The Urban Sketching Handbook Color First, Ink Later: A Dynamic Approach to Drawing and Painting on Location (Volume 15) (Urban Sketching Handbooks, 15)

173 Pages·2022·21.934 MB·English

by  Mike Yoshiaki Daikubara

THE URBAN
SKETCHING
HANDBOOK
COLOR FIRST, INK
LATER
A Dynamic Approach to
Drawing and Painting on
Location
Mike Yoshiaki Daikubara
Author of Sketch Now, Think
Later
The Story Behind the Book, and
a Dedication
Whenever there’s a sketching opportunity, I
always reach for my sketchbook inside my
backpack and start sketching right away. I’m
typically with my wife during these times,
and she always asks me, “Sketch now, or
color first?”
Over the years, she has realized that I sketch
in two very different ways in terms of
approach and time required; I either Sketch
NOW or COLOR First. My wife always
wants to know if she needs to wait either a
short amount of time or up to an hour for me
to complete a sketch.
Throughout the years, she has also
constantly asked me when I will work on a
follow-up book to Sketch Now, Think Later
about this new sketching approach that I’ve
been working on. To top it off, she even
came up with the exact title of this book that
you’re reading right now.
There’s no doubt that this book would not
have existed if it wasn’t for my wife Kana
and her constant love, support, and advice
throughout my sketching journey. I can’t
thank her enough!
Contents
Introduction
How This Book Was Made
Approaches and Their Differences: Sketch NOW
and COLOR First
Subjects That Suit the Color First, Ink Later
Approach
01
Essential Techniques
The Five-Step Process
Thinking in Layers
Step 0: Penciling (Optional)
Step 1: Coloring (Phase 1)
Step 2: Dripping
Drying Time
Step 3: Inking
Step 4: Coloring (Phase 2)
Step 5: Finishing (Black, White, and Grays)
02
Approach and Overview
Demonstration: Architecture
Demonstration: Residence
Demonstration: Retail Interior
Demonstration: Riverside Cemetery
Sketch Now, Think Later and Color First, Ink
Later: Side-by-Side Comparison
03
Step-by-Step Process
Color Bucket Families
Using Color—Initial Layer
Step-by-Step Process: Factory Building
Step-by-Step Process: Construction Vehicle
04
Technique Tips and Gallery
Tip 1: Greenery
Tip 2: Brick Walls and Other Architectural
Surfaces
Tip 3: Skipping or Faking What You Can’t See
Tip 4: Skies
Tip 5: Aysmmetrical/Selective Inking
Gallery
Master List: Tools & Supplies
About the Author
Introduction
In 2017, I released my first book on
sketching called Sketch Now, Think Later,
which captured fifteen years of my sketching
knowledge and brought Urban Sketching
into busy lives with the use of minimal tools,
techniques, and time. This technique focused
on quickly capturing a scene with a pen and
adding color later on.
I still use this technique daily, but I’ve also
started to incorporate another approach when
I have just a little more time—an hour, to be
exact. In these situations, I take the exact
opposite approach: I start with the color first,
and then move on to inking. This approach
still utilizes minimal tools, but I was
surprised on how much more color and
dynamics it brought to the overall sketch.
Now whenever I’m about to start a sketch, I
ask myself: Should I sketch NOW or
COLOR first?
I’m still on this journey of exploring the
world of on-location sketching, but one
constant with all the sketches I have done is
that they all provide me with pure joy in
making them. I hope to be able to share this
joy with everyone, and I hope you can give it
a try for yourself, too.
How This Book Was
Made
Like a true Urban Sketcher, I used a small
video camera attached to my sketchbook to
create all the detailed on-location
demonstrations in this book. The small
camera allowed me to take snapshots of my
entire process, so I was able to review
footage later on to select the photo that best
captured each step. This process allowed me
to fully concentrate on my sketch without
thinking about documenting each step along
the way. Since I wasn’t concerned about
recording each step precisely, I was able to
select the images of what I actually sketched
as opposed to how I thought I sketched. I
call this the difference between in practice
(how I actually sketch) and theory (how I
should sketch). In this book I focus my
attention as much as possible on the in
practice approach.
The results of the sketches shown in the
book may not be perfect compared to
sketching indoors in a controlled
environment, but I believe these sketches
convey both the challenges and the joy of
sketching on location.

Approaches &
Differences
Sketch NOW, Think Later and
Color First, Ink Later
In Sketch Now, Think Later, the process is:
In COLOR First, Ink Later, it’s:
You might be thinking, “What’s the big
difference in switching the order of tools
used?” I actually had the same thoughts in
the beginning until I found the wonderful
results that came from using the COLOR
First approach.
If the Sketch NOW approach is about
capturing the moment, then I believe the
COLOR First approach is really about