Sketching Essentials in Graphite

 It already seems like a while ago that I was in Denver filming my new course on "Sketching Essentials," probably because I've been so wrapped up developing drawings for my next book. But the course is attracting a lot of folks, and it's been fun answering their questions and discussing their work. The platform that Craftsy has created for administering courses is really nice - you can watch the video segments whenever you like, and as many times as you like, and there are easy-to-use tools for asking questions, uploading your sketches, and participating in discussions.

The course was created with all levels of sketchers in mind. It's probably most clearly directed at people who are just beginning to learn, but I firmly believe that you never get "too good" to focus on the fundamentals of any skill. To the contrary, the people I admire most - in just about any field - are those who have made the fundamentals of their craft central to what they do. I hope that, in some small way, this course helps all kinds of sketchers to develop their abilities.

So if you or someone you know is interested, please click the link here and watch the overview video to get a taste of what the course is all about. Then join up, and start sketching!

New Book!

One of my new books just arrived! It's being printed by three different publishers - Barron's Educational here in the US, and Search Press as well as New Burlington Books in the UK - and each one is apparently producing its own version, with a different title and a different format. They're all really nice, high-quality books ... though, if I had to pick a format I like best, I'd go with the Search Press version, which has cover flaps with a couple of my watercolors on them. But really, I'm thrilled about all three. I'll have to update this post, or create a new one, when I know where these will be available online. I think Barron's has a pre-order page up on Amazon already, saying it will be available March 1, but I'm not sure about the other publishers.

It's great to have this one done, as it was a LOT of work over the past several months. My most sincere thanks go to all the fantastic artists who contributed their work: A.Rmyth, Florian Afflerbach, Eduardo Bajzek, Shari Blaukopf, Marianne Campolongo, Daniel Castro Alonso, Cristina Curto, Elena Elisseeva, Arno Hartmann, Miguel Herranz, Omar Jaramillo, Richard Johnson, Stuart Kerr, Lapin, Gerard Michel, Hans Muerkins, Brenda Murray, Keith Nevens, Olgysha, Ana Rojo, Maarten Ruijters, Luis Ruiz, Pete Scully, Sharon Smart, Pat Southern-Pearce, Liz Steel, Christian Tribastone, Alexandre Veron, Nathan Walsh, Lis Watkins, John Woodcock, and extra special thanks to Thomas Thorspecken for his invaluable contribution to the workbook portion. THANK YOU ALL!

Now it's back to work on my next book. No rest for the weary, as they say.