Sketchbook Secrets - the art of sketching

In this section you can find out what materials and equipment I recommend, and how you can assemble a small and portable kit to take with you wherever you go.

I explain the three things to look for in a sketchbook, and in the accompanying pdf you will find more details and recommendations.

The humble pencil can achieve great things in the hands of a sketcher. I'll give you a quick tour of some useful grades of pencil and then let me show you a few tips to getting the best out of them.

Don't be afraid of the pen! I'll show you a small variety of pens that I use for sketching and the different marks and uses they have.

Find out how easy it is to create a quick tonal sketch with just a pen and a water brush. I've attached the reference photo for this picture in the Resources for this video.

Here is my suggestion for a small watercolor travel kit that you can use for painting outdoors. Over the years I have honed it down to these few items that are small enough to take with you anywhere you go.

See how adding a little white gouache to your watercolor palette can help to simplify your painting process. Sit back and relax as you watch me paint a sketch.

Here's another way to get out there and sketch in watercolor. This small kit is easy to assemble and carry with you and yet versatile enough to produce some great sketches!

This has to be the lightest and simplest palette ever! Make one yourself and carry it around inside your sketchbook.

Here's an easy easel both to make and use. It's lightweight, small, and very portable. See the accompanying pdf for details of how to make one for yourself. For more on the Portable Painter palette see Lesson 14. Watercolor and gouache materials.  However you don't need this palette to use the easel - any small paint palette will do.

Let me encourage you to get out into the big wide world and sketch!

In this lesson I want to talk about what to sketch, and how to pick a subject.

Simplification is the key to painting quickly outdoors. Learn here how to focus on your main focal point and simplify the rest of the painting so that the other elements provide a supporting role. See how I use just a few colors to accelerate the process, including a one-size-fits-all shadow color!
Don't forget to DOWNLOAD the RESOURCES that accompany this video.

They say - and it is true! - that value does all the work in making a great picture. Learn here how to sketch little value studies that will quickly improve your pictures, and help you to understand and declutter the scene in front of you.

In this video I explain a little about how to zone in on the reason you are sketching the scene in front of you. I show you some of my sketches and describe the reason why I painted and drew them in the way I did.

One of the difficulties of sketching outdoors is the changing light. The sun and shadows move, or the sun disappears behind clouds just as you get set up. I'll show you here how important it is to paint the shadows first and not to chase the sun.

Buildings can look quite complex to sketch in a short time, but let me give you a few simple ideas about how to go about catching their character in your sketchbook.

Adding people to a scene can add a lot to the story, can give a sense of scale, and can bring life. Here I show you easy ways to draw and paint figures and add them to your sketch.