The Urban Sketching Handbook 101 Sketching Tips by Stephanie Bower

The Urban Sketching Handbook 101 Sketching Tips (Urban Sketching Handbooks)

by Stephanie Bower

Master the challenges of drawing on location with this collection of insider know-how and expert tips and techniques.

Illustrator, architect, and international workshop instructor and Urban Sketcher Stephanie Bower has collected 101 of her best insider drawing tips, hacks, and techniques and shares them in this fully illustrated, portable book. Learn shortcuts to getting your perspective right, determining your composition, and balancing your light and shadow. This book collects many basic drawing techniques into one handy volume:
  • How to draw a great line
  • Using ellipses to draw arches
  • How towers are like wedding cakes
  • The importance of your eye level line in sketching
  • and 97 things more!
The book also features beautiful example illustrations from Urban Sketchers around the globe! Whether you are new to sketching or are an experienced artist, this book is chock-full of useful, practical, and clever tips to take your drawing to the next level.

The Urban Sketching Handbook series offers location artists expert instruction on creative techniques, on-location tips and advice, and an abundance of visual inspiration. These handy references come in a compact, easy-to-carry format—perfect to toss in your backpack or artist’s tote.

Reviewed by annieb123 on

5 of 5 stars

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Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Urban Sketching Handbook is a tutorial and instruction guide for sketching in various media. Released 5th Nov 2019 by Quarto on their Quarry imprint, it's 112 pages and available in flexibound and ebook formats. This is the 6th book in the Urban Sketching series.

This is a well written, accessible, and useful book for beginning to intermediate artists who are looking for guidance to improve their technique. The book begins with a very short introduction. Tools and specific methods and use of color and negative space aren't covered (but this information is easily accessible with the briefest online search). Instead, the page content is densely filled with good 'bite sized' tips (101 of them in fact) which cover coloring, shading, specific tips on varying drawing speed, line shape and density and other tips for adding interest to the reader's sketches.

Five stars. Definitely a worthwhile addition to the artist's library.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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  • 5 November, 2019: Reviewed