My friend Koosje Koene has been staying with us this week. Koosje is a wonderful artist and teacher so we spent a lot of time talking about drawing and sharing our sketchbooks. The weather was great so I showed her around the Village and then we sat down to draw the Jefferson Market Library.
We decided to do a fun exercise— working on a single drawing together. We sat side by side with a sketchbook on our laps and worked back and forth across the spread. As you’ll hear in the video, we strategized a bit before we began, discussing how to lay out the building across both pages. Then we put our pens together and worked out from the center. Throughout, we jumped back and forth across the drawing, adding to each other’s lines, and discussing the drawing as we went.
It was a blast and the whole exercise took us less than twenty minutes. Get a friend and give it a try this weekend!
Every Friday I work through an idea from my latest book, Art Before Breakfast. It would be lovely if I could imagine you out there drawing along with me. This particular exercise comes from the Art Before Breakfast Workbook, to be published by Chronicle Books early next year. If you decide to do it too, please share with me how how it turned out! (Share the results on your own blog or on Facebook and post a link in my comments section. Use #artb4bkfst on Twitter or FB).
PS Sorry if the video is a little noisy — we shot it on a busy morning in New York City!
Danny Gregory 
Ah, what a treat!
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Watching this video really cheered up my morning and inspires me to get out and sketch! Thanks for sharing it.
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ha ha ha very funny
I did a thing like this with my kids! They are 20!
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Leuk, jongens! Love the hands & the pens, and the hovering and the thinking and the final “Yay!”
The building could be Dutch, too.
Very nifty exercise!
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There is nothing to be sorry about in that video. Unless you mean you don’t do it often enough. This is a real treat. What noise??
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This is something I’ve done when life drawing. It’s always interesting to pair up with someone whose style is very different from your own. It would be fun for me to try this with my kids. Thanks for the inspiration.
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Fun! The hands have it! I could sense a time or two when there was hesitation about who-would-do-what. End result is great! Good idea.
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love this – will give it a try!
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Jealous you have such beautiful buildings to draw. I noticed you are both right handed. I am left handed which would make it much easier for you. I hereby offer my left handed services to any “righty” who wants to join me.
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Anybody know what pen Koosje was using?
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A Lamy Safari.
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i think it was a Lamy ink pen
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Love this post so much! I think that is a Lamy Safari pen. I have one that looks just like it😄.
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Like an “exquisite corpse” for drawing. Interesting idea.
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It was interesting to watch and compare how each held the pen and moved it across the page. This would be incredible fun. Looking forward to your workbook. Cheers-Darlene
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Charmng and Quirky… like the two of YOU! ( I wont say who is…) I’m going to grab my stool and head out tomorrow morning just for the hell of it and see who shows up! it’s really ALL about a way to Surprise and Delight MYSELF! FUN! ( Oh Yeah, I Appeciate you Creative Coconuts…great work/fun, keep it UP!)
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[…] Koosje Koene recently spent a week in New York making plans for Sketchbook Skool with Danny Gregory, and of course doing lots of drawing. She and Danny went outside in New York, sat down and made a single drawing together, which you can see a short video of on her blog (and also on Danny’s blog!). […]
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This was delightful. Thank you for sharing. Hoping to get an artist friend to try this with me.
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That would drive me crazy! It’s like trying to draw and your annoying sibling is trying to mess you up
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