"...Richards’ drawings leap off the page like urgent, energetic dispatches, with much about them that is happy to remain notational. Colors are jaunty, playful and fill everything they describe with clear light, open space and an optimistic frame of mind." —On the Spot

Personable and delightful!
A wonderful look inside an artist’s journal! His stories allow you meet “the locals”, listen in on conversations, and experience the wonder of why we travel. It is a delightful, warm and personable book. Whenever I read it, I feel like we’re all sitting around the table, flipping through his journal as he tells about their adventures. Well done!
— Amazon review

★ A multi-award-winning urban sketching master, travel artist, illustrator, designer, and international workshop instructor—James Richards, former Associate Professor at the School of Architecture at the University of Texas and a mentor and former board member of the Urban Sketchers organization—presents his work! His sketching workshops and lectures have reached 50 countries and 27 universities.
★ This richly illustrated, hand-drawn travelogue captures the author’s precious experiences from 20 years of traveling through 50 countries, offering a delightful, heartwarming, and deeply human perspective. It is far more than just another cookie-cutter “sketching tutorial”—it brings to life the richness of stories and the profound meaning of travel.
★ Treat the entire planet as your workshop: sketch shepherds on the African savanna, customs officers at a Cuban border checkpoint, the aroma of coffee on the Vietnamese highlands, or the bars Ernest Hemingway frequented in Florida. Every page in this book seems to shout: “Set out on a journey—travel, sketch, and explore!”
★ With its essay-like prose and hand-drawn illustrations, this book imbues the “sketching tutorial” genre with a global mission and significance. It is an essential read for illustrators, bullet journal enthusiasts, urban sketchers, creative individuals, anyone with a spirit of exploration and a creative urge, and all readers who want to add a touch of adventure to their lives.

“I never saw myself as Monet in the studio; I wanted to be Anthony Bourdain with a sketchbook.”
“This time I was drawing on a street corner in New Orleans, but it could have been Rome, Istanbul, Rio or a village in Vietnam. One more place is in the sketchbook. One more person is seeing their city and the world a little differently. That’s my job.”
“Drawing changes travel. Travel with a sketchbook helps you see beyond the tourist’s Instagram moment to eke out the essence of the place, to get under its skin and know it on more intimate terms. The world becomes your studio; your sketchbook is your passport.”

Travel Artist: Sketchbook Drawings and True Stories from the Road is an illustrated travelogue drawn from 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. Richards’ stories are 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 closer observation and on-location sketching brings to it. The book is a must-have for creatives, for urban sketchers, and for anyone with an explorer’s heart and a creative itch.

James Richards
James Richards is an award-winning travel artist, designer, professor, and international workshop instructor. His sketching workshops and lectures have been held in 50 countries and at 27 universities.
He was a co-founder and principal of the urban design consulting firm Townscape, Inc., and also served as an associate professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Arlington. His work and research span landscape architecture, urban planning, and urban design.
He is the author of “Hand Drawing and Exploring” (Wiley, 2013), a contributor to the blog of the international drawing movement Urban Sketchers, a mentor for the Urban Sketchers Society, and a former board member. He is also a highly regarded online instructor.
He travels the world and currently resides primarily on Siesta Key, Florida.