Techniques of Drawing

Originally published in 1999, and long out of print, this revised and updated version of Techniques of Drawing gives an overview of historical materials and drawing practices in Europe and Asia, using examples from the Ashmolean Museum, including highlights of the collection and lesser-known works.

This up to date edition expands the text and illustrations to include non-western art, including Japanese, Chinese, Indian and Persian works of art, also including some more modern western art works than the first edition, which only covered western art from the 15th to 19th centuries.

This new edition of Techniques of Drawing: Historical Perspectives from Europe to Asia expands the scope of the original 1999 book to include global perspectives, and the 20th century. New sections, such as ‘Brush and Ink’ which includes Chinese landscape drawings, Japanese botanical works, as well as illustrating the famous Mughal Indian drawing by Abu’l Hasan in the Ashmolean collection. The book also includes a new section on gouache (opaque watercolour) which will be important for discussing Chinese, Indian and Persian paintings on paper. 

• To date, Techniques of Drawing 1999, surprisingly is one of only a small handful of books dedicated to the history of techniques of drawing and painting
• Includes highlights from the Ashmolean collection as well as lesser-known works
• Features 80 colour and 4 black and white detailed illustrations

Ursula Weekes is an independent art historian and former Supervisor of the Print Room at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Educated at St John's College Cambridge and the Courtauld Institute of Art, her doctoral work was on early European printmaking. She subsequently held a Postdoctoral Commonwealth Fellowship in New Delhi and while living in India, also taught as Visiting Faculty at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Since moving back to London, she has spent seven years as an Associate Lecturer in Indian Painting at the Courtauld Institute of Art, and now teaches for the V&A Academy, the London Art History Society, and Guildford High School, as well as leading tours to India. She is currently completing a book on Mughal Court Painting in India.