more in the prose

Her prose sketch of how the poem was written was more interesting than the poem itself.

winslow homer

The consummate designer of the great compositions based his design upon the same acute observation that delights us in the sketches; the brilliant sketcher, though he does not carry design to its ultimate perfection, is yet always a born designer, so that almost any one of his sketches has the possibility of a great picture in it, and his slightest note is a whole, not a mere fragment.

—Kenneth Cox, What is Painting?: Winslow Homer and Other Essays (W. W. Norton, 1988).

figure esquisse

If there’s no word for something, we can always use others to sketch its outline.

timing device

He would try to get at least the outline of the poem down before the tea kettle whistled.