Sketch by Sketch is a philosophical and compassionately written book on art as a therapeutic activity by Sheila Darcey. Released 4th Jan 2022 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's Press imprint, it's 352 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This is a book full of inspiration and encouragement to start and sustain a daily art habit by mindfully sketching (and processing) feelings, experiences, and thoughts. It's gently written and I found the exercises very restful. I can certainly understand how creating time to sketch daily would have positive mental (and probably physical) health benefits.
The book's layout is easy to follow and accessible. There are prompts and blank areas for readers to fill in to build up a library of shapes and outlines. The author expends a fair bit of effort on explaining the whole process and the tutorial chapters which follow and delineating some ways to examine our feelings objectively. I found some good info in this chapter since I'm not always consciously aware of what I'm actually feeling emotionally on the deepest levels.
The 21 tutorial chapters contain prompts for exercises on hope, faith, love, truth, belief, silence, trust, courage, and more. This is very much a book which craves active input; not a passive book, and it's not a traditional technique book either. It reminds me in some ways of zentangles, but it's not at all derivative of that system.
Finally, the author has included a solid reading list of ancillary books on allied subjects which will provide readers with hours of further exploration.
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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