Book review: Walk the Line. The Art of Drawing

Walk the Line: The Art of Drawing, by Marc Valli, co-founder of Magma and of magazines Graphic and Elephant, and by Ana Ibarra, editor of Elephant.

Available on Amazon USA and UK.

Publisher Laurence King writes: Drawing has always been a fundamental skill and good drawing skills allowed artists to grasp the reality around them. At the turn of the millennium, however, the general impression was that with the wide availability of computers, scanners, digital cameras and image software, drawing would dwindle into a marginal activity. In fact, the opposite happened: the enthusiasm for digital imagery died down and the ability to draw has become a treasured skill.

In the art world, attitudes to drawing have also changed. Drawing became a way of making a statement as an artist, of showing masterly skill – something that up to then had been most commonly associated with painting. After centuries in the shadow of its more illustrious fine art relatives, drawing started to be appreciated for its own sake, as an art discipline, an end in itself, an art form.

Walk the Line: The Art of Drawing includes interviews with the international selection of artists, as well as examples of their work. It will appeal to anyone interested in contemporary art and illustration.

Eric Yahnker, Chiefy Chief 5 Bunghole Hat, 2010

I’m going to keep my review of this book so short, it’s not even going to be a review. I loved this book. When everyone can take hi-def photos with their phone and photoshop them to perfection (or absurdity), this renewed enthusiasm for drawing is refreshing. Or maybe the enthusiasm for drawing had never faltered, i just noticed that i’ve spent more time staring at drawings displayed at art fairs in recent years.

The introduction of the book charts the ‘trends’ in drawing (large scale drawings executed as a performance was the one that got all my attention), the rest is just page after page of absorbing drawings, mostly in black and white.

Drawing seem to be made for humour and tenderness as the images discovered in the book demonstrate: