The Urban Sketching Handbook Understanding Light

Portraying Light Effects in On-Location Drawing and Painting

Katie Woodward

• Publisher: Quarry Books
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780760372036
• eBook ISBN: 9780760372043
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art Techniques

The Urban Sketching Handbook: Understanding Light is an informative guide to heightening the impact of your artwork by capturing the look and subtleties of light in any scene.

In settings ranging from fields and mountains at daybreak to neon cityscapes at midnight, learn how to express light effects through color and value to improve and refine your drawings and paintings.

Artist and urban sketcher Katie Woodward offers strategies for:  

• Selectively translating values for maximum effect
• Using your sketchbook to experiment with the effects of natural as well as artificial light
• Considering many options for visual solutions through work contributed by experienced urban sketchers 

Master the art of rendering light with The Urban Sketching Handbook: Understanding Light as your guide.

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.

KEY IV

REFLECTIONS

After we figure out where the light is coming from, what it is hitting, and where the shadows are, we have to look at how it bounces off the surfaces it hits. These are “reflections.” They can happen on even a mildly shiny surface. We may find them on the glass of a window, ever moving waves of the sea, a bronze statue in a park, or the side of a car. Rendering reflections can give the audience information on the surface of an object and add pizazz to a sketch.

An object’s reflections depend on the quality of its surface. How shiny is it? Something like a mirror—as shiny as can be—will give you nice, sharp, clear reflections. Transparent glass can give you similarly sharp reflections, but they’re often interspersed with anything you’re seeing through the glass itself. This can soften the reflections and means you often don’t get a perfect, unbroken reflection. Matte surfaces don’t have any reflections, although sometimes you can still get reflected light bouncing off the object and filling the shadow. This happens most often with lighter objects, or ones that are a really bright color.

By thinking about how light hits an object while sketching, we’re better able to replicate it and give the viewer more tactile information.

KATIE WOODWARD

Brooklyn Bridge, New York City

5" x 7" | 12.7 x 17.8 cm; watercolor, graphite pencil, white Uni-ball Signo gel pen; 35 minutes

REFLECTIONS IN WATER

Some light breaks the surface of the water, and some is scattered off the surface. How much of that reflected light comes to us can depend on a number of things, especially how much the water is moving. Take a minute to examine the surface, using the provided checklist as a guide. Frequently, water is in motion and we don’t get a clear reflection, but we can see bits and pieces through the ripples. A few quick strokes can give the illusion of a reflection with very little effort!

YONG HONG ZHONG

Pond Reflection, Lake Oswego, Oregon

9" x 12" | 22.9 x 30.5 cm; watercolor; 1½ hours

Look at how light the water is where it is reflecting the sky. This is juxtaposed with a darker reflection, perhaps of nearby trees? Note how the dark section is warmer and darker closer to the artist, and cooler and lighter farther away. That change gives a wonderful sense of depth. This is also a great example of being able to see something under the water, while still seeing reflections above. Note how we can only see the stones underneath the water when they are closer, and how we can see through the water better where it is in shadow rather than where we see the reflection of the sky.

Observation Checklist

• 
  How clear is the water?

• 
  Am I seei...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Contents
• Introduction
• I Value
• II Color
• III Skies and Atmosphere
• IV Reflections
• V Foliage
• VI Night Scenes
• Challenges
• Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• About This Series
• Copyright