Urban Sketching E-Book

Isabel Carmona Andreu

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 204

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Urban sketching is centered on observing and drawing the environment around you, and sharing your drawings with like-minded groups in person and through social media. This book encourages you to get involved by picking up a pen and a sketchbook and trying a range of techniques. It gives advice on composition and how to develop a personal style along with quick exercise ideas in line drawing and demonstrations in colour and paint. Packed with illustrations, this new book is an inspirational handbook that will equip you with the tools and ideas you'll need to embark and thrive on your own unique urban sketching journey. Get hooked on urban sketching, and share your passion for drawing and art with others.

Leseprobe

URBAN SKETCHING

URBAN SKETCHING

An artist’s guide

ISABEL CARMONA ANDREU

First published in 2020 byThe Crowood Press LtdRamsbury, MarlboroughWiltshire SN8 2HR

[email protected]

This e-book first published in 2020

© Isabel Carmona Andreu 2020

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 752 1

DedicationTo Dean – Thanks for waiting while I sketch!Thank you.

All images © Isabel Carmona Andreu except when specified otherwise.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1  What to sketch on and what to sketch with

Chapter 2  Draw what you see, everyone can draw

Chapter 3  Seeing more, developing style

Chapter 4  Let there be light

Chapter 5  Depth and layers

Chapter 6  Movement

Chapter 7  Complexity

Chapter 8  Your world, draw it, share it

Further information

Mini glossary

Credits

Index

INTRODUCTION

Urban sketching is a modern term, coined in around 2007, to describe a type of drawing on location that tells a story about people’s surroundings, recording what the sketcher sees, interpreting it and sharing it with others, personally or online. Drawing on location and sketching or painting en plein air became popular in the nineteenth century with Impressionism, as artists captured the world around them, travelling or at home. The novelty of the current ‘movement’ is the openness and sharing of the experience; talking about it improves communication and increases the understanding of the process as well as the meaning of the drawings. During its inception in 2007 sketchers used the means available to them, an incipient Flickr, to share images and comments. This evolved into a blog (urbansketchers.org) where stories could be told and text added to the drawings, and then various other sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google) joined Flickr as online platforms where images could be posted. There are millions of pictures relating to urban sketching, stories told far and close to home, inspiring us to put pen to paper and tell our own daily stories through drawing.

Sketching personality. Each urban sketch is a personal world, a witness to a scene, drawn in a particular way depending on the feeling of the day and the story to tell. This meeting of the Green Party representatives in a local café was an exciting moment for them as their first local election was approaching. The sketch itself is unusual, using curvilinear perspective to depict on paper all that is happening in front of the viewer, drawn in colour pencil.

Whilst the communication side of urban sketching is global and far reaching, the context remains close to home. It is their daily lives and worries that urban sketchers communicate, what they do, what they witness, who they meet and the actions around them; they draw anything that catches their interest, to share it with others.

Apart from techniques and methods of drawing, it is the sketchers’ personalities that are put forward. They all have something to say in their own way and this book will help readers to bring out and sketch the stories of their daily lives. At the beginning new sketchers will notice the small things around them and slowly expand their views to notice more, to see and keep looking at what they draw, recording what they witness with an open mind and also learn to share those views with other sketchers locally and globally. The charm of urban sketching is that it opens doors by connecting sketchers to others that share the same journey, both at home and abroad. Urban sketches show diverse ways of life; some similar, some different to the sketchers’ own familiar environment. People who sketch are usually open and eager to engage in conversation; they are supportive of each other and welcome interaction. There are a multitude of local groups throughout the globe that meet regularly, normally at no cost, to sketch together and share the pleasure of drawing what they see.

After an overview of the materials that are normally used in urban sketching, the book is organized around exercises and projects/demos that will help develop the habit of sketching. The book will start showing the use of simple tools and equipment and then move on to more complex techniques. Along the way various technical points such as drawing with lines, mark making, composition, working with tone or colour theory are covered. Later on, perception is discussed by looking at light, depth, perspective, layers and capturing movement, finally capturing the complexity of people and their actions, collecting their stories and the surrounding environment.

The progression from one drawing tool to another will be gradual and sometimes sketches will combine various tools to enhance the representation of space or mood. This book proposes trying out various sketching media, from pencils and pen to watercolour so that the new sketcher can experiment and find out what each technique can provide towards the expression of their emotions in drawing. While practising and gaining confidence with each media, sketchers will start to develop their own personal style and preferences. Some people will prefer pen drawings and may dislike colouring them, others will want to add colour afterwards or put down colour first in a more painterly manner and then draw on top. As part of the learning process it is important that new sketchers have fun, try out various techniques and find those suited to them personally. Above all sketching should be fun and free and frequent practice will help anyone develop their own style and be encouraged to take risks, to discover the world around them through the practice of drawing.

When ready, new sketchers can search and join a local group, go out with others and sketch together, trying out the newly learnt techniques and getting inspired to try new topics, media or ideas. The final chapter of the book discusses sharing sketches both in person and on social media and gives advice for using the virtual interactive world. It is that jump to the social sphere that makes us all urban sketchers!

Tate Modern from Above, pencil and red colour pencil, thirty minutes. Sketches represent the moment in time, sometimes from difficult viewpoints. This sketch of the temporary exhibition at Tate Modern was done standing up and looking down, trying to capture the whole hall and the installation with people interacting.

Battersea under Construction, pen and colour pencil, fifteen minutes. The power of urban sketching is its ability of capturing change and recording thoughts quickly on the sketchbook. This drawing of Battersea Power Station shows the frantic construction activity on this massive building as renovation takes place.

Thames from London Bridge, pen, twenty minutes.. A pause on a walk to draw a view as people walk behind to and from their busy lives. The moment while drawing is personal and private; time seems to stand still while observing and concentrating on the sketch.

After Class, pen and colour pencil, thirty minutes. Drawing people while relaxing is fun; some parts of the action remain static whilst others keep moving, hands waving as people’s expressions change.

Chapter 1

WHAT TO SKETCH ON AND WHAT TO SKETCH WITH

Urban sketchers have many conversations regarding materials and art supplies. They just love talking about what they use, sharing ideas about drawing tools, colours, palettes, brushes or their inventions for balancing everything when drawing and painting outside in a precarious location. However, simplicity is key. As the essence of urban sketching is being outdoors, portability and comfort are essential requisites of any urban sketching tool. At the simplest level, a sketchbook and a pencil is all that is required. But what sketchbook? What pencil? What happens if colour is also needed?

Breaking down these key questions, the best thing is to think about the surface – what to sketch on? – and the drawing and painting tools – what to sketch with? Below a variety of surfaces are considered and matched with the different tools they are suitable for. Various drawing and painting tools are explored for the diverse means of expression used daily by urban sketchers.

Selection of sketching materials. It is important that any sketching gear is portable and easy to find inside the bag; pencil cases help to organize the materials as well as rubber bands to hold similar materials together.

SURFACES

Paper is the main surface that sketchers use. It can be bought and used loose, clipped to a board (to give you rigidity while you draw/paint) or bound together in a sketchbook.

The sketchbook is normally the preferred way to collect and carry around drawings. It is easy to show and share with others and it helps urban sketchers collect all their drawing efforts together; it will serve as a timeline of daily life, showing progress in skill and communication. For the urban sketcher, a sketchbook is full of memories, of place, food, sounds and smells as well as the physical drawing or painting.

The type of paper used is key to the drawing medium; the surface finish as well as the weight of the paper will need to be chosen carefully.

For line drawing a smooth, white paper is recommended, such as cartridge paper, hopefully of a medium weight of 125 to 150gsm (grams per square metre). The thinner/lighter paper (125gsm) would suffice for pencil drawing. The thicker/heavier paper (150gsm) will show through less when using ink for line work and it may also be able to take on a small amount of water-based colour.

For more elaborate sketches in watercolour, using more than one layer of paint, watercolour paper is best. When pen drawing is used with watercolour, hot press paper is more suitable for its smooth surface. For watercolour painting, with some pencil drawing, however, cold press watercolour paper that has a bit of grain is the straightforward choice.

Choice of papers: hot press is good for watercolour painting and smooth for line drawing, cold press has a good texture for watercolour painting and cartridge paper is best used for drawing and dry media.

Most watercolour sketchbooks have a cold pressed paper weight of 190 to 200gsm, which is suitable for a couple of watercolour layers but is a bit light when many layers of watercolour paint are being applied and stretching the paper on the go is not practicable. John Purcell Paper offers 300gsm watercolour sketchbooks, but a few need to be ordered at one time to make them economical. A good option is to buy loose sheets of 300gsm watercolour paper, of any brand, and make a self-bound sketchbook. This choice is good for personal projects and for sketchers who want to use multiple layers of watercolour.

Bought sketchbooks from various manufacturers: from top to bottom they are Stillman & Birn Gamma Series cream cartridge paper 150gsm; Seawhite concertina and Seawhite landscape, both with cartridge paper 140gsm; John Purcell watercolour paper 300gsm; Hahnemuhle watercolour paper 190gsm; and Seawhite large portrait cartridge 140gsm.

Handmade sketchbooks for various projects. The green marbled paper book with Coptic binding has 300gsm watercolour paper and was prepared for a specific sketching project; the map-covered Japanese stab-bound book has a series of Scottish sketches on a thick leftover printing paper and the pink concertina book collects drawings from the Manchester 2016 urban sketching symposium and has various papers folded into one book.

SKETCHBOOK FORMATS

The choice of paper format refers to the orientation of the paper and whether it is portrait or landscape. Other formats worth exploring are square and concertina (continuously folded) paper. Urban sketchers consider the sketchbook not only as a collection of single pages but also as a set of spreads where drawings go from one side of the page to the other.

The square format for a sketch gives a modern look, easy to share on Instagram without cropping. It has the option of extending to a landscape format as a double page.

A portrait book has an upright rectangular format on a single page but sideways on the spread, the two rectangles of similar proportion. A small portrait sketchbook is ideal to use for discreet portraits and sketches on trains and cafés.

A landscape book has an elongated format, both on a single page or as a double spread. Expanding across both pages of this landscape sketchbook, the wider view of the harbour in Falmouth fits well; this ink pen sketch was done from the top of the lookout tower of the National Maritime Museum of Cornwall.

A concertina book provides a lot of flexibility, as you can choose between a one-page, two-page or a larger number of pages spread, giving the option of expanding the view as you draw. This four-page spread emphasizes the width of this Manchester car park with urban buildings from different times around it.

Sketchbook size

Portability and the degree to which the sketcher would like to be invisible are key parameters when choosing the right sketchbook size. The following sizes are standard rectangular metric sizes. There are also square format sketchbooks that provide a compromise between these sizes. Some sketchbooks will have approximate sizes close to these, based on various ways of cutting a full sheet of paper.

•A small A6 (105 × 148.5mm) book will fit neatly in a handbag or a pocket and is discrete when taken out in crowded places.

•A medium A5 (148.5 × 210mm) book fits in a larger pocket or bag but is more visible when in use.

•A large A4 (210 × 297mm) book will need a larger bag and is clearly noticeable when it is out.

•A very large A3 (420 × 297mm) book will need to be carried about by hand and will need some support (floor, bench or easel) when opened, making it clearly noticeable in use.

•For even larger sizes, the sketcher may need a board and easel to support the book and give it rigidity.

Size and weight matter when thinking about taking the sketchbook around at all times to be ready when the occasion arises for a quick sketch – the largest one here, bigger than A3, does not fit in any bag so would need to be carried separately.

DRAWING AND PAINTING TOOLS

When sketching, each person develops their own style of representing the world around them by using lines, tone and colour. Some sketchers’ work focuses on line and some on tone and colour, and many use a mixed approach. Each type of drawing has its own charm and the expression of the sketcher comes from the combination of these three when choosing the best way of depicting the moment.

Line tools

Pencils are the traditional line tool. A graphite lead inside a hexagonal piece of wood, with different hardness of graphite provides the difference in line thickness and colour. It is worth experimenting with different pencil makes to find the one best liked. Softer pencils (2B, 4B, 6B) give thicker, darker lines than harder pencils (2H, 4H and so on), which are more suitable for technical draughtsman drawings. It is rare to use anything harder than an HB pencil for sketching.

A selection of pencils from the standard (HB) writing pencil to the softer (2B) pencils, the Palomino Blackwing 602 with its little rubber at the tip and the three Pitt Oil Base pencils that don’t smudge. It is worth trying various pencils when starting to draw as some are blacker than others and some softer, so you will feel the need to use varying degrees of pressure to get the desired effect.

Pens for sketching come in many guises to provide lines of different thicknesses and colours, with either waterproof or water soluble ink that will affect the appearance of the line if mixed with water.

Calibrated pens with precision tips (0.05, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.8) give different thickness of line for each pen and a variety of thickness is normally needed; they are generally non rechargeable. The ink colour is usually black, with some new makes doing grey and sepia colours.

Writing pens with soft nibs or Fude de Mannen calligraphy nibs come with either cartridges or with refillable reservoirs; different line thicknesses can be achieved by varying the pressure of your hand. There are a multitude of colour choices for the ink. Urban sketchers tend to use waterproof ink such as De Atramentis Document Ink or Rohrer & Klingner.

Felt-tip pens come in different thicknesses, colours and tip shapes; they are usually thicker and not as precise as the calibrated pens. They produce bolder lines. The ink may transfer through the thickness of the paper so it is advisable to test them in the sketchbook to see if they can be noticed on the other side of the paper.

Dip pens, either bamboo pens or a holder with separate nibs, require a separate container to carry the ink in, and a way of holding it while drawing. Their line varies in texture, thickness and colour intensity as the ink held by the pen is used and you get characteristic small blobs where the line traces join.

Pens give clean lines, each with its unique characteristic, from the erratic dip pen to the precision of the calibrated fine liner. Practise to get decisive lines when you draw. Fountain pens can be loaded with different colour inks to give a choice of colours to create different moods in the drawing.

Brush pens have brush-like tips, they can have a single use, like felt-tip pens, or have cartridges like a writing pen. These produce either thin or thick brushstroke-like marks and are much softer to use than a traditional pen. They are slightly more unpredictable with characteristic dry marks when they are lacking moisture, similar to a dry brush.

Tone and colour materials

Light is represented in urban sketching through the use of tone and shading, whilst liveliness is the realm of colour. The same materials that are used for line can be used to create tonal differences by using hatching (lines parallel or perpendicular, close to each other at various distances) or shading (dark areas). In addition, there are other dry or wet media that can help capture in a more playful way the tonal and colour possibilities of our surroundings.

Dry media

Colour pencils that are not water soluble are dry media; the strength of the colouring can indicate tonal differences and various colours can also provide contrast denoting differences in light. Look for softness in the line and try to blend the colours together to see how well they mix.

There are also watercolour pencils that are soluble in water. They can be used dry as well but they tend to be slightly harder than the non-soluble pencils.

These three colour pencil set options give a great variety of line and colouring: Derwent’s Inktense water-soluble pencils are extremely vivid in colour when wet, and can be used to draw lines or to colour wide areas; Faber Castell’s Polychromos pencils are waterproof with good, soft colouring and clear lines; Staedtler’s Karat Aquarell watercolour pencils can be used with or without water to either give a background line that disappears when painting or to highlight a painting with lines over the top.

Thicker pens can be used to either draw with bolder lines or to colour and then draw over. They have multiple tips (chisel, point or brush tips) with varying line quality. Winsor & Newton permanent markers (left) are waterproof, but their watercolour markers are water soluble. Molotow Aqua Ink markers (right) are also water soluble and refillable.

Colour felt-tip pens can also be waterproof or not. The difficulty with these pens is to hide the colouring marks as they can easily show. Directionality and precision as well as quality paper or card can help create good effects with felt-tip pens. If they are water soluble, a wash of water can be used to blend the colour and get tonal variations.

Wet media

The classic urban sketching colour medium is watercolour paints as they are portable, small, they dry relatively quickly and they are very effective when colouring or painting. Using artist-quality watercolours might seem extravagant but they are light-fast, they don’t deteriorate when exposed to light and have consistency of colour. A pocket portable set is the norm and there are great sets available to give an easy and simple taster of what it is to paint in watercolour. There will always be colours, like black or white, that won’t be used much in those sets. The alternative is to start with an empty box and fill it up with watercolour pans bought separately or even get empty pans and fill them with colours from tubes. A final advantage for making a personal set is that colours from different brands can be used to create your palette.

What colours to choose?

The minimal set would have the three primary colours; the closer to yellow, cyan and magenta the choices are, the more versatile it will be for mixing all other colours. The names given to the colours close to the three primaries change depending on the brand, for example for Winsor & Newton they would be Winsor Lemon, Winsor Blue and Magenta; for White Nights, Cadmium Lemon, Rose and Azure.

Colours are very personal to the sketcher; a starter palette should have some blues (for example, French Ultramarine, Cobalt Turquoise Light and Indigo), some yellows (such as Cadmium Lemon Light, Aureolin and Quinacridone Gold) and some reds (such as Magenta, Rose Madder and Cadmium Red). These colours give a good basic palette with which it is easy to mix greens, purples, oranges and greys. Other blues that also work well are Cobalt Blue and Cerulean, and other suitable yellows are Naples Yellow and Yellow Ochre.

Watercolours are a transparent medium that can be used in thin layers, from light to dark to give a vibrant representation of light and shadow. There is another colour medium, gouache, that is opaque and as such can be used in reverse, from dark to light, putting colours in any order as they cover each other. It has the playful quality that gives the urban sketchers using gouache a contemporary feel. With gouache, white can be used on its own to cover areas and bring light back to the drawing or mixed with other colours to create a range of pastels alongside vibrant colours.

Brushes

For the application of wet media, brushes are needed as well as water to wet the paint and tissues or a cloth to clean the brush when changing colours. The choice for the urban sketcher lies in whether to carry brushes and a container of water and find a way of holding everything whilst sketching, or use a water brush, which is a plastic brush with a nylon tip and a small reservoir for water. For the traditional watercolourist, proper brushes are the way to go but for the quick colourist the water brush has its place as long as no large washes are needed, because the reservoir of water does not last that long.

My watercolour palettes – through the years I have had various bought and handmade watercolour palettes. These two are my latest favourites, both with pans I can refill with the colours I like and extremely portable – the little tin box has the primary colours set plus an extra yellow, red and blue. The larger box, still small, is my current palette.

There is another key difference between a traditional brush application and the water brush. The traditional sequence of water-pigment-paper becomes second nature for a watercolourist, picking up just the right amount of water. With the water brush, however, the sequence is often water-pigment-water-paper, as it is difficult not to press further on the brush for more water, thus diluting the paint a bit more than needed.

A variety of tips and size of brushes will allow for diverse mark making. A brush that feels a little large for the page allows good coverage with fast movement. Watercolour brushes can be made of natural hair or synthetic fibres, the latter being more economical than the former. The advantage of natural hair brushes is the water-holding capacity which helps, once more, with paper coverage. To preserve the tips of brushes whilst on the move, it helps to use special travelling brushes, where the brush arm becomes the lid of the brush, thus protecting the head.