The Urban Sketcher, Marc Taro Holmes – Book Review

I thought it was about time I read up on urban sketching.  Even if I’d not been given those markers for Christmas, I was planning on heading out at some point to do some sketching with a roller ball and painting in with watercolour later.   So I followed the recommendation of the great Teoh Yi Chie of Parka Blogs and started with this book.  It’s a 144 page paperback but, with the last 14 pages devoted to a personal gallery with no commentary against the sketches, it feels more like one of those 128 pagers.

The book is divided into three chapters which, at first sight, are all about sketching with pencil, pen & ink and watercolour.  But this is just to lull the reader off guard as this is really a course on urban sketching that applies to any medium (including markers).  There are plenty of demos and exercises there too.  The demos are important as there are a couple of three-step processes that Marc describes that benefit from worked examples.  Let’s go through the three chapters individually.

First there’s the chapter on pencil.  The main content in this chapter is on sighting/measuring/angling, use of shadows and composition.  All of this is relevant to whatever medium you are using, not just to pencil.  The stuff on leading the eye through a composition is, unlike that in so many other books, well explained.

The second chapter is on pen and ink.  It starts by describing a “three pass” approach to sketching.  The first step is a pencil drawing, the second the ink outlining and the third the spot blacks to add shadow and interest.  Then the rest of the chapter has some really good advice on sketching people.  It covers separately people sitting still, people moving around but repetitively (eg musicians who keep returning to the same poses) and people walking in the street who are only in your sight for a few seconds.  Again, this is all relevant to other mediums.  There’s very little on perspective in this chapter, which was a surprise.  I don’t mind that as I got an A at O Level in Engineering Drawing but others might need more help, in which case Parka Blogs recommend a book by Paul Heaston.  There’s also one by Stephanie Bower in the Urban Sketching Handbook Series the that will be less detailed.

Finally there’s the chapter on watercolours.  It describes techniques like charging washes, spattering, dry brushing and edge pulling (which is like Jean Haines lite).  It describes another three step approach, the tea-milk-honey approach.  You start with a pale watery underpainting, then a layer of thicker paint on top, then finally a layer of really thick paint.  I thought it was interesting that Marc, unlike Joseph Stoddard in his book, doesn’t like to ink over lines before adding watercolour.  I veer more towards Joe here but we’ll see.  This chapter is more medium-specific than the others but I don’t mind that as I do fancy doing some watercolour urban sketching.

I liked this book.  The drawing side seems a step further on than Betty Edwards and it brings together elements from Bert Dodson and all my watercolour books and turns them into something new and fresh by applying them to urban sketching.  It’s a good introduction to urban sketching but feels a little bit light on content.  There’s also not that much inspirational looking artwork in there.  Still, it was definitely worth the money and gets a comfortable three palettes.