Serge Bloch

Serge: ‘Drawing is the basis of everything’ —Alberto Giacometti

The purpose of this book is drawing.
The happiness, the jubilation of drawing.

This book tells of the meeting between a child and a small piece of line. The child brings the line to his house and forgets about it. But the line manifests itself and gains life, little by little. It grows up with him and becomes his friend.

The challenge of this book was to make the line come alive.
To make the partner of the character his companion, his friend.
They were to have adventures, make discoveries, share real emotions.

The line becomes his tool – his language. It takes on all sorts of shapes and translates emotions. It makes him see all the colours and it makes him laugh.
Together, they live a story – a life.

Why make a book about drawing?
From children's drawings to the greatest works, from the lightest to the most violent, from the serene to the shocking, the line is everywhere.

It is at the same time a universal language and a personal form of writing.
It makes connections. A unifying line travels across borders, is used in newspapers, in the margins of school notebooks.

In Asia – the continent of the line – to write is to draw.
Calligraphy writes by drawing; words are its images.

In America, there is a rich tradition of editorial cartoons, with Saul Steinberg, William Steig and many others.

And in France: Topor, Chaval, Bosc, Sempé...

The line is everywhere.
It guides us on the road, we see it in the clouds, we trace it on the window's condensation.

All children draw; it's a natural language. They only stop when they can no longer believe that what they draw is alive. They want to replace that innocent truth, their expression, with fussy reproduction. It can then take one's whole life to find that energy and spontaneity again.

‘It took me a lifetime to paint like a child.’ —Pablo Picasso

I made this book to give the desire to draw to both children and adults.
The love of drawing. The wordless language that is well worth a long speech.

I also made this book to thank life for giving me this line that accompanies me every day.
An old accomplice who I have to fight with sometimes (often).

The line has has allowed me to live, to nourish myself in every sense of the word, to share, to amuse myself and others.

To teach and discover young artists, to build, to dream.
It's an old medication – a drug. I take a dose every day and I'm spared twenty years of psychoanalysis, for sure.

So in this book, I've tried to put in these emotions with a bit of humour.
I hope I'm not too serious; life is too short for that.

In the end, there's a long list of draftsmen, famous and less famous, dead and alive.
I dedicate this book to them all, and give to them what is their right.
They have taught me so much.

‘Not a day without a line’ —Paul Klee

Illustrations © Serge Bloch. Post translated by Gengo and edited by dPICTUS.

Buy the English edition

La grande histoire d’un petit trait /
The big adventure of a little line

Serge Bloch

Éditions Sarbacane, France, 2014

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Enter the magical, creative world of the renowned French artist, Serge Bloch, where anything can happen, and the discovery of an ordinary little line can result in the most amazing adventure.

Coming to life, the little line becomes majestic mountains, wings to fly with, a circus full of animals, a perilous tightrope, and that's only the beginning! You'll be inspired to create your own drawings, taking simple lines and transforming them into endless possibilities.

• French: Éditions Sarbacane
• English: Thames & Hudson
• Chinese (Simplified)
• Korean