‘To make a drawing is to record an idea: an idea of a particular breed that can only be expressed through making marks on a piece of paper.’- Mervyn Peake, The Craft of the Lead Pencil (11)

Through his 19 page pamphlet on Draughtsmanship, Peake instructs his readers on his approach to drawing, stating ‘Your hand must follow and not precede your idea… The secret is to draw with intelligence, to be sure of what you want; for if you are undecided, so will your drawing be.’ (12)

‘It answers the questions any would-be draughtsman faces- ‘what shall I draw? What am I trying to convey? And how best can I convey it?’ Peake does this simply and elegantly by introducing the reader to ‘a new way of looking’, something he describes as ‘the way for a draughtsman.’ One only has to look at Peake’s thoughtful, funny, poignant drawings to see that when he writes about the craft of the lead pencil he is a master craftsman.’- Chris Riddell (13)

He ends the pamphlet with this personal philosophy:

‘What does it matter how long or how slow you are in this traffic of lead and paper? The advance from virtual blindness to that state of perception- half rumination, half scruntiny- is all that matters. The end is hypothetical. It is the journey that counts.’ (14)