The Urban Sketching Handbook Understanding Perspective

Easy Techniques for Mastering Perspective Drawing on Location

Stephanie Bower

• Publisher: Quarry Books
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781631591921
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art Techniques

A good sketch starts with good bones.

The fourth book in the Urban Sketching Handbook series uses drawings and simple steps to explain the often challenging and overwhelmingconcepts of perspective in practical and useful ways for on-site sketching. Most books are either too abstract or don't provide enough information that relates to what you actually do when you're out in the busy, wide world about to start a drawing. Where do you start? How do you edit what you see to flatten and shrink it onto your paper? How does perspective work?

The Urban Sketching Handbook: Understanding Perspective helps you learn to think like an architect, to draw buildings and spaces by reducing what you see to simple, basic shapes, then adding layers in simple steps, and finally finishing your sketch with detail, tone, and color--in accurate perspective. Full of helpful tips, architect and illustrator, Stephanie Bower even de-constructs sketches to show you how to create them! Once you understand perspective, it will change the way you see the world--you'll see perspective everywhere.

Some of the key concepts explored in this volume are:

- Basic Terms

- Basic Spatial Principles

- Types of Perspective

- Building a Sketch in Layers

- Special Conditions

KEY I

BASICS

A few basic tools and concepts are the first keys to opening the door of Understanding Perspective!

Tools
Terms
Proportions and Measuring

“One of the primary motivations for drawing this scene was how the beautiful sunlight interacted with this unusual architectural remnant. More layers of ink were necessary to make the sunlight glow.” — Fred Lynch

FRED LYNCH

USA

Bella Vista Doorway

12.5” × 9.5” | 31.5 × 24 cm; Winsor & Newton brown ink, Arches Hot Press Watercolor Block; 2 hours plus 1 hour in studio. One-point/eye-level view.

TOOLS

Are you a pencil person or a pen person? Finding the right tools to express yourself is a great place to start your urban sketching adventure! For working on location, the name of the game is light, small, and portable. This handbook teaches concepts that will be useful for any sketching or painting media, but here are a few basic supplies that I carry.

I love the variety of line I can get in pencil, but lots of sketchers use pens, both felt tip and fountain pens. Experiment and find your favorite sketching tools.

Tools

Mechanical pencil 0.5mm (so I don’t have to carry a pencil sharpener) with B or 2B lead

Small kneaded eraser

Small straight edge or architect’s triangle (for quickly snapping longer lines)

2 binder clips (for holding paper in place)

Watercolor supplies, including small paint palette with watercolor travel brushes (I also sometimes use a portable easel)

Sketchbook

Plastic bags (to separate wet and dry supplies)

Portable stool (It helps to be comfortable when you sketch on location)

Backpack or other travel bag to carry and secure supplies

Sketching supplies need not cost a fortune! Visual journalist Richard Johnson uses the simplest of tools to do his amazing sketches, often just a ballpoint pen. Talk about light and portable!

RICHARD JOHNSON

USA

Junk Shelves in the Garage

8” × 10” | 20.5 × 25.5 cm; Ballpoint pen, paper; 1.5 hours. One-point/eye-level view.

Workshop

Like musicians who practice scales, sketchers can become better at making lines by practicing.

Try this exercise:

Fill a few pages with lines. They should be about 1/4” (6 mm) apart and as straight as possible. Use any paper you have handy, the bigger the better. Wobbly lines are okay, but avoid making short hairy lines.

Observe how you make the straightest lines, is it better to work fast or slow?

More and more sketchers are using digital media for their work. It’s highly portable and easy to make changes!

As technolog...