I’ve always wanted to travel this way, recording places and events as a sketch artist drawing or painting by direct observation. While not a lesson book with step-by-step instructions, as I first expected, this handsome volume inspires and illuminates the field of urban sketching through profiles of artists and examples of their work.
From Seattle to Melbourne, and from Kansas City to Barcelona and beyond, this book visits 39 cities, introducing one or more artists with examples of their work including a description of material and media used. The sketches range from pencil sketches to digital art, line and wash, straight paintings, mixed media, and more.
What these artists hold in common is that they work on location, capturing the story of their surroundings at home or on the road, recording a time and place truthfully in whatever media they choose, according to a “manifesto” by the author, Stephanie Bower. “As urban sketchers, we learn about our world, record and tell stories and experiences. We show the world, one drawing at a time.”
The latest volume in an Urban Sketching Handbook series, this book is part of an urban sketching movement that has been spreading online with artists sharing their work, participating in workshops, symposiums and forming local chapters of a nonprofit organization called Urban Sketchers. Look for their posts online with the tags #urbansketchers and #usk.