Urban Sketching Step by Step

Join the growing movement of reactionary artists and learn how to capture our fast-paced world in this inspiring book by popular artist and author, Klaus Meier-Pauken.

With useful advice on the basic materials needed, Urban Sketching Step by Step then moves on to honing essential drawing techniques from tone and colour to perspective and composition.

The huge collection of creative exercises will help you build your skills, see your surroundings with a new artistic eye and draw lively sketches of your city or town that reflect its character.

Whether you are looking to discover your own sketching style, or to build on your existing knowledge, this book is packed with material to get you creating your own dynamic works of art.

Book Contents

Foreword  4

Urban Sketching Sketching in the city  6
 - Equipment  7
 - Quick sketches as essential training  20
 - Lines and surfaces in your drawing  24
 - Pencil, ink or colour?  28

Spatial perception in the city  30
 - Selecting a scene in public places  30
 - Perspective: horizons, position lines and vanishing points  34

Composing a harmonious sketch  38
 - Arranging people and objects in space  40
 - Foreground, middle ground and background  44
 - The illusion of spatial depth  45
 - Bringing your picture to life  46
 - Shading and textures  50
 - Light and shadow  51
 - Getting your message across  52
 - Tension and dynamism  56
 - Using colour  60

Bringing individual elements to life  64
 - Buildings and architecture  64
 - Trees and vegetation  66
 - People  68
 - Cars, buses and trains  74
 - Surfaces and materials  75

Capturing typical locations in sketches  76
 - Streets, alleyways, courtyards and squares  76
 - Landscapes, parks and gardens  82
 - Details  88
 - Canals, rivers and the sea  92

Afterword The magic of particular places  96