Sketch Your World is 10
The cover of the UK edition of Sketch Your World
It’s the 10th anniversary of Sketch Your World. It was first published in the UK in January 2014, by Apple Press, and was soon popping up in bookshops and gallery stores where I least expected to see it. International editions in France (Eyrolles), the US (North Light Books), Germany (Christophorus Verlag) and China (Cube Press) meant I was soon getting images of it on sale sent to me by readers from around the globe.
It’s harder to find for sale now, but it lives on. I still get messages from people telling me how it has inspired them, or helped them set out on their own artistic journey. I’ve never been keen on the idea of how-to books. I know there is a demand for them, but I’m unconvinced they are very beneficial to those starting out. I always considered Sketch Your World a how-we book: it features the works of 60 artists who give some insight into the ways they go about drawing the world around them from life.
I was walking with my late dad along the banks of the Thames a while back, and despite him not being an art-loving man in any way, I thought we could walk in one door of Tate Modern, take a view of whatever we saw, and then walk straight out the other door, further upstream. This we did, and during a short detour through the bookshop we saw large stacks of Sketch Your World on sale, with a “bestseller” sticker on each one. My dad looked at them, and then at me, in a surprised, proud way I’d never seen before. And we laughed. It’s a special memory.
One more time, here are the names of those who contributed to Sketch Your World: Fernando Abadia, Adebanji Alade, Michael Anderson, Adolfo Arranz, Seoungjun Baek, Anthony Banks, Josephine Birch, Julie Bolus, Dave Black, George Butler, Gabi Campanario, Emma Carlisle, Simon Carter, Matthew Cencich, Angela Charlton, Thomas Corrie, Daniloz, Liza Dimbleby, Juliet Docherty, Trudi Esberger, Alexandre Esgaio, Anna-Louise Felstead, Franz Fernández, Ken Foster, Marina Grechanik, Lachlan Goudie, Rydal Hanbury, Craig Harper, Virginia Hein, Miguel Herranz, Carol Hsuing, Yanuar Ikhsan, Amer Ismail, Barry Jackson, Caroline Johnson, Asuka Kagawa, Brendan Kelly, Merlyna Lim, Maria Lopes, Joan Mas, Don McNulty, Mario Minichiello, Colin Moore, Max Naylor, Patrick Osborne, Chichi Parish, Alex Raventós, Pippa Ridley, Simone Ridyard, Marjut Rimminen, Fraser Scarfe, Rolf Schröeter, Inma Serrano, Craig Shannon, Suhita Shirodkar, Poppy Skelley, Naomi Strauss, Liz Steel, Paul Sutliff, Katherine Tyrrell, Lis Watkins, Steve Wilkin, Daniel Zalkus and Tony Zhao.