This is such an amazing book for beginners. Kristin Link takes you through steps that are simple to follow, gives inspiration, and provides all the tips needed to welcome a fabulous new hobby.

To start, the reader is introduced to some simple scratch-like steps to begin learning how to sketch and color the wilderness. As the brook progresses, so do the steps. With visual guidance, as well as written, by the end of the book, the artist will have learned how to approach the wilderness with sketching and painting in mind.

I would recommend this one for anyone who loves the wilderness, loves to journal, and loves the idea of leaving a little piece of themselves to family.

Thank you #NetGalley and Timber Press for #DiscovertheArtofFieldSketching

An Essential Guide to Nature, Mindfulness, and the Joy of Drawing

For anyone looking to deepen their connection with the outdoors, slow down, and translate the world’s beauty onto paper, Discover the Art of Field Sketching is an indispensable resource and a true delight. Based on the acclaimed workshop taught by artist and illustrator Kristin Link in remote Alaska, this book is far more than a simple drawing manual—it’s an accessible invitation to practice presentness through nature observation. Whether you're a seasoned artist or someone who hasn't picked up a pencil since grade school, this guide has something vital to offer.

What immediately sets this book apart is its comprehensive yet encouraging approach. Link, a seasoned science illustrator, really explains her process in a welcoming, encouraging, and accessible way. She shows her materials and uses beautiful clear photos and vibrant illustrations throughout. The book features over 30 step-by-step lessons, covering everything from the basics of pen and watercolor to shading techniques and specific skills like drawing landscapes and even the anatomical forms of animals. I also liked the thoughtful reflection prompts to help spark ideas.

My favorite aspect is the book's dedication to the meditative and philosophical side of field sketching. Link beautifully articulates why we should sketch, emphasizing the joy of noticing details, slowing down, and learning to love the nature of all sizes. I particularly loved the ideas towards the end focusing on the meditative aspects of nature journaling, the grounding exercises through nature observation, and the focus on making things your own. It was very refreshing, and I can't wait to try these techniques! This focus transforms the activity from just an art project into a practice of mindfulness and connection.

Discover the Art of Field Sketching is a triumph of instruction and inspiration. It serves as a beautiful gateway to a richer appreciation of the natural world and a wonderful starting point for a fulfilling new creative hobby. This is a must-have for any home library for anyone who loves art, nature, and developing mindful new skills.

Thank you to Timber Press, Workman Publishing, and Hachette Book Group for an advanced reader copy of this book for review consideration via NetGalley. This review is voluntary. All opinions are my own.

#DiscoverTheArtOfFieldSketching #KristinLink #TimberPress #WorkmanPublishing #HatchetteBookGroup #NetGalley

I am thankful to get a sneak peak of this one! This is the perfect book to introduce me to field sketching skills and techniques. I liked that the projects were scaffolded by skill level. I preordered a copy and can't wait to see the beautiful sketches and photos in print. I found myself chuckling at how much contrast there is of the natural area of the author's locations like Alaska, versus the brown flat desert where I live! But I see it as a challenge to find beauty and wonder in things that I might not normally notice.

This is a great book to entice the reader to start sketching as it starts with foundational info, tools, and techniques and progresses to more complex drawing and painting projects.
The author has good tips; both in general for sketching in the wild and on specific assignments.
I am very impressed with some of Kristin Link's field sketching locales i.e. sketching during winter at glacier sites, etc.!

Kristin Link has written and illustrated a readable and practical tutorial in field sketching. I have, at best, moderate talent, and was able to produce recognizable feather sketches using her instructions. While I did not progress to trying painting, Link's clear instructions and step-by-step methodology provide the methods to produce detailed field sketches on a variety of increasingly complex media. Why field sketch? It draws the observer closer to the observed in a way photos do not. When accompanied by notes, field sketches crystallize an experience and provide multiple triggers for recollection. In the 19th century this was a valued skill; I'm glad to see Link and Timber Press working to preserve the art.

As someone who wants to create original drawings to base other projects off of and is very intimidated by the idea, I LOVED this book. It has me looking at my surroundings in new ways and the step by step processes for drawing everything from leaves and bones to the larger landscape feel possible. I also appreciated the detailed sections about art supplies, which encourage to reader to start out with a regular pen and paper if that's what they already have on hand. I've been looking through a lot of drawing books lately and this is definitely one of the most encouraging.

It's a very pretty and helpful watercolor painting book.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but my favorite part was the shadow sections in the tutorials. I struggle a lot with watercolor shadowing, so I have found them very useful. The sixth chapter was also very useful in that regard.

At first, the pictures in the book scared me as I thought they could be hard to follow, but actually, I had fun following the tutorials. I especially waited to write my review, as I wanted to see how much the book contributed to my art while I was doing my sketches, and I found the results very good. I have not yet done a landscape painting from my own travels, but I followed one of the tutorials in the book and felt very satisfied with my result.

I think this book would be ideal for those who love to travel in nature and document their experiences through drawing. I would suggest it to those who already do watercoloring, but I think people who are new to the art form can also benefit from this book.

Huge thanks to Netgalley, Timber Press and Kristin Link for this advanced reader’s copy.

I am not an artist. I enjoy dabbling with the occasional art medium, but I have never had any training or serious practice and it shows. However, I recently spoke with a professor that teaches a science illustration/field sketchbook course and I started to wonder if this could be something I would enjoy. Along came the chance to review this book on the art of field sketching, and it felt almost too perfect.

The author of this guide, Kristin Link, lives in the most perfect location for sketching scenery, nature, or anything outdoors related: Alaska. She is starting with such breathtaking models that I envy her everyday eye-candy. The book itself provides step-by-step projects on capturing simple and complex aspects of the natural world. These projects start out very simple from rough outline sketches, all the way up to panoramic views of multiple ecosystems. The thing I really appreciate about the arrangement of the projects is that each introduces a new technique that builds off of the previous technique. For example, adding color, then tone, then texture. Everything felt like incremental changes that eventually added up to amazing results. But nothing felt like it was unobtainable or undoable! I had never really considered trying watercolors but now this is a technique that I may play around with a little bit.

This book is great for so many levels. I feel like for an absolute beginner (like myself) it may go a little fast, but the great thing is that it teaches you to work off of photos, so even if extra practice is needed to master any one technique, the information is all there. I'm not certain if this book would be useful for someone who already sketches, but I did find the added scientific observations to be a level that those coming from an art perspective could appreciate and add to their works.

Overall, a very approachable guide to picking up a new hobby with beautiful images and simple steps to follow. I really look forward to trying my hand at sketching because of this book!

*I would like to thank the publisher, author, and NetGalley for providing an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

Thanks for granting my wish, Timber Press! And thanks to NetGalley for this opportunity to read Kristin Link's Discover the Art of Field Sketching. I try to draw and paint, I keep a number of different journals and notebooks and I *love* peeking into the pages of other people to see what they're capturing. Link does exactly that sharing her process in down-to-earth and approachable language and beautiful visuals, both the photographs and her illustrations/watercolors. It's helpful to see how her illustrations evolve from a few simple basic shapes to additional layers of details and colors until you see the finished result. She starts with some of the basics and easier methods and continues to build up to more challenging pieces (movement/animals, vast landscapes, moving water, night skies and constellations, etc.). Throughout the book, she shares her philosophy on how you might approach the process of sketching nature or keeping a field journal. There's overlap and inspiration from others in the world of nature journaling so I enjoyed seeing some of the similarities as well as how Link's interpretations might be different. Overall it's a celebration of the wonders around us, if we only take a moment to look closely and be curious about our environment. It's a great reminder to slow down, ask questions and enjoy these bits of awe that surround us.

Thank you to Timber Press for the advance e-copy of this wonderful and wildly informative book by Kristin Link!

If you're looking for a place to get started with sketching landscapes, or the outdoors, this book is nothing short of artistic perfection! The pages are filled with beautiful photographs, and richly drawn watercolour sketches. I run programs at the public library where I work, and one of my favourite parts of this book was the way that in one volume, it captures the essence of at least 5 programs I ran separately and had to do a lot of separate research to build. It's one of the strengths of this book: how generously it brings information together for readers and artists.

Some highlights that you have to read to understand why they're so good: using a colour wheel of place, creating a colour diary, the way the author explains and demonstrates mixing colours; The draw-along, step-by-step projects throughout the book that cumulatively build on skills, chapter over chapter. There are also the watercolour studies in texture that I found pretty dreamy, as someone who creates (not as often as I teach it in programs), teaches and appreciates watercolour art. The two most fundamental projects were capturing iridescence in feathers, and drawing fur in animals (if only for their beauty when drawn and painted); Special mention also, of the particularly cool draw-along project of drawing animal footprints in the snow and the so-incredible-you'll-want-to-turn-it-into-a-library-program (or ask that your local library does): creating watercolour constellations. These favourites from the book aren't even the tip of the iceberg for skill building and learning the craft, either. I live in Southern Ontario, Canada which is snow covered for at least half of the year (or generally speaking, cold enough for it) so this book speaks beauty to the Winter seasons, helping readers find it in otherwise dull-seeming landscapes (which also makes it a fun book for vitamin D and mental health recharging throughout).

<i>Discover The Art of Field Sketching</i> is an art book you will want on your shelves for the way it gives in perpetuity. It's not a one-and-done volume which makes it worth every penny! I will absolutely be recommending this book for purchase at my library and hope that you do the same, or purchase it for your own shelves (which I may find myself doing as well).

This book was part guide, part ruminations and complete passion. Kristin Link blends lessons on seeing the world in a way that allows you to capture it artistically, with reflections that remind you that curiosity is a skill you cultivate. The projects are varied and build well on what you learn throughout the book, providing inspiration for how you can develop your own artistic pursuits that will allow you to capture the joy of experiencing nature and continually learning about the world around you. The art is vivid and practically jumps off the page, and you will find yourself revisiting each piece and being stunned by the way that Link captures not just the look of an object but the way that it feels, exists, etc. This book is perfect for people who want an actual how-to on field sketching but also appreciate personal anecdotes about art, nature and meditation.