Ooooooooh! The Guardian just launched a series of photos and first-person essays on drawing! It looks fantastic! Highlights include William Kentridge on the mystique of charcoal, David Shrigley on his idiosyncratic ink doodles, graphite master Paul Noble on his rather technical fictive drawings, and Ingrid Calame on her vector-y vellum tracings.

The timing’s great because I just taught the first session of my Sketchbook Drawing class at the Associate Student Union at U.C. Berkeley. It had been a while since I’d been in a figure drawing set-up, and I had a blast and I think my students enjoyed it too. I’m inspired to spend more time with my sketchbook soon.

Sometimes I find the idea of picture-making to be quite conventional, so it’s nice to be reminded of the immediacy and rewards of a fundamental mark-making practice.