Sketching People: An Urban Sketcher's Manual to Drawing Figures and Faces

I love sketching, and feel pretty comfortable drawing from photos, or drawing stationary objects from life like buildings and trees and such. Where I am not so good is drawing people, especially their faces! This book has lots of great content for people like me. The author covers many aspects of drawing people, both bodies and faces. The idea of using people as part of a larger scene is covered, along with the idea of using people as the main focus of your drawing - not quite as far as portraiture, but still the focal point. The technical elements are pretty straightforward, including materials and drawing specific features and angles. I wish there was a little more on the layout of faces, head shapes, and the like, but there's plenty of useful stuff in there. The other parts of the book are also useful and interesting, including things like dealing with motion, dealing with the fear of how people will react, and different stylistic choices you could make. The whole book is filled with wonderful, full color art and some photos, mostly by the author in her wonderful style, but many others as well for stylistic inspiration beyond her style. It's worth its modest price just for the inspiration, but there's enough other great material that it's truly a worthwhile purchase. To be sure, it's not a complete drawing course for the absolute beginner, but if you have any foundational knowledge this book will provide lots of value.

This book was highly recommended by an online artist (I forgot who). When I first flipped through it, I was kind of disappointed as it appeared to be more of a showcase of artworks with very small text surrounding the illustrations. I have to read some of it with a magnifying glass as my older eyes have trouble with lots of small print. HOWEVER- this book turned out to be absolutely chock full of really helpful information regarding how to draw people in an urban sketching environment- but also really helpful for just learning how to see in a more thoughtful way. The tips on various topics are immensely useful and I can see myself using this book over and over again. The examples are spot on, the explanations are clear and concise- and honestly, I think it’s one of my favorite art books now. I would love to have it in larger print but the book would be ginormous so- for younger eyes- I’m sure it wouldn’t be a problem.

This book is a great reference book with practical advice for anyone interested in Urban Sketching or someone who loves sketching people. Every page is filled with drawing samples and artwork of some of the best urban sketchers in the world. Lynne Chapman herself is an amazing artist. I love, love, love this book.

I'd borrowed this book from the public library and decided I need my own copy. The author covers every aspect of pen, ink, and watercolor people-sketching in a variety of settings. Try it once and you'll want to use these great methods over and again. Lots of details and insightful hints on how to start and perfect your work. I've been using the techniques with both watercolor and Pan Pastels.

I borrowed this book from the library and read it through twice. There is so much information that I thought I would be better off owning it. The format is mostly examples, not necessarily a lot of step-by-step lessons, which does not bother me. The book is full of tips, hints and descriptions of how to quickly draw people. There are individual sections on eyes, noses, lips, etc. There are descriptions of what is different about drawing elderly folks and children. Highly recommend.

This book on Sketching people is a nice addition to an Urban Sketchers collection. It has some tips and lots of illustrations of the author's concepts.

Love this book! It is full of useful examples, tool recommendations, and techniques. It is a little less robust than other drawing books, which I appreciate. The layout is simple with equal parts art and text. There enough explanation to give you guidance without going overboard with excessive detail or book filler. Lynn provides reasons why a certain sketch "works" and how you can implement. The book is also well organized, allowing you to easily read from front to back -or- jump to pages for quick reference. These tips will give you the confidence to get out there and sketch, which is the ultimate learning tool.

This book includes not only the author's lovely sketches of people, but the works of other artists as well, providing a variety of styles and media. She includes thorough information on her choice of materials. It's transformed my approach to portable watercolor painting.

I am an urban sketcher who avoids adding people into my scenes! Now I have no excuses - a very good detailed in a sketchy way which is perfect

It’s inspiring to watch YouTube videos of how to sketch, but sometimes it’s going too fast. That’s the strong point of having a book. This has so much to offer. From how to start to finishing your work. Specially good for students. Recommended!

M an artist,. I do look to improve at lotta other form of art. So sketching is something m learning and books like these are the go to. Highly recommend it. If ya into sketching characters

J'ai toujours une appréhension quand je dois croquer des personnages dans mes crobarts, et là je me rends compte que j'y arrive (pas super bien! y'a beaucoup de progrès à faire!) Il y a enomément d'exemples et de styles dans ce livre, qui est une très bonne source d'inspiration et d'entraînement! je le recommande!

El libro te introduce al mundo del sketching (croquis) de una manera amena, las imágenes y las recomendaciones son de primera, el libro lo compré en 266 y considero que lo valen.