Beautiful little book illustrated with so many drawings, sketches, diagrams by the author herself and by a diverse community of contributors from all over the world.
It’ll be worth going back to many times but most of all I value how motivational this book is, makes you just want to grab a pen and paper and start sketching!!
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The Urban Sketching Handbook: 101 Sketching Tips
Did you know that towers are like wedding cakes, trees are like umbrellas, and visualizing dairy products can help you paint in watercolor?
Some of my favorite and fun sketching “ah-ha” moments have to do with relating complex subjects to things we experience every day. I often use these concepts when teaching, as these metaphors can help us to demystify the sometimes challenging process of sketching the things we see.
This book is packed with a wide range of more than one hundred of my top tricks, techniques, and insights, all pocket-sized to travel with you on the go.
Through a collection of amazing sketches, all done on location by artists from around the globe, you’ll see these 101 tips magically come to life. From how to draw a line with energy to figuring out the anatomy of an arch, these insights will help you see familiar things in new ways as you discover sketching “ah-ha” moments of your own.
So, grab a pencil and sketchbook—or maybe a tablet and digital pencil—and let’s go!
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KEY I ON YOUR MARK, GET SET…Are you ready for a sketching adventure? Sketching is an amazing way to see the world—scratch that—it’s an amazing way to see the world better. Sketching is popular all over the world for many reasons. It taps into your creative juices, and it calms and focuses your mind. It’s a great way to learn about and remember the things you see and places you go. |
KEY II IT ALL STARTS WITH A GOOD LINEThe foundation of nearly every sketch is a good line—be it in pen, pencil, brush, or on a tablet. A good line invites you into a sketch with its energy and character. Amazingly, no two people can make the exact same line. Your line quality is like your signature . . . it is unique to you! So, what exactly makes a line good? |
KEY III THE VALUES OF TONEWhite is provided by the white of the paper, and black is created by the black of your pen or pencil. So how do you make all the shades of gray in between these two extremes? |
KEY IV COMPELLING COMPOSITIONSTake a moment to carefully look at the scene in front of you. Close one eye to flatten out the view, and you’ll see it as a two-dimensional composition. Use your hands to crop what you see to figure out the extent of the view for your sketch. Take a photo, and see how it looks composed on your camera. |
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KEY V GOOD BONESYou are staring at that huge blank sheet of paper thinking, “Yikes, what do I do now? How am I going to get this wide, complicated scene onto my small, flat piece of paper?” While lots of people approach sketching in different ways, most good sketches start with good bones. These are the initial foundation lines of your drawing or painting, and they usually involve perspective. |
KEY VI IT'S ALL ABOUT YOUR EYE LEVELYour eye-level line is not only important because it is where most of the vanishing points can be found, it’s useful in all kinds of amazing ways. |
KEY VII TOWERS ARE LIKE WEDDING CAKES (& OTHER AH-HA MOMENTS)Sketching complex forms such as towers, domes, and stairs can be challenging, unless we think about them in new ways! Relating complicated forms to simple things we see every day can help to demystify the drawing process. |
KEY VIII C'MON IN, THE WATER IS FINEWatercolor is fun. Watercolor is frightening. Watercolor is also the ideal medium for painting on location. It’s portable, quick to dry, and yields an infinite range of luscious colors. That said, it is intimidating because of the number of variables to figure out—which paints, which brushes, how will the paper react, how fast or slow will the paint dry in the weather, and so on. |
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61 reviews
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Motivational
7 November 2019 -
Published on Amazon.comVerified Purchase
Mark Anderson
A "must have" for anyone sketching on location
10 November 2019 -
Published on Amazon.comVerified Purchase
A "must have" for anyone sketching on location
Reviewed in the United States on 10 November 2019
The Urban Sketching Handbook series is flat out the best and most encyclopedic reference for anyone sketching, drawing, or painting on location. The latest title to join the series, Stephanie Bower's 101 Sketching Tips doesn't disappoint either. First off, ignore the title because Bower shares far more than 101 tips and strategies. Illustrations from Urban Sketchers hailing from every point on the globe are included to help readers clearly visualize the concepts being shared, including many of Bower's own fine sketches.Reviewed in the United States on 10 November 2019
As a professional illustrator and a visual art educator for four decades, I have seen a lot of books offering advice; only a few of them have measured up to the hype. Happily, this is one of them. What I really appreciate about this book is the way it's organized into "Keys" - groups of concepts that are related. Thumbing through the book, there are (naturally enough) strategies with many readers will already be familiar. I regularly found myself reading a tip and thinking to myself, "Oh, right! Why haven't I tried that in a while?" Being reminded of things we already know (but don't always put into practice!) is a really good thing. And then there are those brand new ideas that I feel like smacking myself in the head over: "Now why the heck did I never think of doing things THAT way?" There are plenty of gold nuggets sprinkled throughout, and enough to make this a valuable resource for most any artist working in situ.
For those who like to carry stuff with them into the field, I also find the books in this series to be really handy in that one will easily fit into the hip pocket of my Levi's!
Images in this review
JKriss
Fabulous book, tiny type
7 November 2019 -
Published on Amazon.comVerified Purchase
Shirley Joiner
Packed with helpful sketching tips.
9 November 2019 -
Published on Amazon.comVerified Purchase
A Traveler
Great all-around book of tips
13 November 2019 -
Published on Amazon.comVerified Purchase