The Urban Sketcher: Techniques for Seeing and Drawing on Location

Primarily about urban sketching but a really good introduction to drawing in general.

This is an excellent, go to book and one that I will return to for ideas, techniques and inspiration. It is written in an engaging tone light but also authoritative, Marc is a well known and respected Urban Sketcher with a range of experience both personal out on the streets sketching and also teaching groups. The book is full of sketches and many are shown in stages or 'passes' to completion. This is very much Marc's style and he stresses the 3 pass approach to sketching where more detail is added at each pass. An excellent book

Great book from a author with Talent keep sketching and remember Talent is from hard work and a sharp pencil

I received this book from Amazon yesterday and it is a treasure chest of interesting advice very well illustrated in accessible tutorials. It is a joy and if you have not yet read it I recommend it v highly. His illustrations do just the things I Iove and I am sitting reading it muttering “Exactly!”, “Yes Yes!” under my breath. He concentrates on making satisfying images not on recording exactly what he sees in front of him. He is helped of course by being a talented draughtsman and having a genius for colour and composition. He has some very good, illustrated advice about using watercolours. Simple, practical tips which I wish I had know 40 years ago. Five stars for Mr Taro Holmes.

this is an excellent book. I really enjoyed Marc's course on craftsy & looked for more of his work & found this book. I was not disappointed. He has a lovely, free style and has really helped me break out of the mould I was taught found at school, that is, all the paper must be painted, no white bits left, and always have a black line around your work. His 3 step method is super and his text really helpful and inspiring. I always look out for his work now and any further books he writes, or courses he makes, I shall be buying straight away.

You won’t go far wrong if this is your ONLY book for starting out drawing and painting in water colour. The advice in this book coupled with the wonderful drawings are a master class. JUST BUY THIS ONE BOOK AND YOUVE CRACKED IT…..THEN ITS GET OUT THERE AND DO IT! ‘SunofgilARTS’ FERNHURST

Content of the book is excellent, well written and a good method to work through to help you sketch from life. However, the quality of the printing/photos is truly awful, can't recall seeing another book that is as poor. The photos are dark and really odd looking with poor colour rendition. The background of the pages is printed with a linen effect, it is so poorly printed I though the pages were dirty at first. While this does not affect the usability of the book it did effect my enjoyment, as part of buying a physical book and especially an art book is enjoying the visuals. Glad I did not pay a great deal for this.

Transformed my drawings: I’ve learnt a much looser approach. Just a few pens and some touches of colour. This book really makes a difference. I’m not sure I will ever get to the pure watercolour stage but I’m really happy with what I’ve achieved so far.

M. T. Holmes notre guide pas à pas de façon très fluide et bienveillante à oser se lancer dans le sketching. Il partage ses 'trucs', tant sur le matériel que sur la pratique et la technique, et propose des exercices assez libres et très motivants, tout en illustrant ses propos par des exemples de réalisations, par étapes. Clairement structuré, clair, agréable à lire et abondamment illustré. Le matériel nécessaire n'est pas délirant (ni immense ni trop cher, il réduit les besoins au moins, appréciable pour les petites bourses et pour voyager léger). On sent que c'est quelqu'un qui adore ce qu'il fait et qui aime les autres et partager. Il nous donne finalement une sorte de triple cours express de dessin, encre et aquarelle (waouh!). Le tout est simple, sympathique et très libérateur : on se sent avoir envie d'oser et de se lâcher pour se faire plaisir. Bon, reste à s'entraîner pour parvenir à trouver notre style et à obtenir des résultats qui nous plaisent (et si possible aussi beaux que les siens, rêvons un peu !)

I like the no BS approach the author shows, and how he has divided the book into sections for measuring the right size of objects, ink drawing, watercolours with pencils and brushes, as well as practical tips and exciersises, coupled with various theories for how to plan your sketch, and how to draw the eye of the viewer to certain objects. The book is packed full of useful tips, techniques and art lessons, starting from the beginners to the advanced Urban Sketcher. Much recommended!

Todos los ejercicios que propone el autor ayudan a desarrollar confianza para principiantes e intermedios de forma muy didáctica. Lo recomiendo mucho!

Un libro muy interesante con tecnicas y con imagenes muy faciles de seguir, con bastante contenido, sin duda es una buena compra.

I bought this book out of curiosity, and I'm pretty glad I did. I'm an art student, so a lot of the techniques explained in this book were already familiar, but I can also say that they are much more clearly explained in this book than whatever could have been taught to me in school (and in most other books I have). This book is full of good, simple, well-explained exercises, and it illustrates quite nicely another way to do art, with the whole "urban sketching" idea. Obviously, you can only learn that much about art from a book, and you'll learn more only by actually doing art, but this book is a good start for people looking to start drawing, even if they don't have much experience (and if they do have some experience, well, it's a good return to some basic rules and tools and techniques, and a nice new approach to try). I'd suggest this book mostly to beginners, because it covers a wide variety of things but doesn't go into too much details, which is good when you start, but you'd probably be better with another book if you're looking for info about a specific subject (anatomy, composition, etc.).