Tim Armstrong Stained Glass (Books for sale 1 of 2)

A Methodical Sketchbook.

Black is not Black.

The Moon King's Secrets.

Three books still in print. For purchase enquiries please contact Tim by email.

A Methodical Sketchbook

From Experimental Drawing to Design for Today's Reality

(Published 2021. Size 245 x 190mm. Number of pages 120.)

New existential threats have arisen during the intervening century since Klee wrote his teaching aid for the Bauhaus. Tim Armstrong adapts Klee's starting ideas for today's prospective artists and designers who see the need for remedial action.

He moves from experimental drawing through changed priorities to the design concepts that are essential for our dangerous reality. His diagrams illustrate the opposition of destructive and constructive trends and he invites readers to devise their own creative agendas.

Sample pages

Circular motions and reversals are compared with circular and opposing arguments. Illusions and delusions are compared. Diagrams, moving patterns and charts elucidate relations between primary concepts of art and science. Like Klee, Armstrong encourages variety of interpretations and open-ended responses.

Sample pages from 120

A Methodical Sketchbook has simple demonstrations, straight forward text and quotations from a wide range of artists, designers, philosophers and scientists. Why do some educationalists consider art to be less important than STEM subjects? Armstrong gives reasons for his opposite view. What purposes can paper and mixed media sketchbooks serve that cannot be achieved on computer screens? He maintains both the importance of handcrafted experiments and artificially assisted creativity. What is the purpose of fine art (painting, sculpture and conceptual installations) in the present century? He argues that varied and various cultures and crafts support product design and architecture. The relationship is integral to the support given by pure science to technology.

Armstrong also addresses people who have lost confidence or opportunity to develop their artistic ambitions. His approach is inclusive and restorative, encouraging individual contributions in local and/or international contexts. He suggests that artistic freedom is not only compatible with global necessities; it is vital.

A Methodical Sketchbook describes the themes of art foundation courses, which act as bridges between students' general commitments to art and their specific choices of careers from the wide range available. Approaches differ but all highlight the qualities of materials, experiments in visual perception, communication of meanings, and design of functional products.

Readers are invited to add notes to the book and assemble their own sketchbooks to include diaries, observational drawings, invented graphic vocabularies, reproductions and inspiration from other artists.