I recently started working in a beautiful historic library. I have been drawing a lot of books and library scenes since then and you can see them on my flickr site  here .

This page is all about my latest drawing.

The works of Plato : a new and literal version, chiefly from the text of Stallbaum. London : Bohn, 1854-1861. 6 v. ; 19 cm.

I draw at work in my lunch breaks  for about  1/2 hour. My previous drawings have all been in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbooks (13 x 19 cm). I have discovered that I really enjoy drawing books and do them well and so I  have started doing them on loose sheets of paper. I wrote a blog post last year on my search and experiments in locating loose sheets of paper that were equivalent to my sketchbook.   Since then I have discovered the perfect paper for me and my watercolour pencils . It is called University paper and I think that it is made by St Cuthbert’s Mill in UK. It is 210 gsm and this page was cut to A4. It was suggested to me by Deans Art in Melbourne.

I decided to draw two of the five volumes in a 1854 publication of The Works of Plato.  These books are only slightly worn, and have beautiful marbling on the sides of the pages and the end pages. (The books I really love to draw are those that are not in the best condition, however they are not a good representation of what is held in the library.)

 Progression from a sketch to a finished drawing

initial sketch. HB pencil on loose sheet A4 scrap paper

I started with a sketch on a scrap paper to try to get the angles right. This is not my usual approach, as I usually start straight in with the watercolour pencil on the page. However, I know that I find books difficult to draw – getting the proportions right and making them look like they are sitting flat and piled on top of each other. I have almost achieved it with this drawing. (It is hard to tell as these are photos taken at an angle)

The colour variation was not as contrasting as these photos suggest (that is the photography!) . However, I did attempt to match the colour of the book binding and used a mixture of the following three colours : Burnt Carmine, Pale Geranium (both Faber Castell) and Madder Carmine (Derwent), building the colour strength  and shadows over the days. The drawing reached a stage where the colour started to get ‘muddy’, so I stopped and worked on the detail.

I still have to find a method of representing lettering in drawings, both on the outside on the spine and front cover, as well as the print inside a book. This drawing was a bit of an experiment. Instead of leaving the white space of the letters on the page and trying to fill them in with colour (not enough space), I coloured all of the book and then tried to add the words by writing over the colour with both yellow pencil and gold highlighter. I also added white gel pen and then colouring over that with the yellow. None of these were spectacularly successful. I welcome any suggestions and links to examples of words on books.

However, I am pleased that it does give the impression of the gold crest stating that this book belongs to The Library of the Supreme Court of the Colony of Victoria. This shows the age of the book from the collection.

In 1770 Captain James Cook landed in Australia. In 1835 Melbourne was established. In 1850 the new “Colony of Victoria” (after Queen Victoria) was founded  with separation from New South Wales. At the beginning of 1901, Victoria ceased to be an independent colony and became a state in the Commonwealth of Australia.

This  drawing is almost complete. I will put it aside for a while and then make some minor changes to details. I would like to see it as a print or on a card one day . In the meantime I will begin another book (to draw, not to read)