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The Artist's Guide to Sketching

The Classic Book about Making Art on Location

By James Gurney and Thomas Kinkade
Published by Andrews McMeel Publishing
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

About The Book
A bold new edition of the groundbreaking book by two of America's most prominent visual artists, James Gurney (Dinotopia, Color and Light), and Thomas Kinkade, freshly updated with a new introduction, archival photographs, and illuminating text to guide a new generation of illustrators.

Since its release in 1982, The Artist’s Guide to Sketching has become a classic art guide for students and laypeople around the world. The book includes instruction and artwork by James Gurney and Thomas Kinkade—two students who would go on to fame with Dinotopia (Gurney) and as the “Painter of Light” (Kinkade). This new edition restores the classic text with updated visuals and a special section chronicling the book’s origins and the friendship, drawing on archives from Gurney and the Kinkade family estate.

Chapters and topics include:
  • Chapter 1: THE EXPERIENCE OF SKETCHING (Coping with the Weather, Sketching at Night, Sitting or Standing?, Dealing with Curious Spectators, Being Inconspicuous, At Home Amid the Elements
  • Chapter 2: MATERIALS (Sketchbooks, Pencils, Pens, Markers, Wash and Drybrush, Sketchboxes and Carrying Cases, Experiencing Your Materials)
  • Chapter 3: ACHIEVING ACCURACY: (When to Use an Underdrawing, How Much Underdrawing is Necessary, Establishing the Large Shapes, Measuring Lengths, Measuring Slopes, Using Perspective Guidelines, Constructing with Geometric Forms, Completed Underdrawing, The Final Execution)
  • Chapter 4: CAPTURING MOTION (Freezing Motion: A New Way of Drawing, Learning to Observe Motion, Training Your Memory, Getting It Down Fast, The Scribble Approach, The Gestural Approach, The Mannikin Approach, The Tonal Mass Approach, When Your Subject Moves Unexpectedly, Places to Go for Motion Sketching)
  • Chapter 5: CREATING MOOD (Choosing a Subject, Noting Impressions, Composing with Thumbnails, Selectivity, Center of Interest, Dramatic Opposition, Delicacy, Mystery, Structure and Expression)
  • Chapter 6: USING IMAGINATION (Dare to be Creative, Being Imaginative On-the-Spot, Exaggeration, Changing Context and Scale, Using Anthropomorphism, Additions and Combinations, Feeding the Imagination, Becoming More Imaginative)
  • Chapter 7: STUDYING NATURE (Nature: Your Personal Drawing Workshop, The Experience of Nature Sketching, Plants, Animals, Sketching at the Zoo, Natural History Museum, Clouds, Rocks and Landforms, The Benefits of Studying Nature)
  • Chapter 8: SKETCHING PEOPLE (Finding Raw Material, Exaggerating Character Traits, The Cartoon Approach, Portraying People in Their Environment, Two Characters, Group Composition, The On-The-Spot Portrait, Making People Sketches Come Alive, Family and Friends: Your Free Models)
  • Chapter 9: EXPLORING THE MAN-MADE WORLD (Begin with the Commonplace, Sketching the Home, Indicating Building Exteriors, Signs and Letterforms, A New Look at Machines, Using Clutter, On-The-Spot Spot Research, Using Written Notes, Thinking As a Documentary Artist, The Joy of Exploration)
  • Chapter 10: SKETCHING IN YOUR LIFE (Keeping Specialized Sketchbooks, Developing Sketches into Paintings, Sharing Sketches With Others, Sketching Alone or With Others)


About The Authors
James Gurney

James Gurney's unique blending of fact and fantasy has won Hugo, Chesley, Spectrum, and World Fantasy Awards. His work has been featured in one-man exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution, the Norman Rockwell Museum, the Delaware Art Museum, and the U.S. embassies in Switzerland and Yemen. He lives with his wife, Jeanette, in the Hudson Valley of New York State.

Thomas Kinkade

Thomas Kinkade, the Painter of Light™, emphasized simple pleasures and inspirational messages through his art—and the branded products created from that art. From textiles, to collectibles, to music and books, Thom believed that both the ability and the inspiration to create his paintings had been given to him as a gift. His goal as an artist was to touch people of all faiths and to bring peace and joy into their lives through the images he created.

Product Details
  • Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing (February 27, 2025)
  • Length: 176 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781524892937

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The Artist's Guide to Sketching

The Classic Book about Making Art on Location

By James Gurney and Thomas Kinkade
Published by Andrews McMeel Publishing
Distributed by Simon & Schuster