If you know your watercolor basics (but hey, ipad procreate is a popular option too) and want to sketch outdoors, but struggle to get things looking nice, like “why can’t I get perspective right?”, “how can I draw people?”, “it doesn’t have the same mood” etc, then I would recommend you to check out The Urban Sketching Handbook series. They have several books focusing on different aspects of urban sketching and, in this case, color.

First chapters have brief explanations on materials, how to choose your colors, watercolor techniques (washes, glazing, wet on wet, splattering, dry brush), skies, mixing greens for trees and shrubs and mixing darks and shadows.

The following chapters explore color and value, limited colors (1 or 3 color palettes), color relationships (how to express moods with color/ color temperature), neutral colors, how to catch the mood and atmosphere of a place, using expressive colors and using other media (like pens, gouache, pastel or even ipad). Each chapter consists of inspiring watercolor artworks by different artists their personal tips related to the chapter in question.

At the end of the handbook, there’s a nice art challenge list to get you started and experimenting. What I loved the most about this book, is that it’s mainly filled with tips from different artists. It’s inspirational and specially useful for intermediate artists. ( )