Damien Noonan has his pencil at the ready…
The Big Draw is an annual opportunity for people of all ages, but particularly children, to express themselves on paper at events held at art galleries and museums across Britain. Inspired by the ideas of John Ruskin, the Victorian artist-philosopher, the aim is "not to teach people how to draw, but how to see". It runs throughout this month.
The artist most closely associated with the Big Draw is Quentin Blake, celebrated illustrator of children's books. His website is a delight, but one especially pleasing addition can be found under the heading "Fossicking" (which means digging around in the archives). Here you can look at the pictures from a book by Russell Hoban that Blake illustrated "about 20 years ago" while listening to Blake reading the story.
Quentin Blake is also the driving force behind a plan to establish a gallery or museum dedicated to the art of illustration, which will, all being well, open in a new building at King's Cross in London in 2011. The site is currently enveloped in hoardings decorated by Blake (see artatkingscross.com).
Before it opens, the House of Illustration is already busy organising touring exhibitions. Its current offering is at the Dulwich Picture Gallery until January next year and has an intriguing theme: a Victorian parlour game in which you describe yourself by choosing a set of objects that are important to you. For the exhibition, the game has been played by 45 people in the public eye, Andrew Marr and Eric Clapton, among them. You can play yourself, by entering a competition that runs until December 9. Entrants must upload their pictures to the image-sharing website Flickr: see flickr.com and search for "hoiwayl".
The Big Picture is a new venture dedicated specifically to children's illustrated books. If you are in London or can get there, look out for their Big Picture Party on October 27 at the British Library as part of the Big Draw. Otherwise, look at the list of the 10 best new children's book illustrators and see if there is anything that tickles your fancy. (Tip: a lot of illustrators have excellent websites of their own - try pasting names into Google and searching.)
Genial Aussie Rolf Harris has painted a portrait of the queen for her 80th birthday, but it's for his role in children's art TV programmes that he is most fondly remembered. His website contains lots of personal information, as well as a wonderful gallery of his artwork and an online shop that sells his children's books about the art of drawing. If you want to buy copies of his artwork, visit the Portland Gallery at tinyurl.com/3nfpj4.
Access Art has splendid online workshops that help you improve your drawing (click "online workshops" then choose "Drawing" from the drop-down menu on the left). Also, for a beautiful drawing exercise for children called "Frame a View", see the Tate's children's section (tate.org.uk and click "Tate Kids", then "Tate Create").
Here's an inspirational idea: this site showcases people's sketchbook pages. The featured Moleskine format is similar to the sketchbooks that J?M?W Turner used. He filled 300 of during his career and you can flick through these at the Tate website (tate.org.uk).
Conscious that this article has barely scratched the surface of an enormous subject, we bring you a blog that is dripping with links to help you explore further. Lines and Colors is the work of Charley Parker, the artist behind Argon Zark, a long-running webcomic (see zark.com).
The Illustration Cupboard is a gallery in central London and also an online shop, specialising in the work of illustrators, and particularly children's book illustrators. Limited edition prints and first edition books are on sale, along with original artwork. You might take a fancy, for example, to a working drawing from Aardman Animations for a scene featuring Shaun the Sheep, at £550.
