“I am just an ordinary bloke, I draw lines around things and fill them in.”
Rigby Graham (1931–2015) British author and illustrator
Obituary, Daily Telegraph,London, 20th May 2015
From an interview in the newspaper To-Day (1894), as quoted in Aubrey Beardsley : A Biography (1999) by Matthew Sturgis, p. 200
Context: All humanity inspires me. Every passer-by is my unconscious sitter; and as strange as it may seem, I really draw folk as I see them. Surely it is not my fault that they fall into certain lines and angles.
“I am just an ordinary bloke, I draw lines around things and fill them in.”
Rigby Graham (1931–2015) British author and illustrator
Obituary, Daily Telegraph,London, 20th May 2015
David Hockney (1937) British artist
From a series of interviews with Marco Livingstone (April 22 - May 7, 1980 and July 6 - 7, 1980) quoted in Livingstone's David Hockney (1981), p. 185
1980s
Hendrik Werkman (1882–1945) Dutch artist
version in original Dutch (origineel citaat van Hendrik Werkman, in het Nederlands): ..Als ik eenige teekeningen gemaakt heb zie ik ze ook direct in kleuren [en] vergroot voor me..
In a letter (nr. 356) to Bastiaan Kist, 9 Sept. 1943; as cited in H. N. Werkman - Leven & Werk - 1882-1945, ed. A. de Vries, J. van der Spek, D. Sijens, M. Jansen; WBooks, Groninger Museum / Stichting Werkman, 2015 (transl: Fons Heijnsbroek), p. 176
1940's
Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress
Madonna Interview : Island Magazine (October 1983), Island, 1983-10-01 http://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-interview-island-magazine-october-1983, <br class="br">(When asked what she used to draw as a kid).
Daniel Radcliffe (1989) English actor
About Favorite Subject in School http://www.danradcliffe.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=23&Itemid=28
Hiromu Arakawa (1973) award winning Japanese manga artist
Interview with mobuta.com (2004)
“I was made at right angles to the world
and I see it so. I can only see it so.”
Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979) American poet
Source: Elizabeth Bishop: Poems, Prose, and Letters
“My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.”
Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer
Not a Kerouac quote, but by Allen Ginsberg in his journal of 30 July 1947. Published in The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice, page 199.
Misattributed
“The only thing I really ever wanted to be was a cartoonist. That's my life. Drawing.”
Charles M. Schulz (1922–2000) American cartoonist
Address to the Sonoma County Press Club as quoted in the Sonoma County Press Democrat (13 February 2000)
Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011) American artist
quote about shades and drawing
1960s, Interview with Barbara Rose', Archives - American Art, 1968