The Urban Sketching Handbook: Understanding Light by Katie Woodward

Understanding Light by Katie Woodward

ISBN-13: 9780760372036
Paperback: 118 pages
Publisher: Quarry Books
Released: December 28th 2021

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
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, and considering many options for visual solutions through work contributed by experienced urban sketchers.


My Review:
Understanding Light is an excellent guide on what to observe and consider to better create a realistic sense of light in your paintings or drawings. This is for any medium, but the illustrations were mainly watercolor, pencil, and pen. While the author provided tips on using value and such to create a sense of light, much of the focus was on making sure that you see what's actually there rather than using the colors you expect to see. She also gave useful tips for what to consider or change if you realize what you're doing isn't working. I've heard some of this advice before, but it never really clicked until I read it so clearly explained here. Overall, I'd highly recommend this book to artists who are getting the hang of the basic skills of their medium and now want to improve their portrayal of light in a scene (urban or not).


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.