this 1954 film of the master watercolorist, Dong Kingman, painting just a few blocks from my house. Kingman worked through most of the last century (1911-2000) and his style is timeless. He combined intense observation and minuscule...
Holy Moly
. While I like to look at them, I have never particularly enjoyed participating in collaborative art projects like artist's trading cards. However, watching this video of France Belleville opening a package made me understand the fun of it...
Mattias Rocks
Everyone in my new book is mad inspiring. Here's a terrific example. Mattias Adolfson, a very Swedish fellow, draws with enormous clarity, accuracy, and humor. His line is so distinctive and takes him from letter perfect landscapes to silly...
The Old Man Mad About Drawing
Here's an inspiring little film by Tony White for anyone who worries that they are too old to start drawing or frustrated that they have yet to achieve the perfect approach to drawing. Katsushika Hokusai was the most extraordinary...
Things I like: Teeny weeny house
I have always loved the idea of having a little horse-drawn caravan to live in. I'd also love to live in a tiny house with everything all compact and stowawayable with room for some pens and tiny journals. Staying...
Things I like: Freedom of the Press
I love this little film. Doesn't it just make you want to make something...and really well?...
An Illustrated Life podcast 002: Cathy Johnson
Cathy (Kate) Johnson has been an inspiration to me for years with her extraordinary nature journals, her beautiful watercolors and her generous willingness to teach many of us in the EDM community via her informative posts and her many...
An Illustrated Life: the Podcast
One of the most exciting aspects of working on my upcoming book, "An Illustrated Life: drawing inspiration form the private sketchbooks of artists, illustrators and designers" has been the chance to get in touch with the many artists whose...
David Macaulay on drawing in Rome
Thanks, Mary Ellen. See it full-size here....
Beerhorst Update
My favorite family of God-loving artists were on NPR this week. You can hear the interview here or read a transcript below: Family of Artists A Grand Rapids, Mich. family create art in an unconventional lifestyle. by Kaomi Goetz...
More time-lapse drawing
I didn't make this. He did. Jack and I did, however, try to make something like it (drawing on white board and filming it in stop motion) and can report that it is an awful lot harder than it looks....
Searle buildings
I built a little gallery after scanning some pages from "Paris Sketchbook" (text by Kaye Webb) and "Paris, Paris" (text by Irwin Shaw), the two books that contain the best building drawings Ronald Searle has done. These books also...
Zina Saunders
A great illustrator I just discovered. Look at her series on Overlooked New Yorkers, too. She has also written and illustrated some great profiles of other NY illustrators and artists, like this one. I love this sort of reportage....
Kochalka
Last night, Jack, Tom, Butch and I went to the the Giant Robot gallery to see James Kochalka's show. He'd made 150 acrylic 2" by 2" paintings on 3" by 3" paper and they were hung on groups all...
Idol effort
It was very nice to come back to the Arctic tundra formally known as New York City. My family survived my absence though my dogs did need a good bath yesterday. As you may know, I am a big...
Olivier Kugler
Every so often I come upon someone who does what I want to do so unbelievably well, I feel like never even trying again. When I encountered Oliver Kugler's work, I fell into a funk that mixed the blackest...
Isca Greenfield-Sanders
I visited her show in Chelsea last week;based on old photos and broken down in to 7" grids, her work has power and timelessness and a color palette which really effected me. Her work is online herebut I recommend...
Drawing a crowd
Tom Kane just came back from several weeks of drawing in the Far East. Everywhere he went, in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and China, he drew big crowds when he drew. People would sit by him for hours,...
Dust to dust
Scott Wade draws in the dust on car's windshields. Check it out here...
Bell-isima
I urge you to look at the wonderful new journal pages Richard Bell has been putting out over the past month. He has redesigned the way he does his pages, adding calligraphy and a more organic design and it...
A Year in Japan
My favorite new book is A Year in Japan by Kate T. Williamson. It is a fantastic, illustrated journal bulging with lovely, graphic watercolors and sprightly writing. I was so excited by the book that I have acquired some...
Watch Picasso draw!
Read the rest of this entry to see a wonderful video of the master....
Prash update
Prashant Miranda has been sending me more pages from the journal he is keeping during his trip back home to Benares, India and I have created a gallery of these pages: Prash Update Gallery. I love Prash's style, his...
TCL: Supplementary Material, IV: Andrea
I first met Andrea Scher through her blog, Superhero Journal. Within days of roaming through her posts, I was hooked. Being hooked meant more than just loving her photos and learning so much from her wisdom and compassion. It...
TCL: Supplementary Material, III: Richard
As readers of this site probably know by now, Richard Bell is an extraordinary nature illustrator who, despite the many miles and water between us, is one of my very best pals and a major influence and teacher. When...
TCL: Supplementary Material, II: Walton
Walton Ford and I met when we were both sixteen and at the Rhode Island School of Design summer program. He was one of those rare creatures who was born with phenomenal talent. The drawings he did at four...
TCL: Supplementary Material, I: Roz
The first installment of a series on "Stuff that didn't make it into The Creative License"
Prash mail
My pal, Prashant Miranda, just sent me some of his journal pages. His work is lovely and I have included several of his drawings in my new book. He writes: Here are my initial pages of my travels, from...
Having faith in Brooklyn
A visit to the Beerhorsts, a family of artists living in Brooklyn.
Going to van Gogh
On Friday, Jack and I headed up to the Met to check out the The van Gogh drawing show.
Jack's deck
Of all sports, I think I like the aesthetics of skateboarding best. I like the graceful gymnastics of top level boarders. I like the come-as-you-are aesthetics of their (un-)uniforms. I like the exhuberant thrashing and driving basslines of their...
Refreshed by Jobs
I am exhausted today. I feel too many wheels spinning, too many things for me to do all of them as well as I'd like, too many things I am too deeply into to walk away from, too many...
Chillin' with Dylan
Last week, I was hit by a sniffling cold midday. I spent the last few hours of the workday back at home, in bed with tea and Bob Dylan's new memoir. By the next morning, I'd bounced back and...
like father, like son
A few days ago, this drawing arrived from my stepmother, Sue. It was drawn by my father when I was about three, around the time my parents were divorced. Many of these objects are things of my mum's. I...
Childrens' books
This morning, Jack's class had a publishing party. Every couple of months, we are invited to his classroom (Patti can't go as the 4th graders are on the 4th floor and the school has no elevators) to share pieces...
Trust or bust.
In 1975, Keith Jarrett recorded the best selling solo piano album ever, The Koln Concerts. What’s even more extraordinary is that the music is purely improvised. Jarrett had spent the day feeling jet lagged and under the weather, he...
A record of my exploration into all aspects of drawing, illustrated journaling, creativity, and the inspiring aspects of art. By the author of "Everyday Matters," "The Creative License", and "An Illustrated Life" and other books.