Stephanie Bower worked as a licensed Architect before gravitating to professional architectural illustration. She taught the how-to’s of architectural location sketching for years in New York City at Parsons and in Seattle at the University of Washington and Cornish College of the Arts. She teaches perspective and watercolor workshops, including at multiple Urban Sketchers symposiums. Stephanie is the author of multiple books, including The World of Urban Sketching, publishing this fall. We asked Stephanie a few questions about her artistic process.

Quarto Creates: How did you first become interested in urban sketching?

Stephanie Bower: I started travel sketching on a trip to Europe while in graduate school, but then I stopped for probably 25 years to focus on my architecture and illustration career and to raise two kids. In 2011, I decided it would be great to take up sketching again when I had the amazing opportunity to travel with a friend to India. I filled two large sketchbooks, and that experience launched a series of doors that opened to amazing opportunities, including discovering Urban Sketchers, teaching around the world, and writing 3 books. I’m still riding that wave and counting my blessings every day!

QC: Who was your most influential teacher?

SB: For this I’d have to credit architect George Villalva who taught a 3^rd year drawing class while I was in architecture school at UT Austin. He taught the basics of sketching on location, but more than that, how to distill a scene down to its essence in order to draw it quickly and accurately. George taught me how to see the world around me in a whole new way. I never could have imagined at the time how much it would change the course of my life.

QC: Where do you find inspiration for your art?

SB: Inspiration is EVERYWHERE! From the food on my dinner plate, to the flowers in the yard, to the clutter in my basement where I slept on the floor when it was 106 degrees outside during a pandemic…but I probably have to say that I’m most inspired by architecture and the spaces in and around buildings. By sketching the places I go and buildings I see, I learn a great deal. 

QC: Have your finished paintings ever turned out different than your expectation, and how do you deal with that?

SB: This happens all the time! It happens about halfway through almost every drawing when I panic, stop, and momentarily ask myself, “What was I thinking to attempt this?” But I push through and am usually happy at the end. When I don’t like the final product, I give it time. It’s often the case that when I look at the sketch a week later, I’ll think, “Well, that’s not too bad,” and a month later, I’ll say, “That’s actually pretty good,” then six months later, I’ll say, “Wow, that came out great!” For me, sketching on location is not so much about creating a perfect piece of art, it is about capturing the experience of a moment in time and place and imprinting that experience on your soul. When that is your goal, it frees you from the pressure of expecting perfection.

QC: What is the most important lesson you’ve learned from creating?

SB: This is a tough question to answer as creating does so many wonderful things. For me, sketching is about two things: first, learning about what I see—I may see fewer things, but in a way, I see more because by sketching, I see better, and certainly better than just snapping a photo. The other reason I sketch is to create a record of my life’s experiences, sort of like a visual diary. What you see and sketch becomes part of your DNA. I can look at a sketch years later and recall everything about the experience…the people chatting around me, the feel of the sun on my back, how hot and humid it was, what friends I was with or if I was happily sketching on my own…I and my fellow urban sketchers around the globe really do love seeing our world one sketch at a time!

Learn more about Stephanie! Visit her website stephaniebower.com, blog drawingperspectives.com, and Instagram account @stephanieabower.