The Book of You: Creative Writing & Drawing Techniques

 Registration is closed for this event

October 3rd, 2015 1:00 PM

  • Instructor: Will Cloughley
  • Workshop Type: Arts
  • Workshop Status: Closed
  • Workshop Start: October 3rd, 2015 1:00 PM
  • Workshop End: October 10th, 2015 4:00 PM
  • Sessions: 2

Working with either your own handcrafted blank book or a readily available 8 ½” x 11” artist’s black sketchbook, we will focus on techniques and stimulating creative exercises for developing creative content in the form of image and text working together on the page. 

This workshop is meant to launch you in a daily practice that can be one of the most important things you do to develop a richer inner life and a unique book of your journey, the Book of You.

During this workshop you will learn:

·        The use of a dry-transfer adhesive to affix photos, clippings, etc. permanently to the page.

·        Basic drawing skills, both realistic and expressionistic, working with portable and easy-to-use dry media: (colored pencil, pen & ink, chisel headed calligraphy markers, and graphite).

·        The Grisaille technique for going from a B&W graphite drawing to color.

·        How to use basic calligraphy to create letter and word as image and to explore your talents for asemic writing.

·        Basic composition and layout skills for combining images and words on the page.

·        Special drawing techniques such as: utilizing front-to-back of page bleed-throughs as jumping off points for new images, frottage, collage, and live action drawing to music.

·        Confidence and spontaneity in your creative writing efforts.

·        The discipline and rewards of acquiring a daily practice.


Materials to Bring: Hardbound black sketchbook (ideally 8½" x 11"), X-ACTO® blade holder and #11 blade, pens, and pencils. Some recommendations for pens and pencils include graphite HB pencil, Prismacolor colored pencils, steel-nib or felt-tip writing pen, and chisel-shaped felt-tip calligraphic markers (Zig® Memory System® and ITOYA Doubleheader® CL-10 are recommended). Also, bring small ink-jet prints of self-portrait photographs (4" x 6" or 5" x 7"). Consider bringing a few prints that capture different expressions and gestures. Optional but highly recommended: Westcott® Flexible Stainless Steel Ruler (12") with a cork backing.

Workshops + Materials fee: $120.00

Date & Time: Saturdays, October 3 & 10, 2015 | 1:00pm-4:00pm

Location: 375 Rhode Island Street San Francisco, CA 94103

Note: Please review the SFCB Registration Policies before signing up for a class


About the Instructor | Will Cloughley

Will Cloughley is a San Francisco based fine artist, philosophical essayist, poet and lightshow producer, whose work encompasses drawing, mixed media, animation,photography and versions of the graphic novel. For the past several years Cloughley has concentrated exclusively on fine art works on paper and the hand-crafted artist's book, bringing to maturity his visual language and vision in a tactile medium. A sketchbook journal is always by his side or with him in his backpack; he can often be spotted writing and drawing in the black books at his favorite San Francisco coffee houses, or out at solitary industrial landscapes being reclaimed by nature.