Book Of Sketches

In 1952 and 1953 as he wandered around America, Jack Kerouac jotted down spontaneous prose poems, or "sketches" as he called them, on small notebooks that he kept in his shirt pockets. The poems recount his travels—New York, North Carolina, Lowell (Massachusetts, Kerouac’s birthplace), San Francisco, Denver, Kansas, Mexico—observations, and meditations on art and life. The poems are often strung together so that over the course of several of them, a little story—or travelogue—appears, complete in itself. Published for the first time, Book of Sketches offers a luminous, intimate, and transcendental glimpse of one of the most original voices of the twentieth century at a key time in his literary and spiritual development.

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. Authored by the founder of the nonprofit organization Urban Sketchers (www.urbansketchers.org), this beautiful, 320-page volume explains urban sketching within the context of a long historical tradition and how it is being practiced today. With profiles of leading practitioners and discussions of the benefits of working in this art form, this inspiring book shows how one can participate and experience this creative outlet through modern-day social networks and online activity. You'll find more than 600 beautiful, contemporary illustrations, as well as artists' profiles and extended captions where these urban sketchers share their stories, how they work, sketching tips, and the tools behind each drawing. With sketches and observations from more than 50 cities in more than 30 countries, TheArt of UrbanSketching offers a visually arresting, storytelling take on urban life from different cultures and artistic styles, as well as insight into various drawing techniques and mediums.

Improve your bullet journals, to-do lists, class notes, and everything in between with The Art of Visual Notetaking and its unique approach to taking notes in the twenty-first century. Visual notetaking is the perfect skill for journaling, class lectures, conferences, and any other time that retaining information is key. Also referred to as sketchnoting, visual notetaking is ideal for documenting processes, planning projects, outlining ideas, and capturing information. And as you'll learn in The Art of Visual Notetaking, this approach doesn't require advanced drawing or hand-lettering skills; anyone can learn how to use simple lines, connectors, shapes, and text to take dynamic notes. In The Art of Visual Notetaking, aspiring sketchnoters and journalers will find helpful "Getting Started" pages of icons and badges for common note-taking purposes, with tips and encouragement for creating you own unique icons. You'll go on to discover instruction and how-to techniques, tips, and tutorials that focus on visual notetaking for different settings, from a business meeting, workshop, or convention, to a college lecture or sermon. Expert instruction from a professional sketchnote artist and educator demonstrates how to visually arrange and compile ideas, focal points, and key concepts.

In The Urban Sketching Handbook: Drawing Expressive People, urban sketcher and workshop instructor Róisín Curé shows how to make your figures more than just anonymous bystanders by sharing the basics of drawing people on the go as well as how to successfully render poses, faces, and expressions. Following an essential section on proportion, you’ll find tips, tricks, and examples for surmounting the intimidating prospect of capturing ever-shifting subjects, plus techniques for portraying poses accurately and distilling details that convey personality and emotion, whether individually, in small groups, or in crowds. Bring figures and people to life on the page and tell an authentic visual story with The Urban Sketching Handbook: Drawing Expressive People. The Urban Sketching Handbook series offers location artists expert instruction on creative techniques, on-location tips and advice, and an abundance of visual inspiration. These handy references come in a compact, easy-to-carry format with an elastic band closure—perfect to toss in your backpack or artist’s tote.

Learn dynamic sketching and watercolor techniques for creating cityscapes, landscapes, figures and faces, still lifes, and more, enhancing the story you want to tell with form, line, and color. Discover incredible methods and tips for creating dramatic street scenes and vivid landscapes, and capturing dynamic figures and graphic architectural details. Artist Alex Hillkurtz—a top Hollywood storyboard artist, international workshop instructor, and Signature Member of the National Watercolor Society—presents fundamental concepts of sketching with pencil and pen for a number of popular genres. Discover simple ways to jot down spontaneous ideas in pencil, capture rough details in ink, and add watercolor for extra depth and interest. Make sketching more enjoyable by adopting innovative techniques that will make a difference in your practice, and your artwork. No matter your experience or skill level, you’ll benefit from learning: Compositions that draw the eye How to avoid common sketching mistakes Ways to create light and shadow to define shapes and add interest Successful ways to use negative space The importance of perspective in creating depth Easy color washes that create drama Get started today, and fill your sketchbooks with unique drawings and paintings you will be proud of. The For Artists series expertly guides and instructs artists at all skill levels who want to develop their classical drawing and painting skills and create realistic and representational art.

After fleeing her suburban home, 15-year-old Dana struggles to survive in the alleys, squats, and subway stations of downtown Toronto. Dana and her two friends, seasoned street kids Brent and Ashley, must contend with turf wars, thugs, hunger, and the daily battle of life on the streets.When Dana’s graffiti on an underpass catches the eye of a counsellor at Sketches, a drop-in centre for homeless teens, Dana discovers a haven where she can express herself through art. As she works on a self-portrait, Dana begins to confront the reason she left home. The truth of what her stepfather did to her is trying to surface, but will it come out through her paintbrush or the blade of a knife? This gritty, honest portrayal of street life from acclaimed author Eric Walters is a testament to the healing power of art.

Everyday Sketching and Drawing offers an easy-to-follow, 5-step formula, which teaches beginner-friendly techniques for learning the skills necessary to make drawing and sketching an everyday habit. For those who have always wanted to or tried and failed to learn to draw it provides simple step-by-step instruction, plus easy-to-follow practice exercises, and provides the motivation and inspiration readers need to be successful. For those who already draw, Everyday Sketching and Drawing offers another technique to add to their drawing arsenal. Why do so many adults come to view drawing as difficult or fraught with anxiety? Traditional art instruction is often bogged down with jargon, rules, and admonishments that unintentionally stifle the joy of drawing for its own sake. Steven Reddy's new and easy approach to drawing instructs sketchers to document their unique and compelling lives in realistic yet playful sketches that record the places, spaces, and objects that help define them as individuals. He reminds artists to slow down, notice, and attend to the sketch-worthy scenes and subjects that are unstaged and always there in our everyday lives. He offers a versatile technique that can lead to a skill that fills sketchbooks with the visual details that differentiate one life from another. This approach is a meditative, relaxing alternative to academic concerns about perspective, proportion, and accuracy. Reddy encourages artists to capture in whimsical but detail-specific illustrations their unique, subjective interpretation of their visual surroundings. Steven Reddy's drawing method produces extremely detailed and realistic scenes of objects and scenes in everyday life in a relatively short period of time (60 minutes to 3 hours or more, depending on the sketcher's preference). Modifying a technique utilized by Old Master oil painters, the drawings pass through 5 clearly articulated stages where each step focuses on one visual concept at a time.