One Drawing A Day: A 6-Week Course Exploring Creativity with Illustration and Mixed Media

by Veronica Lawlor

Through 46 daily exercises which make up a complete 6-week course, you will keep your artistic skills sharp and your imaginations fertile by doing One Drawing A Day. Each spread in the book features a beautiful drawing by one of 8 professional illustrators, with a description and comments by the illustrator as well as a companion exercise. Each exercise includes suggestions for various mediums or mixed-media solutions, advice on how to approach and execute the drawing, as well as professional tips. The book also includes exercises designed to spark new ideas and increase creativity.

Genres: Art, Drawing, Nonfiction, Creative, Reference, Crafts, How To

324 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2011

About the author

An illustrator and educator, Veronica Lawlor is the president of the Studio 1482 illustration and design collective, in New York City. The author of several books, including One Drawing A Day and One Watercolor a Day, which will be released in December 2013. She is a reportage artist who gives workshops worldwide through Dalvero Academy, which she co-founded. Veronica is also on the faculty of Pratt Institute and Parsons the New School for Design.

Reviews

[Tim Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is some great art and some inspiring ideas for artistic exercises in this book.

I think the thing that kept me from LOVING this book is that it wasn't quite what I was expecting... From the title and description and other similar books I've seen I expected that there would be ideas for doing, well, ONE DRAWING a day for six weeks... One... Drawing... and I kind of hoped it'd be something simple enough I could bang off in an hour (give or take)... maybe something I could work on during a spare moment while I'm out and about and waiting for something...? Not so much...

Many of the exercises involve drawing more than one drawing. Many of the exercises involve more than drawing - there are a lot involving watercolour painting and a few involving collage and even scanning and manipulating stuff in photoshop. And many of the projects involved expeditions or field trips around town (or out of town) to specific types of locations.

Many of the exercises also weren't really something I felt like I could read in the morning, or perhaps the evening before, and be able to say "yeah I think I could fit that into my day..." They seemed like they would need a bit of planning before setting out. While this is billed as a "6-week Course Exploring Creativity..." I doubt many would be able to do this on the side while working a regular day job. Maybe if you were working a part time job...? Or if you took 6 weeks off and tried to do these all as an intensive "kick start your creativity" course...? Maybe then you could get through it all in 6-weeks...

Also, though the exercises are grouped in chapters with similar themes; Line and Mark, Playing with Colour, People Watching and Capturing Motion, Close to Home, etc... But there really wasn't a sense of learning something in one exercise and then building on that in the following exercises. In fact the author suggests in the introduction doing them in whichever order you wish. But I kind of feel like something that's described as a "course" could have had a bit more structure to it, with some of the exercises building on ideas/skills presented and practiced in previous exercises.

I guess in summary I'd say; Great art, lots of fun and inspiring exercises , but don't expect to be able to do them all in 6-weeks/42 consecutive days while living a normal life with a regular day job.

[Bill Lancaster · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I love the idea of a regular drawing practice and this book contains a great myriad of ideas and suggestions as to what to draw. And there is a relentless optimism running through the book, stressing how easy and accessible this practice is for everyone.

Though the book has one primary author, Veronica Lawlor, the work and words of seven illustrators from the illustration collective, Studio 1482, are included. Also included are suggested exercises such as drawing at a flower exhibit, sketching at a museum, drawing in your home garden or while traveling. And many more. All thoughtful and practical suggestions.

My chief complaint is the quality of the illustrations in the book. Granted, they are often on-location sketches, but they consistently look as if they were all done in the span of 5-10 minutes or less. They are sketchy, often formless and usually without structure. In many, it is even difficult to tell what the subject matter is. Additionally, with seven illustrators contributing almost equally to the book, one might expect greater diversity in the work presented. Instead, the drawings are all very similar – expressive, yes, but also difficult to decipher with many of them looking quite amateurish.

A better book would include one or two illustrators who do not belong to the same group of friends and who express themselves artistically in more different ways. Lawlor is a contributor to Urban Sketchers, an online community of sketch artists around the world. If this book had but a sliver of the diversity seen in the work of this group, it would be exponentially better.

[Tracey · Rating 1 out of 5]

mixed media/drawing exercises/intermediate level. Not that useful, and probably should not be called a daily-lesson/6-week course unless you are in the habit of taking long vacations and have readily accessible museums, botanical gardens, and a variety of street/city scenes to draw from (you can find images and videos on the internet if you are housebound, but I sense that that might be frowned upon). Perhaps there are many aspiring artists who have time to make these daily excursions, but the casual dabbler will probably need to space them out more.
Note that this isn't intended for beginners looking for instruction, as there is very little of that--more like threads of ideas and directions to explore. The exercises also call for a variety of drawing tools/media, so there could be a substantial upfront cost to these suggestions, depending on how closely you want to follow them.

[ari ! · Rating 5 out of 5]

have to return to the library, but it was a good guide! im gonna buy a copy so i can try to follow it properly.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great little book to get your brain flowing if you're interested in mixed media drawing/illustration. I think it could bring out the artist in anyone no matter your skilled level. Most of the projects work with crayons, pastels, pencils, and watercolors.

It asks you to use a lot of summertime plein air subjects, which could either be a hindrance or inspiration, depending on your mindset. You might have to get a little creative depending on where you live, but I think that's true for any type of art.

The instructions are quite open-ended and not very detailed, which is my main gripe. A bit more explanation into the process of each piece would be nice rather than just "Sit down at your favorite city spot and put some lines on the paper. Hey, you've got yourself some art." But there are lots of fun ideas and techniques to play around with on your own that you don't normally see in art books/classes.

[Leora Wenger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a how to book but rather a get out (or stay in) and draw book. Assuming you already have had some basic drawing lessons, the exercises get you to tackle various subject matter with a variety of media.

I wrote more on my blog post:
http://www.leoraw.com/blog/2013/01/on...

And I included three sketches that were inspired by exercises in the book.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! I'm always buying random art supplies to pretend to be creative, and this manual taught me how to use the tools to try. It really amazed me that I had some talent, once I gave myself the moment to try! Will be coming back to this again and again!

[Lswinakur · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely book with excellent ideas for inspiration and creativity. This is one I want to follow for some time and see where it takes me.

[Nedam]

This book only contains prompts, no tips on HOW to do them. I have plenty of ideas, I was just hoping for a more structured guidance to develop my skills so I can some day execute my own ideas. But this book is not structured, exercises are more jumbled than my brain. Also some exercises require you to go to a church or a garage band. I am permanently bedridden, so all in all this makes it not the right kind of book for me.

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book, lots of exercises to unblock your artist block. Not many of the exercise were things for me, as they involved going out of the house and observing groups of people, which isn't really my thing when I am being creative.

[Mary Wecker · Rating 4 out of 5]

✨ As someone who went through multiple phases , art being one of them, I truly appreciated this book and all the ideas it had to offer! It was written well and the examples of what you can create are done beautifully!

[Jacqueline Nyathi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Allen Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

1. Draw every day
2. Draw different stuff with different media
3. Sometimes look at your drawing while doing it. Sometimes not
4. Repeat for 42 days (6 weeks)

You’ll be better.

[c · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a really nice collection of art

[Lizzytish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really what I was looking for. Kind of boring and not realistic for me.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good prompts for drawing. I did not follow them exactly. I improvised some of the materials and subjects and enjoyed the experience.

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More pictures on my blog)

This is a book that grew out of the One Drawing a Day blog.

There are 42 interesting daily exercises aimed at giving you ideas on what to draw, and encourages encourage exploration and experimentation. Some involves drawing simple subjects around the house, some encourages you to draw outdoors, drawing the nature or people at a cafe.

The instructions are minimal but give you a good starting point to generate more ideas on things you can draw. The exercises require you to find a subject to draw, something you can see and use a reference, and not on conjuring ideas from imagination. The drawing style you can use are suggested by the exercises. We're not talking about realistic representational drawings but more on the loose and expressive.

It's important to note that this is a mixed media book. There are lessons that require different materials, like charcoal, watercolour, crayon, bamboo pen, etc. If you don't already have them, it might be difficult to follow along. A lesson that requires using watercolour can't really be substituted with other materials without losing the point of the lesson.

This is not a book for beginners with absolutely no idea on how to draw. You can be asked to draw portraits, and that requires observation skills that are taught not in the book. However, it's a fine book to pair with beginner drawing books.

The ending gallery features the work of artists from Studio 1482, which author Veronica Lawlor is part of. Other artists includes Despina Georgiadis, Eddie Peña, Dominick Santise, Kati Nawrocki, Greg Betza, Michele Bedigian and Margaret Hurst.

I'll recommend this book to those who want to keep their mind creative, and those who just want to have fun drawing.

[Shawna Z · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not bad for some, but the majority of art examples in the book given as a demonstration of what you were so doing that day were poor cartoonist caricatures and scribblings rather than real sketches. Scribble art and rough, abstract sketches are not what I was looking for. Each new "day" comprised of a new art form (pens, crayon, watercolor) so you don't get a sense of full immersion in any one form. Learning to work with color (a struggle for me) was coloring with crayons, drawing stick forms and as you would like a child and picking any color crayon that appealed to you, which is far too basic for anyone who has had even an iota of drawing/coloring experience.

All-in-all... severely disappointing.

[Natashya KitchenPuppies · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm finished reading the book through, but will still be working on some of the projects.
This book is for people who know drawing techniques and want to kick start their drawing again, or people who don't know any techniques and just want to start wild and free.
The book gives a project for every day for 6 weeks, so 42 in all, and uses a wide array of implements.
It is very free-style scribbley in nature and focuses on just doing it, rather than technique.
I like the mixed-media styling of much of the book.

[Tricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I requested this book from the library, I was focused on the "one drawing a day" part and not the "mixed media" in the subtitle. I was not expecting to have to buy a whole new range of materials to do one drawing a day. So then I skimmed the exercises to see if I could get at the core idea without the particular medium they suggested - in a few cases perhaps, but not overall. And the exercises involved quite a bit of traveling around to specific types of sites. So in the end, not what I was hoping.

[Kimmae · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kids and I enjoyed this book this summer. It gave us some time together to draw. Each day has a new idea for drawing. We weren't very prescriptive and just chose which worked for us on a given day. As they get older I can see getting the book again and choosing different drawings or even some of the same. Note - the drawings prescribe different materials that you may or may not have so either prepare to buy materials or make do with what you have or some combination.

[Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

need to own this one. It was great, but due back at the library all too soon.

[Sara Q]

found in Library Journal 10/01/2011

[Elaine Bearden]

looks really interesting. each page has a little mini tip - like when drawing a face, look at the shapes instead of concentrating on the features.

[Tree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspirational book encouraging me to do something creative every day.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

It doesn't feel quite right to mark this as read, when I've read the words, but not done the drawings. But I'm going to!

[Hollybeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for discovering or rediscovering drawing and illustration techniques at a reasonable pace! This really inspired spontaneity in my art-making processes.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Offers some nice bits of inspiration.

[Kaye Dewar]

Good book for building confidence and a portfolio of drawings.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best thing about following the "course" in this book was that I expanded my art supply stock considerably in order to do all the mixed media exercises.