The Urban Sketching Handbook Reportage and Documentary Drawing: Tips and Techniques for Drawing on Location

by Veronica Lawlor

Develop your own creative approach, no matter what your skill level with The Urban Sketching Reportage and Documentary Drawing. The third volume in The Urban Sketching Handbook series, Reportage and Documentary Drawing , is about drawing as a form of journalism or documenting life. This includes drawings events such as parades, music performances, sporting events, speeches, and can include everything from newsworthy political events to simply documenting a day's adventures. It's about being attentive to your surroundings, and telling that story through your sketches. Artist Veronica Lawlor explains how to use art to find and tell the stories around you. From visual journalism to simply sharing your emotional experience of a place, a reportage illustrator has something to say to their audience. Just as there are all types of written stories to be told, mystery, horror, romance - this volume of The Urban Sketching Handbook series reminds artists, sketchers, doodlers, and illustrators that there are all types of visual stories waiting to be told. And the next step is to go out and tell them! Some of the key concepts explored in this volume - Observation - Context - History - Ritual - Understanding - Storytelling - Drama - Documentation

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Drawing, Reference

112 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2015

About the author

An illustrator and educator, Veronica Lawlor is the president of the Studio 1482 illustration and design collective, in New York City. The author of several books, including One Drawing A Day and One Watercolor a Day, which will be released in December 2013. She is a reportage artist who gives workshops worldwide through Dalvero Academy, which she co-founded. Veronica is also on the faculty of Pratt Institute and Parsons the New School for Design.

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had some good drawings in it, and was yet another clear concise manual on how to tell a story with your urban sketching. I don't think this one was as clear as the other two I have read but I think someone who was a little more advanced would definitely get something out of this. Worth having in the collection. Three Stars.

[Natalia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a sketcher myself and drawing people and creating reportage sketches is the area that I wanted to improve, therefore read this book.

Unfortunately, it has only very high level "d'uh" kind of advice. For instance, drawing parades can be great for reportage sketching so you might want to do this. Well, d'uh! Any actual advice there?

I found zero helpful tips there and have learned more just by observing and analysing sketches from other people. Thus, I can only recommend it to
a) novice level sketchers,
b) people who'd like a coffee table book with illustrations,
c) people that are collecting the USH book series

[Emma Sea · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Talie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good tips and inspirations and lots of brilliant sketches.

[Belavez · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's interesting because it shows different urban drawings, but it doesn't explain how to work on them.

[jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Flicked through it in 20 mins while sitting at the library. Some neat drawings in it. Not sure what ground breaking content I was expecting to find in it but I didn't find it.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

"To do reportage illustration or documentary drawing, then, means to go out into the world and carry back what we experience behind our pen or brush… For some artists, the political world is their passion: These sketchers would be most likely found in the midst of a demonstration, at the courthouse, or at a national convention. For other artists, the carry back might be a more ephemeral, emotional experience: a beautiful day at a garden, a child’s birthday party, or a rainy afternoon spent people watching at a local café… What really counts is the artist’s intent. More than simply recording what our eyes see, reportage illustration, sometimes called visual journalism, is also about what the mind and heart see and take note of, and the story the artist wants to tell." (p. 7)

“Food markets can be a good place to discover the daily life of a neighbourhood…” (p. 13)

“Making more than one drawing of a person can reveal a lot.” (p. 14)

“It’s a good idea to show an overall view of something as well as a closer view for more specific information…” (p. 18)

“People at Work: … Be sure to pay attention to people’s hands when doing a reportage like this: They are the most essential of tools!” (p. 28)

“When documenting work such as this, it helps to create several smaller drawings that follow the process from start to finish. You can then choose the most compelling one for your story, or put several together for a montage effect.” (p. 29)

“Behind the Scenes: When visiting a theater for a show or concert, it’s always interesting to figure out what’s going on behind the scenes.” (p. 34)

“If you’re going to draw something going by as quickly as a race, it helps to draw the background first in preparation.” (p. 36)

[One way to read this book – Focus on only the drawings/sketches. Try guessing the subheads from the images.]

[Michele · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title of this includes “tips and techniques for drawing on location” but I found there really wasn’t much of either.
This was more of a collection of different artists’ artwork, which - sure - was great to see and get inspiration from, but other than some very basic common sense suggestions (“draw food!”, “draw a parade!”, “draw at a party!”), it really wasn’t offering any techniques or HOW to do it.

Great for inspiration, but not if you’re looking for instruction.

[Michael Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very pleasant book to look at, with good tips and excellent drawings. It focuses on graphically recording people and their activities, as opposed to, say, architecture and cityscapes. I really didn’t find much new or unusual here, but I did enjoy going through it, and the book will stay in my shelf for a while.

[Keelie Grasley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Veronica Lawlor is fantastic! Her expertise in reportage and documentary drawing is shown through her writing and the examples she included. I appreciated the amount of examples she provided and the diversity in content and artistic style throughout the book. Time to muster up some courage and do some documentary drawings.

[Avinash Hindupur · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the others in Urban Sketching Handbook series. More of an ideas and tips to keep in mind guide rather than a how-to tutorial book. A one time good read nonetheless for those who want to do some sketching.

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been thinking about how to bring sketching into my work as a human rights lawyer and this books offers nice ideas and examples: drawings of protests and courtrooms, portraits of affected individuals, landscapes where meaningful events took place. However the book is short and lacks detail.

[Marysya Rudska · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect book for inspiration with good tips!

[Alia Makki · Rating 5 out of 5]

The variety and daring depicted in example sketches encourage one's own sketching explorations. It's less about objective qualities and more about subjective awareness and presence.

[Henrique Vogado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um livro muito prático com uma boa série de dicas para quem se inicia no "Urban Sketching" e mesmo para quem já anda nisto há uns anos. O objectivo do livro é mostrar o que podemos colocar num caderno em termos de reportagem, de registo do que observamos no dia-a-dia. Por de trás de um desenho pode estar uma história, um evento, o registo de um ritual ou dias que nos marcam na nossa vida. Não ensina a desenhar, mas a observar. Depois disto, a nossa maneira de estar não será mais a mesma. E há que desenhar muito, muito.

[Dee Renee Chesnut · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the Challenges at the end of the book for suggestions for practice.