h4 style=”text-align: center;”>COMING SOON: SKETCHBOOK TRAVELER: NEW ENGLAND. Fall 2023
NEW: SKETCHBOOK TRAVELER: SOUTHWEST. Schiffer Publishing. September 24, 2022. LEARN MORE. Click on the image below
SKETCHBOOK TRAVELER: SOUTHWEST. Schiffer Publishing.
Projected publication date:Spring 2022
First developed by explorers and naturalists, the practice of keeping log diaries and journals has evolved through the centuries, with the growing popularity of travel and tourism. This sequel to McElhinney’s Sketchbook Traveler: Hudson Valley (see below) follows a similar format; part art-book, part backpackers’ companion, with inspirational texts on blank work-pages for journaling. Inspired by expeditionary artists such as Samuel Seymour, Titian Ramsay Peale II, Seth Eastman and the Kern brothers, this volume explores the American Southwest, visiting locations from the Rio Grande Valley to the Mojave Desert. For the novice, it provides an introduction to traveling light, working outdoors and leaving no trace. For educators this book unpacks teaching tools and lesson plans, and a refresher course for practicing artists working on the move. Through drawing, painting, and journal keeping, The Sketchbook Traveler guides readers toward more mindful engagement with the world around them, promotes environmental awareness, and deepens knowledge, while enriching one’s personal experience in ways that make every journey an adventure
Now Available:
SKETCHBOOK TRAVELER: HUDSON VALLEY. Schiffer Publishing. 2020
The practice of keeping log diaries and journals has evolved through the centuries with the growing popularity of travel for personal enrichment. Five-hundred years ago, artists like Albrecht Durer and explorers like Jacques le Moyne and John White, recorded their journeys in sketchbooks and journals. Picturing exotic locations was part of topographical drawing and cartography. Knowing what a destination looked like helped travelers know they had arrived. The Sketchbook Traveler carries this concept to the next level, expanding the range of plein-air enthusiasts by freeing them from cumbersome easels and wet canvases. It provides the novice with an introduction to traveling light, working outdoors and leaving no trace. The book unpacks teaching tools and lesson plans for educators, and a refresher course for practicing artists working on the move. Through drawing, painting, and journal keeping, The Sketchbook Traveler guides readers toward more mindful engagement with the world around them, promotes environmental awareness, and deepens knowledge, while enriching one’s personal experience in ways that make every day an adventure. LINK
Art Students League of New York on Painting: Lessons and Meditations on Mediums, Styles and Methods
by James Lancel McElhinney. Ten Speed Press. Berkeley, CA. November 2015.
This modern painting guide is a sourcebook for study, teaching, professional practice, and personal enrichment written and edited by league instructor and artist James L. McElhinney in cooperation with the Art Students League of New York, America’s signature art school, run by artists for artists. Founded in 1875, the Art Students League of New York has nurtured students like Jackson Pollock and Georgia O’Keefe. Richly illustrated with artwork from the League’s considerable archives, its instructors, and its students, the book will be a source of inspiration and enrichment for painters of all levels.
The Visual Language of Drawing: Lessons on the Art of Seeing
by James Lancel McElhinney & Instructors of the Arts Students League of New York. New York: Sterling, 2012.
Featuring the insights of 15 current and former Art Students League instructors, this stunning volume reassesses the art of drawing not as a technique, but as the essential grammar of all visual thinking. In an illuminating introductory essay, James Lancel McElhinney punctures the myth that learning to draw is something for experts only, and presents methods for making, appreciating, and teaching drawing. The 15 contributors then offer a broad range of stylistic approaches and methodologies, accompanied by examples of their own and their students’ artwork. A final section of basic exercises, along with information on materials, techniques, and resources, completes this inspirational study.
Classical Life Drawing Studio: Lessons & Teachings in the Art of Figure Drawing
by James Lancel McElhinney. Foreword by Will Barnet. & Instructors of the Arts Students League of New York. New York: Sterling, 2010.Classical drawing is staging a comeback. The Art Students League of New York presents a unique and perfect celebration of this revival: a gallery of never-before-published 19th- and 20th-century drawings and invaluable insights from the League’s figurative drawing teachers along, with exemplary works by them and their select students. With a foreword by celebrated artist Will Barnet, this collection is the ultimate volume on the art of drawing.