The Artist's Guide to Sketching: The Classic Book about Making Art on Location

A bold new edition of the groundbreaking sketching guide by two of America's most prominent visual artists, James Gurney and Thomas Kinkade, freshly updated to help a new generation of illustrators confidently draw real-world scenes.

“If I could only have one drawing book on my shelf, it would be this one.” –Shari Blaukopf, author of the Urban Sketching Handbook: Working With Color

This classic art guide teaches readers how to translate what they see into expressive, confident drawings. In this updated edition, celebrated artists James Gurney (Dinotopia, Color and Light) and Thomas Kinkade share the timeless techniques and artistic principles that have inspired generations of sketchers to draw from life.

This new edition restores the classic text with updated full-color visuals and a special section chronicling the book’s origins and the friendship between its authors, drawing on archives from Gurney and the Kinkade family estate.The Artist's Guide to Sketching remains an essential resource for anyone who wants to improve their drawing while experiencing the joy of creating art on location.

• An updated edition of the classic sketching guide to help artists master drawing real-world scenes like architecture, landscapes, city streets, and more
• Additional content includes remastered high-resolutions scans of drawings and a section of never-before-published art
• Combines technical instruction with artistic philosophy and creative inspiration to inspire creativity
• Valuable for beginners, hobby artists, urban sketchers, and professional illustrators alike
• Perfect resource for anyone who wants to fill sketchbooks with confident, expressive drawings

Learn to sketch with confidence and create expressive drawings that preserve the places and moments that inspire you.

Thomas Kinkade was a prolific and widely known American painter celebrated for his idyllic depictions of landscapes, gardens, cottages, and small-town life. He was often referred to as the "Painter of Light." Born in Sacramento, California, in 1958, he attended UC Berkeley and Art Center College of Design before working on this book and the background paintings for the animated film Fire and Ice. After returning to his hometown of Placerville in 1985, Kinkade created a publishing and licensing company which reproduced his works on a wide variety of products. His brand remains influential after his death in 2012, and his legacy endures through the charitable work of The Kinkade Family Foundation and the ongoing publishing and licensing efforts of the business that bears his name.

James Gurney is an artist and author best known for his New York Times bestselling book series Dinotopia, detailing a fantastical world where humans and dinosaurs coexist. In the 1980s, he painted science fiction paperback covers and archaeological reconstructions for National Geographic Magazine. Gurney's original oil paintings have been shown in over 35 one-man exhibitions in museums such as the Smithsonian, the Norman Rockwell Museum, and the Delaware Art Museum. He wrote Color and Light and Imaginative Realism based on his popular blog Gurney Journey and more than 90 consecutive articles for International Artist Magazine. His YouTube channel about painting on location has over 500k subscribers.