The one drawing book I read every year without fail & Drawing Exercise #1
Today, I want to share my favourite drawing book of all time.
Part #1:
Today, I want to share my favourite drawing book of all time.
It’s the one and only book I read every year without fail. It lives on my desk, and I am sharing it with you in the hopes that it does for you what it does for me, which is to help me become a better artist. There are no tricks, no secrets, no special materials to buy, only an unbridled enthusiasm for the creative process.
This is not an affiliate link— I don’t make any money if you click the link and buy this book, Drawing From Within.
About the Authors
Nick Meglin and his daughter, Dr. Diane Meglin DCSW, wrote this book together back in 2008, four years after he had retired to North Carolina after a long stint as Editor at MAD Magazine. MAD’s Art Director, Sam Viviano, said of Nick,
Nick Meglin was, to a large extent, the public face of the MAD staff. He was smooth, charming, glib, funny and always ready with an anecdote. To me, he was MAD.
…He was intensely interested in everything about the people he worked with: "What were your parents like?" "Do you have a girlfriend?" "Hey, you like opera, too?" "Your jacket's kind of shopworn — why don't you trade it for this snazzy corduroy number I just got from John Boni?" Working with Nick was like a weekly therapy session in a used-clothing emporium.
Nick had no peers. He was, really and truly, one of a kind and there will never be another like him.
Nick was a very special guy, and he left a gaping chasm in the lives of many cartoonists who loved him dearly. Re-reading a chapter at a time of this book, to me, is like revisiting Nick for lunch. (Except when I get to the end of it, he doesn’t ask me to pay him that five bucks I owe him.)
Drawing for sheer pleasure is what this book is all about.
Nick was also an art instructor at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York. In the book, he and Diane show you how to stop trying so hard and how to find joy and satisfaction in the simple act of drawing.
There are no tricks, no secrets, no special materials to buy, only an unbridled enthusiasm for the creative possibilities within us. Along with his daughter, Diane, he provides ideas and guidance to get you started on a fantastic journey of artistic enjoyment.
14 Drawing Exercises
In fourteen fun and freeing exercises, you'll see how easy it is to make drawing a part of your daily activity. With sketchbook in hand, you'll discover how to be more focused on life around you and how that life can feed your art.
You'll learn how to:
Find great subjects no matter where you are
Take risks in every drawing.
Let your unconscious emerge and stop the inner critic.
Draw "attitude, not the anatomy, gesture, not the detail."
Develop your unique style.
Drawings by 50 contributors (old masters and contemporary artists) celebrate the diversity and beauty of expressions created with only pen or pencil on paper. It's all about what you bring from within. As you draw, you respond to what you see, and feel, and think about your subject. It's this inner conversation that gives voice to your drawings.
The pages are filled with some of the best art tips I’ve ever read. They’re tips I’ve since passed on to other upcoming professional artists and friends who like to draw.
I highly recommend you buy it. Read it. We’ll be diving into some of the exercises in it here on Process Junkie in the coming weeks. Stay tuned...
Part #2:
Your First Drawing Exercise:
The first thing I want to work with you on is a very simple drawing exercise. I want you to fill an entire sketchbook page with nothing but hands. Just hands— no elbows, no shoulders.
Just. Hands.
They are, famously, the hardest thing to draw, which is why I want you to sign a contract with yourself before you begin: This page is never to be seen by anyone. Not even me— don’t share it; it is for your eyes only.
Go nuts! Don’t hold back. Draw your own hands. Draw different peoples’ hands from the TV, from pictures on social media, and from people watching in a café. Whatever kind of hands you like to draw, don’t draw those; challenge yourself. Draw hands in positions you have never drawn before. Fill the whole page.
Then, once you’re done. Scrunch up the page and throw it out. Know that there’s zero commitment for these to look ‘good’ or ‘right’. Just have fun with it. They can be cartoony hands. They don’t need to be super realistic, or rendered with shadows and highlights. Just… draw hands. Fill every part of the page.
Here are some of mine to get you started…
