Reddit reviews The Art of Urban Sketching: Drawing On Location Around The World

Carleton grad here- both B. Architectural studies and M. Arch professional


Since you're already completing a degree, you should try to speak to someone at Carleton to see what your options would be for pursuing a professional architecture degree. The school recently introduced a Master's program for people without an undergraduate degree in architecture. Sheryl Boyle is the school's current director, and I think Manuel Baez is in charge of admissions for undergrad - these two would be the ones to try to contact (or the school's administrator Wendy Black, because she knows everything). You should also google a list of RAIC (royal arch institute of canada) accredited architecture schools to find other schools with masters programs open to people of other educational backgrounds (UofT and UBC do, off the top of my head). This will definitely cut down on the extra years of schooling.


Now, regarding Algonquin- there were a handful of guys in my undergraduate class who got their technician diplomas before coming to Carleton, and I felt that they definitely had an advantage in being able to use the tools of the trade (CAD, 3D modelling) to create their drawings... but while perhaps those drawings were technically accurate, they weren't necessarily the best in conveying the things that seemed to be the focus of architecture school at Carleton - mostly the unique atmosphere or experience of the building.


The skills that are taught in college will give you an advantage in terms of employability (some of the firms I've applied to in the past were only interested in hiring technicians), but if you want to prepare for architecture school, you need to learn to sketch. You need to be able to use images to tell a story and convey ideas. Pick up the Art of Urban Sketching, go to Wallacks and get some drawing tools (try out a bunch!) and a sketch book that is small enough to take with you everywhere, and go out and draw. Use drawing to understand how things fit together. Life drawing sessions (look them up at Sandy Hill community centre) are a great way to develop your understanding of perspective and scale.


The last point I'll leave you with is that you don't need to commit to a full diploma from Algonquin in order to get technical skills. In the past, many students from Carleton have gone to the 'Gonq for night or summer courses to learn CAD or Revit because these programs weren't taught as a part of our curriculum. I think this may be different now as more technical skills are being included in undergrad... Anyway, it's an option for you, and I think if you combine a couple courses with some sort of committed art exploration (be it art school or regular photo/sketch walks or drop-in life drawing classes), you should be set for architecture school.

Love Urban Sketching.

https://twitter.com/urbansketchers

I also have this book
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Urban-Sketching-Drawing-Location/dp/1592537251/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1480347055&sr=8-5&keywords=urban+sketching

The Art of Urban Sketching!

Edited: formatting

I would recommend any combinations of the following items:

[Cotman Watercolor pan set] (http://www.dickblick.com/items/00337-1059/) maybe with an extra brush as the one included is teeny.

Copic Multiliner Pen Set

The Art of Urban Sketching

100 Things Every Artist Should Know

Souce (Pfft): Art courses and worked in an art supply store for 5 years

Well drawing for me started out as a coping mechanism when I was a kid and still is for me today (especially these days). I had a lot of problems with depression and anxiety as a child coupled with a fairly ignorant father that didn't recognize these things as mental problems. I was forced to try to find a way to deal with hordes of feelings and emotions that as a mere child I was incapable of understanding and drawing helped me do that. Around the time I was about 13 or so some close friends of mine started drawing and where WAAAAY better than I was, so that pushed me to start working on things like technique and different styles. I really liked Dragonball Z at that age so I started drawing pictures I printed out from the internet regularly and started drawing in an anime style and eventually began coming up with my own characters, my friends were really good at drawing in anime styles so they taught me a lot about it.

When high school rolled around (I'll say sophomore year or so) I took basic art 1&2 but I never really did too much because the course material was SO rigid that it didn't interest me. Ms. Huelett (the art teacher) felt like I had a lot of talent and took me under her wing in a big way. She knew A LOT about art and helped me learn and meld multiple styles together in order for me to create my own. She taught me a lot about anatomy and how to draw people/characters in different poses, how to properly shadow characters and apply light sources to my pieces, creating expressions and applying drama through a characters poses, she poured as much knowledge into me as she could and I couldn't be more grateful for all she taught me.

I know it isn't much (you've also been given some great advice already I see, which is fantastic) but I'll give you a few links to some books that really helped me learn more about various styles and techniques (I still have most of these books and refer to them fairly often, even now)

http://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-sketching-environments-imagination/dp/1933492732/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1404954561&sr=8-9&keywords=how+to+draw

http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Urban-Sketching-Location/dp/1592537251/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&qid=1404954800&sr=8-19&keywords=how+to+draw+graffiti

http://www.amazon.com/Street-Art-Doodle-Book-Outside/dp/1856696820/ref=sr_1_28?ie=UTF8&qid=1404954800&sr=8-28&keywords=how+to+draw+graffiti

http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Head-Figure-Perigee-Jack/dp/0399507914/ref=sr_1_28?ie=UTF8&qid=1404954902&sr=8-28&keywords=how+to+draw+books

http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Manga-Mark-Crilley-drawing-ebook/dp/B006WUD10S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404954990&sr=8-1&keywords=how+to+draw+manga

http://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-Manga-Bodies-Anatomy/dp/4766112385/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1404954990&sr=8-6&keywords=how+to+draw+manga

http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Cutting-Edge-Anatomy-Reference-ebook/dp/B00G8ELT2K/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1404955084&sr=8-10&keywords=how+to+draw+comics

http://www.amazon.com/Draw-Comic-Book-Action-Garbett/dp/1440308136/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1404955084&sr=8-14&keywords=how+to+draw+comics

I think that's most of the books I've got, at the very least it'll give you some ideas to practice with and all of those books together isn't too bad of a price and it's a good way to get experience in the things you want to learn (I think) if you're not able to afford the classes you were suggested.

Good god this post is long as hell and I apologize for that, I'm just trying to be as helpful as I possibly can with what I know (call it a flaw)

I'll leave you with a few pieces of advice that help me out regularly and that I feel have gotten me to the level I'm at now (though I think I'm just ok at best truthfully)

1. Sketch whatever idea you have in your mind for something as fast as you can and just let your ideas flow through you. Don't give yourself time to say this part sucks I have to redo it, just go for it and you'll be surprised at what can come out of it.
   
   
2. Try to take inspiration from artists you admire but don't try to copy their style. What worked for me was incorporating my inspiration with various artists and merging them with my own ideas which eventually lead to me developing my own style(s)
   
   
3. Do your best to not look at your art as inferior to another persons artwork. Absolutely, have those people you look up to want to be like artistically and draw inspiration from, but do your best not to doubt yourself. It's YOUR artwork and YOUR ideas, the only person's opinions that matter are your own. If you're truly happy with what you've created and feel you've done the best you can then I promise SOMEONE out there WILL like your work as well, at least in my opinion.
   
   Sorry again for the book, I just hope I was at least a little bit helpful with the advice I was able to give and didn't come off as arrogant sounding or anything
   
   Best of luck and I can't wait to see what you do in the future :)