Slow down, connect with your artistic side, and unleash your innate creativity with this unique guide that’s one part mindfulness practice and one part drawing instruction.
Discover the pleasure of expressing yourself through sketching—even if you think you can’t draw.
Peggy’s got tips on the materials you’ll need, easy techniques you can use right away, and methods for approaching any subject or location. She offers step-by-step exercises to help you relax into the drawing process, and gives you ways to tackle tricky beginner problems like “what should I sketch?”
Learn how to stay with the small moments as you work, draw what you see around you, and embrace the results.
What people are saying ...
"I reignited my sketching practice ...
... and delved into urban sketching for the first time. I really enjoyed her representing and communicating energy in a sketch. I feel like it’s brought more awareness to how I use line in my own sketches.
She also includes several prompts to get you started. My favorite one so far was a comfort zone prompt."
- Ren M.
"This is a delightful book ...
... that encourages us to journal with drawing and offers lots of practical lessons and steps one can take to incorporate journaling with art into our lives. I highly recommend this book to journalers, those who think they're not artistic, those who wish they made more time for creativity in their lives, and just about everyone.
As someone who uses sketching and watercoloring to stay mindful, the idea of this book appealed to me, and the author did not disappoint. Indeed, she far exceeded my expectations with easy-to-follow lessons on perspective, contrast, choosing something out of a scene to draw, turning 3D into 2D, finding the vanishing point, creating shadow and light, framing your subjects, and techniques for sketching people, food and architecture.
The book is chock full of exercises and ideas, and its last chapter focuses on mindfulness meditation and how to use art to achieve greater inner peace. I highly recommend this boo
- Lanette S.
"This book is so amazing ...
Beware, it's not a sit down and read. It's a a get out some paper and pen and draw along with the author! She is so great about getting the point across that it's ok for sketches not to be perfect. In fact, one of the pages shows the difference between "perfect" and "sketched". The sketched one has more character. I've taken a multitude of lessons on perspective before and had't "gotten" it. Peggy does a great job of explaining. She is a very talented teacher, and this book has been a godsend.
- Lisa Marie B.
"I really enjoy how Peggy's books ...
... are written. I am what feels like a perpetual beginner, and I've picked up other art books and have felt completely overwhelmed. This is my second of Peggy's books, and I love how it feels like she believes everyone can and should express their creativity, but knows that some of us with less experience, or who are craving something that doesn't come naturally, need a little hand holding.
Additionally, Peggy is so vulnerable in this book, it just adds another layer to it. She's not perfect, I'm not perfect, and her art might be way more practiced than mine, but it's okay if mine is way less than perfect. And honestly, because of Peggy's books, I really have seen some small improvements in my art, and more importantly, in my confidence with my art.
- Gina
Learn to draw
Embrace imperfections
Nurture your inner creativity
