Sketching Techniques for Artists

Sketching Techniques for Artists is the modern guide for learning essential sketching and watercolour techniques for creating landscapes, cityscapes, architecture, figures and faces, still lifes, and more.

Learn dynamic sketching and watercolour techniques for creating cityscapes, landscapes, figures and faces, still lifes, and more, enhancing the story you want to tell with form, line, and colour. 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 and international workshop instructor, 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 watercolour 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 colour 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.

About the Author

Alex Hillkurtz was born in England and grew up in California, where he works as a renowned storyboard artist for feature films, television, and commercials. His film credits include Argo, Almost Famous, It's Complicated, Vanilla Sky, and many others. He uses the language of cinema to inform his images, moving beyond what one sees, and depicting what he wants others to see.

Alex has taught sketching, plein air, and watercolour workshops in Germany, Russia, Italy, the Netherlands, France, the UK, and the US. He has exhibited his work at LEntree des Artistes in Paris, Matite en Viaggio in Venice, and MiArs in Milan. He believes that in our too-crowded lives, sketching and plein air painting invite us to move at a more deliberate pace to discover a true sense of place, and in the process, unexpected stories are revealed.

Alex currently lives in Paris with his film editor wife, Tiffany, and enjoys discovering the hidden corners of the city that sketching and plein air painting allow.