The Urban Sketching Handbook Understanding Light: Portraying Light Effects in On-Location Drawing and Painting (Volume 14) (Urban Sketching Handbooks, 14)

“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).

I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

This is a great book with lots of valuable information. I struggle with capturing light in my paintings and I’m learning a lot with this book. Beautiful images and examples throughout the entire book. I look forward to continuing to put this information to work and improve my art.

I received a copy of the ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I loved this book. I think this is one of the best in the series. It covers a lot of great aspects, like atmospheric perspective, the different ways of understanding and painting light. I think the tips and techniques in the book are great not only for those doing urban sketching but any artist in general.

Katie Woodward, urban sketcher and watercolor painter, is presenting “The Urban Sketching Handbook: Understanding Light. Portraying Light Effects in On-Location Drawing and Painting,” one of the books in the “The Urban Sketching Handbook” Series published by Quarto Publishing Group – Quarry. Woodward is convinced that it is important to learn about light and to master it. But she knows that capturing light is a challenge. In the introduction she states: “There is light on everything we see. The color and quality of that light and how it interacts with our surroundings deeply affects our relationship with the world around us, and thus how we choose to portray it in our sketches. Learning how to accurately replicate different lighting circumstances can give sketches a better sense of realism. Mastering lighting can also help with decisions outside of reality, to help you sketch what you wish you saw, or manipulate the mood of a scene. Capturing the light can be a challenge; it often changes faster than we can sketch! Painting the sunlight dappled through a tree is hard enough without an inopportune cloud getting in the way” (p. 5).
After the introduction the book contains six keys to accomplish the task of understanding light: 1) Value, 2) Color, 3) Skies and Atmosphere, 4) Reflections, 5) Foliage, and 6) Night scenes, as well as a list with challenges. Woodward presents examples of paintings from herself and various artists to underline her teaching, listed with the materials that were used for the particular painting. She also included tips and observation lists throughout the book and a list of the contributors. I recommend the book for beginners as well as for advanced artists who want to enlarge their knowledge and skills.
The complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley free of charge. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
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Love this series! Every one is excellent and provides great information plus examples.

This excellent series just keeps growing and growing with the most marvellous additions! I loved Understanding Light and plan to go through it in detail, examining each of the wonderful examples on how to bring focus and visual impact to any painting. Surely an essential help for any urban sketcher or art journaler who wants to improve on that!

The author was a scenic artist for many years in theatres and have given sketching workshops too. They really know how to include the best contributors to this great great series.

A resounding 5 stars from me. One of my most favourite so far.

Can’t wait to see what’s next!

Excellent book with clear well written instructions, I loved all the examples and the easy to follow breakdown of all the different ways I can improve my artwork. Very well written and informative, I strongly recommend this book!