Drawing: Mastering the Language of Visual Expression

by Keith Micklewright

Drawing is a language, a necessary skill for anyone who wants to express ideas or feelings in written images. Like all languages, it can be mastered with practice and instruction. Author Keith Micklewright distills a lifetime of hard thinking about drawing, presenting techniques-along with exercises-that help us become fluent at visual communication. The advantage of his approach is that drawing is seen as a flexible form of expression rather than a set of mechanical skills. There is no right way to draw creatively, anymore than there is one style of writing creatively. To drive this point home, Micklewright illustrates the book with marvelous drawings by great artists, from Old Masters to the present, that range from precise portraiture to ecstatic nature studies. There is no other book on the subject that combines such a deep, lucid text with such a generous collection of inspirational art.

Genres: Art, Drawing

176 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2005

Reviews

[Cecilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Micklewright states that drawing is a language which I find interesting. A quote from the book: "To be able to draw, the brain must be taught to see and give equal importance to shapes, positions, directions, and all other visual relationships, rather than only recognize objects and change them into words. In effect to think visually, not verbally."
Finished the book, recommend it.

[Marcella · Rating 4 out of 5]

"When learning to see, drawings need to be treated as experiments, not works of art"

I enjoyed this book. It breaks down drawing into discrete sets of concerns, while acknowledging that you can't think of them separately. Full of useful exercises. Insightful enough to keep on hand for a reference---which I get to do for a few months while the library is closed.

[Lisa Haynes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keith Micklewright studied at the Slade School of Art , won a prestigious Abbey Scholarship to Rome and was Head of Foundation at Bournemouth School of Art for many years (1960s-1980s)
He was very well respected by students who often said he was the best drawing teacher they ever had! He employed lecturers who knew how to draw…they had all studied during the ‘golden age’ of art education at the UKs best Art Schools…Slade, RCA, Camberwell, Chelsea, Goldsmiths etc.
This book was written to pass on years of knowledge on how to see, how to look and how to really draw. If you buy one book that clearly, seriously and rigorously teaches you…this is it!
It was a required text book in many US art schools and many teachers in the uk today have this book as a valuable resource.
The publisher Lawrence King phoned Keith Micklewright personally from New York on its publication in 2005 to say how much he had enjoyed reading the book and was inspired to learn to draw!