I’ve been sketching the world around me since 2014 after discovering one or two of the books on this list and feeling inspired to do the same. I have travelled and sketched my way through many countries and in 2020, started a blog called Urban Sketching World, sharing tips and tricks I have learnt along the way. This expanded to a YouTube channel called Taria’s Sketchy Adventures, and I am proud to say I have taught hundreds (possibly thousands) of people how to pick up a sketchbook and start recording their own sketchy adventures. I now have my own book published called The Beginners Guide to Urban Sketching.
I wrote
The Beginner's Guide to Urban Sketching: Everything You Need to Know to Capture Your Favorite Places in Ink and Watercolor
I think this could have been the book that made me want to sketch the world around me. It’s difficult to pinpoint but let’s just say this book had a huge impact on me, both at the time and my life subsequently.
This a graphic memoir. I am not sure if any other books even exist like this. But Danny shares what happened to his wife one fateful day, the subsequent impact on his family, and how he dealt with it through drawing. Danny’s drawings show that one does not need to be an amazing artist to sketch the world around you. His sketches are a record of a moment in time and not something made to hang on a wall. This was a major revelation to me.
In the tradition of Persepolis, In the Shadow of No Towers, and Our Cancer Year, an illustrated memoir of remarkable depth, power, and beauty
Danny Gregory and his wife, Patti, hadn't been married long. Their baby, Jack, was ten months old; life was pretty swell. And then Patti fell under a subway train and was paralyzed from the waist down.
In a world where nothing seemed to have much meaning, Danny decided to teach himself to draw, and what he learned stunned him. Suddenly things had color again, and value. The result is Everyday Matters, his journal of discovery, recovery,…
This is a large, beautiful book filled with urban sketches from all over the world. It is an absolute treasure trove and curated by the instigator of urban sketching himself.
I found it absolutely fascinating to explore the vast styles of urban sketching and also how popular the activity is, with sketchers representing a mind-blowing number of countries around the world.
This is a holy book of urban sketching and one you will keep returning to for more and more inspiration.
The Art of Urban Sketching is both a comprehensive guide and a showcase of location drawings by artists around the world who draw the cities where they live and travel. This beautiful volume explains urban sketching within the context of a long historical tradition and how it is practiced today. It includes profiles of leading practitioners, a discussion of the benefits of working in this art form, and shows how one can participate and experience it through modern-day social networks and online activity. The book is illustrated with over 700 beautiful, contemporary illustrations, and includes artists' profiles and extended captions…
Cleo Cooper, a cross-cultural psychology professor, is living the dream on the Big Island of Hawaii. With ocean-dipping weekends, she enjoys her dog, her job, and her boyfriend Ben - until the day she’s on a research vessel and a dead body is caught in the dragline.
This is another book I got early on in my sketching career. I love James Hobbs's sketching style. He uses a thick black pen for the most part, and his style is simple–the perfect inspiration for a beginner.
He also includes examples of many other sketchers’ work–all of which emphasise that you do not need to have perfect drawing skills to capture the world around you. As someone who did not do very well in art at school myself, I found this book to be my permission slip to draw anyway.
I learned from this book that drawing is a way to record and understand the world in your own way, not a test on how accurately you can copy it in your sketchbook.
Breathe the air and hear the sounds, and experience the freshness and energy that working on location brings to your work...a quality that says "I was here." And transports your viewer there, too.
In Sketch Your World, top artists take you back to the scene--be it a bustling cafe, town square, or quiet park--to share the subjects that caught their eye and how they captured them on paper.
Showcases the work and approaches of more than 20 contemporary urban artists.
Covers topics such as how to hone observation skills, sketch moving subjects, and…
Tommy Kane is an insane artist and this book collects together some of his beautiful sketches from all over the world, from both observation and his imagination.
I feel like I am leafing through his sketchbooks. The book is large and beautifully produced so that you can see the artwork in all its glory. Tommy does have another book of drawings, too, which I have yet to purchase, but I am sure I will at some stage!
Tommy has an amazing sketching style influenced by MAD magazine and veganism. I could look at his work forever. Indeed, I regularly get his book from the shelf and leaf through it.
Tommy's new book follows the international success of his first book, An Excuse to Draw. As title suggests, Tommy approaches scenes with a photographic eye but renders them in this trademark detailed drawing style. The subjects are wide ranging including wildlife, models, travel and movie sets and feature his characteristic charm and wit, with astonishing level of detail he is known for. In a style at times reminiscent of cartoonists like Robert Crumb yet always wholly his own, Tommy Kane presents his subjects with a mixture of surrealism, humour and thoughtfulness.
This irreverent biography provides a rare window into the music industry from a promoter’s perspective. From a young age, Peter Jest was determined to make a career in live music, and despite naysayers and obstacles, he did just that, bringing national acts to his college campus atUW-Milwaukee, booking thousands of…
Koosje is an incredible art educator, and I was so excited to see she had created a book. This book is super thick and juicy. She shares her sketches from her life, along with exercises and inspiration on how to do the same.
I have followed Koosje for many years, and I love her lighthearted “anyone can do it” approach to teaching and inspiring others to keep a sketchbook of their life. I often return to this book to look through Koosje’s sketches and remind myself of both the value and pure joy sketching your life can bring.
The moments of our lives are precious, but they pass so quickly. Drawing these moments—from special trips to our daily coffee—is a way to not only slow down time, but to celebrate it. Capturing in a sketchbook what we see in front of us turns the everyday into the extraordinary. And you don’t need to be born with talent to make art! Artist Koosje Koene has shown thousands of people all over the world the simple, immensely satisfying techniques that can get anyone started on a lifetime of fulfilling fun making art. You don’t need to have an art school…
Capture the world as it lives and breathes in the pages of your sketchbook. Using the art form’s loose, colorful, and spontaneous method, you’ll learn to create impressions of the places where you live and travel.
Transform the mundane into something magical through focused lessons that build on each other to create full scenes of popular settings. Record your favorite dining experiences, from the restaurant’s atmosphere to your food’s mouthwatering textures. Chronicle the changing landscape of your home city, illustrating the ornate architecture of old buildings next to budding skyscrapers. Or relax at the park as you practice introducing organic shapes and motion into your visual stories. Full of tips for drawing, this is the perfect guide to help you document all your sketchy adventures.
The first and only full-length biography of Hazel Ying Lee, an unrecognized pioneer and unsung World War II hero who fought for a country that actively discriminated against her gender, race, and ambition.
This unique hidden figure defied countless stereotypes to become the first Asian American woman in United States…
Bold, funny, and shockingly honest, Ambidextrous is like no other memoir of 1950s urban childhood.
Picano appears to his parents and siblings to be a happy, cheerful eleven-year-old possessed of the remarkable talent of being able to draw beautifully and write fluently with either hand. But then he runs into…
