Katie Woodward

Timely Take-Aways for Life-Long Learning:
Drawing

Whether seeking ideas for building confidence in young artists or exploring new how-to-draw series, several new drawing books are available for educators.

The Urban Sketching Handbook Series
Panoramas and Vertical Vistas: Techniques for Drawing on Location from Urban Perspectives, Mario Linhares, Sep 2021, Quarry Books/Quarto Group
Understanding Light: Portraying Light Effects in On-Location Drawing and Painting, Katie Woodward, Dec 2021, Quarry Books/Quarto Group
Themes: Art, Techniques, Drawing

THE URBAN SKETCHING HANDBOOK series provides artists with practical instruction focusing on creative techniques, tips, and advice for on-location sketching. Each title focuses a different sketching technique.
Take-aways: It’s useful to investigate how specific techniques are reflected in the works of masters when building sketching skills in new areas.… (mehr)

The Urban Sketching Handbook – Understanding Light by Katie Woodward

Amazing, information, thought provoking, and intriguing. I now have a desire to…sketch…but…with a new eye to doing so. I kept going “hmm” as my mind was opened to “seeing” what I have seen so many times before but wanting to go back to see it…through eyes that have just been educated. There is so much information in this book that builds chapter by chapter. I will never see the world around me quite as I did before.

NOTES:
* Tools are more than pencils and paper or ways to color…don’t forget your sunscreen, hat, water, a chair and easel…plan before packing to go out to sketch
* Key Terms with definitions…definitely worth reading and thinking about
* Think and LOOK and decide what you want to say…BEFORE you begin.
* There is a lot more to creating a sketch than putting down what you see…or putting it down exactly.
* Checklists and tips were inspired…and inspiring
* Value: find the light before you begin (and there is a LOT to know about light!)
* Color: so much to know about this…I built on what I know from previous study thinking about the use of color in shadow and reflections and in other ways
* Reflected Light: This was fascinating….need to look into this some more
* Skies & Atmopheres: another intriguing topic that dealt with ways to create cold, hot, and various weather situations as well as time of day and how that can vary
* Reflections: in water, floors & ceilings (new thought for me), windows, reflective objects, transparent objects (brought up memories of trying to get flowers in a glass vase “right”)
* Foliage: who knew there was so much to think about…dappled, under, through, around, etc…interesting topic, too.
* Night Scenes: This one blew me away…how to do neon signs or how a baseball field might look at night or ANY place at night, actually
* Challenges at the back of the book that I would love to attempt in the future
* I think I need to take some art classes!

Did I like this book? Oh, my yes!
Would I like to have it to refer to again? Definitely!

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group-Quarry – This is my honest review.

5 Stars… (mehr)