MY BOOKS
These two heavily illustrated volumes take you deep into the world of travel and urban sketching, based on scores of passport stamps, miles of worn shoe leather and years of developing techniques that can inspire you to pick up a sketchbook and draw your world, whether in a corner of your own town or on the other side of the globe. TRAVEL ARTIST takes you along on the journeys, living the stories and experiencing the sense of mission that threads them together. FREEHAND DRAWING and DISCOVERY teaches you the the mindsets and techniques to develop your own style and to create your own lively, on-location sketches. The world is your studio--let's go!
TRAVEL ARTIST: Sketchbook Drawings and True Stories from the Road is an illustrated travelogue drawn from my 20 years of travel to 50 countries, and from the scores of sketchbooks and journals created along the way.
A sketchbook changes travel, from checking off an itinerary checklist and Instagram moments to a journey of discovery: about places, about people, about yourself. This isn’t another formulaic “how-to sketch” book. These are the rich stories, told in words and handmade images, that give the “how-to” a global mission and purpose. They're told through hundreds of full color and black and white travel sketches and essays that cross the globe, from the savannahs of Kenya to the Central Highlands of Vietnam, from the Hemingway haunts of Key West to the customs interrogation room of the Havana airport. The stories and drawings pull the reader into the transformational experience of international travel, and the added richness and creative rush that on-location sketching brings to it. The book is a must-have for travel enthusiasts, creatives, urban sketchers and anyone with a creative itch and an explorer’s heart.
"It didn't start with the idea that becoming a vagabond artist was a shrewd career move. It started with a sketchbook and a cheap pen. Now, 20 years later, I'm unpacking from 13 days in Morocco, with dog-eared pages of drawings and stories, and wondering how my grown-up and respectable career morphed into visiting 50-odd countries and drawing in sketchbooks, and how I became someone different in the process." -J.R.
FREEHAND DRAWING AND DISCOVERY: Urban Sketching and Concept Drawing for Designers has become an international favorite reference and a must-have source of inspiration for students, urban designers, landscape architects, architects, urban sketchers, and anyone interested in the world-wide sketching phenomenon. This national award-winning book, with 286 pages and over 300 full color illustrations, uses the author’s experiences sketching across 45 countries and teaching workshops in the U.S. and abroad to make urban sketching and concept drawing less rigid and more accessible. It uses clear, step-by-step demonstrations to break down complex visual environments into loose, lively sketches.
The book is accompanied by access to 90 minutes of online video tutorials, which allow the reader to literally watch over Jim’s shoulder while he demonstrates an array of freehand sketching techniques in real time. The book also features contributions by an international group of award-winning professionals, each of whom keep freehand sketching at the center of their creative process. The book is widely used as a text at design schools across the U.S. and abroad, and has been translated into Modern and Orthodox Chinese, Russian and Korean. It was a Number 1 Bestseller in Architecture for Amazon.com, and received a National Honor Award in Communications from the American Society of Landscape Architects.
"Technology hasn’t done away with the need for sketching. It’s freed sketching to be a more creative medium, to say things that can’t be better said any other way." -J.R.
"I love this book! James Richards has created a drawing guide that is so joyful, exuberant and empowering that anyone who draws or anyone who wishes to draw should add this to their permanent library. This book transcends the mere how-to and reaches right to the core of why we draw and how we create. Both the text and the illustrations offer powerful insights into the creative process. This book is a must have for anyone seeking to understand and refine their own creative process."
-Amazon customer review
"Just went to The Strand and picked up a used copy of your freehand sketching book, and can I just say - OMG THE BEST ART BOOK EVER!!! I mean, so so many precious concepts and notions I had built over the years and dozens of lessons that were holding me back...you totally blew them out of the water. Seriously, masterfully done, sir."
-University professor, New York, NY
"When I received Freehand Drawing and Discovery I had no idea how it would change my perspective and understanding of the skills we acquire as designers and the way they can influence our development as professionals on a daily basis. This book is an astonishing guide to learning a new language of expression and relationship to the surrounding world through freehand drawing!"
-Landscape Architect's Network.
"From start to finish, Freehand Drawing & Discovery masterfully achieved what it set out to: it made me want to draw again."
-Spacing: Canadian Urbanism Uncovered
