Reading Essentials for the Artist
The books listed below are actually in my personal library. The photos of the books shown are of my own copies of the books. The books cover a broad range of topics from how-to paint to art history. I seek out good deals on books often buying used in thrift shops, used book stores, library sales, and online. I hope you enjoy these books as much as I have.
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A Proven Strategy for Creating Great Art
Author: Dan McCaw
This is by far my favorite art book. I’ve about worn it out! I bought it many years ago. All the sticky notes stuck onto its pages attest to how much I’ve referred to this book for inspiration through out the years. I bought this book when it was first published back in 2002. I hate to say it but this one is hard to find and the used book market prices reflect that. If you can find an affordable copy, snatch it up.
The book is filled with beautiful reproductions of several of Dan McCaw’s deeply textured, colorful, impressionistic paintings. Dan liberally shares his painting process with many step-by-step demonstrations. I wish this book would be published again!
From the dust jacket:
If you're like Dan McCaw, you believe that art is a collaboration between the heart and mind in an effort to expose a piece of the artist's soul. As such, art should be the individual interpretation of the artist. You may choose to interpret your subjects realistically while others will choose to abstract. You may want to adorn where others would want to simplify. Of course, learning to paint in a way that expresses your true self doesn't always come naturally or immediately.
If you're struggling to find your personal style, this book is for you. In it, Dan provides you with a two-pronged approach to artistic training. Not only will it give you a proven strategy for picture making, it will also focus on allowing your creative spirit to find its voice. Your voice.
With this in mind, Dan begins by covering the basics for a very specific purpose. As Dan says, "Only with knowledge can you truly be free to express yourself. These fundamental building blocks provide the foundation for all good art." Dan offers many insights. He will help you understand how light reveals form, how to render with light and shadow, how to design with shapes and edges and how to recognize and manipulate your colors. Along the way, he emphasizes the many choices available to you in using these fundamentals to make paintings your own.
Then Dan will take you another step further by revealing how to develop your point of view and bring it out in your paintings using contrast, exaggeration and more. He doesn't just tell you how it works -- he shows you! In addition to the demonstrations in every chapter, the whole of Chapter 6 is a giant, extended demonstration taking you through the entire thought and creation process. And for an added dose of inspiration, every page is loaded with great examples of Dan's unique interpretations of his world.
Join Dan as he invites you to take the first few steps of your life-long journey toward self-expression. If entered upon with an open heart, yours will be a journey of self-discovery, a journey where your individuality is nourished, a journey to the place within you where true art begins. It is an endless journey because you will never finish saying all you have to say. There will always be new ideas to express and new ways to express them. With this book, you can begin today to discover how to put yourself -- the poetry of who you are and how you view the world -- into your art.
Composition of Outdoor Painting
Author: Edgar Payne
“Learning the art of painting is not an easy task. It takes a great deal of intelligence, keen analysis, study and practice.”
When I started to learn to paint every professional artist I talked to recommended this book by Edgar Payne. They considered it The Authority on composition. It’s a rather dense read as Payne was not the best author. However, he knew his subject well, and was a fantastic artist. Sometime back I had the privilege of seeing a few of Payne’s paintings up close and in-person when they were on exhibit at the Booth Museum in Cartersville. They were so beautiful!
Every artist should have this book on their library bookshelf. No, wait, they should have this in their field bag and refer to it often. It may not be an easy read - but it is a rewarding deposit of lessons in composition. At the time of me writing this post, Edgar Payne’s Composition of Outdoor Painting is in its seventh edition.
Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting
Author: John F. Carlson
“Too much reality in a picture is always a disappointment to the imaginative soul. We love suggestion and not hard fact.”
Of all the book recommendations I’ve heard, John F. Carlson’s book – Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting – is the one I hear recommended most often. If you can find one of the original editions of this book at an affordable price that would be wonderful to your library. However, this Dover edition is an economical and worthwhile buy. The print quality is clear and the photos – well, it’s a cheap Dover edition so what can I say? It does the job at a decent price.
The description on the back of the book reads:
Written by a famous American painter and teacher, whose landscapes are found in many of the world's most noted museums, this book is known as one of the art student's most helpful guides. It provides a wealth of advice on the choice of subject; it tells what to look for and aim for, and explains the mysteries of color, atmospheric conditions, and other phenomena to be found in nature.
Through his profound understanding of the physical nature of landscapes and his highly developed artistic sense, John Carlson is able to explain both the whys and the hows of the various aspects of landscape painting. Among the subjects covered are angles and consequent values (an insightful concept necessary for strong overall unity of design), aerial and linear perspective, the painting of trees, the emotional properties of line and mass in composition, light, unity of tone, choice of subject, and memory work. In the beginning chapters, the author tells how to make the best of canvas, palette, colors, brushes, and other materials and gives valuable advice about texture, glazing, varnishing, bleaching, retouching, and framing. Thirty-four reproductions of Mr. Carlson's own work and 58 of his explanatory diagrams are shown on pages adjoining the text.
As Howard Simon says in the introduction: "Crammed into its pages are the thoughts and experiences of a lifetime of painting and teaching. Undoubtedly it is a good book for the beginner, but the old hand at art will appreciate its honesty and broadness of viewpoint. It confines itself to the mechanics of landscape painting but, philosophically, it roams far and wide. . . . This is a book to keep, to read at leisure, and to look into for the solution of problems as they arise, when the need for an experienced hand is felt."
The Painter’s Process - Inner Voice
Author: William F. Reese
“It is simplicity and poetry that makes things more real, it is the poetry that makes a painting so profound. The abstraction or form is what gives it order, it is what makes the viewer think.”
When I attended the Plein Air Painters of America workshop of March 2018 at the Booth Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, my instructors highly recommended this book by William Reese. Sadly, Reese died in June of 2010. His wife, Fran, personally fulfilled my order for his book.
Reese was a versatile artist adept at working in different mediums - oil, pastel, watercolor, drawing, lithographs, etchings, and sculpture. He valued painting from life. His paintings are expressive. And like Frederic Remington, Reese knew horses. His book, The Painter’s Process – Inner Voice, is a compilation of Reese’s philosophy of his painting process. The book is chocked full of nuggets of wisdom and inspirations. I’m glad Matt Smith and Ralph Oberg recommended this book to me. It’s a valued volume in my personal library.
It’s only available directly from William Reese’s website. There are other books and videos there that may be of interest to you on his website.
Gruppé on Painting – Direct Techniques in Oil
Author: Emile A. Gruppé
“If you paint the same subject all the time, you’ll soon go crazy. The best painters have always been General Practitioners. They would paint everything... They knew that everything in art helps everything else.”
Emile Gruppé (pronounced like groupie – as in a rock band groupie) wrote at three books on oil painting. All are worth having in your library. If you can only get one volume I would suggest this one: Gruppé On Painting – Direct Techniques in Oil.
Gruppé was mentored by John F. Carlson so he was most familiar with Carlson’s concepts of painting as explained in Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting. However, while Carlson’s book can be a bit tedious to read and make sense of, Gruppé’s writing style is much more fluid and understandable.
Here are the dust jacket notes:
Vibrant, fresh, immediate! The direct oil painting technique is an intense reaction to nature, a race with time to capture the color, the light and shadow, the design and the spirit of a subject in a few short hours. And now, Emile Gruppé – master of the direct oil painting technique - shows how you can use the broad strokes and lively colors of this spontaneous approach to infuse your own paintings with vitality, vigor, and on-the-spot freshness.
A firm believer in using the best materials for the best results, Gruppé begins with a quick review of his favorite brushes, colors, easels, and painting surfaces. Next, he covers the basics of good design, what to look for and how to orchestrate what you see: masses, lines, values, and relationships. Turning to color, a fundamental element of his painting technique, Gruppé discusses complements, color harmony, color vibration, local color, reflected color, and using color to create atmospheric perspective. He explains how color appears on various kinds of days - foggy, clear, cloudy - and under different lighting conditions - front lighting, backlighting, sidelighting.
In subsequent chapters, the author focuses on composing seascapes and landscapes; he explains how to paint rocks, ocean, lighthouses, boats, piers, pilings, roads, trees, streams, snow, mountains, valleys. Then, in full-color step-by-step demonstrations, the author shows how he captures a subject in his unique, exuberant, on-the-spot style.
The text is illuminated by oil sketches and finished paintings by the author, reproduced here in black and white and in color. Gruppé’s instructions are explicit, his enthusiasm contagious; his vivid book is sure to inspire you to develop your own direct oil painting technique."
Hardcover, 168 pages, 8.25 x 11 inches, 139 black and white illustrations, 29 full-color plates. Bibliography, Index.
I have the original hardcover edition of this book. There was a limited reprinting done and I believe the newer copies are paperback.
Alla Prima II – Everything I Know About Painting – and More
Author: Richard Schmid (with Katie Swatland)
This is another book I’ve heard many artists refer to. It’s a huge volume that can’t be digested in one read-through. It’s a beautifully printed book. The horizontal (or landscape) format allows for larger views of many of Richard Schmid’s paintings.
These are the publisher notes:
For fifteen years, the original edition of ALLA PRIMA has been considered one of the most comprehensive art instruction books on the market and the standard in classical art education both in the United States and abroad. Whether you're the owner of an original ALLA PRIMA or a first time reader, you'll love the new ALLA PRIMA II. Richard Schmid spent two years updating the original edition giving him the opportunity to fine tune and greatly expand what is generally regarded as the art world's foremost book for painters seeking serious instruction in representational painting.
While all of the information in the original edition has been retained, Richard Schmid revised it for greater clarity, adding abundantly to the text in response to the thousands of artists who contacted him over the years with questions and suggestions. The chapter on color, for example, which was 48 pages is now 75 pages long.
ALLA PRIMA II is over a third larger overall, with 328 pages, and 262 images of paintings, photos, step-by-step sequences, diagrams and bibliography. Plus, ALLA PRIMA II includes a comprehensive index for convenience organized by both subject and painting title. Alla Prima II also includes an extensive recommended reading list.
Unfortunately this book is expensive. The hardback edition is $125 and the paperback edition is $95. The used market situation is baffling… I’m providing affiliate links to both Amazon and eBay. However, you’ll probably be better off purchasing direct from Schmid’s website. Every once in a while you can find a good deal on eBay but it’s rare. I purchased my copy from eBay for about $30. Usually though you will find ridiculously high listing prices for this book on eBay that have no basis in reality. Buyer beware!
Alla Prima II Companion – Richard Schmid’s Materials, Tools and Techniques
Author: Katie Swatland
If you are going to buy Richard Schmid’s Alla Prima II, you should go ahead and get this beautiful book by Katie Swatland. It’s about the same size and format as Richard’s book. Katie does an excellent job of diving deep into the nuts and bolts of Schmid’s painting materials, tools, and techniques.
The publisher notes state:
The path to creating great works of art begins with knowing the capabilities of your materials and tools... Contained within the pages of this book are detailed descriptions of the processes that go into the creation of a painting. Learn the importance of a quality working surface and how to customize it to suit your needs, and the demands of your subjects. Explore how to handle pigment washes to achieve color harmony in your paintings. Understand the considerations involved in choosing a palette, and discover ways to create and maintain it to ensure clean, beautiful color. Read about brushes and brushwork exercises you can practice to assist in achieving mastery over them. Discover the nature of light and why an understanding of its properties is crucial to successfully expressing your subjects in terms of paint. Learn to stretch canvases, varnish paintings, photograph and ship them safely. Take a studio tour and explore helpful setups and designs. Learn the benefits of keeping a portable studio and how to custom build your own. Join Katie Swatland and Richard Schmid in this adventure as they dive into all the little nuances of painting technique one needs to know to create the paintings that live in the far reaches of the imagination.
Like Schmid’s book, this one is not inexpensive. You are better off buying it direct from Schmid’s website. I’m including the links to Amazon and eBay because every once in a while a good deal shows up there.
Richard Schmid Paints Landscapes: Creative Techniques in Oil
Author: Richard Schmid
I listed this book here more for its historical and collectable aspect. It’s a work by Richard Schmid – published back in the mid-1970’s. It offers an interesting insight into Schmid’s landscape painting process when he was a much younger artist.
This book is scarce and the used book market prices reflect that. If you are patient, you may eventually be able to find this book for as low as $40 as I did with the one pictured here. It’s not a must-have book since Schmid’s Alla Prima II is much more up-to-date and contains extensive information distilled from his many years of experience as a fine art artist.
Traditional Oil Painting: Advanced Techniques and Concepts from the Renaissance to the Present
Author: Virgil Elliott
I purchased the first edition of Elliott’s Traditional Oil Painting when it was initially released in 2007. His book eventually went out of print and the price of used copies sky-rocketed on eBay. There are a few clueless, or perhaps opportunistic, sellers on eBay who are asking ridiculous prices for this book. I advise you to stay away from these.
Fortunately, Echo Point released a new edition last year. It’s much more affordable new than the used prices of the first edition. According to Elliott, the new edition contains a number of revisions based on new developments in understanding painting materials. He is meticulous in his research and passionate about creating quality, enduring works of art. This book encapsulates decades of experience and research by Elliott.
Even if traditional oil painting styles and techniques are not your thing, I still highly recommend this book. You will gain valuable insights into how to create art work that will last for generations – yes, for centuries. Artists are also craftsmen and the pursuit of quality in our work both artistically and materially shows deep respect to our customers who buy our work and the generations that follow.
You can listen to my nearly two-hour long interview with Virgil Elliott on my podcast The Artful Painter in episode 15.
Description from the publisher:
Traditional Oil Painting is a unique and irreplaceable sourcebook for those who want to master the techniques and concepts of advanced oil painting. With step-by-step demonstrations, Virgil Elliott reveals the methods used by Masters from the Flemish school to today to create highly realistic, deeply meaningful art. These lessons are grouped by topic into chapters on:
The Importance of Drawing,
Principles of Visual Reality,
Color,
Techniques of Painting in Oils,
Oil Painting Materials,
Portrait, Landscape, and Still-Life Painting, and more.
Throughout, Elliott guides the ongoing education and development of your own artist’s voice and aesthetic sensibility. Students of art will appreciate highly detailed explanations of the Masters’ varied methods, made possible by recent scientific advances and by Elliott’s own expertise in oil painting materials and technique.
Conversations With Nature – Oil Painting in the Tradition of Plein Air
Author: Kevin Macpherson
This is perhaps one of the most beautifully published books in my collection. Fortunately, I was able to order a signed hardcover edition directly from Kevin Macpherson when he first published it. The hardcover edition has long since sold out. A few used copies occasionally show up in the Amazon market place and on eBay. However, the paperback edition is available new and is still a worthy purchase.
Kevin’s paintings are filled with light and and many are gorgeously reproduced in this volume. I own three of the four books Kevin has published. Each are fantastic in their own right. I have to say, though, that Conversations With Nature is by far my favorite book by Macpherson. If you own his previous books you can compare them to this book and see how Macpherson has grown as one of the foremost impressionistic plein air and studio painters in the world. His writing style is friendly, playful, and encouraging. He motivates you to get outside and paint the beautiful world we live in.
Publisher’s description:
Celebrate the outdoors sparkling with light and awash in vivid colors with one of the premier plein air painters. Conversations With Nature, illuminating 202 pages of stunning original oil paintings and it will guide you through the colorful step-by-step demonstrations and inspire you to accomplish successful paintings from the start. Kevin unlocks the secrets to improve your painting and build confidence for aspiring novices and professional artists alike.
This book will teach you to see as an artist. He demonstrates the basics of what makes a great painting while expressing your personal style. The reader will see the landscape in a whole new light, filled with atmosphere and color and guiding you to landscape painting in the tradition of plein-air painting.
Kevin is recognized as one of America's most accomplished Impressionistic plein-air painters. Kevin is a gifted writer and published author of 4 highly successful books as well as a teacher and guest lecturer. He seeks high standards, both academically and emotionally. He is regarded as a master mentor, a reputation well earned by years of teaching international workshops and giving personal guidance to many aspiring artists.
Kevin Macpherson is a Signature Member and first President of the Plein-Air Painters of America (PAPA), a California Art Club (CAC) Master Artist, an American Impressionist Society (AIS) Master Artist, and an Oil Painters of America (OPA) Master.
Landscape Painting Inside & Out – Capture the Vitality of Outdoor Painting in Your Studio with Oils
Author: Kevin Macpherson
This is another fantastic book from Kevin Macpherson. You won’t be disappointed. I’ve about worn this copy out from reading through it several times.
Description from the publisher:
Paint with passion, purpose and pleasure.
What do you want your landscape painting to say about this place, this moment? How do you use the visual vocabulary—line, shape, value, color, edges—to say it? With this book, your conversation with nature will direct your brush. With an exhilarating, synergistic combination of indoor and outdoor painting, Kevin Macpherson shows you how to create personal, poetic landscapes that capture the feeling of being there.
Learn how to:
Use a limited palette in a way that is more liberating than limiting.
Experience nature to the fullest and capture its vibrancy back in the studio through photos, sketches and outdoor studies.
Cope with the fleeting qualities of atmosphere and light by establishing a value plan early and sticking with it.
Incorporate impressionistic touches of broken color to give your landscape a depth and vibrancy that enhances its realism.
Approach painting as a layering and corrective process that encourages non-formulaic solutions.
Stimulating warm-up exercises in the studio prepare you for your adventures outside, while eight step-by-step demonstrations show you how to put these methods into action. Throughout, Macpherson's own light-filled landscapes illustrate the power of these techniques.
Full of fresh air and fresh art, Landscape Painting Inside and Out will guide and encourage beginners while challenging more accomplished artists to bring greater vitality and a more natural, less formulaic finish to their paintings.
Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light & Color
Author: Kevin Macpherson
This book by Kevin Macpherson was published way back in 2000. Though it’s been twenty years since it was published, its content is timeless. You can get used copies of this book for as low as $2 on Amazon. At those low prices, it’s worth adding this book to your art library.
Description from the publisher:
These pages practically glow with Kevin Macpherson's rich and powerful paintings! He shares his techniques for quickly capturing the mood of a scene in bold, direct brushstrokes, with step-by-step instructions that make it easy—simply a matter of painting the colors you see. Follow his lead and you too, can create landscapes and still lives in a vibrant, impressionistic style.
Landscapes in Oil: A Contemporary Guide to Realistic Painting in the Classical Tradition
Author: Ken Salaz
When I first became interested in oil painting, I wanted to paint in the manner of the Hudson River School artists. My desire to paint took root in the early 1990’s. At that time, there was very little in the way of how-to books that followed the indirect, luminous painting technique exemplified by artists like Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, and Thomas Moran. Most books followed the naive and cheesy Bill Alexander / Bob Ross approach to painting. It was disappointing to say the least.
Fast forward to 2019 – artist Ken Salaz published his extraordinary book Landscapes in Oil – A Contemporary Guide to Painting in the Classical Tradition. I ordered it as soon as I heard about it and was not disappointed. It’s a beautiful book filled examples and step-by-step instructions. It’s a thick volume - weighing in at 240 pages – and is yet very affordable at about $24 the last time I checked on Amazon. I highly recommend this book.
Description from the publisher:
LANDSCAPES IN OIL IS THE FIRST-EVER COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO CLASSICAL LANDSCAPE PAINTING REINTERPRETED FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY.
Drawing from the tradition established by American painters of the Hudson River School–artists like Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, and George Inness–author and painter Ken Salaz reveals great masters’ philosophy and methods, updating their approaches for the contemporary landscape painter. Beginning painters are given the basic tools and step-by-step demonstrations, intermediate painters are challenged with unpublished techniques that allow them to break through to the next level, and advanced painters learn to apply their skills under unified theories.
Landscapes in Oil devotes a chapter to each of the fundamental elements of landscape painting–drawing, value, color, composition, and light quality–and offers critical advice on selecting tools and materials, choosing colors, and structuring your palette for best results. Emphasizing the necessity of plein air drawing and painting, Salaz demonstrates how to translate small, quick studies made outdoors into full-scale studio paintings. He provides detailed step-by-step breakdowns of the creation of four of his own paintings, focusing not only on application but also on the ideas that underpin every decision a landscape painter must make. The scores of landscape masterworks, past and present, that illustrate this book have been carefully chosen for their aesthetic power and because each embodies a specific aspect of the landscape painter’s craft.
For Salaz, landscape painting is a noble pursuit, and the goal of the landscape artist is not to paint “pretty pictures” but to create compelling images that express human beings’ profound connection to nature in all its diversity and grandeur. At a time when classical landscape is enjoying a renaissance in art schools, ateliers, and galleries across North America, this book is an essential resource for beginning and experienced painters alike.
Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter
Author: James Gurney
I remember many years ago seeing the gorgeously illustrated fantasy series Dinotopia – created, written, and illustrated by James Gurney. He deftly combines illustration with fine art. Early in his career, Gurney openly shared his techniques for other artists to follow. His blog – Gurney Journey – is a wealth of information and inspiration for artists with hundreds of blog posts extending back to 2007. Gurney has a delightful way of simplifying concepts and explaining them – in his blog posts, books, YouTube videos, and online training. That’s true in this book, too. Highly recommended!
Description from the publisher:
From New York Times best-selling author of the Dinotopia series, James Gurney, comes a carefully crafted and researched study on color and light in paintings. This art instruction book is the follow up to the acclaimed Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist.
James Gurney, New York Times best-selling author and artist of the Dinotopia series, follows Imaginative Realism with his second art-instruction book, Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter. A researched study on two of art's most fundamental themes, Color and Light bridges the gap between abstract theory and practical knowledge. Beginning with a survey of under-appreciated masters who perfected the use of color and light, the book examines how light reveals form, the properties of color and pigments, and the wide variety of atmospheric effects. Gurney cuts though the confusing and contradictory dogma about color, testing it in the light of science and observation. A glossary, pigment index, and bibliography complete what will ultimately become an indispensable tool for any artist.
This book is the second in a series based on his blog, gurneyjourney.com. His first in the series, Imaginative Realism, was widely acclaimed in the fantastical art world, and was ranked the #1 Bestseller on the Amazon list for art instruction.
Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn’t Exist
Author: James Gurney
Description from the publisher:
From the award-winning artist, learn to see and shape the world in a way you never before imagined.
An award-winning fantasy artist and the creator of Dinotopia, James Gurney instructs and inspires in Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist. Renowned for his uncanny ability to incorporate amazing detail and imagination into stunningly realistic fantasy settings, James Gurney teaches budding artists and fans of fantasy art step-by-step the techniques that won him worldwide critical acclaim. This groundbreaking work examines the practical methods for creating believable pictures of imaginary subjects, such as dinosaurs, ancient Romans, alien creatures, and distant worlds.
Beginning with a survey of imaginative paintings from the Renaissance to the golden Age of American illustration, the book then goes on to explain not just techniques like sketching and composition, but also the fundamentals of believable world building including archaeology, architecture, anatomy for creatures and aliens, and fantastic engineering. It concludes with details and valuable advice on careers in fantasy illustration, including video game and film concept art and toy design.
More than an instruction book, this is the ultimate reference for fans of science fiction and fantasy illustration.
The Artist’s Guide to Sketching: A Handbook for Drawing on the Spot
Authors: James Gurney and Thomas Kinkade
If you can find this book affordably, grab it! It’s been long out of print and the listings for this book are wildly high in cost. I’ve seen prices between $200 to $3300 for a used copy. Every once in a while it will show up for as low as $75. It’s a true gem of a book featuring two extraordinary artists: James Gurney and Thomas Kinkade. By the way, the cover art makes it look like a spiral-bound book. That’s an illusion. It’s a hardcover book and hopefully the copy you get will still have the dust jacket.
Description from the publisher:
In the early 1980's, a couple of fresh-faced art students Thomas Kinkade ("The Painter of Light") and James Gurney (Dinotopia) found themselves working as background artists on the Ralph Bakshi/Frank Frazetta sword & sorcery film Fire and Ice. They had met in 1976 as freshman college roommates. Before they became established in their careers, they "sketched their way across America" as art hobos, hopping freight cars, finding adventure, and drawing, drawing, drawing.
Much of this attitude and some of this biography made its way into the book, The Artist's Guide to Sketching -- a book firmly committed to the idea that artists need to get outdoors -- into the real world -- and draw from life.
This is not a traditional "how to" book. The authors place a lot of emphasis on using the environment to capture mood and say that the sketching artist must allow his feelings and impressions to show themselves in the finished work. Sketching isn't rendering. It is expressing feelings.
Topics covered: Realities of sketching outdoors; materials; accuracy; creating mood; sketching people; sketching man-made objects; capturing motion; sketch vs. a study; the sketchbook as a chronicle of the artist's daily life.