‘You learn something instantly every time you pick up a pencil.’

We are all artists as children, painting and drawing each day. Most of us stop when we get older but David Gentleman kept going. For over ninety years he has been drawing, painting, engraving and printing, rising to become one of Britains best-known and most loved artists. His watercolours have filled galleries; his iconic wood cuts are emblazoned across posters, book jackets and train stations; his stamps have made their way to the furthest corners of the world.

Here, the great, polymathic artist and craftsman shares what he has learned over the course of a lifetime of making and thinking about art. Unlike his contemporaries, Gentleman was never a teacher; his lessons are a sequence of unconventional prompts and reflections that will deepen your relationship with your art, and with the world around you.

Sincere, practical and unpretentious, Gentlemans insights are a breath of fresh air. Here are new ways to focus, notice the world and cultivate your own style; techniques to evolve your work, from playing with time to painting in bad weather; methods for getting the most out of mistakes and negative criticism; and, above all, reminders to return, always, to the simple delights of creativity.

With lush illustrations, anecdotes and explanations of how he made some of his most famous work, this is a unique guide to the nature and practice of art-making which will encourage and inspire artists young and old.