11th May 2008 - Who's made a mark this week?

Life and Death

8.5" x 32", colored pencil on light gray mat board
copyright Jeff George

This week the Colored Pencil Society of America announced the results of the jury process of the competitive entry of coloured pencil artwork submitted to the 16th Annual International Exhibition associated with the CPSA convention in Seattle this summer. This is the list of accepted entries from colored pencil (and coloured pencil) artists who have been successful.

Every year, it's very exciting to find out who has been selected and the colored/coloured pencil world waits with some apprehension. Following the announcement, the airwaves have been fairly humming with e-mails as per usual. However, this year, many people have been commenting on the fact that missing from this year's list of selected artists were a very large number of past prizewinners and artists whose work has been accepted into CPSA on a regular basis (eg Linda Lucas Hardy - top winner in 2007, Linda Koffenberger - top winner in 2006, and former prizewinners Robert Guthrie, Melissa Miller Nece, Kay Moore Dewar to name but a few) .

Now in my view few artists ever expect to get into the CPSA Annual Exhibition every year (for example last year the work of Kay Schmidt the President wasn't selected) plus we can't of course know whether or not artists who have exhibited regularly in the past actually submitted work this year. But it is more than a little surprising that so many artists should fail to make the cut this year.

Or is it? I for one was certainly expecting a bit of a shake-up given:

• the change in rules (Concept, design and execution of the artwork shall be solely that of the artist. No work copied from copyrighted or published materials. No images produced by drawing over a digital reproduction allowed. No prints. No collaborations.) which eliminated the scope for certain practices which have apparently characterised some entries from some artists in the past . Many of you will recall I commented about this earlier this year in The rules for the 2008 exhibitions of coloured pencil art and CPSA and UKCPS: originality in concept, design and execution
• the new submission arrangements - which eliminated slides in favour of entry via the uploading of a digital file (which will undoubtedly have favoured those who are a bit more IT savvy - or who have access to someone who is). One person I was conversing with this week said they'd love to see the age profile of juried entries to this exhibition compared to previous exhibitions.
  
• and finally, the nature of the contemporary art included in the Seattle Gallery of the juror artist and curator Jeffrey Moose who is an artist and curator as well as a gallery owner.
  

However I certainly wasn't expecting the change to be the seismic shift that has apparently happened or for it to eliminate so many former prizewinners. So is this a good thing or not?

Well, if the quality of the juried artwork holds up against standards in the wider art world, then widening the pool of artists who are accepted into the exhibition can only be a good thing for the society in the longer term. For example, it's always good for a young artist to get an endorsement of their work. It's also a good thing, in my opinion, if it also prompts people to reflect on how well the nature of a lot of the art in previous CPSA exhibitions relates to contemporary art generally. Certainly it's the case that, in the past, the subject matter and treatment of work in CPSA exhibitions has had a particular emphasis on realism and is decidedly more traditional - some would say 'old fashioned' - compared, for example, to the work exhibited by many of the national art societies who hold their annual exhibitions in London. However, I've noted before that there is a very decided disparity between the art which seems to win prizes in the USA and that which wins prizes in the UK.

What I notice is that at both sets of exhibitions, the range of styles is not as wide as I see in other media at other exhibitions. If I wanted to be really controversial - why not! - I'd say most works in both exhibitions are realistic in style and competent but 'safe' in execution. They just don't demonstrate the breadth of artistic licence that I see elsewhere. I think that is a very great pity.
CPSA and UKCPS: originality in concept, design and execution

Put simply, in my opinion, work shown by national art societies should always reflect the very best in contemporary art (i.e. art of the present) - in concept, design and execution - as opposed to work which reflects how well work has been rated in the past.

I'm going to stick my neck out and predict that CPSA might give some thought to a change in the arrangements for jurying work for next year's exhibition.

CPSA now has an opportunity to eliminate the notion that what gets past the jury process is entirely due to one person's taste and preferences and has nothing whatsoever to do with the quality of the work. Having one judge was always understandable in a country as large as the USA when selection was by slides. However, now that CPSA has switched to digital images it could now have a jury of more than one person based in different locations (as UKCPS has) so long as those jurors all have access to a decent computer and monitor for viewing images from a CD. Speaking personally, my preference would be for a three person jury which included a leading artist within the CPSA community, one leading artist working in any media within the region and a leading gallery owner or curator from the region.

Many thanks to Jeff George CPSA - an artist who has been juried in this year and whose art has won a number of prizes at CPSA exhibitions - for allowing me to use his new piece Life and Death as the image for this week's 'who's made a mark this week'. This image is one of Jeff's two entries to CPSA but this is the one that was not accepted for the exhibition. Put your hot drink down before you you click on the image to see a larger version. If you look at it carefully you'll understand the title better - and why I suggested you put your drink down!

CPSA instructs the judge to select only one piece per artist in order to include as many different artists as possible - which is an admirable rule which could usefully be adopted by more societies. You can see Jeff's entry that was accepted into the exhibition on Jeff George's website here - Empty Nest (2007)

For all those artists who are now turning their thoughts to the 7th Annual Open International Exhibition 2008 of the United Kingdom Coloured Pencil Society, webmaster Bob Ebdon has done an update of the website and produced an exhibition FAQs page which has some helpful tips for artists submitting work from overseas.

all images copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Back to my usual round-up of things I spotted on the net this week - which is somewhat shorter than usual due to the fact that I was officially 'otherwise engaged' and was also out and about enjoying the wonderful weather and the flowers we've had in London this week (see above). I have to report that my writing project made some progress but the housework was a little bit less successful in competing for my attention. OK - I confess, I ignored it! But, in mitigation, I plead last summer's weather (downpour) and the need to see some sun this year! On my wanderings I got a great idea for a new series of drawings.....but you'll have to wait and see.....

Art Blogs

• A little while ago Jeanette Jobson (Illustrated Life) drew Portrait of a Lady by Rogier van der Weyden, as an exercise in drawing. I was very struck by how Jeanette's features were similar to the lady in the portrait and encouraged Jeanette to to try the portrait again but this time as a self portrait. And she's done it - see Self portrait update! I have to say in my opinion Jeanette has done an absolutely splendid job and looks amazingly convincing as a lady from 500 years ago. Now we know the reason for all that sage comment from the lady who won my Make Me Think Gong in 2007 - she's been here before! I'm toying with the idea of creating a challenge for people to do something similar. How do you fancy creating a self-portrait within a drawing you do of a historical portrait? Let me know what you think - and if enough people are interested I'll set up a blog for it (I well remember what happened to Wally's site when he had his self-portrait challenge!).
• When ever I pick up a link to my blog being referenced on another blog I visit it and then have a good scout around to look at other posts - and this helps to generate items for this review each week! One such post I found this week was on Liz Massey's Creative Liberty. I very much like how it starts one of her top posts (back in February) Building your grid: Engage in “deliberate practice”! I loved the quote about 'deliberate practice'.

One of the most basic building blocks for creative success in any discipline is practice. Musicians and athletes are explicitly encouraged to practice their craft regularly, while other creative domains occasionally step away from this encouragement to debate the efficacy of practice vs. inborn talent.
Liz Massey - Building your grid: Engage in “deliberate practice”

• Liz also has a second post earlier this month about Building Your Grid: Commuter Creativity (Time)
• Maggie Stiefvater is doing a number of interesting posts analysing the effectiveness of the composition and styles of different artists -check out Greywaren Art to find out more.
• This news item intrigued me - apparently artists had an important role in the last world war. I'd love to know whether other countries employed artists in the same way
• Richard McKinley (Pastel Pointers Blog) has a couple of useful posts:
  • the first An Artist's Signature is about to tackle producing an artists signature on a pastel work - and I now I've ummed and aaahed about that one in the past
  • plus some a helpful tip Seeing Red which is always worth reiterating every time I see it on a blog about how to see greyscales in the landscape.
    

Other interesting blog posts

• When visiting your blogs, I also take a quick scan at your blogrolls and click on anything which looks interesting (another topic - how do you make a blog title look interesting?) and came across this post The Top 50 Productivity Blogs (most of which you haven’t heard about) on Zen Habits which looked like a good time-wasting way to avoid getting on with what I was supposed to be doing! Plus a nice alternative for all of you in need of a good read on Sunday or Monday morning!
  
• Never one to be outdone by Kew Gardens, the Royal Horticultural Society have now introduced sculpture at Wisley - the RHS flagship garden in Surrey - as revealed by a recent item on the My Garden blog of Jim (wait for it!) Gardiner. This sculpture is of the 'green' variety!
  

Animal Art

• Two very useful sites which will be well known to a lot of animal artists - but maybe not all.
• This is the Pet Portrait Wildlife Art Forum owned by Melanie Phillips in mid Wales who is a professional pet portrait artist. She created it in January 2006 as a way of responding to the very many e-mails she used to get asking her questions. Since then it has taken off in a big way and now has some 450+ members!
  
• The Animal Artists Protection League has been set up by the Forum and tries to monitor the web for unlawful use of its members images. Check out their great logo!
• Also check out the big squirrel! drawn by artist and illustrator Tommy Kane (Tommy Kane). Plus he's got new coloured pencils and doesn't say anything about them!!!!
• Mattias Adolffson (Mattias Inks) in Sweden draws absolutely beautiful innocent images which include both people and animals. You can see a wonderful example here in Twigs and More Twigs....and then there's his pigs in hats. Personally I love his Drawbacks of being a hotshot sketchbook artist!

Art business and marketing

• the AAPL use Copyscape to help protect their art. You too can check out whether your site content is being copied and also get protection for your site with copyscape
• I came across a pdf file which contains the Centre for Social Communication's Documentary Filmmakers' statement of best practices in fair use on the International Documentary website. It looks as if they had some good legal support when producing it - and some of the text has relevance to artists and illustrators. You can see the authors and endorsers here.
  

Art supplies

• Those who like their pens may enjoy these picture from the the Chicago Pen Show courtesy of Bluman otherwise known to a lot of us as Armand B Frasco (Moleskinerie).
  
• Green and Stone in the Kings Road Chelsea now have sets of the new Caran d'Ache Luminance pencils in stock - but no Luminance pencils in open stock. Personally I don't buy a new brand until I can locate a source of open stock convenient for me - so sightings of Luminance in the UK would be very welcome comments.
  
• Watch out this week for my blog post review of Green and Stone - complete with photos!
  
• A Picture Perfect View Finder - as highlighted by Richard McKinley in his blog post (see above) is available in reputable independent stores in the USA or from Picture Perfect Products by mail order + cheque or money order in US funds. It provides:
  
• 3 VIEW FINDERS with composition guides. Find the best composition, sketch with greater accuracy; know instantly what standard surface sizes are appropriate.
• VALUE FILTERS neutralize color without obscuring details. Compare value range of colors, develop contrasts with ease.
• 2 VALUE SCALES, one that is an integral part of the viewfinder unit, and a second separate scale for added flexibility in determining values.

Blogging and websites

• Yikes! A huge change has been initiated by Blogger and I missed it last week. Blogger now schedules future-dated posts is a post in the The Latest from Blogger Buzz (on the Blogger dashboard) which explains how you can now schedule posts for automatic publication.
  
• I start and/or draft lots of my posts in advance of publication and even have them 'scheduled' for their due date.
  
• However I didn't have a major arrhythmia once I realised that there is now actually a third category of posts and the only way to get the blog post into it is to publish it with a future date - see below.
  
• My draft posts will now stay in the Draft category just so long as I keep hitting 'save now'.
  

Have you ever wanted to announce something on a certain date but knew you wouldn’t be at a computer to make a post? Or you wanted to keep posting regularly but knew you’d be on vacation for a few weeks? Scheduled post publishing is here to help you out.

Scheduling a post is easy to do: on the post editor page, click the “Post Options” toggle to show the “Post date and time” fields. Then, type a post date and time that’s in the future. When you click the “Publish” button, your post will become “scheduled.” When the date and time of the post arrive, it will be automatically published to your blog.

• Martha (Trumpetvine) made a very sensible comment about the bounce rate for blogs on my recent post on this topic Techie Saturday: Silly vs. focused traffic - how high do you bounce? As she very rightly says

you can't really distinguish between someone who arrives and leaves immediately vs someone who arrives, loves what they see, reads it in detail and intends to come back.

• Anyway - although I don't rate this indicator as highly as others - I thought I'd mention that this blog this week achieved 250,000 visitors since January 2006! :D
  

and finally....

I think May might end up being a light weight month for blogging for me as I continue to get on with other projects. You can expect to see more book reviews and shorter posts for a little while - plus I'll be trying to finish off previous blog projects. I'm also trying to make sure I don't miss the good weather while we have it - and I've been out and about a lot this last week.

Then in June I'm starting The Colour Project! I'd love to know about any useful sites or links that I haven't yet found and listed in Colour - Resources for Artists.

4th May 2008 - Who's made a mark this week?

A day in the life of Cosmo
12" x 16" pencil
copyright Katherine Tyrrell on behalf of Cosmo

It's my cat Cosmo's turn to have his art featured and he's now completed a cartoon record of a typical day. (Like Dermott he developed an opposable thumb!). He says he now has a LOT more admiration for artists who are illustrators and produce cartoons. If you click the picture you can see a much bigger version and will be able to read the captions for each of his drawings.

Art Blogs

• Luann Udell had a brilliant post on her blog (Luann Udell) last week - about IMP - 'ironic monitoring process'. In essence, IMP is our powerful tendency to recognize our own faults in others. It's an uncomfortable truth - but one which is very powerful.
  
• Andrea Joseph (Andrea Joseph's sketchblog) produced a wonderful 'composite' drawing over my shoulder. You can see all its component parts on her Flickr site
  
• I'm not sure if I've blogged about the moly_x: international moleskine exchange before. There are now 25 groups using the Japanese Fold Moleskine books for their sketchbook exchange. You need to long in to Yahoo to read more about the concept and guidelines but you can see individual contributions on the very first group on their associated blog Moly_x_1
  
• Anita Davies (Anita Davies) who lives in The Fens in East Anglia now has a column for her artwork diary in the Cambridgeshire Times
• Shiona Hamilton-Grant is a Scot living in Belgium who does realistic drawings in graphite of animals - you can see on her blog Sheona Hamilton-Grant's "Black on Grey on White." and her website.
• Ragged Cloth Cafe is a blog and discussion group for those interested in textile art. Kanti Jocelyn has done an excellent review on the blog about Alison Watt Alison Watt, by Kanti Jocelyn - whose enormous paintings of cloth are currently being exhibited showing at the National Gallery in London. Thanks to Alison in Canberra who sent me a link to this post.
• Pingmap is an online design magazine based in Tokyo writes about ideas and inspiration coming from both world class designers, and from the little store on the corner. You can read more about it here.
  
• I do prefer the Japanese attitude to construction sites - as shows in this article about Art on Tokyo's Construction Fences. Check out the huge Hiroshige images and their contemporary counterparts.
  
• Plus this article on the craft version of Pingmap about the man who flies with fishes
  

There are some brand new blogs from coloured pencil artists and one which has recently gone public. If you're a CP fan why don't you go and pay a call and say 'hello'.

• Linda Lucas Hardy CPSA - who won the top prize at the CPSA exhibition in 2007 - has a new blog for updates about her activities - Workshops, News and Other Great Stuff. Linda is another artist who has chosen to use a blog to highlight the type of work and activities which happen in one of her workshops - and it gives an overview of a recent workshop. Linda was selected by Southwest Art Magazine as being one of 10 artists to watch in 2008. I'm guessing that the new image on the splash page of Linda's website might be one of her entries entry for this year's CPSA exhibition.
• Kendra Ferreira (who also won a prize at the CPSA exhibition last year) is also a new blogger - see kjfdesign.
  
• Kendra also participates along with other members of CPSA Chapter 112 (New England) - such as webmaster Nicole Caulfield - in the branch's blog - Colored Pencil New England - the blog. This enables the chapter to communicate with other members (eg about chapter meetings), matters of interest to coloured pencil artists (eg experiements with different materials) and the activities of individual members.
• I'm going to be adding all branch blogs to my information site Coloured Pencils - Resources for Artists. Do let me know if there are any more out there.
  

art business - orphan works (MUST READ)

An orphan work is a copyrighted work where it is difficult or impossible to contact the copyright holder. The proposed legislation for Orphan Works (see my earlier blog postOrphan Works and copyright: should you be worried (still)?) is causing much consternation amongst a lot of copyright holders at present. In response to my earlier question - the answer is 'Yes'. It seems to me from what I've read that some people are only looking at part of the bigger picture - and that there are a lot of issues which have not been adequately addressed.

Sites to keep an eyes on include:

• the Orphan Works Bills - this has blog posts which light light
• the Stock Artists Alliance (a trade alliance focused on the business of stock photography) - plus their commentary (dated 1st May 2008) on ophan works - which highlights why visual works are more suspectible to being orphaned - and a pdf file about meta data and its importance for all images on the net
• Stock Artist Alliance's blog - the Metadata Manifesto
  
• the Orphanworks blog - which has links to
  
  • the publication of Orhpan Works Bills 2008 Senate - Congress.
  • why orphan works are a global issue - affecting the UK.
• Editorial Photographers of England and Ireland are very clear about why the proposed bills are a bad idea Why the Orphan Works Act is Uncle Sam's thieves' charter

Imagine this: anyone in the USA can use your copyright work without asking, and should you somehow find out they’ve robbed you, they can escape all legal liability by claiming they didn’t know who they were stealing from, and then only paying you whatever they consider reasonable.

..........consult this Copyright Office report of early 2007 which concluded ‘While corporate copyright owners were generally in favor of a reasonable compensation approach, individual authors like photographers, illustrators and graphic artists noted that under current conditions, obtaining a lawyer to even file an infringement case is prohibitively expensive, so much so that only where statutory damages are available is it possible to file a case. If compensation were limited to only a reasonable royalty, they fear that it will likewise be practically impossible even to recover that compensation given the cost of litigation.’
Why the Orphan Works Act is Uncle Sam's thieves' charter

• A lot of this seems to be being driven by libraries in relation to the preservation of digital images - see the Digital Preservation site of the Library of Congress. It looks like preservation is up against current commercial interests - and livelihoods.
  

Art competitions

Two new developments in relation to the Threadneedle Figurative Prize

• The Threadneedle Figurative Prize website now has a blog written by Jack Harris. Click the entries to read them in full plus the comments.
  
• Answers have been provided - to all those who have registered to a number of the questions which were frequently asked at the recent open day. These should be appearing on the website sometime soon but in the meantime these are the important points
• They want to attract the best figurative work being produced in the UK. You don't need to be a UK citizen and are welcome to enter the competition as long as you're currently living and working in the UK. (My guess is that probably includes those who maintain an address here and live here for part of the year)
  
• works started before 1 January 2007 are eligible so long as they were finished after that date
• it's not just another portrait prize - see below for extract from the feedback
  

It’s a competition that we hope will attract every form of representational art: still life studies, landscapes, figure studies as well as portraits. It’s about real object sources that motivate us, excite us or move us, conveyed in a range of different media. Our definition of ‘figurative’ art was lifted from the Tate’s own definition about ‘any form of modern art that retains strong references to the real world and particularly to the human figure’ Therefore, the human figure may play an important part in your representation, but it’s not essential. To make this point clearer we’ve made a small amendment to the rules online (rule 3) by excluding: ‘and, in particular, to the human figure’
Threadneedle e-mail: The TFP Open Day - and some Q&A feedback

• all representational themes are welcome

All representational themes are welcome, whether traditional or contemporary. However, the reason why we’ve encouraged artists to use this show to highlight contemporary issues is because commentaries on topical issues by figurative artists have tended to be sidelined. ‘Conceptual’ artists have enjoyed a free run. We want to provide a platform where figurative artists can use their work to speak loudly on subjects that are important to them. Unlike the national collections, we don’t have the constraints that might lead to certain ‘difficult’ themes being excluded.
Threadneedle e-mail: The TFP Open Day - and some Q&A feedback

Art exhibitions

• 'Take One Picture' is the National Gallery's countrywide scheme for primary schools. Each year the Gallery focuses on one painting from the collection to inspire cross-curricular work in primary classrooms. An exhibition of work by primary schools inspired by Rubens’s ‘A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning’, 28 April - 13 July 2008, Room 1, admission free.
• The Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme Connecticut is the first venue for Impressionist Giverny: Americans Painters in France, 1885–1915, an exhibition of over fifty works organized by the Musée d’Art Américain, Giverny. The exhibition tells the story of the expatriate colony founded by American artists in the village of Impressionist master Claude Monet.

Art Marketing

• For those who want to see where visitors go when they visit their website or blog - check out the service offerered by Crazy Egg.
  

Art Studios/Offices

I hope you're not drinking or eating before you read this next link.

• When was the last time you cleaned your keyboard? The BBC news carried a news item about keyboards last week about research which has suggested that some computer keyboards harbour more harmful bacteria than a toilet seat. It had an item earlier in the year about deep cleaning for work stations. OK - hands up who eats and uses the keyboard at the same time? I confess to a leisurely breakfast at mine while reading e-mails and Bloglines!
  

Blogging and website

• Last week I carried an item about people being locked out of their Blogger blogs. People who use Blogger may not be aware of the useful FAQs page which you can find here - Frequently Asked Questions in the Blogger Help Group.

........and finally

I'm taking a week off from blogging for a Spring Clean of home, writing associated with another project and a break - plus outings if the weather is any good!

I'll be back next Sunday with a new 'who's made a mark this week'? It might be quite a bit shorter than usual - it'll depend on how successful I've been at staying away from the computer!

In the meantime for all Anglophiles - take a look at this - pictures of Britain in colour for the first time.

Techie Saturday: Silly vs. focused traffic - how high do you bounce?

Have you ever wondered why you got so many visitors to your website or blog who don't stay very long? Well the benchmark for "silly traffic" is apparently 75%

What is "silly traffic"?

Seth Godin has coined the term "silly traffic" to describe the following

This is a truth of the Internet: When traffic comes to your site without focused intent, it bounces.

75% of all unfocused visitors leave within three seconds.

Any site, anywhere, anytime. 75% bounce rate within three seconds.
Seth's Blog - Silly Traffic

Chokushi Mon - a WIP
pen and ink and coloured pencil on Arches HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

He goes on to clarify what he means by unfocused traffic.

By unfocused, I mean people who visit via Digg or Stumbleupon or even a typical Google search. If your site is spammy or clearly selling something, the number is certainly higher. If you’re getting traffic because you have a clever domain name, it might be even higher. I don’t know of many examples where it is lower.

I guess most people are pretty shocked the first time they realise how many people leave their site within 5 seconds. I guess knowing that the average for those with unfocused intent is 75% probably makes a lot of people feel a lot better about their sites and their traffic.

However what I want to know is what are the average bounce rates for different types of sites and all visitors - not just the casual visitors who arrive without focused intent.

Plus what's the average for art blogs? Does anybody know?

Definitions of bounce rates

There are a number of views about the bounce rate.

Google Analytics provides a definition for a bounce rate which is slightly different to what Seth is highlighting (he's only talking about unfocused visitors). They say it relates to people who arrive and leave from the same page.

Bounce Rate is the percentage of single-page visits (i.e. visits in which the person left your site from the entrance page). Bounce Rate is a measure of visit quality and a high Bounce Rate generally indicates that site entrance (landing) pages are not relevant to your visitors. You can minimise Bounce Rates by tailoring landing pages to each keyword and ad that you run. Landing pages should provide the information and services that were promised in the ad copy.

Google Ad Words Learning centre defines the bounce rate as

Bounce Rate: The percentage of entrances on the page that result in the person immediately leaving the site. Non-entrance pages always have a Bounce Rate of 0.00%. A high bounce rate indicates that the page is not well matched to the ad or link that is driving traffic to the page.

Wikipedia defines the bounce rate differently again.

Bounce Rate (sometimes confused with Exit Rate)^[1] is a term used in website traffic analysis.

A bounce occurs when a website visitor leaves a page or a site without visiting any other pages before a specified session-timeout occurs. There is no industry-standard minimum or maximum time by which a visitor must leave in order for a bounce to occur. Rather, this is determined by the session timeout of the analytics tracking software.........

The Bounce Rate for a single page is the number of visitors who enter the site at a page and leave within the specified timeout period without viewing another page, divided by the total number of visitors who entered the site at that page. In contrast, the Bounce Rate for a website is the number of web site visitors who visit only a single page of a website per session divided by the total number of website visits.

Bounce rates can be used to help determine the effectiveness or performance of an entry page. An entry page with a low bounce rate means that the page effectively causes visitors to view more pages and continue on deeper into the website.

This blog defines and highlights the difference between bounce rate and exit rate and also highlights some ways of reducing the bounce rate.

This is a blog post with no answers as yet and more questions!

• Do you know the average site bounce rate for your website or blog?
• How does it compare to the quoted 75% of 'silly traffic'
• Do you know what bits of your website or blog attracts more focused traffic which reduces the bounce rate? For example, do you review the bounce rate for different blog posts?
• What have you done to reduce the bounce rate for your site(s)?
  

______________

Note: I've used pen and ink combined with coloured pencils for my drawing - which is a work in progress. Some of you may recognise the scene from my visit to Kew last month. I'm trying to find a way of simplifying the scene and working in a way similar to Hiroshige while at the same time working with coloured pencils in the way I enjoy doing. I guess it's trying to be a development of the style I use for sketching. I don't think I've got there yet - but then we rarely achieve what we set out to do first time around!

The Cans Festival is this weekend

It's a neat pun as well as being accurate!

The Cans Festival - a street party of stencil art - is on in London this weekend (3rd, 4th and 5th May). You can find the graffiti in a tunnel in Leake Street - apparently loaned temporarily by Eurostar who've promised to leave the art alone for six months.

The website provides details of graffiti artists who have flown in from all over the world to come and party with Banksy - the anonymous graffiti artist who is now collected by Brad Pitt and Christina Aguilera..

Here are some articles by journalists who have much more information about this festival than I have:

• Times Online - Banksy is going underground with tunnel art exhibition (includes short slideshow of some of the art)

The elite of the London art world will convene in Lambeth tonight to examine graffiti in a dank railway tunnel.

It is not a location that has been listed among London’s main cultural attractions. In fact, it compares unfavourably with other dank tunnels in the capital.

From tomorrow, however, when the tunnel opens to the public, the graffiti are expected to attract thousands, because they represent the largest exhibition by Banksy, a determinedly anonymous British graffiti artist. He has gathered 40 of the chief proponents of the form to transform the tunnel into a showcase.
Times Online

• Sky - Banksy and Friends transform street - this includes a good video of the graffiti in the making
• Reuters - "Biggest" Banksy exhibition in London tunnel
• BBC - Tunnel becomes Banksy art exhibit
  

and a blogger Art of the State Blog

These are the details

• it opens tomorrow (Saturday) at 10.00am
  
• it finishes on Monday 10pm
• The Cans festival is open to the public
• The venue is Leake Street. This is between York Road and Spur Road just south of Waterloo Station (train and underground - Waterloo and City Line is closed on Sundays) and just across the Thames, via Westminster Bridge, from Westminster Tube (District and Circle).
• Banksy will continue to be anonymous!
  

And I loved the 'rules of engagement' on the website - so anarchic!

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

This is an open event and coming along with your own stencil is positively encouraged

• This is a stencil only event, no freehand lettering or characters please
• Report to reception on arrival and they'll show you where to paint
• No going over other artists
  

Besides a video, Sky Arts also provide a rather good selection of The Best of Banksy.

Mastering Composition - a recommended read

Mastering Composition is an excellent book by Ian Roberts for all those who want to learn more about helpful principles and techniques for composition and design. It's all about understanding the structure and dynamics of the picture plane and planning your artwork. In my opinion it has something useful to say to both experienced painters and those starting out - and I've already got it tagged as one of those books I won't be lending out! I highly recommend this book to all those seeking to improve their skills in design and composition.

He "got me from the off" as it were. His introduction talks about how when he was young, he'd go painting with his artist Dad and his artist friends and how his most vivid memory was of the end of day critique - which always focused on the structure and design of the painting and never on the subject matter. This struck a chord - so I read on. By the bottom of the first column of the first page when he talked about the way workshop students tend to behave on plein air trips and how he addresses this behaviour he'd very much earned his credentials with me. So - having mentally given him a big tick in the margin I continued to read. He did not disappoint.

Don't waste your time adding details to a composition whose major masses don't interest or engage you
Ian Roberts - How to use this book

I've included some quotes from the book to give you a sense of what he has to say and how he says it. In my view, this book is chock full of words of wisdom which you want to write down and carry round with you. It also includes some very good quotations from various master painters.

What does the book cover?

You can take a look inside the book here - and it shows you the Contents page. Essentially he identifies steps on the path to mastery of composition, explains key concepts and provides practical exercises so that you can employ them. He likens it to driving a car. At the beginning, you don't know how you'll ever remember everything. However once you can 'drive' you don't even think about what you're doing.

Key concepts covered include:

• Armatures - he covers compositional basics. Much of this is about the tried and trusted and handed down. As one would expect, there's not much new apart from the communication and presentation.
  
• He uses 'Armatures' to describe the way in shapes are designed and constructed to create a coherent flow and movement through a painting. He demonstrates through unpicking the structures which underpin some great paintings.
  
• He identifies and discusses eight common armatures (L shape, S shape, triangle etc.). I've seen these discussed elsewhere but I think the graphics and text in this version make it very accessible.
  
• He then identifies and describes 12 composition basics. These are not defined in terms of 'elements' and 'principles' of composition but are, in effect, examples of or combinations of these. The grey-scale thumbnails he employs to help explain are terrific!
  

....one thing is for certain: strong engaging composition does not appear miraculously at the end, when you are putting the finishing touches on a painting. Strong compositions are built in considered steps right from the beginning. "Well begun is half done" really applies here.
Ian Roberts - What is Composition?

• Abstract masses: cropping and framing - This chapter will be an enormous help to those who struggle with design and values and in particular will make all those who tend to paint subjects rather than value shapes reconsider their approach. He demonstrates designing with three values and the 'three grey marker' exercise to very good effect. He also deals with viewfinders, photographic references, viewpoints, the value of studying the old masters and thumbnails. Part-way through reading this chapter I started to think this book should be on the recommended reading list of every art tutor who runs workshops!
  

Of course every representational painting has a subject, but if you let the subject matter rather than the large value masses carry the painting, you'll lack drama and probably get buried in the details
Ian Roberts - Think in Value Masses not Subjects

• Color Shapes - He then goes on to explain colour and colour shapes. He's working in oils to discuss colour and there is more to interest oil painters in this chapter than any other. However, a lot of of what gets discussed is relevant to all media which mix hues to create colour values.
  
• Guiding the Eye through the Picture Plane - this chapter (and the DVD) address the issue of visual dynamics and how to keep the eye moving through the picture and how to avoid creating parts to a picture which drive the eye right out of it. I think most people will find the DVD (see below) to be very helpful to understanding why pictures don't work. Using a number of different examples and the use of digital annotations and variations, he demonstrates the impact of different levels of colour intensity and contrast relative to the focal point.
  
• Gallery of Greats - the notion here is that you can learn much from studying great painters - which as you'll be aware is a notion I'm very keen on! This section focuses on and discusses individual paintings by modern painters - John F Carlson; Gustav Klimt; Konstantin Korovin, Isaak Levitan, John Singer Sargent, Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, Andrew Wyeth and Anders Leonard Zorn.
  
• Expressing your Artistic Voice - I especially liked this final section and his emphasis on the best ways to express yourself.

As we change, our voice changes. We leave behind the known and tested to move into uncharted territory. All artists wrestle with this one
Ian Roberts - Expressing your artistic voice

Highlights

Apart from that stunning chapter on abstract masses (and lots of other content) what I particularly like about this book is that Ian Roberts is an excellent communicator who engages with sound principles. I don't think this book will appeal to those wanting a 'quick fix'. He's very mindful about highlighting about how we move through stages of competence on the way to mastery. At the same time, those who study his very clear explanations of the key principles behind strong composition and then practice them are likely to become much more effective at creating designs which have impact - whether they are serious students of art or established artists!

You'd never question the need of a musician, regardless of talent, to spend at least an hour or two practising daily. Somehow there's this idea that painters don't need to practice. Painters are born with talent, and you've either got it or you don't. It's not true. To get better at painting your must practice
Ian Roberts - How to use this book

I really liked his recommendation to be disciplined about 'a composition a day' which resonated very strongly with me. It's something I've spoken about at length with fellow artists in the past. Regular practice, persistence and just 'turning up every day' are just so helpful to achieving your aims - period (see my 'stickability' post). One of the reasons I'm such a strong advocate of sketching is because it enables me to practice composition and design and test the extent to which sound principles are now ingrained habits in reality. After all, why just draw a single object when you could be designing a picture? In effect, this is where all those who started doing daily paintings got the biggest pay-off of all. Sitting down on a regular basis meant producing a composition a day which in turn really helped people to try and understand more about design and composition and them employ what they'd learned in their paintings. Many noticed that their paintings improved as a result - and are keen to learn more and improve further.

I also applaud his recommendations for a period of self-study without feeling pressured to make great art and to slow down and plan. They're both principles I've been trying to employ for the last two years - with varying degrees of success! ;)

I'm a bit less enamoured with some of his step by step demonstrations - although I suspect the value of these will be more apparent when they are employed by readers of the book.

There was just one rather odd thing which I encountered while drafting this post. The book is very well designed and uses both colour and white space very thoughtfully in contrast to his website which I'm afraid I found a bit too "technicolor" for my liking. Similarly I prefer his plein air work to the studio paintings and of the latter like the ones in the bottom half of the page much better than the "technicolor" ones at the top - which he explains as being ones in which he intentionally and significantly pushed colour.

The instructional DVD

Mastering Composition is the first book I've bought which also comes with an instructional DVD. The DVD was a little fiddley to set up up on my computer and I'll probably try it out again in my proper DVD player. Windows Media Player didn't like it but clicking on the file from the folder produced software which played the video - at a smaller size than I'm used to viewing. I agree with one of the people who have commented on his voice being rather too quiet as he explains the impact of colour intensity in different pictures.

Art instruction - the workshops and videos

Judging by this book, I'd say he's probably a very good teacher. The comments on his website from students certainly suggest this. (Have any of my readers done one of his workshops - what did you think?)

His website provides details about workshops including a home workshop program. and a Mastering Composition Workshop in April 2009. The Plein Air Painting in Provence looks very tempting!

He also has a couple of videos - and Kevin MacPherson is a fan of the composition one!

About the author (from his website)
Ian Roberts has been painting for over 40 years. He attended the New School of Art and the Ontario College of Art in Toronto and studied figure painting in Florence, Italy. He teaches and is an author. He's taught plein air painting in Provence, France and Tuscany, Italy, as well as in the U.S. Ian lives in Canada, shows in the U.S. and Canada, is an artist member of the California Art Club and a signature member of the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association.

The unsolicited comments from readers about his other book Creative Authenticity are impressive.

Links:

• Mastering Composition Ian Roberts; (North Light Books 2008); 144 page full color hardcover with 40 minute instructional DVD; ISBN: 978-1-58180-924-4 List Price: $29.99
• Available at less than list price from Amazon here
• Iam Roberts - website
  
• Composition and Design - Resources for Artists
• Making A Mark - posts about composition
  

The Art of Hiroshige

Cherry Blossom Time at Naka-no-cha in the Yoshiwara about 1848–49 (Kaei 1–2)
from the series Famous Places in Edo

Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige I, Japanese, 1797–1858;
Publisher: Fujiokaya Keijirô (Shôrindô), Japanese
Horizontal ôban; 24.9 x 37.1 cm (9 13/16 x 14 5/8 in.)
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Throughout my Japanese Art project, I've become more and more aware that Hiroshige produced some really stunning woodblock prints and excelled at landscapes. So for my last post of April I'm going to focus on Ando Hiroshige aka Utagawa Hiroshige.

As I always do when studying a topic I've developed an information site Hiroshige - Resources for Artists.

Hiroshige was born in old Edo (Tokyo) in 1797 and died in 1858. He seems to have more names than most! Two important ones are Ando which was his family name and Hiroshige which was his "studio surname", given to him at age 15 just after he entered painting school by his painting master Toyohiro. Biographical information about him is pretty fragmentary - however he certainly seems to have been a very prolific artist. Some say he produced some 12,000 designs - but it's more likely to have been somewhere between 4,000-4,500. Besides design for prints he also illustrated 120+ books and produced designs for practical objects (eg c.350 fan prints) . He produced very many prints of views of certain popular locations. variations were achieved through the introduction or variations of obligatory features such as snow, moonlight, evening light, fireworks and cherry blossom. He also rang the changes on the different combinations of birds and flowers

Western interest in Hiroshige dates back to the end of the nineteenth century. In 1887, Van Gogh copied two of his works in oils and Hiroshige obviously provided inspiration for Whistler - in terms of both bridges (and fireworks!).

Hiroshige is a marvellous Impressionist
Pissaro (1893) - after visiting an exhibition of prints by Utamaro and Hiroshige

Another enthusiastic collector of Hiroshige prints was Frank Lloyd Wright.

In 1906, (Frank Lloyd Wright) staged the first ever retrospective of Hiroshige's work at the Art Institute of Chicago, describing them in the exhibition catalog as some of "the most valuable contributions ever made to the art of the world".
Wikipedia

Hiroshige was particularly renowned for subtlety in his art which meant he could represent, for example, the nuances of the climate and seasons. He has been characterised as the artist of mist, snow and rain.

The Fifty Three Stations of the Tokaido
- the road between the two capitals Yedo (now Tokyo) and Kyoto, a distance of 323 mile
from www.hiroshige.co.uk

He specialized in landscapes and had a number of works in sets or series - famous ones include:

• The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido Road - described as a series of naturalistic views with landscapes and people - this is a commentary on it by Basil Stewart and this is a Shaseijo Tokkaido bu (Sketchbook: Tokaido) in the British Museum with drawings which are claimed be by Hiroshige
  

• One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856-8) - in this series he frequently places large scale objects, people or parts of them in the foreground. This is thought to be derived from western art.
  
• Nature Prints
  

He worked with Kunisada (another artist who has become one of my favourites during this project) on a joint project Famous Restaurants from the Eastern Capital in which Hiroshige did the top half which was landscape and Kunisada did the bottom half which were actors.

The 53 Stations of the Tokaido (Hoeido Edition) - 1 Nihonbashi
published by Takenouchi Magohachi (Hoeido) 1831-1834
format - Oban yokoye
(www.hiroshige.co.uk - click here to view the whole series with commentary)

Here's some highlights of the relevant links that I found:

• This website The Woodblock prints of Ando Hiroshige created by John Roden is totally brilliant - a real homage to the man and an absolute treasure chest of resources for Hiroshige fans.
  
• This is the website for The Brooklyn Museum's online exhibition of Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo - a really awe-inspiring site.
• Two other museums a very fine and extensive collection of works by Hiroshige are:
• Fine Art Museums of San Francisco. This collection has a great facility for being to zoom in on specific parts of the online images. Check this one - which is a very fine colour woodcut triptych of Flower Viewing at Asukayama (Asukayama hanami no zu ), 1855
• Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
  

Front Cover - Cherry Trees in Full Bloom at Arashiyama
- from famous Views of Kyoto c.1834
The Mann Collection, Highland Park, Illinois

Besides the websites listed above I've also got access an excellent reference book called Hiroshige - Prints and Drawings by Matthi Forrer.

This is a beautiful book produced by Prestel Publishing of Germany. It has excellent production standards and trouble has been taken to only include prints which could be taken from woodblocks which weren't produced on wood blocks which had been worn away.

The book was produced for an exhibition of prints and drawings by Utagawa Hiroshige the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

It's the sort of book which you can sit and look at for ages and continue to review for years. One can well understand the appeal that Hiroshige had for artists like Van Gogh and other nineteenth century painters.

If Hokusai is recognized for his bold compositions and clearly defined forms, Hiroshige is the master of the passing moment - the artist of mist, snow, and rain. The immense popularity of Hiroshige's prints meant that they were continually reprinted, wearing down the woodblocks. For this book, every effort has been made to reproduce only the finest early impressions. Each plate is provided with a commentary by Matthi Forrer who, in an introductory essay, examines Hiroshige's life and work, assessing his place in Japanese art and making important revisions to the generally accepted chronology of his oeuvre. Other essays draw attention to aspects of Hiroshige's life and work which have often been overlooked and place Hiroshige and his art in their social and political context. This volume also includes maps, a chronology, a glossary and a bibliography.
Publisher's synopsis

Matthi Forrer is Curator of the Japanese Department at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden. He is also the author of Hokusai: Prints and Drawings.

One of the things I particularly enjoyed about the book is that it includes pure drawings - these are ink drawings on paper rather than wood block prints. Hiroshige has a very sparse and almost calligraphic style of drawing. I'm guessing but knowing how Van Gogh's drawing style changed after he'd seen the work of Japanese artists like Hiroshige (see Van Gogh: drawing media and techniques) is that he may well have seen some of the sketches and drawings as well as the wood block prints. He certainly owned the Tokaido series.

How Hiroshige worked

There are very limited records of the way that Hiroshige worked - but this is a summary of some of them - as derived from Matthi Forrer's book:

• His illustrations seem to be mostly based on first-hand observation (i.e. original sketches - see sketchbook in British Museum). There is a debate about exactly how much was done in this way but sketchbooks and diaries have survived from journies he undertook and there are also stories of his travels.
  
• He strives for realistic portrayals - since not everybody has the opportunity to visit places - but does not attempt to incorporate every detail.
  
• He chooses vantage points which help tell a tale and he omits anything which detracts from the story. His view was that 'everything lacking in taste and grace must be omitted'.
• He appears to have been fascinated by climatic and atmospheric conditions which prevail across the seasons.
  

Paintings are based on the form of things. So if you copy the form and add style and meaning, the result is a painting.

To depict a beautiful view the artist must know how to combine with one another each of the elements that constitute the view.
Hiroshige 1849 Drawing Manual Ehon tehikigusa

I can go along with that!

I'm currently struggling with developing my drawing of the Japanese Gateway at Kew and I rather think I need to go back and study some of Hiroshige's work again in relation to his treatment of trees and bushes.

Note: May is scheduled to be a 'rest' month from projects - and it'll start with a week off from blogging as from next Monday (I want to finish the outline on my book and get it underway). During May I need to get on with artwork visiting gardens now that the better weather has arrived (this is me being optimistic - it's cold and raining outside). However, I'll probably try and do some more blog posts about composition and Japanese prints - as well as writing chapters!

Links:

• Hiroshige - Prints and Drawings Matthi Forrer; Prestel Publishing; New Ed edition (September 2001) 256 pages; ISBN-10: 3791325949;ISBN-13: 978-3791325941
• The Woodblock Prints of Ando Hiroshige
  
• Japanese Art
• The concepts and characteristics of ukiyo-e
• The elements of ukiyo-e
• Principles of design and composition and ukiyo-e
• A fish for Good Friday
• The Visual Translation of Japan in Late 19th-Century Paris
• Japanese Art and ukiyo-e: How do you make a wood block print?

10 Tips for How to Sketch People

Cheers Boston!
(fellow travellers at Logan Airport, Boston, USA September 2006)

8" x 10", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Drawing and sketching people is an invaluable way of developing a wide range of artistic skills. I've been drawing people for very many years - family, friends, people in cafes and restaurants, life class models - and other artists. People often tell me how much they like the sketches I make of people I come across on my travels with a sketchbook - which I find a bit odd as most rarely have faces!

Anyway, I've decided the time has come to write a bit more about sketching people. So this blog post is about 10 tips on how to sketch people – or at least my understanding of how I sketch people.

This post is also a condensed version of an article I'm drafting - and this time I'm aiming to create a priced publication (once I've sorted out the mechanics!). To that end I'm looking for 10 volunteers to form a review panel for this latest Making A Mark Publication. More about this at the end!

First some basics - then the top tips.

The basics come from Sketching for Real - Introduction. The sketches throughout the post include some which have been posted on this blog before and some which are new to the blog.

What is a sketch?

A sketch, in art terms, can be:

• a way of practising and refining your skills in drawing and mark marking
• an exploratory drawing – exploring how something works/might work
• a quick drawing – e.g. sketching in public tends to be time-limited rather than open-ended
• a rough description – it’s OK if they lack detail; don’t fill the page or are not even completed
• a record of something you’ve seen
• a record of one or more aspects of something you want to develop into a painting e.g. a colour study
• a preliminary study – for a later painting (done before you start to check how your painting will work rather than as an underdrawing on your final support)

A sketch may be an imaginative or a creative interpretation of reference material – but it does not involve meticulous copying of a reference photo.

Very often a sketch is a study of a subject that the artist can see – and consequently involves working and drawing from life.

Why sketch?

Sketching broadens and enhances your basic skill base.

As you practice and progress, sketching helps you to:

• Develop your freehand drawing, mark making and observational skills
• Draw something everyday – an exercise which will bring fluency and confidence to your drawing
• Get a better record of the colours and tones you see
• Practice how to crop a scene and compose a picture
• Develop finished artwork without relying totally on a reference photo

So now I've identified what a sketch is and why sketching can be a good habit to acquire, we'll look at the 10 tips for how to sketch people.

10 Tips for How to Sketch People

These tips are NOT of the 'get rich quick' variety. They're essentially principles which make much more sense through application. However the real benefits really only come when they become ingrained habits through lots of practice.

#1. Take a class in life drawing!
This is my #1 top tip because this one tip produces the most benefit in terms of learning how to look, understanding how the human body works and how to draw figurative shapes and values. If you want to know more I've got a guide about Life drawing and Life Class which can be downloaded for free from my website.

#2. Find a place where people linger.
There's no point in making life difficult for yourself. Sketching people who are settled or who move only a little or slowly makes sketching people a lot easier.

The Big Draw, Covent Garden 2007
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Here are some suggestions:

• cafes, bars and restaurants,
• waiting rooms of any kind
• train stations and airports
• art galleries
• people watching an event
• parks and places where people sit in the sun
• artists sketching/drawing/painting plein air or in studios

# 3. People ALWAYS move - so learn to draw FAST!
There's no way of getting round this one! Tips on how to sketch quickly can be found in Sketching for Real: Assignment 1 - So you want to learn how to sketch...... Also learn to be philosophical about the fact that you'll have a lot of "starts" which don't go anywhere in your sketchbook. My rule of thumb is I lose about 25% of the sketches I start - and I draw very fast!

#4. Sit in one place and construct a scene
So - you've accepted that people will come and go so and you've learned how to sketch quickly. You still need a strategy for how to deal with the comings and goings. My own personal strategy is to sit in one place and construct a scene around a pivotal person.

I try and select somebody who looks interesting and as if they might stay still long enough for me to get the bare essentials down - size, shapes, relationship with the background and, in particular, the horizontals and verticals. I then construct the scene around that person as people come and go. They don't all have to be there at the same time!

Private View, RSPP 2007
8"x10" pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Remember you are sketching and not drawing a portrait. I've noticed a tendency for people who are starting to sketch to just sketch individuals as isolated objects and for them to ignore the backgrounds and context altogether. The next three tips are about addressing this.

#5. Draw shapes and values not detail

Squint to see values. Start by working out the rough size and shape of the big shapes that you can see - in value terms. You can then work within these - again using value shapes. Using line to describe the edge of some aspect of detail can then be surprisingly effective if most of the drawing is value shapes due to the contrast between the two. I always enjoy sketching the 'squiggley' bits of folds in clothing.

Diners at the Club Gascon
8"x10", pencil in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

#6. Make connections.
Here are some of the connections you can make

• look for connections between people in terms of relationships and body language
  
• identify the big shape that is the group of people. If you can't see an edge then don't draw it.
  
• join up shapes which are the same value e.g. connect shapes associated with an individual to the background if they are the same value
  
• make the connections between different zones more obvious. Overlap figures and objects to demonstrate who is in the foreground, the middle ground and background.

#7. Remember proportions
Use the background to help with scale. Sight size and measure proportions accurately if you have the time If you don't, then choose one line to act as a baseline for keeping everything in proportion. I always try and find a vertical because I have a tendency to have leaning verticals and it acts as a check.

'S' painting in Tuscany
pen and sepia ink in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

#8. Seek out repetition.
People who repeat movements are good subjects to draw. You have to work out what the sequence is and how often it repeats. Artists very often make wonderful models for learning how to draw people who are animated as most tend to have a neat and repetitive routine of movements when drawing or painting. The painter in the above sketch had two distinct patterns of movements. I watched for a while and decided which one gave maximum sketching time.

#9. Avoid drawing faces and feet!
If you draw a likeness, then you should really obtain a model release. Practice likenesses with family and people you know rather than with strangers. Squint when you look at faces and then only draw what you can see - which will be values. You'll be surprised at how little detail there is.

Feet are often drawn bigger than they actually are. Check the feet in the sketch below - would you have drawn them this small?

#10. This is not an exercise in portraiture. It's worth reiterating that you need to remember that you are sketching and not drawing a portrait or trying to be wholly accurate.

Think of yourself as a visual journalist, there to record what you see - when you squint! Be discriminating - you don't need to draw everything. A lot of people's sketches are not complete.

If you get a good vantage point, try drawing lots of little people on one sheet of paper. Drawing small is always interesting as you have to work out what are the important characteristics to keep which mean they don't all look like stick men or the same. You can also change the colour of clothing to make sketches better!

Figures in the Piazza San Marco, Venice - sketched from Quadri's
pen and sepia ink
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

A review group

I'm currently drafting a guide to sketching people. This will expand upon the tips given in this post and the intention is that it will become a priced publication.

I'm looking for 10 volunteers to help me by becoming a review group. It goes without saying that all volunteers will receive a free copy of both the draft and the final version! It doesn't matter how much experience you have of either sketching or drawing people as I'm interested in the views of people with a range of backgrounds.

I'd like to work with at least some of the people who comment frequently on this blog - you know who you are! I'm probably going to invite a few people - but if you're interested please say so below and I'll get back to you. Alternatively if you'd rather e-mail me you can find my contact details in the right hand column.

Links

• Pastels and Pencils
• Drawing People
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