A review by labyrinth_witch
Mindful Sketching: How to Develop a Drawing Practice and Embrace the Art of Imperfection by Peggy Dean

5.0

I now own all but one of Peggy Dean’s books, and I love each one in turn. This one in particular covers the basics of sketching with an emphasis on urban sketching and landscapes that was a lovely back to the basics for me as I both reignited my sketching practice and delved into urban sketching for the first time.

She giver useful basics such as perspective, horizon line, vanishing point, framing a scene, and identifying the shapes to get started. For those of us who often feel overwhelmed when looking at a cityscape or urban scene, she breaks it down step by step so it feels manageable.

I also love that she didn’t spent a lot of time on mark-making, as you can read that in most how-to-draw primers.

Finally, I really enjoyed her discussed of representing and communicating energy in a sketch or urban sketch. I feel like it’s brought more awareness to how I use line in my own sketches. I realized I’m very definitive in my line making and tend to strive for accuracy. I’m not sure that’s the look I was going for, so now I know what I want to change to better communicate my interpretation of a scene or still-life.

She also includes several prompts to get you started. My favorite one so far was the comfort zone prompt.

Enjoy!